One of the best folding phones of 2022 launches in less than a fortnight, and you're not going to buy it. That's because while Motorola is updating its iconic Razr, the latest in a long line of beautiful Razr clamshells and a significant upgrade over the existing model, it's only launching in China – and just days later, Samsung will launch its Galaxy Z Fold 4 and Galaxy Z Flip 4. Unlike Motorola, it'll be making those phones available globally.
China's a big market, I know. But the world's even bigger. And in the battle to make the best folding phone, it seems that Motorola has decided not to fight beyond its home market. And that's a shame.
Motorola Razr 3 specifications and price
As far as I can ascertain, Motorola doesn't have any plans to sell the Motorola Razr 3 outside China; if it does, it's not doing a brilliant job of raising awareness of the device. And that's a shame because the spec is impressive. Current and previous versions have used mid-range hardware inside, but the Razr 3 is expected to have the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1, a 120Hz AMOLED plus a three-inch display on the lid, a 50MP camera and up to 512GB of internal storage. That's pretty tasty, and the only thing that would make it tastier is the camera from Motorola's other new launch, the Moto X30 Pro; that's expected to be the first phone to ship with a 200MP camera.
That said, it's not quite up there with the specs we're expecting to see in the Samsung Galaxy Fold 4, and the rumoured pricing is steeper than what we think the Z Flip 4 will sell for: if that sticks with the current prices of the Z Flip 3 5G it'll be $999 / £949 / AU$1,499, while the Razr 3 is expected to be roughly $1,200 / £980 / AU$1,725. That means if Motorola does launch it in the US, Europe and Australia it'll fall awkwardly between the two Samsungs: not as powerful as the Fold, and not as affordable as the Flip.
