Motorola Razr Fold Review: Motorola Finally Has a Serious Galaxy Z Fold Rival

Book-style foldables are no longer interesting simply because they fold. At close to $3,000, they need good cameras, strong battery life, proper multitasking and an outer screen that works like a normal phone.

That is what makes the Motorola Razr Fold interesting. Motorola’s first large-format foldable combines a 6.6-inch cover display with an 8.1-inch internal screen, a 6,000mAh battery, three 50MP rear cameras and Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 Gen 5.

In Australia, it costs $2,799, putting it directly into Samsung Galaxy Z Fold and Google Pixel Fold territory. That is a difficult place for a first-generation product to land, but after using the Razr Fold, I think Motorola has built something far more convincing than I expected.

Motorola Razr Fold: Key Specifications

The Australian Razr Fold combines the Snapdragon 8 Gen 5 with 12GB of RAM and 256GB of storage. Other international configurations have appeared with 16GB of RAM and 512GB, so it is worth checking which model you are looking at if you are comparing reviews from different countries.

• Outer display: 6.6-inch pOLED
• Inner display: 8.1-inch pOLED
• Processor: Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 5
• RAM: 12GB in the Australian model
• Storage: 256GB in the Australian model
• Rear cameras: 50MP main, 50MP ultrawide and 50MP telephoto
• Outer selfie camera: 20MP
• Battery: 6,000mAh
• Wired charging: Up to 80W
• Wireless charging: Up to 50W
• Water protection: IP49
• Australian RRP: $2,799

There are plenty of big numbers there, but the battery and camera system immediately stand out. Foldables have traditionally asked you to accept compromises in exactly those two areas, usually because so much internal space is taken up by the hinge and dual displays. Motorola has clearly decided that being a foldable should not be an excuse.

Design and Build: Motorola’s First Book-Style Foldable

The Razr Fold is not a tiny phone and it does not pretend to be one. It has the weight and thickness you expect from a book-style foldable, particularly when it is closed, but I actually like how substantial it feels. There is a reassuring density to it rather than the hollow feeling some ultra-thin devices can have.

The textured rear finish also deserves more credit than it will probably get. A foldable is constantly being opened, closed, rotated and held in ways a normal smartphone is not. Having a surface that gives your fingers a bit more grip makes a difference, especially when you are trying to unfold a very expensive phone while walking.

I would take that over another completely smooth glass back without hesitation. Motorola has become quite good at experimenting with textures and materials across its phones, and the Razr Fold continues that approach rather than simply looking like another slab of polished metal and glass.

The outer display has a slight curve towards the edges, but it stops well short of the dramatic waterfall screens that used to appear on Android flagships. I generally prefer flat displays, but the curve here is subtle enough that it mostly makes side-swipes feel a little nicer rather than interfering with the way the phone works.

The hinge is another important part of the experience. It opens smoothly, feels controlled and can hold the screen at different angles rather than simply snapping between fully open and fully closed. That allows you to use the phone partially folded for video, photography or typing.

I also found myself appreciating that flexibility more than I expected. Foldables are often marketed almost entirely around their huge inner displays, but being able to use the hinge as a built-in stand is one of their most practical advantages. You can place the phone on a desk, angle the camera towards yourself and take a group photo or video call without carrying a separate stand.

There is a significant camera bump on the back. That is hardly surprising when Motorola is squeezing three serious cameras into a device that becomes incredibly thin when unfolded, but it does mean the phone will not sit perfectly flat on a desk.

Water resistance is also slightly more complicated than it is on a conventional flagship. The Razr Fold carries an IP49 rating, so it has meaningful protection against water and splashes, but I still would not treat it as something you can casually take swimming. Foldables remain mechanically more complicated devices, and I would still be more careful with one around sand, pools and beaches than I would with a conventional IP68 phone.

Displays and the Folding Experience

The Razr Fold’s 6.6-inch outer screen is important because a good foldable should not force you to unfold it constantly.

