The foldable wars are heating up this summer, with several vendors ready to fight for your attention wallet. It all started on Tuesday with several big developments.
We learned the purported sky-high price of the Galaxy Z Flip 6, before Samsung confirmed it’ll unveil the new foldables on July 10th in Paris, France. But Samsung’s announcement droped after Google invited the world to a surprise Pixel hardware event on August 13th. If you’ve been following the rumors, you know the Pixel 9 Pro Fold is part of this year’s Pixel 9 series.
However, the most interesting development of the day concerned a different foldable. Motorola on Tuesday announced its new foldables, the Motorola Razr Plus 2024 and Motorola Razr 2024. They look even better than their predecessor and promise a few exciting upgrades.
The best part is that Motorola gave the handsets several big upgrades while keeping the prices in check. All of that will put a lot of pressure on Samsung.
Price and release date
Since I mentioned prices, let’s first get the availability details out of the way for the 2024 Moto foldables. The Motorola Razr Plus will cost $999.99, while the Motorola Razr will cost $699.99.
Preorders start on July 10th, which is probably when Samsung will kick off preorders for its 2024 foldables. The new Razrs will be available in stores on July 24th and 25th.
What’s new with the 2024 Motorola Razrs?
The new Razr phones will look almost identical, sharing several key design details and specs.
Both phones feature a new hinge design that supposedly lets you flip them with one hand. That’s a great upgrade for people who are into foldable phones. Even better, the 2024 Razrs are water resistant (IPX8), which has become a standard by now.
We have large 6.9-inch pOLED screens on the front. They should not have as big a crease as their predecessors. The hinge likely plays a role in that, although we’ll have to wait and see how the new Razrs behave in real life.
When it comes to screens, more money buys you a slightly better experience. The Razr Plus has a 165Hz refresh rate compared to 120Hz for the smaller model. The external display is up to 4 inches on the Plus, while the regular Razr has a 3.6-inch display.
Moto says about the former that it features the largest and smartest display on any Flip phone. From the looks of it, the external display will be able to run apps, including Google’s Gemini AI chatbot.
Both phones have vegan leather on the back, with the Razr Plus getting the better color options. We’re looking at Hot Pink, Pantone Peach Fuzz, Spring Green, and Midnight Blue for the Razr Plus. The cheaper model has one cool color, Spritz Orange, and two more boring ones: Koala Grey and Beach Sand.
The specs, cameras, and Moto AI
Powering the 2024 Motorola Razr phones are the Snapdragon 8s Gen 3 and the MediaTek Dimensity 7300X. The former is almost as good as the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 flagship, but not quite. The latter is a brand-new chip that’s supposedly made for flip phones.
You get 12GB of RAM and 256GB of UFS 4.0 storage on the Razr Plus, but the base 2024 Razr comes with 8GB of memory.
When it comes to actual power, as in energy, you get a larger battery on the cheaper model but faster charging on the more expensive one. The Razr Plus has a 4,000 mAh battery pack that supports 45W charging, or 12 minutes to a full charge. The 2024 Razr has a 4,200 mAh battery and a slower 33W charge rate. Both devices support 15W wireless charging.
Both phones feature 50-megapixel main camera sensors with optical image stabilization. You also get 32-megapixel selfie cameras. Then again, those external displays let you take selfies with the main camera module, which should be your priority for most of these shots.
What’s interesting about the camera mode is that the 2024 Razr phones let you record video by flipping the handsets open into camcorder mode. Just unfold the screen at around a 90-degree angle, and the phones start recording video. That’s a pretty sweet, albeit unnecessary, way to use the foldable phone design.
Finally, there’s built-in AI in the new Razrs. These could not be 2024 phones without this particular feature sprinkled on top. It’s not just Google Gemini available on the external display.
Moto AI will play a role in making your photos and videos shine. It’ll also let you generate wallpapers from scratch or create ones that match your actual outfit. Then there’s Google Photos integration, which gives you access to genAI features like Magic Editor and Magic Eraser.
With all that in mind, the Galaxy Z Flip 6 will have some great competition this summer, especially considering those annoying price hike rumors. I will also remind you that there will not be a cheap Flip 6 to take on the Motorola Razr.
