The season of foldable devices is back and Motorola is leading the way with updated versions of its Razr Plus and Razr flip phones. They arrive next month in poolside-worthy colors with upgraded screens — a big an upgrade in the case of the 2024 Razr — and IPX8 ratings for complete resistance to submersion in water. And you know what else is pretty hot? Prices have not gone up.
The Motorola Razr Plus 2024 still starts at $999 and comes with a Snapdragon 8S Gen 3 chipset and 12GB of RAM. The lid screen now measures four inches, a significant improvement over the previous generation’s 3.6-inch panel. It’s an LTPO display with a refresh rate of up to 165Hz; the internal screen is still a 6.9-inch 1080p OLED. The main rear camera features an updated 50-megapixel sensor, and the ultra-wide lens of the previous model has been replaced with a 2x telephoto.
Honestly, though, the standard 2024 Razr might be the more compelling device this time around. It’s still $699 with a 6.9-inch indoor screen, but its new 3.6-inch rooftop screen now matches the size of last year’s Razr Plus. The previous generation Razr offered a small 1.5-inch screen that severely limited its functionality. It was the cheapest flip-style convertible sold in the US, but that didn’t mean much when the roof screen was so limited. This time with a larger roof screen — and a higher water resistance rating — it’s starting to look like a really good deal. And that orange color option? So cute.
The Razr makes a few concessions – it has a MediaTek Dimensity 7300X chipset and 8GB of RAM. Wired charging clocks in at a (still pretty fast) 30W compared to the Razr Plus’ 45W, though both models get a welcome upgrade to 15W wireless charging, up from 5W on last year’s models. The Razr also gets the new 50-megapixel main camera, but carries a 13-megapixel ultrawide that wasn’t very good on last year’s model.
Both models use a new hinge that claims to offer better dust resistance. Motorola has also made some changes to the screen overlay software. There’s a new widget panel that looks like a handy addition, and you can now zoom out to see all your panels at once. There’s a clever new desktop display mode, so you can set your phone in flexible mode and play a photo slideshow on the cover screen that sounds like StandBy.
There is now support for an always-on display that controls. And another great news for me personally: you can now download Google’s Gemini Assistant and launch it on the cover screen, which will come in handy if you want to turn the Razr into a Humane-style AI wearable (don’t ). If you do turn this collapsible into a wearable, the hot pink and spring green color options are sure to make a statement.
Keeping the trend going for 2024, Motorola is also announcing a range of new AI tools that sound useful but haven’t shipped yet. This is something. You’ll be able to say “Catch me up” to get an AI-generated summary of high-priority notifications – sounds familiar. Or you’ll say “Remember this” to have the phone capture something on the screen that you want to refer to later.
There’s also a Pay Attention command so it can automatically record a conversation, transcribe it, and provide a summary. The company also intends to make it all contextual, so it will adapt responses based on where you are and what you’re doing. Sounds good, but I’ll believe it when I see it.
The 2024 Motorola Razr and Razr Plus will be available for pre-order on July 10th and will go on sale on July 24th.