For quick messages, changing music, checking notifications, using maps or taking a photo, the cover display behaves much like a conventional smartphone. It is tall and narrow enough to be comfortable one-handed without feeling like you are using some strange secondary screen that exists purely as a shortcut to the display inside.

Open the phone and you get the 8.1-inch internal panel, which completely changes how certain tasks feel.

Reading documents is one of the clearest examples. On a normal phone, opening a PDF or document often means zooming in, moving around the page and constantly repositioning text. On the Razr Fold, a full page can actually be readable at a useful size. The larger canvas also works well for email, web pages, Google Maps and photo editing.

This is the point where book-style foldables make the most sense to me. The goal is not necessarily to replace an iPad or laptop. It is having access to a small tablet whenever a normal phone suddenly feels too cramped.

The OLED panels themselves are excellent. Colours are vibrant without looking completely cartoonish, blacks are properly deep and the displays get extremely bright. Motorola quotes some very high peak brightness figures, although those should always be treated as best-case HDR numbers rather than something the entire display produces constantly.

Outdoors, though, visibility is strong, and indoors the big OLED looks fantastic for games, photos and video.

Watching video is slightly more complicated because an 8.1-inch square-ish screen does not suddenly turn every movie into an 8.1-inch cinema. Widescreen video leaves noticeable black areas above and below unless you zoom in, which crops some of the image. I usually preferred leaving the entire frame visible rather than filling every millimetre of screen.

YouTube and streaming still look excellent, but productivity, web browsing and games often make better use of the unusual aspect ratio.

Then there is the crease.

Yes, you can see it. You can also feel it if you deliberately run your finger across the centre of the display. I stopped noticing it fairly quickly during normal use. When you are looking directly at the screen with content moving across it, the crease mostly disappears from your attention. Tilt the device towards a bright light and it becomes obvious again.

That is still part of buying a folding phone in 2026. If the idea of seeing any crease at all bothers you, this category probably still is not ready for you.

Software, Multitasking and Moto AI

Motorola’s software might actually be one of the bigger surprises here.

A folding display is wasted if Android simply behaves like it is running on an oversized phone, and Motorola has done a good job of making multitasking easy to understand.

A small menu at the top of apps gives you quick access to split-screen and floating-window controls. Tap it, choose another application and you can have two apps sitting beside each other within seconds. You can then resize how much space each application receives rather than being locked into an equal split.

I like this approach because it does not require memorising gestures. The controls are visible when you need them, and someone using their first foldable should be able to understand how everything works without reading a tutorial.

Having Gmail open beside a browser is useful. So is Maps next to messages when planning somewhere to meet. You can watch a video while browsing something else, keep notes open beside a document or reference one application while typing into another.

Motorola also allows floating apps that can sit above whatever you are doing. That can become cluttered if you get carried away, but having the option makes the internal display feel more like a small computer than a stretched Android phone.

The Razr Fold also makes good use of being partially folded.

In supported apps, you can have content occupying the upper display while controls appear below. YouTube is an obvious example, with video on the top and playback controls underneath. The keyboard can also move onto the lower half of the device while the text you are typing remains above it.

I would not swap my laptop for it, but it works well for short emails and notes.

The transition between inner and outer screens is quick too. Close the phone and compatible apps can continue on the cover display rather than forcing you to reopen everything. That sounds minor, but any hesitation or awkwardness when switching displays makes a foldable feel unfinished very quickly.

Motorola has also loaded the phone with Moto AI and Google’s Gemini features. There are AI tools for summarising information, remembering things, generating images and assisting with different tasks, plus a dedicated AI button on the side of the phone.

Some people will get more out of these than others. Personally, I think the multitasking features matter far more. AI capabilities are becoming standard across almost every expensive Android phone. The clever part of the Razr Fold is what Motorola has done with the extra physical screen space.

Software support is another important consideration when you are spending this much. Motorola is promising seven years of updates for the Razr Fold, which is exactly the kind of commitment I want to see on a device designed to compete with Samsung and Google.

