What’s it like to use a modern smartphone that flips like an old-school one? Different. And it’s kind of weird at first. Coming from an iPhone to the Moto Razr, I’ll share some of my experience over the past two months. Overall, it really is like having two phones in one.
The size
If nothing else, having a big phone that folds in half makes it much easier to fit in a pocket. It’s fun and handy to plop the Razr into the squarish chest pocket of my button-shirt. Nice. It fits in all of my pants’ pockets and slips into my EDC bag with ease. The Razr’s compact size is a colossal strength. Yeah, it’s smaller than the iPhone 12 mini that I toted before.
The crease
When first unboxed, the phone literally has zero crease. It’s open, laying flat inside the box. The crease appears after closing and opening the phone once. But good news; it’s nearly unnoticeable to this day.
In normal usage, it’s just about invisible when the phone is opened flat. It does not distort pixels, colors, or images. And it doesn’t catch light glare at wrong angles when using it like a classic phone slab. You only see it if you look for it, and I hardly feel it. Sure, it’s noticeable when you attentively glide your finger across it, but it doesn’t distract or interrupt normal scrolling or swiping.
The hinge
By necessity, there are two small raised parts of the phone’s bezel, little curved bumps, on each side of the inner hinge when opened. Their black color blends in along the edge of the display. I can feel them but otherwise there’s nothing to raise awareness about them. The outside hinge mechanism is a nice block of color-matched stainless steel that blends with the aluminum side railing.
The gaps are extremely tiny. I have not noticed any pocket-lint intrusion, but I sometimes check it to wipe away any specks of debris. Once, I noticed what looked like a tiny piece of paper half-wedged into the outside hinge at the edge. I couldn’t remove it at first without pushing it a bit further in, but I managed to get it out later.
The hinge is tight enough to let me use the Razr in tent-mode and partially open or closed in desk-mode. When half-open and sitting flat on a desk, the outer display is fun to watch YouTube on (despite the small video). The phone has a built-in stand this way, which is convenient if not fun. It should also be nice for hands-free video calls.
My favorite utility is beside my bed at night, working as a nightstand clock. The Razr’s outer screen is an “Always-On” display when you want it to be (and it’s customizable). It’s one of the best examples of Motorola using the software and unique hardware features together to create a quality-of-life benefit.
The flip
In the aughts, I had flip phones. Though it seemed everyone had one, I never owned an OG Razr. That said, I know how it feels to use a flip phone. I’d stick the edge of my thumb near the bottom corner, pry a bit, then flip it open with a wrist twist. Closing was even easier; index finger snap.
The 2024 Razr is not like that. I don’t flip it open. I’m not sure I can because I’m afraid to try. Well, I sort of tried. It folds totally flat, so it’s hard to get my thumb safely wedged in enough to pry the top-half up. And it’s wider and heavier than old-school flip phones, so it feels risky and challenging to just flip it open.
After two months, it’s still a tight-closed hinge, so I don’t flip it open, which might help the inner display avoid cracking. Sometimes I open the Razr one-handed, but it takes careful force — you don’t want to drop a phone, especially a caseless flip-phone.
When it comes to flipping closed, that’s much easier, though I’m still careful. Like old-school phones, I can use my index finger to snap it closed with a soft thud — it’s a satisfying feeling, convenient, and it locks the phone display. Though unnecessary, it can help to first apply light pressure to the display crease with the thumb first, which I’m reluctant to do.
The displays
One phone with two displays, a big inner one and a small but big-enough outer one when folded closed, is like having two phones in one. Touch-response on both screens is equally responsive and performant. Never a ghost-touch. Swipes in any direction work well. The accelerometer rotation on each display also functions 100%.
Inside display
It’s tall. At 6.9” diagonally, the height is about one inch taller than my iPhone 12 Pro, which made it feel narrow at first, but it’s the same width as my iPhone. The extra height makes vertical content and scrolling really nice. But it’s hard for me to hold the Razr while thumb-typing because my normal grip places my top-most fingers at the middle of the back. This makes it feel a bit top-heavy, trying to stay balanced, and makes the bottom edge feel like it might slip off my pinky-shelf. Over two months, though, I’ve mostly adjusted so this is less noticeable.
It’s wide. In landscape, some videos and games only fill the display up to the max height by default, leaving it “pillarboxed” as if you have Switch joy-cons stuck on the sides. But some videos and games can be zoomed to fill or just automatically fill. When this happens, wow, it truly looks more immersive. Used normally, landscape full-width videos and games are a luxury. Some movies are of course shot super-wide, so those are fantastic on the Razr’s 22:9 aspect ratio.
It splits. While this is a software feature of Android, it works exceptionally well given the Razr’s hardware: the 22:9 aspect ratio. I have not used the native split-screen feature a lot, but it’s impressive. The screen is so tall/wide that you can use two apps side-by-side in portrait or landscape and actually see enough content to be useful. It’s not a gimmick and I can see myself getting used to this feature serving me more.
