First impressions of the Motorola Razr Fold: A distinctive foldable phone

Motorola is practically a veteran when it comes to foldable devices, which makes it Razr Fold The most surprising thing. When I had it at a Hollywood villa overlooking the Los Angeles skyline, it seemed less repetitive and more like a new take.

The phone maker’s first book-shaped foldable phone incorporates all the knowledge it has gained from making clamshell foldable phones dating back to The first modern Razr In 2019 – a launch party I also attended at a similar event in Los Angeles. As advanced as I felt at the time to hold Smartphone Folding in half, the folding Specialized has come a long way since then. the Motorola Razr Fold It shows that the company has moved beyond the rookie mistakes typical of the first generation of book-shaped foldable devices. the Google Pixel FoldFor example, it notoriously doesn’t open completely flat – an issue that the Razr Fold avoids and a clear advantage in this area.

My first impression of the Motorola Razr Fold, when I held it in my hand, was that it had the refinement and heft of a book-style foldable phone that has been refined over many iterations, such as Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7. It’s not exactly the thinnest foldable phone — it’s just over 5mm thick when open and about 10mm thick when folded — but it’s reasonably sleek and doesn’t feel heavy at 8.6 ounces (243 grams).

The Razr Fold is also unmistakably a Motorola phone, thanks to the design of its back covered in material that curves upwards to match the camera bump, similar to Moto G (2026). For the record, I find the texture elegant, with the matte texture of the lily white and the criss-cross nylon texture of the blue-black.

Speaking of feel, the Razr Fold’s hinge, opening, and closing feel satisfyingly solid — an odd but perhaps necessary reassurance that Motorola has succeeded in translating its clamshell expertise into book-style folds. What’s more, the Razr Fold has good specs and a competitive price compared to competing foldables: at $1,900, it falls right between the $2,000 Galaxy Z Fold 7 and the $1,800 Galaxy Z Fold 7. Google Pixel 10 Pro Fold. Motorola Razr Fold is available for pre-order at Motorola.com To retailers on May 14 and will go on sale on May 21.

Specifications under the hood

The Razr Fold is powered by the Snapdragon 8 Gen 5 chip, which is less powerful than the top-end chip Snapdragon 8 Elite Generation 5 Processor, depending NanoReview standards. With 16GB of RAM and 512GB of storage, the foldable is solid on paper; We look forward to seeing how its performance compares to Samsung and Google devices.

The Razr Fold’s 6.6-inch pOLED cover display is sharp and vivid, as is its 8.1-inch LTPO OLED internal display, both of which are roughly the same size as the screens found on other foldable devices. What sets them apart is how bright they can get, with a brightness of up to 6,200 nits for the main display (exposed) and 6,000 nits for the outer display (folded) – easily double that of many other phones, and something I’m keen to test in extreme lighting conditions. This brightness could make the Razr Fold one of the best foldable devices for the beach or a picnic in the park, though it may drain the battery faster.

If so, it’s a good thing that the Razr Fold has a 6,000 mAh battery, offering more capacity than its competitors – and even Galaxy Z Tri-Fold. Better yet, you can recharge the foldable with 80W wired and 50W wireless charging, which is much faster than the Galaxy Z Fold 7 (25W wired) and the Pixel 10 Pro Fold (30W wired). Based on our Extensive battery testingAt these speeds, I expect these speeds to recharge most Razr Folds in about half an hour (although we’ll have to confirm that in our review). The foldable device also supports 5W reverse wireless charging to share power with other devices.

The Razr Fold has some of the best cameras on any Motorola phone, featuring a 50-megapixel triple rear camera array (main, ultra-wide, and telephoto). The telephoto lens uses a periscope lens with 3x optical zoom and up to 100x digital zoom. The front display houses a sharp 32MP selfie camera, which makes sense, as owners of book-style foldable devices often use the cover screen. When they open the Razr Fold, they’ll find a 20-megapixel camera for video calling and similar tasks.

No foldable book-style device would be complete without a stylus — or so we thought until Samsung dropped S Pen support from the Galaxy Z Fold 7. I’ve had the chance to get hands-on with Motorola’s Moto Pen, though I haven’t had time to pair it with the Razr Fold. It’s tucked neatly into its holster (which looks a bit like a vape), the Moto Pen pops out easily, and the brief writing I experienced on the Fold’s screen felt smooth enough. I’m not surprised that the phone maker behind the Moto G Stylus pulled a nifty standalone stylus, though I’m curious how the physical buttons will work.

I have a long list of questions to answer when we get our hands on the Motorola Razr Fold, from performance to camera capability to recharging rates. It’s hard to get a full phone photo during just a one-hour meet-and-greet at a luxury event venue in Los Angeles. But I’m confident that Motorola’s first book-style foldable phone will be a great alternative for people who aren’t yet convinced to buy one from Samsung or Google. We’ll just have to see if Motorola has enough time to make a big splash with the Razr Fold when it goes on sale on May 21 before Apple potentially takes over. Steals the spotlight With the long-rumoured foldable iPhone expected to debut in September.