Flipping great! DailyMail.com reviews Motorola’s new $1,000 RAZR Plus that gives the iconic ‘cool kid’ phone of the early 2000s a VERY modern make-over
- 3.6-inch external screen can run apps, so it’s not just foldable for the sake of it
- Slimmest clamshell on the market, but with the biggest external screen too
- READ MORE: Is Samsung’s S23 Ultra the best camera phone?
Back when the iPhone was still just a twinkle in the eye of Apple founder Steve Jobs, Motorola briefly ruled the cellphone universe from 2004 onwards.
The iconic slim, sturdy RAZR phones were glued to the hands of celebs from Paris Hilton to Jennifer Garner to Avril Lavigne in its early 2000s heyday.
Apple briefly partnered with Motorola to produce an ‘iTunes phone’ called ROKR, before unleashing the iPhone, which basically sank phones like the RAZR in the years after launch.
Since then, there have been a series of failed attempts to resurrect the brand (with many models including the original phone’s iconic slim design and ‘chin’ at the bottom), but this summer sees RAZR return as a foldable phone, the defiantly chin-free RAZR Plus.
It folds out to a monster 6.9-inch screen
The second screen can be used to answer emails or messages (Pic: Rob Waugh)
The phone folds tightly over and is the thinnest clamshell out there (Pic: Rob Waugh)
The 3.6 inch, 144Hz ‘second’ screen is drop-dead gorgeous (although it’s a bit of a fingerprint magnet, so you want to keep a cloth handy).
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It also offers ‘wow’ factor in spades – and it’s far bigger than the original RAZR’s 2.2-inch screen (or indeed the screen of the original iPhone).
The best bit is that you can run full apps on it, receive notifications and tap to check information such as the weather (as well as obviously seeing the time).
So for example, you can quickly reply to an email or text message without ever opening up the phone’s huge 6.9-inch screen.
On rivals such as Samsung’s Z Flip 4, you have to unfold the phone if you actually want to do anything, and the external screen is significantly smaller (although Samsung is rumored to be bringing out a model with a bigger screen this year).
You can also use the external screen in ‘mirror mode’ just to check your hair, or (for some reason) to apply frost effects and broken glass over your face.
When you take photos of friends, they can see themselves on the second screen (it sounds pointless, but in an era where most phones are pretty much the same boring black slab, it’s actually exhilarating).
Unlike a lot of current foldables, it feels like there actually is a point to it beyond, ‘We’re doing it because we can.’
In my time testing it, I found myself using the external screen more and more.
Motorola has revamped the hinge from last year’s model, and it’s seriously impressive – and, true to the RAZR brand, it’s seriously thin.
Folded over, it’s 15mm thick, and 7mm when unfolded (to put that in context, the original RAZR was 10mm thick, a then-unheard-of level of skinny).
RAZR Plus compared to Sony’s new Xperia 1 V and the iPhone Plus (Pic: Rob Waugh)
You can use the second screen as a viewfinder or mirror thanks to a few new features
Helpfully, it never feels like it’s liable to snap (Pic; Rob Waugh)
The RAZR 40 Plus is the thinnest clamshell out there when fully folded (although it’s worth noting it’s not fully waterproof, just splash-proof).
In the hand, it harks back to the days when Paris Hilton was the biggest source of gossip on the planet, and you could actually put your phone in your pocket without a fight.
Unfolded, the screen is HUGE (it’s 6.9 inches, bigger even than the huge Galaxy S23 Ultra) and feels very long (it’s similar to Sony’s superb Xperia handsets in that, and although it’s thin, there’s plenty of space).
Under the bonnet is the Snapdragon 8 Plus Gen 1, backed with 8GB of RAM, and it’s perfectly speedy.
The version of Android isn’t too loaded down with unnecessary bloatware, there are a few Motorola apps, but it’s largely clean.
The camera itself is good, rather than great, lagging behind heavyweights in the category like Google’s AI-assisted Pixel 7 Pro – but in all honesty, the difference is fairly marginal.
Battery-wise, the 3800mAh battery here is pretty decent, lasting a full day in our test (and that included me showing off the camera functions to various people).
If you’re scrolling down this review wondering where there’s a ‘but’ coming, there is one fly in the ointment here – the price.
At $1,099, this is definitely heading into seriously premium territory here (Google’s Pixel 7 Pro is $899).
But if you’re the sort of techy person who might have felt tempted by a folding phone before but never knew exactly why, this is the handset that offers an answer – it’s folding, but not just for folding’s sake.
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