The question will be how consistently Motorola delivers those updates over the life of the phone. Historically, Samsung and Google have stronger records in this area. Motorola is making the right promise, but it now needs to prove it can maintain that support several years down the track.

Performance and Gaming

The Snapdragon 8 Gen 5 is likely to cause more argument on specification sheets than it does in actual use.

It is not Qualcomm’s absolute top-end Elite processor, and buyers spending close to $3,000 are entitled to question why Motorola did not simply use the fastest chip available.

After using the phone, though, I struggle to see it as a major problem.

Performance is fast throughout the interface, apps open quickly and moving between multiple applications does not make the Razr Fold feel like it is running out of headroom. The Australian version’s 12GB of RAM is also plenty for the kind of multitasking most people will realistically do on Android.

I would much rather Motorola put its engineering budget into areas I notice every day, particularly that larger battery, rather than chasing benchmark numbers that are difficult to feel outside demanding games.

Gaming on the internal screen is genuinely fun. Games that adapt properly to the aspect ratio feel almost tablet-like, and the additional display area means your thumbs do not dominate as much of the screen.

The hardware is more than quick enough for mainstream Android gaming, although anyone interested primarily in maximum frame rates and extended sessions may still be better served by a conventional gaming phone. Folding phones have less room for large cooling systems, and a normal flagship is easier to optimise for sustained performance.

For everyone else, I doubt the Snapdragon choice will be a deal-breaker.

The stereo speakers are also surprisingly capable. Having speakers on opposite sides of the larger display creates decent separation when holding the Razr Fold horizontally, and it makes watching videos or playing games without headphones much more enjoyable than I expected.

Cameras: A Triple 50MP Setup That Takes Foldables Seriously

Cameras have traditionally been one of the easiest ways to tell that a foldable is compromised.

You pay more money for the complicated display and hinge, then discover that the ultrawide or telephoto camera is noticeably worse than the equivalent camera on a conventional flagship.

Motorola takes a different approach with the Razr Fold. All three rear cameras use 50MP sensors, covering the main, ultrawide and telephoto positions.

That does not automatically mean all three cameras produce identical image quality. Megapixels are only one part of a camera system, and lens quality, sensor size and processing matter just as much. What it does mean is Motorola has not treated the secondary cameras like filler.

I particularly like having a proper 3x telephoto lens on a foldable. It is a much more useful focal length for portraits, street photography and grabbing details without physically moving closer.

The main camera produces detailed images with plenty of colour, and the supplied testing showed the phone holding up particularly well in low light. Night photography is an area where foldables have often lagged behind the best conventional flagships, so seeing Motorola take it seriously here matters.

The ultrawide is useful rather than simply being something Motorola can list on the specification sheet, and the 3x camera gives the system a level of flexibility I want from a phone at this price.

Digital zoom goes much further, including AI-assisted processing at extreme distances, but I would treat that as an occasional tool rather than a reason to buy the phone. The further you move beyond the optical telephoto range, the more software is guessing and reconstructing detail.

There are also several advantages that come specifically from the folding design.

Open the Razr Fold and you can use the outer display as a preview while taking photos with the main rear cameras. That means you can take selfies using the much better 50MP camera system rather than relying on the smaller front-facing sensor.

This is one of my favourite camera features on any foldable. It is especially useful for group shots because the person taking the photo can still be in it, see the framing and use the best camera at the same time.

You can also partially fold the phone and sit it on a surface like a miniature tripod. Combined with a timer or gesture shutter, it removes the need to balance your phone against a drink bottle or stack of books when taking photos.

Video recording reaches 8K at 30fps, although I would personally stick with 4K for most situations. The file sizes are more manageable, frame-rate options are better and the supplied testing suggested that low-light 8K footage could become softer than the still photography.

Video stabilisation is effective, though, and there are useful slow-motion modes available if that is something you actually use.

