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I've ne'er been the biggest instrumentality of foldable phones. They're fine, but I ne'er afloat understood the appeal. Are they truly amended than a accepted slab phone? My sentiment connected foldables is starting to change. I person spent the past mates of weeks investigating Motorola's caller 2026 Razr Fold, its latest flagship. I've travel distant genuinely impressed, and a small tempted to bargain 1 myself.
Also: Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 7 vs. Motorola Razr Ultra: I've utilized both, and this telephone is my pick
This is simply a earnestly bully mobile device. I accidental it's amended than Samsung's Galaxy Z Fold 7 connected respective fronts. Its artillery is larger, starring to amended longevity, the interior surface has a higher resolution, and the camera strategy is arguably superior.
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Hard to ignore
The Motorola Razr Fold sits somewhat larger than the Galaxy Z Fold 7, sporting a 6.6-inch outer show and an 8.1-inch interior display. By comparison, Samsung's exemplary has a 6.5-inch outer surface and an 8-inch interior screen. The other size does mean the Razr Fold is heavier astatine 243g, but it has small effect connected the idiosyncratic experience. It is inactive an ultra-sleek phone, particularly compared to foldables from erstwhile years.
Visually, the dual displays are top-notch. Motorola packed these AMOLED screens with a slew of visual-enhancing features. Just to item a few, some screens enactment the afloat DCI-P3 gamut for vibrant colors, are Pantone Validated for fantabulous colour accuracy, boast precocious resolutions, and person precocious refresh rates, ensuring creaseless animations.
Brightness levels are noteworthy, too. Motorola rates the interior show astatine 6,200 nits, which cuts done outdoor glare. I ne'er struggled to spot the screen, adjacent nether nonstop sunlight.
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I spent a batch of clip watching YouTube videos and streaming shows connected the interior display. Colors popped disconnected the screen, shadows looked pitch-black acknowledgment to Dolby Vision's precocious contrast, and the ample size made the contented consciousness rather immersive.
An elegant finish
My reappraisal portion arrived successful Blackened Blue. I notation the colour due to the fact that Motorola ties each telephone colour to a chiseled finish. My reappraisal portion had a woven, diamond-like signifier crossed its backmost that the institution calls a "piqué-inspired finish". I don't deliberation this texture has a functional purpose, but it does look and consciousness nice.
It gives the telephone a level of elegance that helps it basal retired from the oversea of traditionally glass-backed mobile devices. The Razr Fold successful Lily White has a much silky finish.
The Razr Fold is besides beauteous durable. Its outer surface is protected by a sheet made retired of Corning Gorilla Glass Ceramic 3, offering beardown absorption against scratches and drops. Because the interior show needs to bend, it lacks Gorilla Glass, but it is covered with a surface protector. Connecting the 2 halves is simply a stainless alloy teardrop hinge. Its rigidity allows users to spot the telephone successful assorted positions to suit their needs.
You could prop the telephone halfway up to ticker a movie, oregon spot the Razr Fold into structure mode and show the existent day and clip similar a bedside clock.
Vibrant cameras
My favourite facet of the Razr Fold is its camera system. Motorola nailed it. On the back, the telephone houses a triple-camera array consisting of a 50MP main lens with a Sony LYTIA sensor, a 50MP ultrawide camera, and a 50MP periscope telephoto lens with 3x optical zoom and up to 100x Super Zoom. Image prime is fantabulous crossed each 3 lenses. Photos travel retired sharp, vibrant, and packed with detail. Exposure and lighting are handled remarkably well.
Rather than conscionable describing the results, I deliberation I should supply examples. The archetypal representation I captured wrong a market store, displaying rows of drinks with colorful labels. The Razr Fold does a large occupation astatine reproducing the vivid colors and agleam tones.
This 2nd representation is of a lifeguard operation I took with the telephoto lens astatine 6x zoom. The results are amazingly sharp. I was acold away, and you tin intelligibly work the banners. It's adjacent imaginable to marque retired the graffiti. Because of the clarity, the telephoto camera became my favourite of the trio. The selfie cameras aren't arsenic bully successful my opinion.
After taking a photograph with the inner-screen camera, I noticed the colour equilibrium was off. Everything had a somewhat yellowish tinge.
Performance and battery
Motorola's Razr Fold operates connected a Snapdragon 8 Gen 5 chipset paired with 16GB of RAM -- a coagulated configuration. It did good successful each show tests. For starters, I ran Geekbench CPU for Android to get a bully consciousness of the hardware. It scored astir 2,740 successful the single-core trial and implicit 9,100 successful the multi-core test.
This tells maine the Razr Fold feels accelerated successful day-to-day usage and handles sustained dense workloads, specified arsenic mobile gaming, adequately. Geekbench GPU results were arsenic strong, hitting an OpenCL Score of 17,713, signifying precocious ocular fidelity.
I experienced this firsthand portion playing Arknights: Endfield, a crippled that ran terribly connected the Galaxy A37. On the Razr Fold, it ran beautifully -- though, support successful caput this telephone besides costs astir 4 times the price. Gameplay felt responsive, and combat looked striking with the ample OLED sheet giving attacks a batch of ocular punch. Even during aggravated sequences, Endfield ran fine.
You whitethorn acquisition the telephone heating up successful definite situations. I discovered this erstwhile I ran the 3DMark Wildlife Stress Test, a benchmark that replicates a dense load. During the test, the Razr Fold became beauteous toasty; its show throttled down. It's improbable you'll acquisition this. Very fewer radical are stress-testing their smartphones. But it is thing that you whitethorn acquisition nether definite situations.
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Longevity is stone solid. I ran a mates of battery-drain tests to spot however agelong the instrumentality lasted nether continuous use. Running a nonstop YouTube livestream connected the outer display, the Razr Fold lasted astir 31 hours. I past repeated the aforesaid trial utilizing the interior display. Battery beingness dropped, arsenic expected, coming up conscionable shy of 24 hours.
Charging speeds are fast, though you volition request an 80W charger to spot them. I utilized excavation and managed to recharge the artillery from 0% to 55% successful conscionable 30 minutes.
ZDNET's buying advice
Pre-orders for the 2026 Motorola Razr Fold are unrecorded now. It is priced astatine $1,900 connected the company's authoritative website and Best Buy. Buyers tin take betwixt 2 colors: Pantone Blackened Blue and Lily White. The foldable officially launches connected May 21.
Simply put, this is an fantabulous smartphone, from its high-quality screens to its awesome cameras. That said, $1,900 is inactive a steep asking price. If that is excessively much, the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7, which launched a small little than a twelvemonth agone now, is presently connected merchantability astatine Amazon.

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