There was plenty of excitement in February
when the foldable Motorola razr smartphone launched on Verizon. But that
excitement dissipated quickly because of two things: the US$ 1,499.99 price tag
and the release of the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip. The latter out-specs the razr, is
powered by last year's Snapdragon 855+ chipset, and even costs less than
Motorola's foldable.
The razr is more of a mid-range phone with
a huge amount of nostalgia behind it. The current razr is powered by the
Snapdragon 710 SoC. The original Motorola Razr V3 sold 130 million units
between 2004 and 2008 making it one of the most popular cellphones of all time
and the best-selling clamshell of all time. Once the smartphone era got into
full gear, the Razr V3 was phased out. In May 2016, Motorola's current owner,
Lenovo, released a short video showing a fictional high-school hallway circa
2005 when everyone who was anyone had a Razr. And as phone manufacturers
started working on foldable displays, a smartphone version of the device became
possible.
When Motorola launched the new razr as a
Verizon exclusive, it was available only in Noir Black. But just before the
device was released, images of the phone in a new black and gold color
combination were leaked. And today, you can now order the razr in Noir Black or
the new color combo dubbed Blush Gold. When fully opened, only the chin will
appear in gold as you look at the screen. From the back, the top half of the
phone will appear black (this includes the 2.7-inch Quick View display) while
the bottom half will be gold. When closed, the chin, which includes the fingerprint
scanner, will be in gold with the rest in black.
All of the specs remain the same which
includes the 6.2-inch P-OLED display with a resolution of 876 x 2142. The 21:9
aspect ratio means that the display in thin and tall, and when used in
landscape mode it should be the perfect size for streaming video content. The
phone carries 6GB of memory and 128GB of storage and has a 12MP camera that is
used for selfies when the phone is closed. There is also a 5MP camera on top of
the display that handles video calls. It features a 2510mAh battery and comes
out of the box with Android 9 Pie although it will be updated later to Android
10.
Perhaps the coolest feature on the razr is
the Retro mode which is activated via the Quick Settings menu. With this mode
turned on, the top half of the screen uses the old 8-bit graphics seen on the
original model and the bottom half of the screen shows the old T9 dialer which
will work to dial out or send texts. The illusion sells itself thanks to the
virtual hinge that appears on the display helping to turn the new razr into the
old one.
The Galaxy Z Flip, which is available in
Mirror Black or Mirror Purple, opens up to a large 6.7-inch Dynamic AMOLED
screen with a 1080 x 2636 resolution and an aspect ratio of 21.9:9. The phone
has 8GB of memory and 256GB of storage and a dual-camera setup (12MP primary,
12MP ultra-wide) and there is a 10MP punch-hole selfie snapper.
One feature where the razr outshines the
Galaxy Flip Z is with the external screen. Called Quick View by Motorola, this
is a 2.7-inch display with a resolution of 600 x 800 and doubles as the
viewfinder when taking a selfie when it isn't sending notifications and helping
you control your streaming music. On the Galaxy Z Flip, the external display is
a small and thin Super AMOLED screen measuring only 1.1 inches with a 300 x 112
resolution. The display is so small that notifications are scrolled from right
to left like a ticker tape.
