The Motorola Razr (2023) is the latest iteration of the flip foldable idea from the company and also one of the most affordable devices of this kind. The latest Razr comes in two flavors: the vanilla Razr (2023) and the Razr Plus (these two models are also known as the Motorola Razr 40 and Razr 40 Ultra, respectively).
Motorola decided to switch things around rather than keep on pursuing nostalgia with the original Razr design, modernize things, and make the new Razr look similar to... cough-Galaxy-cough... other foldables on the market. The Razr is now much more rounded and not razor-sharp (pun intended), it's compact, lightweight, and generally a much more complete device.
But is it good enough to take the battle to the Galaxy Z Flip? Today, we're going to find out!
That's a pretty lavish retail box by modern standards
The Motorola Razr (2023) comes with a lot of goodies in the retail box, at least by modern standards. You're getting a protective cover case, which is two pieces and made of matte plastic, a 33W fast charging brick, a USB-C cable, a SIM ejector tool, and some paperwork.
The cover is a nice addition, but I wouldn't cover the nice vegan leather with it, especially in a smartphone reality where glass sandwiches and plastic cases are commonplace. The fast charger, though, is a bonus that you will use, so points for Motorola for including it in the retail box.
Motorola Razr (2023) Specs
A solid performer
Here are some of the key specs of the Motorola Razr (2023):
Specs
Motorola Razr (2023)
Size and Weight
6.73 x 2.91 x 0.29 inches (170.82 x 73.95 x 7.35 mm) 6.65 oz (188.6 g)
Specs-wise, the Motorola Razr (2023) has some impressive numbers going right there. The Snapdragon 7 Gen 1 is pretty snappy and power efficient, even though it's not a flagship-grade processor. The main display can go up to 144Hz, one of the best on a foldable of this kind, and the battery and charging numbers are also quite impressive. You can check out the full Motorola Razr (2023) spec sheet for more details.
Motorola Razr (2023) Design & Colors
Leathery smooth
The first iteration (or, should we say, reincarnation) of the Razr foldable aimed to recreate that super thin and sleek feel of the original. Motorola decided to go down a different path with the Razr (2023).
The phone is compact, with rounded edges and a smooth matte aluminum frame. The thing that stands out, though, is the vegan leather on the back, covering both the space under the cover screen and the whole bottom half of the phone.
This design choice is not only very stylish on the eye but also pleasant to the touch. The Razr (2023) weighs only 6.65 oz (188 grams), and when folded, it's just a tad over 15mm thick. There's a horizontal camera strip that protrudes ever so slightly, and it also houses the 1.5-inch cover screen.
We have a capacitive fingerprint scanner on the right and two volume buttons above it. The SIM tray is on the left side, and we have the USB-C port in its usual place on the bottom. When you flip the Razr (2023) open, you see the center-positioned hole-punch selfie camera and the almost creaseless 6.9-inch main display.
Image credit - PhoneArena
Motorola Razr colors:
Sage Green
Vanilla Cream
Summer Lilac
Grape Compote
Motorola Razr (2023) Display
Image credit - PhoneArena
The Motorola Razr comes with a 6.9-inch main display of the P-OLED variety with a 1080 x 2640 resolution, and it's a really good one. We were able to measure 1,015 nits of peak brightness during our tests and a very impressive average deltaE of 1.79. In other worlds, the screen of the Motorola Razr (2023) is quite bright and also color accurate.
The phone also uses a LTPO panel that's able to smartly switch between 1 and 144Hz refresh rates, although you can't force 144Hz to be on all the time. There are two options: Standard (60Hz) and High (smart optimized up to 144Hz).
The cover screen, a vital element of any foldable, is pretty basic on the Razr (2023). It's a small 1.5-inch AMOLED touchscreen that, at least, is plenty bright. We'll get to its functionality in a minute.
The CIE 1931 xy color gamut chart represents the set(area)of colors that a display can reproduce,with the sRGB colorspace(the highlighted triangle)serving as reference.The chart also provides a visual representation of a display's color accuracy. The small squares across the boundaries of the triangle are the reference points for the various colors, while the small dots are the actual measurements. Ideally, each dot should be positioned on top of its respective square. The 'x:CIE31' and 'y:CIE31' values in the table below the chart indicate the position of each measurement on the chart. 'Y' shows the luminance (in nits) of each measured color, while 'Target Y' is the desired luminance level for that color. Finally, 'ΔE 2000' is the Delta E value of the measured color. Delta E values of below 2 are ideal.
