The Motorola Razr Fold arrives in stores soon, and I’ve already spent a couple of weeks with the phone, which just so happens to be Motorola’s first book-style foldable phone. My review is already up if you want the full rundown of my thoughts using the Razr Fold, and we’ve also published a separate camera review, which I worked on with my colleague Nick Sutrich.
That said, if you’re on the fence about whether to buy the Razr Fold, I’m breaking down some reasons to consider it and others to skip it or wait. Think of it as a mini review that just focused on the major highlights and concerns before you buy.
Amazing camera
Off the bat, the Razr Fold has an impressive set of cameras. Motorola isn’t exactly known for its camera prowess, but the company cooked with the Fold’s triple 50MP rear sensors. Thanks to Sony Lytia sensors and some help from Pantone, photos are bright and vibrant, with punchy colors that I find quite pleasing to the eye. Of course, not everyone will be a fan of this style of imagine, but Android Central’s Nick Sutrich and I are quite pleased with the cameras.
Motorola has also included some staple imaging features alongside some new ones. Of course, you can twist the phone twice to open the camera, and for those fast-moving subjects, Action Shot will keep them in focus. Frame Match is new, helping to ensure your friend frames you in a photo just as you intend, so you can capture the scene just right. And because it’s a foldable, the Razr Fold’s external screen can be used as a viewfinder for selfies or a preview screen for subjects.
Flagship-level performance
The Motorola Razr Fold is powered by the Snapdragon 8 Gen 5. It may not be the top-of-the-line Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5, but the chip, paired with 16GB of RAM, performs just fine without the extra power. You’ll have no trouble juggling multiple apps, and the phone is surprisingly capable at gaming.
I’ve played some fairly graphically intensive games such as Honkai: Star Rail and Where Winds Meet on the highest settings, and the phone doesn’t falter one bit or get noticeably warm.
|
Benchmarks |
Motorola Razr Fold |
|---|---|
|
Geekbench 6 CPU (single core) |
2766 |
|
Geekbench 6 CPU (multi-core) |
9054 |
|
Geekbench 6 GPU (OpenCL) |
17878 |
|
Geekbench 6 GPU (Vulkan) |
21755 |
|
3DMark Wild Life Extreme (Vulkan) |
4858 |
The benchmarks leave a lot to be desired compared to flagships powered by the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5, such as the Galaxy S26 Ultra. That said, they don’t always tell the whole story, and to be completely honest, I’m more than pleased with the Razr Fold’s performance.
Silicon-carbon battery
Silicon-carbon batteries are the hot new tech in smartphones, allowing for denser, larger batteries and providing a boost in battery life for flagship smartphones. Google and Samsung have yet to adopt the tech in their latest flagships, but Motorola is bringing it to the U.S. with the Fold, squeezing a 6,000mAh battery into a very thin profile.
The result is rather impressive battery life, and I can easily get more than a day of use with the Razr Fold.
Plus, when you do run out of battery, the fast 80W charging can top you up in a pinch, assuming you have a compatible charger and USB-C cable. And if you like wireless charging, the Razr Fold supports a speedy 50W with a compatible Qi charger.
Versatility
The Razr Fold features a 6.6-inch external display, and it’s rather impressive with its 165Hz refresh rate and 6,000-nit peak brightness. However, the internal folding display gives you a lot more screen to work with at 8.1 inches, and Motorola does a pretty good job of utilizing the real estate and the phone’s folding nature.
Multitasking is pretty easy; you can open a triple-app split-screen view by dragging apps up from the taskbar. You can also add a fourth app by opening it in floating freeform mode; just drag it to the middle of the screen. And thanks to the Snapdragon chip, the phone handles all of this very well.
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The Razr Fold also has two modes that you can activate when folding the phone at different angles. Desk Mode turns the Razr Fold into a smart desk display, which can show a clock, calendar, upcoming tasks, and notifications.
And when you open the Razr in a laptop-like angle, you can activate Laptop Mode, which turns the bottom half of the device into a trackpad that controls the top half with a cursor. It features a set of shortcuts for certain functions, and when you enter a text field, the bottom half opens a full keyboard.
