Motorola Razr 2024 review – the cool phone rules

Motorola Razr 2024: One-minute hands-on

The Motorola Razr may be the most exciting phone design we see this year, especially since most phone makers are focused on the AI brain inside, not on making a beautiful, colorful outside like the Razr Plus 2024 (also called the Moto Razr 50 Ultra in some markets) and the Moto Razr 2024 (or the Razr 50). If you want a cool phone that stands out and delivers an amazing mobile experience, Motorola once again delivers the coolest phone you can buy. 

It's been 20 years since the first Motorola RAZR V3 launched (I had one in matte black on Cingular, now AT&T). I keep hoping that Motorola will somehow bring back the original phone's laser-etched keys and razor-sharp chin, but the current flip design is really a marvel, and it keeps getting better. 

You wouldn't know from looking, but the Motorola Razr gives you one of the largest screens on any smartphone. Inside is a huge, fast 6.9-inch foldable OLED display. Consider the Galaxy S24 Ultra, one of the biggest phones you can buy, which offers a 6.8-inch display.  

On top of that, you get a whole extra screen on the outside. Not just for notifications and widgets; this is not a gimmick display like you'll find on competing flip phones. This is a full extra display that can run any app on your phone (or at least it will try).

That cover display was a game-changer on the Motorola Razr Plus 2023, and it's better in every way this year. On the Razr Plus 2024, it's even bigger, stretching seemingly from edge to edge with a slight bezel around. It's a much more dramatic effect, giving you a huge view of your apps.

The Razr 2024 has the full-cover display found on the Razr Plus 2023. Say goodbye to the old postage stamp. You can now spend less than $700 / £800 / AU$1,000 and get an affordable flip phone that might be as good as last year's best flip.

Once again, Motorola delivers on color options, with bright orange and peach colors, a hot pink Razr Plus, and some nice earth tones on the Razr. Hopefully, we'll see even more colors crop up throughout the next year, as Moto introduced a new Razr Plus 2023 to match Pantone's color of the year, Peach Fuzz, at the start of 2024.

A flip phone is admittedly still more expensive than a candy bar, and if you don't care about the style and don't lust after that brilliant cover display, you may not see the benefit for the high price tag. Wait a little while, though. 

Motorola had great sales throughout the last year for both Razr models, and I'm hoping we see discounts on the new hotness early and often.

Motorola Razr 2024 hands-on: price and specs

Motorola Razr 2024 hands-on: design

I had only one burning question on my way to check out the new Motorola Razr 2024 and Motorola Razr Plus 2024. What cool colors would Moto offer? Last year’s Razr Plus launched in the 2023 Pantone color of the year, Viva Magenta, and then a model clad in the 2024 Pantone color, Fuzzy Peach, was offered soon after. The Motorola Razr has made a stylish name for itself, and more than any specs or features, I was looking forward to seeing something cool. 

Motorola delivered cool. Even better, Moto somehow managed to upgrade all the stuff on the Razr, which was already great, while adding some features the original sorely lacked, like worthwhile cameras. 

I can talk about the big improvements, but let’s start with colors because Motorola has clearly identified its audience for the Razr and embraced a colorful identity. The Razr Plus 2024 comes in Peach Fuzz, which looks even more vibrant on the new phone than last year’s Razr. 

There is also a Midnight Blue, Spring Green, and a throwback Hot Pink color. With Paris Hilton spinning records at the launch party, Motorola is reviving an even hotter pink than Barbie-core fashion offered.

The Razr 2024 also comes in some cool colors, including a very snazzy Spritz Orange, Koala Grey, and Beach Sand that look much better on Motorola’s vegan leather than their names would suggest.

That’s right, vegan leather abounds on the latest Motorola Razr family, and there are no glass rumps to be found. It’s vegan leather and a newer vegan suede finish. It feels great, and the colors look fantastic in that textured finish. I’m curious how well it will wear and clean over the long term, so I’ll have to abuse my Razr samples to paint a properly dirty picture.

Let’s be totally honest about vegan leather, though. It’s great for vegans; it does not harm animals. It also doesn’t use the same chemicals as leather manufacturing, but vegan leather is not environmentally conscious, and it kind of seems like Motorola is hoping that we’ll confuse the two. The Moto Razr packaging contains no plastic, but the phone is now clad in petroleum products, vegan label or not.