The Color accuracy chart gives an idea of how close a display's measured colors are to their referential values. The first line holds the measured (actual) colors, while the second line holds the reference (target) colors. The closer the actual colors are to the target ones, the better.
The Grayscale accuracy chart shows whether a display has a correct white balance(balance between red,green and blue)across different levels of grey(from dark to bright).The closer the Actual colors are to the Target ones,the better.
As far as biometry goes, you have a couple of ways to unlock the Motorola Razr (2023). The side-mounted capacitive fingerprint scanner works as intended, even though the contact surface is rather small. You can use Face Unlock too, but it's not very secure, relying only on the selfie camera with no fancy 3D scans or similar tech.
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Motorola Razr (2023) Camera
No Pulitzer for photography here, but it's okay
Image credit - PhoneArena
The Motorola Razr (2023) sports two main cameras in its camera strip: a 64MP wide camera with f/1.7 aperture, PDAF, Laser AF, OIS, and 0.7µm pixel size, and a 13MP ultrawide one with a 120-degree field of view and f/2.2 aperture. There's a hole-punch selfie with a 32MP sensor under a f/2.4 lens.
Main Camera - Day
In good lighting conditions, the Motorola Razr (2023) takes decent photos. But even then, the dynamic range is a bit lacking, and there are areas that are overexposed. Even though the 64MP sensor should in theory offer plenty of detail, some shots lack resolution and the issue is much more prominent in low-light shots.
Main Camera - Low-light
As we mentioned above, the low-light shots aren't all that great. There's lack of detail and focus, and the night mode doesn't help a ton. It could reveal some additional details and make the photo a tad brighter but the overall result feels flat.
Portrait mode is present both on the main camera, as well as on the selfie, and it does a decent job blurring the background and achieving the sough-after bokeh effect. You can choose the effect strength (from the scale of 1 to 6) but it tends to crop fine details when set on maximum.
Ultra-wide Camera
The Ultrawide camera has a field of view of 120 degrees, which isn't the widest out there but also not the narrowest among ultrawide cameras. There's a blue-ish tint to the ultrawide photos, colors seem more saturated and details are a bit lacking, which is normal given the megapixel count of the camera.
Selfies
Selfies with the main camera:
You can take selfies with the main camera, using the phone closed, but it's not a huge deal. The main advantage is that you can use the ultrawide camera to get more people in the frame but the quality is not hugely better than the hole-punch selfie.
Selfies with the hole-punch camera:
Speaking of which, the dedicated selfie camera clocks in at 32MP and snaps decent photos. You can use the Portrait Mode with it too, and if your hair is neat and tidy, the results will be decent. Just like with the main camera, if you set the slider at extremes, you'll get some fine details chopped off.
Video Quality
The video quality is a mixed bag. If you go for the 1080p @ 60fps you get a much smoother result with good image stabilization but there's not much detail available, and the video feels a bit flat. When shooting at 4K@30fps things are much better on the detail front but then you get some annoying choppiness and not the great stabilization out there.
Motorola Razr (2023) Performance & Benchmarks
The Snapdragon 7 Gen 1 feels fast and furious
The Snapdragon 7 Gen 1 chipset inside the Motorola Razr (2023) performs really well, the overall experience is rather snappy, and there are no lags, stutters, or anything else to hint that this isn't a flagship-grade processor. The base 8/128GB memory configuration is pretty standard and will suffice, even though there's no microSD card onboard to expand the integrated storage.
The synthetic benchmark results paint a slightly different picture, putting the Motorola Razr (2023) somewhere near the Galaxy Z Flip 3, which is also its main competitor (the Razr Plus aims to take the Galaxy Z Flip 5).
Motorola Razr (2023) OS / Android version
Motorola phones typically come with a very vanilla take on Android. Some light software elements are added to enhance the UX — like Moto gestures, app icon customization, and device theming. You can make the Razr (2023) your own, and also train yourself to get the maximum our of the flexible screen, and the cover display, no matter how small it is.
