Motorola Razr Fold Review: The First Foldable to Beat Samsung at Its Own Game

Verdict: A Foldable That Finally Feels Finished

The Motorola Razr Fold is a book-style foldable phone that focuses on ergonomic design, reliable performance, and uncompromised cameras to compete directly with premium foldables from bigger brands. From a week of daily use, it is clear that the Razr Fold is the best Motorola phone in years and the first Motorola foldable that stands toe-to-toe with Samsung’s Galaxy Z series and Google’s foldables. This is not a niche nostalgia piece; it is a serious flagship that suits power users, multitaskers, and anyone tired of the usual foldable choices. It is not perfect—the camera tuning and power button placement annoy—but the combination of design, camera consistency, and multitasking makes it one of the most convincing candidates for best foldable phone right now.

Design and Hinge: Someone Finally Thought About Fingers

Where many large foldables chase thin, flat edges, Motorola went the opposite way and it pays off immediately. The outer edge of the folded Razr Fold is concave rather than flat, giving your thumbs a natural place to grip when you open it. That simple change makes it far less likely you will fumble an expensive device every time you flip it open. The hinge is tuned with noticeable care: there is resistance where you need stability and lightness where you want the screen to glide open, so the motion feels controlled instead of creaky or floppy. On paper, 9.9mm thick and 243g closed sound bulky, but in hand the phone feels balanced and manageable thanks to the textured back and a camera module that sits almost flush with the rear panel. The one ergonomic miss is the power key, whose placement takes practice before it stops being an irritation.

Display, Always‑On, and Software Experience

Motorola leans into the foldable form factor rather than treating it like a stretched slab. A highlight is the return of a proper always‑on display: the Razr Fold lets you keep the cover screen on all the time or on a schedule, showing a clear clock, date, and notification icons that are large enough to read from across a room. This is the kind of small, quality‑of‑life feature Motorola has weirdly withheld from cheaper phones, and it transforms the outer screen into a dependable glance display instead of a gimmick. Inside, Android 16 runs cleanly, with responsive animations and multitasking that feels thought through instead of bolted on. Motorola’s own AI additions stay out of the way, and you can lean on Google Gemini for assistants and text tools. Multitasking goes a step beyond many rivals: you can keep three phone‑sized apps side‑by‑side and switch to a carousel view that makes rotating focus between them quick and intuitive.

Performance, Multitasking, and Charging

Under the hood, the Snapdragon 8 Gen 5 feels like a sweet spot for foldables. It delivers flagship‑level speed without the heat spikes that plague some high‑end chips, so the Razr Fold stays cool and does not need elaborate cooling hardware. Day‑to‑day performance is uneventful in the best way: no stutters, no slowdowns, no reason to think about the processor at all. Where Motorola pulls ahead of Samsung is in how it uses that power. Multitasking, especially with three apps, is easier to manage here than on a Galaxy Z Fold, which starts to feel clumsy beyond two panes. Fast charging also shifts habits: the Razr Fold supports 80W charging, which in practice means topping up in around 20 minutes instead of waiting close to an hour as on previous devices with slower charging. That kind of speed makes battery anxiety far less of a factor for heavy users.

Camera Quality and the Motorola vs Samsung Foldable Debate

Foldables usually ask you to accept weaker cameras than you would get on a same‑price slab. The Razr Fold is the rare exception. All three rear cameras are 50MP, so you do not suffer the resolution and quality drop‑off when you switch between main, telephoto, and ultrawide that you see on rivals with mismatched sensors. This setup matches Motorola’s signature flagship slab and has already earned the Razr Fold the top spot in a major foldable camera ranking, where it also outscores all non‑foldable Samsung Galaxy and Google Pixel devices on that list. According to that testing, “the Razr Fold camera takes the top spot among foldable cameras in DXOMARK’s listing while also scoring above all non-foldable Samsung Galaxy and Google Pixel devices.” In use, the main and 3x telephoto offer a flexible, dependable pair, though Motorola’s color science still misfires sometimes, pushing scenes toward unnatural tones. Even so, several long‑time Samsung foldable fans now call the Razr Fold a superior device in nearly every way.

Buy if / Skip if

• Buy the Motorola Razr Fold if you want a foldable phone that finally rivals or beats Samsung’s Galaxy Z series in everyday experience.
• Skip the Motorola Razr Fold if you are sensitive to minor ergonomic quirks and know a slightly awkward power key will drive you mad.
• Buy the Motorola Razr Fold if you care about camera consistency across lenses and are tired of compromised foldable cameras.
• Skip the Motorola Razr Fold if you dislike Motorola’s color processing and prefer more natural‑looking photos without editing.
• Buy the Motorola Razr Fold if you use your phone as a productivity tool and want strong three‑app multitasking on a large inner display.
• Skip the Motorola Razr Fold if you prefer ultra‑light, ultra‑thin slab phones over any big‑screen foldable form factor, however well designed.
• Buy the Motorola Razr Fold if you want fast 80W charging that cuts top‑up times from close to an hour to around 20 minutes.
• Buy the Motorola Razr Fold if you are looking for innovation outside the usual flagship ecosystems and are ready to move on from Samsung foldables.