Foldables are becoming more and more popular, and I’ll be honest when I say I am still a bit sceptical of them purely because it’s the longevity of the display that concerns me.
Don’t get me wrong, I like foldables and flip phones as I know they are the future but I am weary of them purely because I have seen friends and family with their foldables unable to last a full 2 years in most cases.
So when Motorola, who has brought back its razr line up with new flip foldable devices, I thought I would pop my flipin’ cherry and try out the new razr 40 to see if it could change my mind.
So can the Motorola razr 40 convince me to change my mind and put it through its paces on a daily basis?
What’s in the box?
Motorola, like many device manufacturers, are using plain packaging to reduce their carbon footprint. I don’t mind that it just has the company branding and device name in the box. It’s simplicity at its best.
In the box, you’ll find the device, two hard plastic covers for the rear parts of the device, the usual manual and paperwork, alongside a 1-metre USB-A to USB-C cable and a 33W wall charging brick.
The design
Firstly I would like to point out that when taking the packing off the device, it does state very clearly that there is a factory-applied screen protector which you can’t remove, and to do so would damage the screen and the phone. There are plenty of warnings on the phone and in the box about not removing this, so pay attention!
So once you have taken it out the packing, you will notice the 6.9-inch FHD+ pOLED display (2640 x 1080 @ 413ppi) which once turned on is very clear and bright and just beautiful to view. There are also no bezels to speak of, which is excellent.
The display has a 32MP front-facing camera in it, which is located on the middle top of the display which is barely noticeable when browsing websites or social media and something that I have gotten used to with my everyday device, the Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra.
Of course, the razr 40 does come with an additional 1.5-inch OLED display (194 x 368 @ 282ppi) on the front of the device, which is very useful and can be used for notification updates, messages, make and displaying phone calls but also to use the rear cameras to take a selfie without the need to open the device by simply shaking the device twice to activate.
Furthermore, to the right of the front display, you’ll find the 64MP that is paired with a 13MP ultra-wide sensor and Macrovision lens alongside a single LED flashlight.
The back half of the foldable doesn’t do anything, whilst the right-hand side has the volume rocker and standby/power button which also acts as the fingerprint sensor. Whilst the left-hand side houses the SIM tray in the top half side of the device
The bottom of the device houses the USB-C port located in the centre which to the right houses the speaker grill and to the left of the charging port is one of two mics of which the second is located at the top of the device.
Lights, camera, action!
The front or rear-facing camera, it’s always hard to tell with foldable to describe as they can be used as a selfie camera or normal rear cameras, are a dual camera set up made up of a 64MP camera lens that is paired with a 13MP ultra-wide sensor and Macrovision lens.
You can also use the external cameras as a selfie camera without the need to open the device by simply twisting your wrist twice to activate it to simply take a picture. You can also change through the various modes by simply swiping left or right to switch between Photos, Videos, and Portrait modes.
In terms of the modes available within the camera app include Slow motion, video, photo, portrait, pro and more which includes additional camera modes and functions such as spot colour (there is a photo and video mode version), night vision, panorama, ultra res, timelapse, scan, dual capture and photobooth modes.
Photos taken with the outer rear cameras are ok, albeit the colours are a little diluted and not as bright as what they are in real life, but this is just a minor issue. The night photos seem pretty good and true to life with noise also low but still true to life which I was a little worried they wouldn’t be as good as say, daylight photos.
The front facing or inner camera is a 32MP lens on the inside display is also very clear and bright and offers a slightly better experience with focus not an issue and stabilisation pretty good.
Software and performance
The Moto razr 40 is powered by a Snapdragon 7 Gen 1 Mobile Platform, 8GB RAM alongside 256GB built-in storage that sadly cannot be expanded via microSD card, so will need to ensure you have enough cloud storage through your preferred cloud provider.
In terms of performance, the Moto razr 40 was able to multi-task without lagging, going between listening to music to writing and checking emails, social media and more.
Playing games and watching movies on the slightly larger display is amazing, bright and clear, although I did note with some games the graphic details became a little blurry and ever so slightly pixelated at times.
The Motorola Razr 40 runs Android 13 right out of the box with Motorola adding its My UX which is layered over the top of the top of Android 13 and to be honest, it doesn’t slow down the device which does help with personalisation features moto have built into the software and UX interface.
The razr 40 also comes with NFC capabilities, Bluetooth 5.3, Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac/ax/Wi-Fi 6e which the internet connectivity was strong with our home Wi-Fi network along with the Bluetooth connection given I would always listen to podcasts, watch videos or listen to music via my Bluetooth earbuds given the razr 40 doesn’t come with a 3.5mm audio jack.
Battery life
The razr 40 comes with a non-removable 4200mAh that supports 33W Turbo Fast charging and includes said wall charging brick in the box which is great to have included in the box (here’s looking at your Google and Samsung).
Battery life throughout the day can vary depending on the type of usage, but it’s fair to say that the Moto razr 40 can still offer some good battery life, just depending on the usage of the device.
For example, if you light to medium usage then you can potentially get up to 2 days out of the battery but if your like me a medium to heavy user, I did find with medium usage I had anywhere between 40-60% battery life but with heavy usage this did go down to about 20% by 7-8pm that afternoon so it might be worth keeping the wall charger or a battery pack handy just in case.
Should you consider buying one?
To be honest, my concerns with longevity of foldable devices are still there given they are still experimental to say the least.
Don’t get me wrong, the razor 40 is a fantastic device and I can see where foldable or flip devices are definitely where devices are heading but my concerns are still there when it comes to longevity but also the ability for the device screen to last more than 6 to 12 months.
That being said, the razr 40 does offer some great specs for a price that won’t break the bank too much especially if you’re looking to get into a foldable or flip device.
The Moto razr 40 can be purchased from the Motorola website alongside its retailer partner JB Hi-Fi, Officeworks, Big W, Harvey Norman, MobileCiti for $999. You can also pick up the Moto razr 40 from Telstra on various plan and repayments per month.