Motorola Razr (2023) features in a nutshell:
There's some of that Flex Screen magic onboard as well, when you bend the phone while in the camera app, you get the interface on the bottom and the viewfinder on top. This feature works in other apps too. You can also use the phone bent like this to capture great selfies and/or videos of you and your friends via the main two cameras. Again, nothing radically new, but some essential flip phone functionality.
The cover display is rather basic - think original Galaxy Flip basic. You can scroll through different screens, check the weather, set a timer, record an audio clip, or play some music, but that's pretty much it. No Z Flip 5-like third-party app support, and certainly no Motorola Razr Plus fully functional cover screen.
Last but not least, you also get 3 years of Android version updates — meaning Android 14, 15 and 16 are in the cards — and security patches for one year more or a total of four years. That's a pretty solid update commitment from Motorola.
Motorola Razr (2023) Battery
Impressive on such a thin phone
The Razr (2023) comes equipped with a 4,200mAh battery cell, which is more than the 3,700mAh battery found in the Galaxy Z Flip 5 and just a tad shy of the 4,300mAh cell in the Oppo Find N2 Flip. Given the fact that the phone features a LTPO screen with a 1-144Hz refresh rate and a rather small cover screen, plus the midrange processor, we expected solid battery life out of the Motorola Razr (2023).
The battery test results, unsurprisingly, show some robust scores, with more than 15 hours of non-stop browsing, more than 11 hours of constant YouTube streaming, and 6 hours of gaming. This is absolutely expected, given the LTPO nature of the screen; browsing benefits the most from such technology, while gaming overdrives the panel to the full 144Hz, hence the rather modest score in that particular test.
In real life, you'd be hard pressed to drain the battery of the Motorola Razr (2023) in less than 24 hours. If you're not a power user, you could stretch that to two days, but it really depends on the individual and the specific usage.
Motorola Razr (2023) Charging Speeds
The phone comes with a fast charger included in the retail box, which was able to charge the 4,200 mAh battery to 100% in less than an hour. You get 61% in 30 minutes, which is pretty decent.
The Razr (2023) also supports wireless charging with speeds up to 5W, and this is a feat in and of its own, because Motorola somehow managed to cram wireless charging coils into the slim 7.9mm body of the phone.
Motorola Razr (2023) charging profile:
15 minutes - 32%
30 minutes - 61%
58 minutes - 100%
Motorola Razr (2023) Competitors
The Motorola Razr (2023) occupies a very sweet spot in the foldable market. Even though the US pricing hasn't been revealed yet, we expect the phone to retail for around $799 (given that the price in Europe and the UK is 799 euros/pounds respectively), which makes the Razr the cheapest foldable of its kind.
You could say that the Galaxy Z Flip 3 and Z Flip 4 are both viable options if you can find them on a deal. These two models sport similar features and hardware and a similar user experience with small-ish cover screens and two main cameras on the back. All in all, the Razr (2023) has the potential to take a substantial chunk out of Samsung's pie in the foldable market, but it'll be down to distribution and availability.
Motorola Razr (2023) Summary and Final Verdict
Image credit - PhoneArena
The Motorola Razr is a neat little phone. It's stylish, compact, and lightweight, and it comes at a great price. Granted, it won't destroy the Galaxy Z Flip 5, but it can push the foldable market a notch further down the mainstream path.
The Razr feels snappy, lasts long, and looks great. The display is one of the brightest on a flip phone and is also pretty color-accurate.
On the flip side, the hinge feels a bit wobbly, there's a disconcerting sound when you open the phone, the camera is a bit mediocre, and the cover display is pretty basic. But you get what you pay for, and for the money, the Motorola Razr (2023) is a flippin' good deal!
Mariyan, a tech enthusiast with a background in Nuclear Physics and Journalism, brings a unique perspective to PhoneArena. His childhood curiosity for gadgets evolved into a professional passion for technology, leading him to the role of Editor-in-Chief at PCWorld Bulgaria before joining PhoneArena. Mariyan's interests range from mainstream Android and iPhone debates to fringe technologies like graphene batteries and nanotechnology. Off-duty, he enjoys playing his electric guitar, practicing Japanese, and revisiting his love for video games and Haruki Murakami's works.
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