Enough about the colors, what has actually changed in the Motorola Razr design? The original Razr Plus was my favorite foldable flip phone, and that was entirely thanks to the huge external display, which is both larger and more capable than the cover screen on competitor’s like Samsung’s Galaxy Z Flip 5. The new Razr Plus 2024 and the Razr 2024 both up the ante on that advantage, and the results are impressive.

Motorola Razr 2024 hands-on: display

The latest Motorola Razr Plus stretches the cover display edge to edge, and the effect is astonishing. As much as the Razr Plus felt like something new with its big outside screen, the new Razr Plus takes a big step forward. The design is so effective I asked Moto if they might consider launching a phone that is just the size of the Razr Plus cover display, like the old Moto FlipOut. They smiled and nodded. 

The base model Razr is no longer at a disadvantage with its cover display. The Razr 2023 had a mail slot window, which was still bright and colorful, if small. The new Motorola Razr 2024 has a 3.6-inch cover screen, which is the exact same diagonal measurement as the Moto Razr Plus 2023. I’ll have to measure them side-by-side to see if they are identical, but the latest model’s cover looks as big as I’d hope, with a colorful bezel up top instead of wall-to-wall pixel carpeting. 

What makes the Razr cover display so great is that Motorola is liberal about which apps can take over your extra screen. While Samsung is more limiting with its Galaxy Z Flip 5, Motorola essentially gives you a second screen for your Android, and it can do anything. Moto says this year’s models are even more capable, with new cover screens for Google Photos and Spotify. I’ll have to give the phone a thorough test to see what’s improved. It didn’t need much.

Motorola Razr 2024 hands-on: cameras

The real improvement I hoped to see was on the cameras. Foldable phones will always have a camera problem. A great camera needs distance between the lens and the sensor. A foldable phone will always be half as thick as a flat, candy bar phone. That means less room for camera components unless the company adds a big honking camera hump as you’ll find on the OnePlus Open. 

The Motorola Razr Plus and Razr get a camera upgrade on paper, at least. The Razr Plus jumps from a 12MP camera to a 50MP sensor. That seems like a big improvement, but the actual pixels are much smaller – 1.4µm on last year’s phone versus only 0.8µm on this year’s model. The size of the pixels matters much more than the resolution of the phone. 

Moto uses a pixel-binning technique on the Razr Plus that delivers a 12.6MP image. This technique effectively uses a 1.6μm area for each final pixel, which is bigger than the 1.4 m µm sensor pixels on the Razr Plus 2023. Whether that means the images will be greatly improved will depend on my review testing, but I am hopeful. 

Instead of an ultra-wide lens, Motorola has opted for a 2X zoom on the Razr Plus 2024, and I think that’s a good choice. A 2X zoom isn’t really a telephoto, but it is useful for creating a more dramatic image in Portrait mode, with a sharp subject and a background with pleasant bokeh blur.

Moto is also touting the phone’s improved and expanded photo booth features, which let you position the phone in various bendable poses and take photos of you and your friends. For that purpose, a better portrait camera is more satisfying than an ultra-wide one.

For the Motorola Razr 2024, the picture is less clear. The phone has a smaller sensor in terms of sensor size and pixel resolution. There don’t seem to be any spec improvements for this phone’s camera, but hopefully, review testing will show a step up from last year.

The camera has been the weakest link in Motorola’s Razr chain. Frankly, the sub-par camera is the main reason I don’t carry a Motorola Razr Plus 2023 as my personal Android phone. I like everything else about that phone, but I can’t abide by poor camera quality if my phone is my only camera.

Motorola is using AI to improve its cameras worldwide. That’s right, not even Motorola can escape the continental shift towards AI phones. The company previewed many of its upcoming AI features, but the ones available at launch will be familiar because they come from Google.

Motorola Razr 2024 hands-on: software

Motorola’s Razr 2024 launch was noticeably divided in terms of AI. Motorola will have access to some, if not all, of Google’s best Android AI features. Google’s Gemini large language model will run on the Razr Plus 2024, thanks to its Qualcomm Snapdragon 8s Gen 3 chipset. The Snapdragon 8s Gen 3 is a stepped-down Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 that can still handle plenty of on-device AI chores. The Motorola Razr Plus 2024 is the first phone with this latest chipset. 

