We gave this impressive-looking phone a week to see if it had improved enough to be recommended to people who aren’t brand aficionados. The RAZR 2022 sports a sizable, nearly crease-free foldable display. The device’s overall design is quite elegant, and the exterior display is highly practical. The RAZR 2022 does, however, cost €1,199, €100 more than its principal rival, the Galaxy Z Flip 4. It does have the most modern Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 processor, but so does the Motorola Edge 30 Ultra, which was only recently announced, and Samsung’s offering. Other oddities exist, and part of the Razr styling has been lost. The ultrawide camera is terrible, the software experience doesn’t fully utilize the flexible display and hinge architecture, and the hinge itself feels a little flimsy when partially open. The Razr is still a terrific choice if you’re looking for a flip phone with flagship performance, a huge, colorful screen, and a long battery life.
Motorola Razr review: Design
3rd generation The inner screen of the new Razr, which is 6.7 inches instead of the previous model’s 6.2 inches, has had something of a growth spurt. This time, there is only a punch-hole selfie camera and a crease that is almost imperceptible when the screen is lit up; there is no bulky chin or irritating notch. Although this phone is rather broad and has prominent display bezels on all four sides, using it with one hand is not difficult. The lower half of the glass has a beautiful, gripping, and fingerprint-resistant textured coating. The ordinary glass above is the contrary; it is slick and readily absorbs grease. There is no denying that this foldable has a luxury appearance as long as it is polished. In contrast to the Galaxy Z Flip 4 from Samsung, there is no gap when the phone is folded shut, and once fully opened, the hinge remains securely secured in place. The mechanism does seem a touch slack in between those two modes, but it rests contentedly in a pocket and doesn’t require a vice-like grip to keep it tight. We like that the power button also functions as a fingerprint sensor because it quickly recognizes your fingers and is logically positioned so that right-handed users’ thumbs can easily access it. However, you might need to change your grip to hit the volume keys that are located above it because they are a little too high up.
Display
The Razr 2022’s third-generation hinge enables the screen’s midpoint to fold into a teardrop shape with a 3.3mm radius while allowing the device to fully close. This lessens stress on the UTG (ultra-thin glass) display, an improvement over the previous model’s display that was made entirely of plastic. Using a series of sliding plates to support the screen when the phone is opened flat, Motorola’s method for a folding display has always been amazing. also, you can learn our article on Motorola Razr review. The outcome with this iteration is, to date, one of the least-visible creases on an inward-folding phone screen. Competitors should pay attention to the area because it is seldom noticeable under the finger. The main screen of the Razr is not just practical but also technically advanced, supporting HDR10+, DCI-P3 gamut, 10-bit colour, and an astounding 144Hz peak refresh rate. The primary display settings menu only offers the options of “Auto” and “60Hz,” which in our experience means that the majority of the phone’s UI is shown at 120Hz, occasionally falling to 90Hz or 60Hz. The Moto Gametime software that comes pre-installed has the option to select 144Hz, which produces the smoothest images for gaming. You can change the refresh rate from “follow system” (which defaults to 60Hz) to a dedicated 60Hz, 90Hz, 120Hz, or 144Hz, depending on your preferences, in addition to a variety of other handy functions. Additionally, Gametime gives you the option to raise touch response rates for individual games, which is rather fantastic.
Motorola Razr review: Software
On the software front, Motorola keeps things straightforward. The phone comes pre-installed with Android 12, yet the manufacturer maintains a stock-like experience, eliminating the nuisance of duplicate apps, bloatware, and a difficult user interface on other Android phones. Pre-installed apps like Facebook and TikTok are more common than usual, but it’s probable that many consumers will want these anyhow. The only other options are a few simple games and the Moto app, which is really helpful and provides a number of tips, settings, and gestures. Our own favorite way to turn on the torch is to make the karate chop gesture. Although it can seem choppy if you don’t open and close the Razr in a smooth motion, we like the Motorola touches scattered throughout the OS, such as the dynamic wallpaper that rotates when you open and close the device. We think the clock widget, which includes battery, date, and weather information, is one of the best available. We also like how the external display has been improved to be more practical with shortcuts to apps, the weather, and the camera app. The update promise is the sole drawback. Motorola has only confirmed that the Razr will receive one update to Android 13; no information on longer-term support has been provided. This contrasts with manufacturers like Samsung who provide four years of OS upgrades with their devices.
