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  • - Hey it's Chaim with The Verge

  • and I'm here with the new Motorola Razr.

  • It's back.

  • The original Razr's maybe the most beloved phone ever.

  • It's been around for years.

  • It basically was like the first cell phone that people had

  • and now it's back and it's got a cool modern twist.

  • It's foldable.

  • So, Motorola's seen a really different approach

  • with this foldable

  • than we've seen on basically anything else so far.

  • Instead of making a phone that unfolds into a tablet,

  • it's a regular size smart phone

  • that folds up into something much much smaller.

  • It's got this little screen on the outside

  • which is super fun,

  • it shows notifications,

  • you can use to control music,

  • respond to text messages,

  • and then you just flip it open

  • and you have this full, giant, regular size Android phone.

  • It's got a 21 x 9 resolution,

  • so it's a little taller than what you'd expect

  • from a normal phone,

  • but not that much taller

  • and really, holding it just feels like holding

  • any other phone in your hand.

  • Now, the screen is made of plastic,

  • but Motorola seems really confident about the durability.

  • They say that they're not really concerned,

  • they're not telling anyone don't push too hard on it.

  • There's a coating on it

  • and we'll honestly just have to wait

  • and see if that holds up.

  • They've seemed pretty confident about the hinge

  • and we need to talk about the hinge

  • because it's really cool.

  • A lot of the other foldable we've seen

  • have had these weird gaps or spaces,

  • but Motorola's doing some weird, cool sliding stuff.

  • There is multiple hinges,

  • there's plates that slide

  • and support the two halves of the screen.

  • But, the end result, is that it's basically perfectly flat

  • and then you fold it up and it's still just perfectly flat.

  • It works really the way you want it to.

  • Now again, we don't know if this hinge

  • is gonna let dust in or whatever,

  • it's honestly too early to say,

  • but it looks really cool.

  • One thing that's not here, at least so far,

  • there's not really a visible crease

  • which is a sign that's shown up a lot

  • with the other foldables

  • and Motorola's done a good job.

  • And just let me be honest guys,

  • opening and closing it feels so good.

  • You can just like, flip it open and there's your phone.

  • Snap it shut, hang up on calls, it's amazing.

  • Like, this is always how I wanna hang up a phone.

  • So, what does make it a Razr?

  • Well, Motorola says that it's focusing really big on design.

  • It wants it to have that classic Razr look and feel,

  • so it's got the chin.

  • It's got the chin, it's got like the same curves and radius,

  • it's got the same radius for the top ear piece,

  • there's a big speaker hidden down here,

  • the antennas are all there,

  • and it's just something to hold onto.

  • More modern, there's also a fingerprint sensor there,

  • because this is an Android phone in 2019

  • and it needs to have one of those.

  • There's a downside to this design though.

  • In order to get it as thin and it's folding as it wants,

  • Motorola's going a little soft on specs.

  • The processor's only a Snapdragon 710,

  • which is fine, it runs fine in our brief hands-on,

  • but it's not a Snapdragon 855.

  • It's not a flagship processor

  • and that kinda sucks to see.

  • It does have six gigabytes of RAM so it's not a total loss,

  • but there are better phones out there,

  • especially for what you're gonna pay for this.

  • Another sacrifice to the design is the cameras.

  • There are two cameras on here.

  • There's the main camera which is on the front lid,

  • for lack of a better term,

  • which you can use to take selfies when it's closed

  • or you can flip out and use as a regular camera.

  • It's just not very good.

  • It's a single lens 16 megapixel camera.

  • Honestly, if you go back five years ago,

  • it was probably fine,

  • but compared to the iPhone or the Pixel

  • or any of Samsung's stuff,

  • it's just, it's not gonna hold up.

  • The camera does have some of Motorola's other improvements.

  • There is a night-mode.

  • It does have some smart AI optimization stuff,

  • but we haven't really been able to test that out yet.

  • There's a really cute little Easter egg

  • that Motorola has hidden here.

  • It's hidden deep in the settings menu,

  • but if you go and edit it,

  • you can actually find there's a retro Razr mode,

  • which turns the whole thing

  • into a giant version of the classic Razr interface.

  • It's basically just a fancy-skinned Android launcher

  • that doesn't do a whole lot,

  • but honestly, just looking at it on this thing,

  • just made me smile.

  • Previews start in December

  • and it's not shipping until January,

  • which means that you're still gonna have to wait awhile

  • before you can even buy one.

  • Which is especially disappointing,

  • considering all the great phones

  • that are already out on the market right now.

  • It's gonna be exclusive to Verizon at least in the US.

  • Motorola's not talking about

  • any unlocked versions right now,

  • which means that if you're not on Verizon,

  • you're probably not buying one of these either.

  • I mean honestly, it feels great to hold, it looks great,

  • there's just nothing else like it on the market right now.

  • Scrolling stuff on the giant screen is fantastic.

  • Just reading articles,

  • can fit so much more text on the display

  • and because the screen is so similar

  • to regular Android screens,

  • you don't have a lot of the weird wonkyness you have

  • where apps don't fit.

  • We loaded up a game and it just looked normal,

  • which is great.

  • Foldable technology is still really new

  • and there's still a lot of questions.

  • We just saw Samsung have a ton of issues with its phone

  • and I'm just not fully convinced

  • that Motorola has figured this out

  • and short of putting it out in the world

  • and trying it out for ourselves

  • over a longer period of time,

  • there's just no way to know if they have.

  • There's also the questions about specs again.

  • This is a $1500 phone

  • that has you know, a mid-range processor.

  • It's a good mid-range processor,

  • but it is a mid-range processor.

  • You can buy a Samsung phone for half that,

  • that has the latest and greatest.

  • And that's just rough to see.

  • On the other hand,

  • there's just nothing else like it on the market.

  • You can't do this on a Galaxy S10 or an iPhone 11.

  • And honestly, maybe that's worth it to you.

  • And if you really love the Razr,

  • and I know there's a ton of people out there who do,

  • it was my first phone,

  • it was plenty of other people's first phones too

  • and if you just want that old school feeling,

  • well, Motorola is offering that.

  • It's something that runs modern Android

  • that has all the smartphone features that you'd ever want

  • and it just looks super cool.

  • This looks and feels like the future of phones.

  • I'm just not sure at $1500 with the specs that it has,

  • that it's quite there yet.

  • Thanks so much for watching.

  • For more great video content like this,

  • check out The Verge.

  • This never gets old.

- Hey it's Chaim with The Verge