It’s like having two cover-display (more on that in a bit) apps at the same time. And the phone’s extra height actually makes each split app be larger than a square. Apps can be split 50/50 or 66/33, though some only work in 50/50. It takes a bit of practice to learn what multi-tasks are most useful in split view. Sometimes it’s easier to simply swipe the bottom bar back and forth or dip in and out of the app switcher.
It’s crisp, clear, and vivid. The LTPO AMOLED and high resolution make the display look excellent from all angles. It gets plenty bright outdoors when using the camera.
It’s plastic. The display bends in half so it can’t be glass, but the plastic feel surprised me at first. It’s not bad, but it feels less premium than my glass iPhone. It has a built-in screen protector on it too, which covers the selfie camera; I don’t notice it in normal usage.
It’s smooth. The Razr is my first phone to have a refresh rate over 60Hz. At 120Hz, it’s really nice and fluid, adding a premium feel to it. Swiping pages and scrolling both look and feel better. Video playback, though, doesn’t seem enhanced by it. And when I use my iPhone 12 Pro now, it feels choppier and slower.
Outside (cover) display
It’s square, big for a cover display, has a 90Hz refresh rate, and is glass instead of plastic. It feels premium and looks excellent. My photos on it are surprisingly crisp and vivid. I use it about as much as the inner display.
It’s Always-On. This is great! You can turn this feature on or off. Moto calls it Desk Display, which has two options: Stand and Tent. There’s also a similar Sleep Display mode. You can customize how, what, and when the display stays on.
I set it to be my night stand clock — love this feature so much. It sets brightness super low and shows the clock, date, weather, and battery life. Notifications are optional. I leave it plugged into USB-C or on the Qi pad overnight to fully charge while the display is constantly on. I tested this on battery, too, and went 8 hours with the display on and only lost around 13% battery. The feature also lets you “wake” the display fully by simply moving your hand close to it, which works consistently.
It plays YouTube. The cover display video is relatively small, but the convenience is fantastic. It's hard to say how nice it is to have YouTube fully functioning on the cover display (same goes for the camera set up…).
It’s a mini-phone
I dare say this is the 2024 Razr’s greatest strength. Not only does it fold into a small pocket-comfy square, it transforms into a one-handed communicator. The outer screen is big enough to run pretty much any app. The advantage is the smaller outside screen uses less battery than the inside screen, so not only is it convenient, keeping it folded shut, but it’s also energy efficient. Win-win.
Apps that use the outside screen benefit from a mini swipe-up bar at the bottom edge. It’s for “going home,” but it also is a button. Tap and hold it to make the current app toggle between full-screen and best-fit. The former allows the app to stretch edge-to-edge, which means some content is obscured by the two outside camera lenses. The latter limits the app’s edge to the edge of the lenses so nothing is obscured, but you see less content at once. Switching is easy. And you can rotate 180 so that the obscured content in full-screen changes position, revealing key elements like the action button.
In the same way that I used to glance at my Apple Watch for quick notifications or checking the weather, for example, I check the Razr while closed. But now the glance-able info is bigger, better, and more action-able. You can surf the web on the outside screen. I often scroll Feedly on the outside display, marking articles as “Read” or saving them for later. And sometimes I read them on the outer display. My most used app on the cover display is, I think, Pocketcasts.
It’s also great for messages. I not only read texts on the outer screen, I respond to them too. There is a mini-keyboard tailored to the mini-display. While small, it works, though it’s not as easy to use as the normal one inside. Typically, I only reply to texts or chats with short responses. But if long, I often voice-dictate my response via the keyboard microphone button. And if there is more to the message — lots of text or photos — I open the Razr, which immediately shows the full-screen Messages app and a big ‘ol keyboard (with a full number row on top, too).
It flips between mini and full apps
In most cases, when using an app on the outer cover display, you can flip open the Razr to automatically show the current app fully on the main display. This is nice when you start small and simple but then need to expand for full access.
The same happens in reverse with one additional step. Using an app on the full inner display, you can close the Razr and continue working in the current app on the small outer display. But because closing the Razr typically locks the screen, there’s a small slider showing the current app icon in the bottom-left of the lock screen. Just slide it left or right to continue working in the current app.
Wrap-up
After using an iPhone exclusively for the past four years, it’s fun and refreshing to once again be in the Google ecosystem, using a smart flip phone for the first time. I genuinely appreciate the utility of the small outer display with its compact folded size. And with an all-day battery and relatively open Android software, it’s been liberating to switch from my iPhone 12 Pro to the 2024 Razr.
That said, if my Razr’s inner screen broke today, I think I’d be okay using my iPhone instead, at least until I could get a new Android phone. I can function with either. In some ways, the iPhone is more convenient since my wife and most of my kids only use iPhones, but I prefer Android and Google these days.
The Android phone replacement I’d get would likely be a slab phone instead of a flip. As much as I like the benefits of the Razr’s unique features, I think a slab phone is simpler and less prone to breaking. But the flip is pretty fun. That said, Motorola happens to make another great looking phone in the same color. The Moto G15 comes in Sunrise Orange!
In any case, credit to my family, and thanks be to God, for the gift of the orange Moto Razr 2024.
No comments:
Post a Comment