Camera
The Razr (2019) did not put much emphasis on the 16-megapixel single camera, but this time around, it has received a lot more attention. The 50-megapixel dual camera in the Motorola Razr (2022) is reportedly the “highest advanced camera seen on a flip phone,” according to Motorola. A 50-megapixel (f/1.8) primary sensor with optical image stabilisation (OIS) and a 13-megapixel (f/2.2) ultra-wide/macro sensor with a 120-degree field-of-view make up the camera. The camera has an Ultra-Res mode, Night Vision, Group Selfie, and Dual Capture features. It can also record 8K video at 30 frames per second or UHD video at 60 frames per second. The back camera’s low-light performance astounded us, and the Night Mode quickly brightened up and resolved any problems we could have had with the camera in less-than-ideal circumstances. The 32-megapixel (f/2.4) camera on the display is a significant improvement from the 2019 model’s meagre 5-megapixel sensor. Even yet, if you’d prefer, you can use the better resolution rear camera to capture selfies and participate in video chats thanks to the Quick View display. It takes practise to take pictures with the Quick View screen without putting your finger in them. However, both the back and punch-hole cameras generated vivid, sharp selfies that we would be content to share on social media. In low light, the punch-hole camera obviously performs worse.
Hardware and performance
Anyone who is familiar with the last two generations of Razr phones knows that, when compared to comparable conventionally-shaped smartphones, the price/performance balance was utterly out of whack. However, there were good reasons for this. The company’s goal to enter the foldable phone market early necessitated spending money on R&D, hence their combination of high price tags and mid-range processors. They expect to make part of it back through the high retail price of the phones. you can read our article on Motorola Razr review. With the Razr 2022, Motorola has finally been able to produce a phone with a custom hinge system, teardrop display, and premium chipset fitting of its price and status with Motorola’s wider phone portfolio. Reinvesting that money has helped Motorola make innovations they engineered for the Razr 2019 progressively more affordable. The Snapdragon 8 Plus Gen 1 CPU from Qualcomm, along with quick LPDDR5 memory and UFS 3.1 storage, is the star of the show. The Razr 2022 will often ship with 8GB of RAM and 256GB of storage outside of China, but depending on where you are, you might also find the lower-end 128GB storage build or the top-tier 12GB RAM / 512GB storage model. Benchmarking yields top-tier results as predicted, with a Geekbench 5 score of 4078 (for comparison, the Z Flip 4 achieved a similar multi-core score of 4005); nonetheless, real-world performance is, for the most part, as excellent as you’d hope and anticipate. The sole drawback is that, despite having a top-notch CPU and a main panel with a high refresh rate, you may occasionally experience jumps and stutters that might affect gameplay and are considerably more noticeable when using the external Quick View display.
Motorola Razr review: Battery life
We were anticipating the Motorola Razr 2022 to be a longevity lightweight with “just” 3500mAh of battery life to keep it going between trips to a plug socket, but that’s not at all the case. We had no issue using the phone all day on a single charge because Motorola has minimized standby power waste and you don’t have to wake the main screen every time you get a notification. Naturally, activities like gaming, 4K video recording, and similar tasks will be more taxing, especially with the refresh rate turned up to 144Hz. But even with a combination of Bluetooth music streaming, social media browsing, photography, and YouTube watching, the Battery Saver mode didn’t activate by the end of the workday. The maximum wired top-up power is 30W, which isn’t particularly fast unless you consider the battery isn’t that big to begin with. You also don’t get wireless charging. Typically, 30 minutes is sufficient to provide a near 90% replenishment. Additionally, Motorola includes a charger in the box, which isn’t frequently the case these days.
Price and availability
With an event slated for August 2 in China, Motorola had disclosed what appeared to be the launch date for the Motorola 2022. That would have been a full week before the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 4 and Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 4 launches on August 10, the two Samsung foldables that are anticipated to be unveiled at the next Galaxy Unpacked event. From our vantage point, it appeared that Motorola was attempting to get an advantage over Samsung and take some of the business away from the latter. However, Motorola had to cancel the August 2 launch of the Motorola Razr 2022, making the decision just hours before the event. The debut of the phone may have been delayed due to tensions in Asia; Chinese officials are upset that U.S. Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi is visiting Taiwan. The phone is offered in China and Europe, where costs start at less than the Galaxy Z Flip 4 ($949/€1199). Still no word on a debut in the United States.
Conclusion
There are several positive aspects of Motorola’s most recent Razr. The business took a few years off to address a few crucial problems that prevented the prior model from receiving an immediate recommendation. We now have an inside screen that is actually huge and good, a hinge that can support itself at an angle, and a price that is under the magic £1000 threshold in the UK. The most significant adjustment here is arguably the fact that although it is still not cheap, it is far more affordable than the previous model.