7 years of software support
Motorola isn’t always the best at software support, but the company is clearly learning. The Razr Fold will receive seven years of OS upgrades and bi-monthly security updates. That means the phone will eventually get Android 23 or 24 and should receive updates, possibly for longer than you’d intend to keep it. For such an expensive phone, long-term support like this just adds value.
Moto Pen Ultra
We were pretty bummed about Samsung removing support for the S Pen on the Galaxy Z Fold 7. Motorola must have heard the cries, because it created its own version of the S Pen specifically for the Razr Fold.
The Moto Pen Ultra is an active stylus pen, so it supports pressure sensitivity and tilt detection on the Razr Fold’s screens. Unlike the S Pen for the Galaxy S26 Ultra, the Moto Pen Ultra supports Bluetooth, so you can capture images with the stylus as a remote shutter or use the side button to activate features like Circle to Search.
You can also take advantage of features like annotating your screen, dragging and dropping items between apps, and Motorola’s Sketch to Image, which uses AI to clean up and generate whatever you draw. It’s a neat addition if you want to spend the extra $99, and it comes in a nicely upholstered charging case.
Why you should skip the Razr Fold
Expensive
Smartphones aren’t getting any cheaper; in fact, they seem to be getting more expensive lately, thanks to the RAM crisis. The Razr Fold, like other book-style foldable phones, costs a pretty penny at $1,900. That’s $100 less than the Galaxy Z Fold 7 at launch, but $100 more than the Pixel 10 Pro Fold when it was launched last year.
This is the most I’ve seen Motorola charge for a smartphone, and while carriers can help spread the cost over multi-year payment plans, Motorola says the Razr Fold will be available at T-Mobile, Xfinity Mobile, and Verizon “in the coming months.”
On the plus side, Motorola is known for offering pretty attractive deals on its smartphones, so if you’re willing to wait, you might snag a sweet discount. Right now, the Razr Fold has some decent preorder deals for the unlocked model.
Few accessories
The Razr Fold is a good-looking phone, thanks to Motorola’s use of alternative materials on the ar instead of glass. However, a phone this expensive should be protected with a case, and unfortunately, there aren’t many Razr Fold cases to choose from. Motorola has one first-party case for the Fold, in two colors, but it won’t be available until June 12.
You can look elsewhere for cases, but you won’t find many from the big-name brands aside from Thinborne, which appears to have gone through with producing an ultra-thin case. You can probably find a decent case from an unknown brand online, but you might be best off waiting for the Thinborne case.
We’ve been asked SO many times if we’re making an aramid fiber case for the Motorola Razr Fold 2026.Truth is… this probably won’t make us much money. Motorola is a much smaller market compared to iPhone or Samsung.BUT HELK.We didn’t want to let our customers down.So yes —… pic.twitter.com/wXQ8trSa2aMay 13, 2026
This is different from Samsung’s approach; the company will launch a new flagship with a bevy of first-party case options and plenty of third-party cases to choose from. We wish Motorola were more active about protective accessories, but the company seems to have an aversion to them.
Motorola is a bit of a second-class citizen
Despite being a moderately sized player in the mobile space (and at one point owned by Google), Motorola still feels like a second-class citizen when it comes to Android. Whenever Google announces new features, Pixel phones often get them first, but many times Samsung devices get them even before Pixels and other Android phones.
Quick Share’s AirDrop support came first to Pixels, then expanded to Samsung phones before finally reaching others. Gemini screen automation actually arrived first on the Galaxy S26 before expanding to the Pixel 10.
Motorola rarely gets the same treatment, aside from perhaps the new Wardrobe feature coming to Google Photos. Otherwise, you’ll have to be comfortable waiting to get the latest Android features, or not getting them at all (AirDrop support seems up in the air).
That’s not to say the Razr Fold isn’t impressive and capable on its own, but there will likely be some FOMO as Samsung and Google get first dibs on new features.
