Last week’s poll shows that Motorola is onto something with the dual release of a vanilla and a flagship foldable. The Motorola Razr 40 Ultra was the one most people prefer, but the vanilla Razr 40 found a fanbase as well.
The biggest criticism of the base model is that Snapdragon 7 Gen 1. It was deemed too under-powered for an €800 phone – the new 7+ Gen 2 would really have boosted Razr 40’s standing in the eyes of would-be buyers.
Interestingly, no one complained about the tiny screen, which seemed like it would be the phone’s biggest weakness (the large cover display may be the best thing about the Ultra).
Speaking of the Razr 40 Ultra, it scored a very positive result in the poll. This phone (as the Razr+) will go head to head with the upcoming Galaxy Z Flip5 in the US – rumor has it that the Samsung foldable will match the Ultra price tag of $1,000. Motorola is promising 3 OS updates for the phone, which isn’t as good as Samsung’s 4 but should be enough to give people peace of mind.
Some aren’t too happy with the extra tall 22:9 aspect ratio of the internal display. At least Motorola moved away from the extra wide form factor of the Razr 2022 (that one was a whopping 79.8mm wide). The new model is also lighter and it has the option for a grippy faux-leather back, so ergonomics have been improved.
Battery life was another concern – the Ultra scored 83 hours in our review, up from a measly 64 hours for the Razr 2022. That’s a fine improvement, but is still behind the Z Flip4 and the Z Flip5 promises to do even better.
Using a smaller, lower-resolution sensor for the main camera compared to lat year’s Razr – 12MP 1/2.55” vs. 50MP 1/1.55” – along with a narrower lens for the ultra wide camera also drew criticism. After all, this phone costs €1,200/£1,050 in Europe and $1,000 in the US and that is a lot of money for a basic camera setup such as this.
Right now Motorola is the only rival that Samsung has in the flip foldable market on the global stage. Oppo Find N2 Flip can be hard to find in Europe, the vivo X Flip never arrived. And both are nowhere to be seen in North America. Moto’s two-pronged approach holds promise as the vanilla model will undercut the Z Flip5 pricing, the Ultra phone will try to fight it on features.
