Motorola Razr Fold review: Good enough to take a cut from Samsung?

Motorola might be kicking itself. Having first announced shown off the Razr Fold back in January, it wasn't fully revealed until March, before then going on sale this May.

A couple of months later, as we come to this review, and the talk of folding phone town is now focused on Samsung's new format, in the Galaxy Z Fold 8 – with barely a glimmer of interest in the taller, classic Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra.

The Razr Fold is more akin to the latter's format, arriving just as the industry looks to pivot, leaving taller devices to assert themselves against an exciting newcomer. It's taken Motorola a long time to launch its Fold, not least when you consider that it joined the folding phone party with the flip version of the Razr back in 2019.

But don't write it off, as there's still a lot of positives going on in the Razr Fold. It's one of Motorola's most premium devices yet – and shows it means business thanks to a stylus pen included in the box, which is something Samsung's foldables ditched a couple of years back.

Price & Availability

The Razr Fold is widely available, coming with 16GB RAM and 512GB storage. That's generous compared to Samsung, making the Razr Fold cheaper than the new Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra.

Buy it from Motorola.com and you'll get Moto Buds and Moto Watch bundled into the package (in the UK – regionally that deal may differ), all for £1799.99 / $1899.99 / AU$2399.

That's significantly cheaper than Samsung's offering, but it is a little more expensive than the Honor Magic V6. There's no shortage of folding phones vying for your cash these days, it seems.

Motorola Razr Fold vs Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra

• Razr Fold comes with Pen Ultra stylus; Samsung has no stylus capabilities
• Razr battery lasts longer, also features faster charging tech
• Both the Razr Fold displays are brighter than Samsung's
• Z Fold 8 Ultra is thinner and lighter
• Z Fold 8 Ultra also more powerful

As there's no previous Razr Fold model, let's just quickly compare it to the competition – the Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra being its most key rival.

Samsung and Motorola have fundamentally different approaches to design, with the Z Fold 8 Ultra sporting a slim-and-light industrial design.

That makes the Razr Fold look a little chunky, at 9.89mm thick (folded; 4.55mm when unfolded) and weighing 243g. And, while the Razr Fold has a lovely textured back with Pantone colours, it's not as dramatic as some of the brand's other models.

Motorola makes up for that with a much larger battery – both brands use silicon-carbon (Si-C), but Samsung's 5000mAh is dwarfed by Moto's 6000mAh. Motorola backs this up with 80W wired charging, while Samsung only offers 45W.

The Samsung phone is more powerful, with Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 'for Galaxy', while Motorola sticks with the Snapdragon 8 Gen 5 – which is a bit of a step down. Motorola responds by offering more RAM and storage as standard and for much less cash than Samsung, though.

Displays

• 5.6-inch external LTPO OLED display, 21:9 aspect ratio
  • 6000 nits peak brightness
  • 2520 x 1080 resolution
  • 165Hz refresh
• 8.09-inch LTPO pOLED, 8:7.2 aspect ratio
  • 6200 nits peak brightness
  • 2484 x 2232 resolution
  • 165Hz refresh

Motorola's approach to the displays in this folding phone are much the same as they are in its other devices: nothing is left to chance, on the spec sheet at least.

You just have to glance at the top line numbers – 6200 nits brightness for the main display, 165Hz refresh rate – and you'll realise that many of those are to upsell, rather than always deliver.

That's because 165Hz content is exceptionally rare, as is getting any display to actually output 6200 nits. Futureproofing? Sure. At the same time, I have very little to complain about when it comes to these displays.

The cover display is large enough and resolute enough to be used as a regular phone. It's a little tall and narrow, but I've found it performs perfectly well in this role.

There's a very slight curving away to the edges, which I don't really like on a regular phone, but considering the thickness of the Razr Fold when closed, it helps make it slightly easier to manage.

Open the phone up and that internal 8.09-inch display is massive. Yes, there's a crease down the middle, it's visible and it can be felt when running a finger across it. There's no Flex Titanium technology going on here. I've not reviewed the Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra, but first impressions were that the crease was less obvious there than it is on Motorola's phone.

With that said, I've been using the Razr Fold for a month – and I'd expect the crease to get a little more established during that time. But like other folding phones I've used, I don't really notice the crease when I'm using it. This is, after all, a display that folds –there's going to be a crease.

But like other folding phones, the top layer of this device is a protective polymer film that's prone to reflections and fingerprints – it just doesn't look as nice as typical glass. That's the same as Samsung's latest devices and, to be honest, that's a bigger bugbear than the crease for me. Still, Motorola's big brightness can at least cut through reflections.

Visually I've been nothing but impressed with how the Motorola Razr Fold looks when using these displays. They are vibrant with rich colours, content looks great, while there's also support for HDR10+ from apps like Netflix.

Hardware & Performance

• Colours: Pantone Lily White, Pantone Blackened Blue
• Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 5, 16GB RAM
• 6000mAh Si-C battery, 80W charging
• 512GB storage

Folding phones trade screen space for performance to a certain extent and that seems to be as much the case for the Razr Fold as it is for other foldables.

