Motorola Razr (2020) impressions paint a less than ideal picture for the foldable

Ben Schoon | Feb 3 2020 - 8:34 am PT

More foldable smartphones are coming in 2020, and the Motorola Razr has finally arrived after a brief delay. This week, just ahead of the phone’s shipping date, a few first impressions videos and articles have hit the web, and unfortunately, they don’t paint a great picture for the device.

In case you missed its announcement in late 2019, the Motorola Razr is a foldable Android smartphone that’s designed to bring back the look of the classic Razr flip phone that dominated the market over a decade ago. The expensive $1,500 device has mid-range specs and is exclusive to Verizon, but Motorola/Lenovo touted its build quality.

As reviewers and some consumers get their hands on the device, though, that build quality is being questioned slightly. The main concern so far seems to be from the hinge. As noted in some videos making the rounds on Twitter, the Razr’s hinge makes some noticeable creaking sounds when it’s opened or closed, which obviously is a bit concerning.

Android Central’s Nirave posted a video showing this creaking, something that Max Weinbach also found on a retail display unit at a Verizon store.

Can confirm this is on retail units. This is on mine after 1 day of use. https://t.co/lBXIWtE8fI pic.twitter.com/9XTNG4YBmM

— Nirave 尼拉夫 (@nirave) February 2, 2020

So how’s performance? The Razr has mid-range specs that feel out of place on a $1,500 smartphone, but apparently, performance is not bad. Hayato Huseman found that performance was OK for the most part, but some quirks such as the recents menu weren’t comforting. Gaming also wasn’t ideal. Hopefully some of this can be improved with the Android 10 update, as out of the box, the Razr still runs Android 9.

Remember how the Razr also has a tiny battery? Apparently, the battery life is poor as many users feared. In his first impressions, Nirave also found that the Motorola Razr only lasted about 11 hours on a charge with some admittedly heavy usage of four hours of screen-on time. Obviously, more testing will be needed to see if this is the usual pattern, or if it’s just an outlier.

First impressions aren’t everything with a smartphone, but so far, things aren’t looking great for the Motorola Razr. We’re hoping to get our hands on the device in the not-too-distant future as well. Also coming up soon, there’s the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip, which with its more powerful specs and rumored lower price point isn’t helping the Razr one bit.