Motorola Razr Fold – Stylish challenger

Motorola has a clear target image. We’ve known Motorola’s foldable Razr phones for a long time. They were one of the first to make foldable phones but this time it’s about a completely different thing. While flip phones are primarily about expression and design, we have completely different expectations for a phone like the Razr Fold in book format. It should be able to do much more and focuses on productivity above all else.

Nevertheless, with its first mobile of this type, Motorola is going its own way. This is thus a combination of what Motorola delivers in other areas and something completely new. They have succeeded in combining what they are best at, producing products with unique materials and their own identity, and combining that with practical benefits that can be used.

Stylish with included, separate pen

My test sample has a back in white and matt material I associate with a stone you pick up on the beach. Both soft because it is shaped by the waves but at the same time easy to grip with a structure. The material of the Razr Fold is of course not stone, but gives a similarly elegant impression when combined with the shiny metal details such as the camera assembly, Motorola branding and the phone’s frame.

With the phone itself, Motorola supplies a stylus that works both on the foldable and on the external screen. The pen can be used to draw, to navigate the interface and, with the help of the included apps, convert handwritten notes into editable text. It also works surprisingly well with Swedish and åäö. I don’t even have to write excessively fancy for it to understand. The function is also well integrated in other apps in general, so I can, for example, easily write in URLs in the browser’s address field with the pen.

The apps that take care of what the pen specifically adds are something that Motorola collected from various third-party manufacturers. It’s the Clip Studio Paint apps for drawing and painting and it’s Myclip Notes for taking notes. Both apps are free, but I have to pay extra to get all the features. I can take notes and draw in, for example, Google Keep with the pen and even there I have functions to interpret what I write from handwriting to editable text. Then it will also be easier to access the notes from other devices and sync to the cloud.

The pen itself has no place in the phone itself, but when you are not using it, it should be stored in a loose holder that also functions as a charger. The pen has bluetooth, which means it can also be used, for example, to remotely control the phone so I can press the camera’s shutter from a distance with the pen’s button. The pen’s charging case is as big as a cigar or spirit pen and you have to bring that with you separately. For me, it is often at the bottom of the bag, which sometimes even causes the pen to jump out of its case when it collides with something else in the bag. Not optimal and easy to lose for the careless.

So far the physical conditions for productivity, but how useful this type of phone really is is largely determined by the software. Here, Motorola has benefited from the fact that Google and other manufacturers went ahead with the phone in the same format and thus had years to adapt Android and its apps.

Multitasking that works

This means that when I have started an app in the Razr Fold, I can swipe up slightly from the bottom of the screen so that the icon row of apps is visible, and then from there pull up another app in split screen. I can drag the center slider between open apps to temporarily give an app more space, and I can add another app to the side and a fourth in floating windows on top. The fourth app in particular is perhaps challenging fate and making things more complicated, but working in three apps goes smoothly and I can easily get the space required optimized for each app. That’s equivalent to what you get in several other foldables of the same type as well, so it’s more thanks to Google than anything Motorola achieved themselves. Samsung’s Fold and Pixel Fold, however, limit to two apps side by side, but Samsung, on the other hand, can split one bar horizontally instead. It’s a matter of taste and depending on which app it is, what works best.

In the settings on the Razr Fold, you can choose how apps should be handled when you open and close the phone. You can choose to have an app you’re using on the outer screen continue to appear on the larger screen when you open the phone and vice versa, but you can also turn it off and set it so you can swipe up from the bottom of the screen to actively continue what you were doing before. Flexible solution.

High level of ambition

If we look at performance and cameras, Motorola has aimed high here without aspiring to a close position. The cameras in the Razr Fold are at the same level as the Motorola Signature, which means one of the better camera setups in a foldable phone, but slightly behind the best camera phones in general. I get nice color reproduction and good dynamic range. In the dark, I notice that the Razr Fold can lose some detail and color range. However, both this and the Motorola Signature stand for a clear increase in ambition in photography from Motorola’s side, and it shows in the pictures I take.

We can draw somewhat the same conclusions about the performance. Motorola renounces the very most powerful system chip we find in, for example, the competitor Honor Magic V6 and settles instead for a slightly simpler one. It’s noticeable, but at the same time provides enough power for the phone to feel fast regardless. However, it can be a bit of a rub that the Motorola Razr Fold does not invest uncompromisingly fully in any area. It is, after all, a phone that costs over SEK 20,000.

Questions and answers

How is the battery capacity?

6000 mAh goes a long way, but is nothing extreme.

Uncomplaining?

A little. It has IP48 and IP49 so water resistant but not as good protection against small particles. Time will tell how it ages. We have seen clear signs on foldable phones that after just a few months the crease in the screen becomes increasingly visible and tangible.

What is Motorola doing in AI?

You get a whole heap of AI apps like Gemini, Copilot and Perplexity as well as Moto AI which should be able to record and transcribe meetings, summarize notes (however only from a few apps) and remember things, but there is no Swedish language support so limited use.

An alternative

The most established competitor is of course the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7, or its successor which is believed to be coming soon, the 8. Also impressive is the Honor Magic V6, which we just received for testing and which challenges what is possible in foldable with performance, cameras, battery capacity and dimensions.

Camera example

Overall nice color reproduction and good zoom resources.