Motorola is introducing its 2024 models of its foldable-screen flip phones today, once again including the Razr and the Razr+. Coming in at $699 and $999, respectively, the biggest change is larger external displays as Motorola continues its emphasis on being able to use your phone without opening it.

Motorola Razr (2024) and Razr+ (2024) pricing, availability, and specs

It's a big upgrade, especially for the base model

  • Motorola Razr (2024) specs
    SoC
    MediaTek Dimensity 7300X
    Display
    6.9" FHD+ pOLED display 2640 x1080 (main) | 413ppi | LTPO | Foldable AMOLED | HDR10+ | 10-bit | 120% DCI-P3 colorgamut; Size: 3.6" pOLED display 1056 x 1066 (second) | 413ppi | LTPS | Flexible AMOLED| 10-bit | HDR10+ | 100% DCI-P3 color gamut, Refresh rate: Up to 90Hz, Touch rate: 120Hz, Peak Brightness: 1700 nits
    RAM
    8GB LPDDR4X
    Storage
    Up to 512GB built-in storage | UFS 2.2
    Rear camera
    Main: 50MP (f/1.7, 0.8μm or 12.6MP, 1.6μm QuadPixel) | OIS | Instantall Pixel Focus; Second camera:13MP (f/2.2, 1.12μm) |Ultra wide / macro |FOV 120°
    Front camera
    32MP (f/2.4, 0.7 μm) or 8MP (f/2.4, 1.4um) Quad Pixel
    Battery
    4200mAh non-removable
    Charge speed
    30W TurboPower charging
    Ports
    USB-C
    Connectivity
    Wi-Fi 5G, Wi-Fi 6/6E, Bluetooth 5.4
    Dimensions
    Open: 73.99 x 171.30 x 7.25mm Closed: 73.99 x 88.08 x 15.85mm
    Weight
    6.6 oz
    Colors
    Koala Grey, Beach Sand, Spritz Orange
    Operating System
    Android 14
    Price
    $699

  • Motorola Razr+ (2024)
    SoC
    Snapdragon 8s Gen 3 Mobile Platform
    Display
    6.9" FHD+ pOLED display (2640 x 1080) | 413ppi | LTPO | Foldable AMOLED | HDR10+ | 10-bit | 120% DCI-P3 colorgamut, 4.0" pOLED display 1272 x 1080 | 417ppi | LTPO | Flexible AMOLED | HDR10+ | 10-bit | 100% DCI-P3 colorgamut
    RAM
    12GB LPDDR5X
    Storage
    256GB built-in storage UFS4.0
    Rear camera
    Main camera 50MP (f/1.7, 0.8μm) or 12.6MP (1.6μm QuadPixel) | OIS | Instant-all PixelFocusTelephoto 50MP telephoto lens (f/2.0, 0.64um) or 12.6MP (1.28μm Quad Pixel) | 2x optical zoom
    Front camera
    32MP (f/2.4, 0.7 μm) or 8MP (f/2.4, 1.4um) Quad Pixel

    The 2024 Motorola Razr+ features a few subtle (but welcome) upgrades over its predecessor. These include a new Snapdragon processor, boosted RAM, a larger cover display, and useful AI features.

    Battery
    4000mAh non-removable
    Charge speed
    45W TurboPower charging support
    Ports
    USB 2.0
    Connectivity
    Wi-Fi 5G, Wi-Fi 6/6E, Wi-Fi 7, Bluetooth 5.4
    Dimensions
    Open: 73.99 x 171.42 x 7.09mm Closed: 73.99 x 88.09x 15.32mm
    Weight
    6.66 oz
    Colors
    Midnight Blue, Spring Green, Peach Fuzz, Hot Pink
    Operating System
    Android 14
    Price
    $999

The Razr now comes with a proper 3.6-inch external display, which is a big change at its $699 price point. Last year, the larger external screen was the differentiating feature between that and the Razr+. For this year's premium model, the external screen is even bigger at four inches. Yes, that makes the external screen on the Razr+ (2024) even larger than the screen of an iPhone 5s.

Motorola Razr Plus 2023
Motorola Razr+ (2023) review: The best clamshell foldable right now

Samsung, take note. The Razr+ is a major improvement for clamshell foldables simply by using a larger outside screen.

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The larger screen isn't all that's different in the Razr+ compared to its mid-tier sibling. It's got a Snapdragon 8s Gen 3 while the Razr has a MediaTek Dimensity 7300X, and it also has faster UFS 4.0 storage while the entry-level device has UFS 2.2.

Notably, the front and main camera sensors are the same in both devices, while the Razr+ swaps out the beloved ultra-wide lens in favor of a 2x telephoto sensor. Motorola says it did this for better portrait mode photos.

Motorola Razr Plus 2024-2

They come in new, pretty colors, including Midnight Blue, Spring Green, Peach Fuzz, and Hot Pink for the Razr+, and Koala Grey, Beach Sand, and Spritz Orange for the Razr.

They'll both be available for pre-order on July 10 in some form. The Razr will be available for pre-order on T-Mobile that day, followed by a July 24 launch unlocked on Motorola.com, Amazon, and Best Buy, along with carrier launches on T-Mobile, Consumer Cellular, and XFinity Mobile. For whatever reason, the device will launch on July 25 on Cricket, Spectrum Mobile, Straight Talk, Total by Verizon, Visible, Google Fi Wireless, Optimum Mobile, and UScellular. It's coming to Boost Mobile later this summer.