The Motorola Razr 2024 will run Gemini in the cloud and it comes pre-installed on both new Razr phones, though you still have to opt-in to use it instead of the Google Assistant. Motorola is offering three months of Gemini Advanced, which comes with other Google benefits like cloud storage. 

The new Motorola Razr and Razr Plus will use AI in the Camera app for scene optimization, similar to how Samsung uses AI in its Galaxy phone Camera app to recognize the moon for great astrophotography. The Razr will recognize the scene and adapt accordingly. 

The camera won’t add any new AI elements. I asked Jeff Snow, Executive Director of Global Innovation and Software Experiences for Motorola, if photos enhanced by AI would need a “Made with AI” label. He assured me that the improvements concerned pixel-binning and exposure controls and would not generate anything new to add.

The new Razr phones will also get more AI tools directly from Google. You’ll be able to use Photo Unblur and Magic Editor, for instance, which are features that even Google’s best frenemy, Samsung, doesn’t offer on its latest Galaxy S24 phones.

Of course, relying mostly on Google for AI has its limitations. While Samsung builds its Galaxy AI into the Samsung Keyboard, Google adds AI app-by-app. That means you can’t use AI writing tools anywhere you can use the keyboard.

On a Galaxy S24, anywhere you can type, you can also get help from AI. On the Razr 2024, you’ll find Google Gemini in Gmail and many Google productivity apps. You won’t have Gemini writing text messages, at least not yet. However, you will have Gemini on the cover display, which could be uniquely useful.

The gaps in Google’s AI will eventually be filled by Moto AI. As we were listening to Motorola explain its upcoming Moto AI features, TechRadar News Chief Jake Krol and I looked at each other and asked the same question: How much of this existed before Apple Intelligence? How much of Motorola’s AI plans are a reaction to the competition, as opposed to long-term plans? The answer is unclear, as neither Motorola nor Apple will offer AI features on their next new phones at launch. For everybody, AI is perpetually coming soon.

For Motorola, AI looks a lot like Apple Intelligence on iOS 18. Text and image generation will be available. Apple will have an Image Playground; Moto will offer an Image Canvas. It's the same concept.

Motorola also imagines your phone will monitor your conversations, just like Apple’s iPhone might. Moto says you’ll be able to say “Pay Attention” or “Remember This” to your Razr phone, and it will start listening. It will record phone calls, the sounds around you, or whatever is happening on your screen. It will then make a transcript and summarize what it reads.

Where will your conversations be stored? That’s complicated. The phone will listen to and store your phone call and make the transcript on the phone. When it’s time to summarize, though, the phone will upload the transcript to a server for more help. 

Motorola says all of this will remain secure, somehow. For now, the features aren’t available, so there is nothing to worry about, but we will be following the privacy, security, and legal implications of these recording features as they slowly roll out.

Motorola offers no specific timing for its AI features. I pressed Moto reps on this. Going into the Motorola Razr 2024 launch, I hoped Moto wouldn’t be dragged along by the AI bandwagon. I figure the company has another year or two to figure things out before anybody starts making buying decisions based on the AI capabilities of new phones. There’s no reason to jump on AI features early if they aren’t ready yet.

Hahaha, just kidding. This is AI, after all. The definition of “ready yet” has been thrown out the window, along with the bathwater and the baby. It’s all out the window.

So, I was skeptical when Motorola jumped headfirst into AI. I asked reps if they have enough developers at Motorola to support AI for years to come. Of course, their answers were optimistic, but the Motorola Razr 2023 hasn’t been updated from Android 13 to Android 14 yet, and we’re about to see the latest Android 15 phones launched, probably before the end of this year.

To pre-order or not to pre-order

The Motorola Razr 2024 and Razr Plus 2024 will be available on July 24, with pre-orders starting July 10. The Razr Plus 2024 (aka the Razr 50 Ultra) will be $999.99 / £999 / AU$1,699, while the Razr 2024 (or Razr 50) will be $699.99 / £799 / AU$999. That’s the same price as last year’s model, but Motorola’s pricing is never final, so it’s important to look for a deal. 

In the US, for instance, the Razr and Razr Plus 2023 almost never cost full price. Motorola offered perpetual deals that dropped the price by $150 for the Razr and $300 for the Plus. In addition, we often saw amazing bundles that included Bose QuietComfort Earbuds for free. Keep a close eye on these phones, but don’t pay full price unless you really need to have one.