That might justify the decision to use the Snapdragon 8 Gen 5. For those who don't know, it's a slight step down from the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5, with the cores clocked slightly lower and lacking some of the graphical features.

But let's put that into context: folding phones aren't great at cooling themselves down, so high-performance hardware often gets throttled because of the form factor. Basically, not having the top-tier hardware doesn't hold the phone back, and I never found the Razr's performance worrying.

With that said, testing this phone through a series of heatwaves, I've felt it get really warm – especially when using Android Auto – and I've also fished the phone out of my pocket a couple of times to discover that it had turned itself off. A byproduct of overheating or a software quirk? I haven't been able to determine in today's climate.

The battery life, however, is truly impressive. I've easily got the Razr Fold through the day and well into the next, thanks to that huge 6000mAh battery. The 80W charging is the icing on the cake, because you can top it up in barely any time at all.

So I don't have a problem with the hardware loadout, despite it not matching Samsung's overall power, which I don't think that's a huge disadvantage. This isn't a gaming phone, after all, and multitasking (opening a number of spreadsheets and PDFs for a closer look) didn't seem to bother the phone during my testing at all.

But Motorola hasn't been doing itself any favours with its software recently. The introduction of Moto AI through Hello UI over the past couple of years has seen increased bloat and the attempted insertion of additional junk on your device. The newsfeed and AI search box in the apps tray are terrible, slowing the experience down. I turned both off – and a lot of the other Moto AI options besides.

There's a dedicated AI button on the frame that can only be assigned to Moto AI tasks, so after a couple of weeks I disabled that – it sits right next to the volume controls and it's too easy to accidentally press it.

Some housekeeping is required, therefore, but do so and you'll find a phone that should run smoothly for plenty of years to come. That's bolstered by Motorola stepping up with 7 years of support on this phone, finally matching the competition.

Cameras

• Triple rear cameras:
  • Main: 50-megapixel, f/1.6, 1/1.28in sensor, OIS
  • Wide: 50-megapixel, f/2.0, 1/2.76in sensor
  • Tele: 50-megapixel, f/2.4, 1/195in sensor, OIS, 3x optical
• Seflie cameras:
  • Cover: 20-megapixel, f/2.4
  • Internal: 32-megapixel. f/2.4

Motorola's big push on the Razr Fold is offering three 50-megapixel cameras on the back. It's a hefty chunk of camera, not just on the spec sheet, but it's physically bulbous, matching Motorola's other phones in terms of design.

However, the selfie cameras drop down to a lower resolution, but the argument is that on a folding phone you can open it up and use the main camera to take selfies, benefitting from the higher quality that it offers.

Image 1 of 6

Taking a selfie with the internal camera is unwieldy, which makes it surprising that the cover display camera seems to be the lowest spec, considering it's the easiest to use. It has a tendency to overexpose, so it's definitely my least favourite camera for selfies on this phone. The selfie cameras have a noticeably different tone too, so there's little consistency.

The main camera on the Razr Fold is great, supported by the ultrawide and telephoto cameras for a complete set. I found the colour consistency across these to be great too. The best results come in daylight conditions, but once it gets darker the main camera suffers, failing to capture detail cleanly. While taking a set of complex night photos, I had to revert to the Google Pixel 10 Pro to get usable results.

Image 1 of 9

The telephoto is great to have on a folding phone, with the native 3x optical zoom or even 6x cropped zoom delivering great results – but the 100x digital zoom that it offers just goes a little too far to be useful. That's down to AI upscaling being too obvious – not presenting what you actually saw, rather what AI thinks it should be.

I've found the video recording to be generally good, too, with the option for Dolby Vision a quick tap away and making a noticeable difference to the quality when playing it back on the phone.

Motorola Razr Fold review: Verdict

The Motorola Razr phone is a great folding phone, with the battery life a clear advantage over Samsung's best, while the overall camera performance is decent and the design has a touch of class – even if it's a little chunky.

While there's a welcome 7-years of support into the future, Motorola's general software experience needs work to make it more friendly, with the bloat and Moto AI interruptions unwelcome. But that can be turned off, excess apps removed, and the AI button deactivated too.

Motorola's first full-scale foldable is more affordable than big-name rivals, with better battery life and charging, a lovely duo of displays, and a competitive camera setup. Ultimately, if you're shopping for a classic, taller type folding phone, then you're in safe hands with the Motorola Razr Fold.

Also Consider

The Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra is the biggest rival to the Motorola Razr Fold, but while it has nicer software and a slimmer design, it's more expensive with a smaller battery and slower charging.

Or there's the Google Pixel 10 Pro Fold for a better software experience, great cameras, but less power and a smaller battery. It's now heavily discounted, however, so is much better value.

Or there's the Honor Magic V6, which has a nicer display, more power, a larger battery and a slimmer-and-lighter design, but with software that's a little more bloated and fussy.