Motorola Razr (2020): Not Quite There Yet

I ’ve been reviewing Razr phones since 2004, when we saw arguably the first high-fashion handsets.

- SASCHA SEGAN

Flash forward to 2020, and the new Razr is the coolest phone I’ve seen in years. Motorola took the Razr legacy seriously here, delivering a similarly slim, beautiful, fashionable device. But to get it so thin and for it to be able to work without overheating, the company made too many compromises on performance. The Razr has startlingly short battery life and a poor camera, and it actually makes creaking noises when you open and close it. Everything is subordinate to the design, resulting in a phone that looks and feels like a $1,500 statement piece but sure doesn’t perform like one.

A SERIOUS DESIGN STATEMENT

The Razr experience starts with a really cool box that’s actually a stand, displaying the folded-open phone like a futuristic monolith. It isn’t a charging stand, though, as there’s no way to route a power cable through the bottom. So like most product boxes, you’ll probably just throw this one away.

Take the phone out, and it feels heavy, solid, and beautiful. It feels like $1,500. The Razr weighs 7.2 ounces and is 2.83 inches wide—just barely the maximum width to be comfortable in most hands. The back has a nice texture to it.

It is completely possible to flip it open with one hand, levering your thumb in between the two halves, giving it a good shove, opening it up, and then slamming it closed with a satisfying slap. If you use a fingerprint scanner, there’s one on the phone’s “chin.” Closed, the only design issue is that the Tic Tac–shaped edges of the hinge at the top of the phone stick out a bit. But dropping a folded Razr into my jacket pocket was a very old form of pleasure.