Motorola’s Latest RAZR Wows With Premium Features at $700 Price

Context

Motorola invented the flip phone with the Star TAC in 1996, reinvented it with the RAZR in 2004, and was the first to market with a vertically folding smartphone with the RAZR in early 2020 2019. Motorola followed up with improved models nearly every year and last year split out a “plus” (“40 ultra” in Europe) version with a large external display at the $1000 price point, and a budget model with a small exterior display for just $700.

Sales were initially slow – the launch coinciding with a global pandemic and supply chain snafus didn’t help. Despite losing money up front, Motorola stuck with the RAZR because the halo product opened up new retail opportunities in Europe and the U.S., and gave its best-selling low end phones a brand boost in Latin America. Motorola now reports that foldables are not just a marketing exercise: its premium phone sales are up 100% year over year, the RAZR over-indexes pulling in Apple users, and Motorola claims that it has 80% of the fold-smaller market in the U.S., taking share from Samsung. Samsung will have a chance to improve its own position when it rolls out new foldables in Paris in Ju;y, but Motorola got there first with a splashly – and very loud – launch event in Brooklyn, New York this week.

Color and Distribution

Fold-smaller phones are lifestyle products and Motorola has partnered with Pantone to design its products using Pantone’s extensive fashion and color research. Carriers tend to order phones only in neutral shades, so Motorola is making it hard for its retail partners to mess things up by only offering the RAZR and RAZR+ in bright, bold colors. I particularly appreciate the deep orange and green; OEMs are typically timid and even their colorful models are washed out – not these. In fact, the only truly subtle color is Peach Fuzz, Pantone’s Color Of The Year.

In the U.S., T-Mobile will once again be offering the RAZR+ in (U.S. carrier exclusive) hot pink, which is both a callback to an iconic RAZR V3 version and a close cousin to T-Mobile’s magenta brand colors. AT&T is offering the RAZR and RAZR+ at retail, and its Cricket prepaid division will have the RAZR. The RAZRs will be offered unlocked at Motorola.com, Amazon, and Best Buy. (The unlocked versions presumably will run on Verizon’s network without issue, but I’m waiting to hear back from Motorola on that.) Outside the U.S., the RAZRs will get broad distribution and a less cryptic naming convention; “RAZR 50” is the fifth generation RAZR smartphone, and “RAZR 50 Ultra” is the premium model.

Hardware

Motorola is addressing the primary complaint for the RAZR with an improved camera sensor and a new 2x telephoto lens on the RAZR+. That’s not long enough for zoom photography, but should improve portrait pictures. I am expecting review units; I’ll need to get hands-on to see if the camera changes are meaningful.

RAZR+ 2023 (left) and 2024 (right)

However, in briefings ahead of the launch, Motorola spent more time focused on the exterior displays than on imaging. On the RAZR+, the large exterior display grew by 17% to 4” and covers nearly the entire face of the phone. The effect is dramatic, and Motorola allows users to run full apps on that display, which can be wonky – not all apps are designed for a half-height square aspect ratio – but can be tremendously useful when done right. Maps, to-do lists, and social media feeds can be terrific ways to get more out of the phone without opening it up and diving in fully. Most of the time you won’t be running a full app on the exterior, and Motorola has also improved the widgets and layout options to make the most of the additional screen real estate.

The regular RAZR in 2024 looks a lot like the RAZR+ from 2023

The change on the exterior screen of the base model RAZR is even bigger: the 2023 RAZR had just a tiny notification window, the 2024 RAZR gets the big 3.6” front display from last year’s RAZR+. Since the price of both models has remained constant – and the base model is the best-seller – this change is going to be a significant factor driving sales.

On both models, the hinge design has been shrunk, with more stability at different angles, better protection from dust, and less of a crease on the interior display. That main screen on the RAZR+ is a staggeringly bright 6.9" pOLED that hits up to 3000 nits on HDR10+ content, and runs at 120 - 165Hz for smooth scrolling and gaming. The screen on the base model RAZR is nearly the same, Motorola cuts costs only a little by maximizing the refresh rate at 120Hz.

Motorola is splitting its silicon buy across vendors this year: the RAZR+ gets Qualcomm’s top-of-the-line Snapdragon 8s Gen 3, while the RAZR features MediaTek’s mid-tier (but still performant) Dimensity 7300x. Given the unit volumes the latter is likely to see, especially in the U.S. market where Qualcomm dominates the premium Android segment, MediaTek is the big winner here. In both cases, Motorola includes a reasonable 8 or 12 GB RAM and 256 GB storage.

Context-Based AI (Promises)

Like every other phone vendor these days, Motorola is promising an AI-rich experience with its new phones. RAZR users can access Google Gemini from the external display, and Google is offering a three month Gemini Advanced subscription with purchase. Motorola has its own Moto AI features coming to the phone as well, including “Catch me up,” to get a summary of texts and messages, “Pay attention,” to record and transcribe conversations, and “Remember this,” to capture live moments in the camera or on-screen information, which the system will save and store with AI-generated details for later retrieval. If that sounds a lot like an on-demand version of Microsoft Recall, well, it is.

Moto AI will also be able to assist users and provide quick suggestions, either on-device or using Gemini in the cloud. I pressed Motorola’s CEO on this, and rather than back off on the Apple AI and Microsoft Recall comparisons, he doubled down, saying that Motorola will be getting some of the types of AI features this year that Apple is promising for next year. I have been impressed with some of Motorola’s software previews – especially around working with Lenovo tablets and laptops. However, I’m skeptical that Motorola can build out context-aware AI separate from Google. Motorola doesn’t control Android APIs, and it cannot expect Android developers to cater to its market share. Samsung is far larger and has had difficulty getting developers to do its bidding.

One More Thing: Moto Tag

Motorola is starting to build out a hardware ecosystem around its phones. Its first order of business was to stop licensing its brand for cheap earbuds and bring those in house. That accomplished, Motorola is now entering the device tracker business with the Moto Tag, which works with Google’s Find My Device Network. The Moto Tag costs $25, has UWB, and works with any Android phone. In addition, Motorola gave the Moto Tag a multi-function button, which can be used to find the phone itself (by making it ring from somewhere in your couch), or as a remote camera shutter for your phone.

Conclusion

Motorola’s RAZR+ is the company’s hero phone, but the base model RAZR is the exciting one. The new RAZR keeps its more accessible price while adding the large exterior display that was previously limited to flagship foldables. It should sell everywhere, but in the U.S., strong carrier distribution and limited competition from other Chinese handset vendors give it an extra boost.

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