July 10 pre-orders for the Razr+ will be unlocked on Motorola.com, Amazon, and Best Buy, and there will be carrier models through AT&T and T-Mobile. It will be available on July 24 through those channels.

The new cover displays

They're bigger and better

Like I said earlier, the cover display on the Razr+ is bigger than the screen on an iPhone 5/5s, so it's pretty great. The phone comes with a suite of games you can play on it, such as Stack Bounce and Freekick Football.

What's also really neat is that some of the interactions have changed. You can now pinch the screen to see all of your panels, so there's no more seemingly endless scrolling to get to the one you want. You can just pinch and go straight to whatever you want. You can also use this to add panels and such. Panels also support multiple widgets now.

Note that I couldn't confirm if this feature is coming to the Razr+ (2023), but I'm hoping that it does when the device finally gets Android 14, which is what these ship with.

To be clear, you can still do pretty much whatever you want on the cover screen. You can set any app as being able to run, although you do have to set it. It won't appear automatically.

The cover screen is used as a viewfinder for the camera too, so someone can see what they look like when you're taking their picture, or you can see what you like if you're taking a selfie. Indeed, the old double-tap the power button to take a selfie with the rear camera while the phone is folded closed still works.

New AI features

Is it a product is it doesn't have AI?

One thing I've always liked about Motorola software is that it tries to make fun features, and that's what it's doing with AI. There are three notable features.

The first is that you'll be able to launch Google Gemini from the cover screen, and it comes with a three-month trial of Gemini Advanced. That means you also get 2TB of Google Drive storage with that plan.

The second is called Style Sync, and that's where the fun starts to come in. You can take a picture of your outfit, and the device will generate some wallpapers for you to choose from. Motorola tells me that this is all done on-device.

Finally, Magic Canvas is an image generator based on a text prompt, which is also used for custom wallpapers. Strangely, this one requires a Motorola account to use.

There are some other AI features coming later this year, such as the ability to give you a summary of your notifications, and saying "remember this" to capture things happening on-screen. Saying "pay attention" will record speakers and automatically transcribe them.

The cameras are weirdly different

For the same hardware, the results vary

The Motorola Razr and Razr+ have the same main and front camera sensors; the only thing different is that the secondary camera is ultra-wide on the Razr and 2x telephoto on the Razr+. My initial reaction was to say that I actually like the less expensive Razr better because it has that ultra-wide sensor, but after testing it out a bit, I started to change my mind. This is besides the fact that it's generally slower with its mid-tier processor and slow RAM and storage.

That's because these cameras are different, like really different. Presumably, we can credit the different Qualcomm and MediaTek ISPs in the chips, but part of me doesn't want to. I've seen companies produce Snapdragon and MediaTek variants of devices before and tune the cameras the same way. That's just not the case here.

Left: Razr, Right: Razr+

Let's try that again at 2x zoom.

Left: Razr, Right: Razr+

I didn't change any settings to take these pictures. There was no tap to focus or adjusting exposure. I just pointed and shot. Clearly, the regular Razr is handling lighting better there.

Left: Razr, Right: Razr+

This is where I start to question the base Razr. This picture is taken with the main camera, and the processing is just better on the Snapdragon chip. In my early impressions of this device, that seems to be the case with low-light photography. The MediaTek phone handles tricky lighting situations better, but if it's not handling trickly lighting, Snapdragon just snaps a better image.

Left: Razr, Right: Razr+

The above photos are the ones that are damning for the base Razr, at least in my opinion. These are taken with the front camera in my hotel room. The difference is obvious, and it's the set of photos that makes it seem truly crazy that both phones use the same camera hardware.

Left: Razr, Right: Razr+

There are plenty of examples of bright lights in low-light being blown out on the Razr+, where the regular Razr just handles it better.

Left: Razr, Right: Razr+

Ultimately, there's some good and some bad with both cameras, which is a bit disappointing. I didn't bring any other phones out for testing, but I feel like if I took these same photos with a regular old Galaxy S24, iPhone 15, or Pixel 8, there wouldn't be such inconsistency. Of course, you'll probably be more interested in comparing this to a Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 5, which has a notoriously bad camera.

To be fair, there's only so much space to use. These are thin devices because they fold in half, and you only get that top half of the chassis to play around with. If you're deciding between an ultra-wide and a 2x sensor, you might be asking why Motorola didn't just use all three. That answer should be pretty obvious. There just isn't enough space, and since the display wraps around the cameras, you probably wouldn't want it.

Which one is better?

With the 2023 round of Motorola Razr devices, there was one clear winner between the two. The Razr+ had an actual flagship processor, and it had a proper cover display while the base model still had that tiny screen that was pretty much good for telling the time and seeing notifications.

Now, the base Razr has the same 3.6-inch screen that last year's Razr+ had, so it's a properly good external display. Of course, now the Razr+ is even bigger at four inches. And yes, you'll probably want that bigger display; it's pretty sweet.

The Razr+ also has the better processor, faster storage, and faster RAM, but it does lose the ultra-wide camera in favor of a 2x lens. And as I outlined above, there are pros and cons to each camera system.

Ultimately, they're both pretty great, but in different ways. With Samsung poised to launch the Galaxy Z Flip 6 series soon, I don't think that Korean firm is going to be able to match this. It hasn't done much to change its foldable portfolio in recent years, and that doesn't seem to be changing. It also doesn't seem to be entering that more budget-friendly space where the base Razr sits.