It’s been two years since Motorola gave us a flip phone with a folding screen, and while Samsung has seen a few to fill in the gap, Moto is finally ready with something new.
Spare a thought for the folks who aren’t fans of the big phone, because these days, there doesn’t seem to be much for them. Almost everything is large, with big screens and big batteries a part of the big attraction to a big phone.
But not everyone wants something massive. Some want something much more compact that can fit in their pockets, and there isn’t a lot of choice there. One way to get a small phone is to consider a foldable, taking the flip-phone style from old phones and thrown in new technology, which currently means to use a foldable screen.
One of two approaches to foldable phones (the other being a phone that unfolds into a tablet), foldable phones that fold into a smaller more pocket friendly mobile aren’t exactly spoiling customers for choice. For the past couple of years, Samsung has largely dominated that space, ever since Motorola offered a variation of its reinvented foldable Razr back in 2020, but hasn’t offered a proper update since.
This month, though, that looks set to change, as Motorola takes on Samsung for a spot of the small compact foldable market.
Launched as the Motorola Razr 2022, the phone is Moto’s take on the foldable flip-phone space made for today, losing the lip that the Razr is known for and instead going with a totally flat phone on the inside, plus a screen on the outside, not unlike what Samsung does in the Z Flip 4.
That said, things are a little different between the models, because while the 6.7 inch Full HD+ screen is similar, the refresh rate is faster (144Hz compared to 120Hz), and the outside screen is bigger again, offering a 2.7 inch screen on the outside, larger than Samsung’s 1.9 inch. You’ll use the outside screen for a clock, notifications, and other alerts and controls, while the inside 6.7 incher is the main phone screen, just foldable.
Inside, there’s Qualcomm’s current high-end chip, the Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1, accompanied by 8GB RAM and 256GB storage, with support for 5G, WiFi, Bluetooth, and GPS.
The cameras look to impress, too, with a choice of either wide or ultra-wide, but the megapixels set to 50 megapixels in the wide and 13 in the ultra-wide, while the inside selfie camera offers 32 megapixels of self-portraiture goodness, all inside of a compact foldable handset.
And that foldable handset aims to impress not just with features, but also construction of the hinge, with it being strong enough to hold the phone up at angles, allowing you to use the camera like a tripod, the phone like a clock, or position the screen at the angle you need to do what you want with the phone.
“The Motorola Razr 2022 sets a new standard for the era of foldable phones,” said Kurt Bonnici, Head of Motorola Australia and New Zealand.
“This device builds on the core features from earlier generations and introduces the most advanced camera seen in a flip phone a more powerful battery and two impressive displays with a redesigned hinge allowing the phone to stand on its own,” he said.
Like other foldable phones, the price is one area that might just stop you in your tracks, commanding a cost of $1599 in Australia when it launches. However, that’s about on par with other foldables, so it might not be too far of a reach if compact is really what you’re after.
Motorola’s foldable Razr 2022 goes on sale in Australia this week, arriving online and in-store at JB HiFi and The Good Guys, while Big W, Lenovo, Mobilecitiand Officeworks have the phone for sale online, as well.
