After the first presentation in New York, Motorola has unveiled its new folding smartphones, the Razr, on Monday in London European journalists. With the venue, a club-like event location in a hip nightlife district, the company apparently wanted to arouse emotions.
It would not have been necessary. Because after a short trial, the first verdict on the new Razr is clear: the outside looks like the legendary Motorola Falthandy from the beginning of the millennium, inside is a modern Android smartphone with folding screen. Cell phone nerds will like that.
It will not be cheap. If the Razr in Europe comes on the market, you have to expect a price of just under 1600 euros. There is also an iPhone 11 Pro Max in full equipment.
Volker Weber
That's the comparison everyone wants to see: a Motorola manager puts the old Razr (left) opposite the new one
Taking the data sheet in hand, the comparison is unfair. The iPhone currently has the fastest mobile processor, three main cameras, half a terabyte of memory and what else Apple has to offer.
The Razr, on the other hand, is middle class. The heart, a Snapdragon 710, also beats in the Nokia 8.1, which costs less than 300 euros. Its 128 gigabytes (GB) of memory are not expandable and the display does not even manage Full HD. The two batteries bring it together to only 2500 milliamp hours. What a loser.
First flattening
But if you take the Razr in your hand, you quickly forget the shortcomings of the data sheet. Motorola provides the alternative to the folding phones from Samsung and Huawei. Instead of making larger by unfolding, the Razr is smaller when folding. So it is on the one hand unusually compact, on the other hand, come up with a usual large display of 6.1 inches.
Volker Weber
Unfolded, the new Razr looks like a normal smartphone - only more expensive
The flexible display is the eye-catcher, but the magic is in the hinge. For four years, Lenovo and Motorola have experimented with flexible displays to land after 20 prototypes on the familiar Razr design.
Unlike Samsung and Huawei, the display does not wrap around a joint, but lies between two outboard hinges. So it can be drop-shaped embed in the joint without kinking. Unlike the competition, the display halves are therefore flat on each other.
Like the Samsung and Huawei folding mobile phones, the Razr is neither dust nor waterproof, protected against splashing by a coating. Against scratching the sensitive plastic display is well protected, because it is inside, says Motorola.
There is not even room for a sim card
A single 16-megapixel camera shoots in the unfolded state normal photos and in the closed state selfies. On the inside there is still a 5-megapixel camera, which is actually only needed for video calls. How good the quality of the photos is could not conclusively judge today, but one should expect no miracles here.
Volker Weber
Good construction: Because the hinge is on the outside, the display will not kink when folding.
Very handy: If you turn the cell phone with the wrist twice quickly back and forth, automatically starts the camera. If the Razr is unfolded, the viewfinder image appears on the large display, in selfie mode, however, on the small outdoor display. Otherwise, the time and other status information will be displayed on the mini-screen. Notifications can be edited, calls accepted or denied, and when music is playing, you can control the player.
What we could not try at the appointment in London, is the performance of the battery. 2500 mAh is very little for an Android phone. More battery just did not fit. Not even for a SIM card is space, Razr users need an eSIM, which could restrict the selection of the provider something.
New hardware, old software
The entire radio technology as well as the GPS receiver, the fingerprint sensor and the USB-C connection are located in the thick chin of the RAZR. There was no room for a headphone jack. Motorola provides a wired headset with a USB-C plug.
An idea that is as unusual as it is good: You do not simply throw away the elaborate plastic packaging after unpacking. Instead, you can use them as a practical, but not exactly space-saving stand.
Volker Weber
Recycling instead of throwing away: The box serves the Razr as a base
The chin is modeled on the old RAZR and it does not bother a little, if you hold the device unfolded in your hand. Like a camera, your fingers can hold on to it. Since the apps are at the bottom of the screen, the one-hand operation works better than with smartphones, with almost borderless screen.
In the US, the Razr is offered exclusively by Verizon. In Europe, it will not come to all regions. Apparently Italy and Austria are at the top of the list. It will be interesting to see how successful it will be, because on the one hand it is exorbitantly expensive, on the other hand enormously sexy.
That was also the case with the first Razr 15 years ago. The Razr V3 cost at first 750 euros, so a lot for a not so smart mobile phone. Similar to then, Motorola wants to follow the first model again now more offshoots. For their success, however, the company still has to work on the software. The new Razr still starts with the old Android 9.
