Motorola’s Razr Fold beats the Pixel Fold and matches the Z Fold 7, but is that enough?

Almost immediately after it entered the foldable market, Motorola made it clear that it knows how to make a good flip phone. In fact, I’d go as far as to say that it makes the best ones.

First things first, hardware. We are no longer in the early days of foldable phones when they were clunky and cumbersome. The formfactor and the tech behind it have evolved enough to tackle the first issue of large foldables, namely their size.

It is clear to me that there were numerous iterations of the Razr Fold before the one that was presented to us at CES.

The Razr Fold comes with a massive 6.6-inch cover display with even and acceptably sized bezels that are seemingly slimmer than the Pixel 10 Pro Fold’s and only slightly behind the Galaxy Z Fold 7. On the inside we have an 8.1-inch, which makes it marginally larger than both Samsung’s and Google’s current-generation devices.

More important than the screen sizes, however, is how thin the Razr Fold is, and while Motorola hasn’t given exact dimensions yet, hands-on images give us some basic impression of what to expect.

Compared side by side with the Pixel 10 Pro Fold, the Razr Fold is noticeably thinner. It stands shoulder to shoulder with the Galaxy Z Fold 7, which itself represented a major refinement for Samsung. That means we can expect the Razr Fold to be around 8.9 mm thick when folded. For a company entering this category for the first time, matching Samsung’s physical execution is no small feat.

Another major hurdle with foldable phones is the crease that forms on the main screen. The recent Razr Flip phones have mostly made it invisible, and it appears that’s also the case for the Razr Fold. That said, every brand-new foldable looks crease-free under controlled lighting. The real test comes after months of use.

But to sum things up, from a purely physical standpoint, Motorola showed up more than prepared.

Cameras are Motorola’s weakness but also its biggest potential for growth

Foldables often compromise on cameras. The Pixel 10 Pro Fold, for example, leans heavily on computational photography but still can’t match Google’s regular Pixels. The case is similar with Samsung’s Z Fold line, which is clearly outmatched by the Galaxy S Ultra.

However, Motorola seems to be trying something different.

The phone will come with three 50 MP cameras on the back: wide, ultrawide, and a 3x telephoto. While that sounds like a flagship-class setup, megapixels don’t mean much on their own. The sensors powering those cameras are the most important part, but also the processing and tuning that’s on the software side.

Unfortunately, we know almost nothing about how these cameras perform right now. Motorola did not allow camera testing during the early hands-on sessions, describing the software as unfinished.

Considering the image quality we saw from the Razr Ultra and how close it comes to the Z Flip 7 and Pixel 10 Pro Fold, I expect Motorola to offer at least the same with the Razr Fold. Doubling down on this aspect, however, would help it stand out from the competition.

The stylus support

The Razr Fold supports the Moto Pen Ultra. Neither Samsung’s current US Galaxy Z Fold models nor Google’s Pixel Fold lineup offer comparable stylus functionality in this category. That gives Motorola something tangible to market apart from the design.

But stylus support is only meaningful if the software supports it well. And that leads us to the biggest question surrounding this device.

The real battle is not with hardware

Hardware is the easy part to evaluate at a trade show. Not so much the case with software.

Samsung and Google did not build their foldable software experiences overnight. Samsung has iterated on multitasking for eight generations of Galaxy Z Fold devices. Google has leveraged its tablet experience and Open Canvas to adapt Android for large screens.

Motorola, on the other hand, does not have a lot of experience here. That said, the Razr lineup balances widgets, apps, and cover display functionality better than any other flip phone on the market, so I have confidence that Motorola will do a good job when it comes to optimizing the software.

Still, early impressions suggest the Razr Fold’s software is the least polished part of the package. Reviewers were not allowed to explore it in detail, while camera features and Moto AI functions were restricted. That explains why we have to wait for a few more months—likely until mid summer—before seeing an official release.

Is Motorola’s timing brave, smart, or reckless?