Is the Razr Fold going to replace the very best camera-focused conventional flagship? Probably not. I would still look towards dedicated Ultra and Pro phones if photography is the only thing I care about.

What matters is that the camera no longer feels like the punishment for buying a foldable.

Battery Life and Charging

The 6,000mAh battery might be the Razr Fold’s biggest hardware achievement.

Book-style foldables are difficult devices to power efficiently because they have two displays, a large internal OLED and very limited room for batteries once the hinge and other components are installed.

Motorola has used silicon-carbon battery technology to fit a much larger capacity into the available space, and it changes the way you use the phone.

I did not feel like I needed to avoid the inner display just to make it through the day. That sounds obvious, but it is important. There is not much point paying for an 8.1-inch foldable if battery anxiety encourages you to keep it closed.

With mixed use, the Razr Fold has enough capacity to cope with plenty of time on the larger display, photography, navigation, social media and video without immediately reaching for a charger. The original longer-term testing material was particularly positive about endurance, describing battery life as one of the phone’s major strengths.

Charging is another area where Motorola has pushed harder than some of its biggest rivals.

You get up to 80W wired charging and 50W wireless charging with compatible hardware. That is the kind of charging speed that makes plugging the phone in for a short period genuinely useful rather than something you need to leave for an hour.

The obvious catch is that you need the right charger to reach those maximum speeds. If your existing USB-C power adapter cannot deliver what the phone requires, you will not suddenly see 80W simply because the Razr Fold supports it.

Even so, I like Motorola’s approach. A large battery and genuinely fast charging is far more useful to me than saving another millimetre of thickness while making the phone harder to live with.

Price, Value and the Foldable Competition

At $2,799 in Australia, the Razr Fold is not pretending to be the affordable foldable.

This is flagship money, and buyers should judge it accordingly.

Samsung remains Motorola’s most obvious problem. The Galaxy Z Fold range has been around for years, Samsung’s foldable software is mature and the company has built up a level of familiarity that Motorola simply does not have in the book-style category.

Google is another obvious alternative for people who want Pixel cameras, Google’s version of Android and tight integration with Google’s AI ecosystem.

Motorola’s argument is different.

The Razr Fold gives you a 6,000mAh battery, very fast charging, a large 8.1-inch display and a genuinely useful triple-camera system. Those are not small advantages buried in a spec list. They directly affect what the phone is like to use.

I also prefer Motorola’s decision to give all three rear cameras serious attention rather than relying on one excellent main sensor surrounded by clearly cheaper supporting cameras.

There are compromises.

The Razr Fold is still heavy compared with a normal flagship. The camera bump is substantial. Some people will prefer Samsung’s software ecosystem and longer track record with foldable updates. And spending $2,799 on Motorola’s first attempt at this particular form factor requires a little more faith than buying the eighth generation of an established folding phone.

I would also have preferred 512GB of storage at this price in Australia.

That is probably my biggest value complaint. People buying a large foldable are exactly the type of users who may download large games, shoot plenty of high-resolution video and use their phone like a mini tablet. Starting the Australian model at 256GB feels unnecessarily conservative.

The bigger surprise is how few obvious first-generation problems there are.

The Fold does not feel like Motorola experimenting in public. The screens are good, multitasking makes sense, the hinge feels well considered, battery life is excellent and the cameras are competitive.

That makes the Razr Fold much easier to recommend than I expected going into it.

Verdict

The Motorola Razr Fold gets the fundamentals of a modern book-style foldable right.

Its 8.1-inch internal screen gives me a genuine reason to open the phone, while the 6.6-inch cover display is useful enough that I do not have to. Motorola’s multitasking interface makes good use of the extra space without becoming confusing, and the ability to partially fold the device creates some genuinely useful camera, video and typing modes.

The 6,000mAh battery is one of its biggest strengths. I would happily accept a little extra weight in exchange for being able to use the internal display without constantly thinking about battery percentage. Fast 80W wired charging and 50W wireless charging only make that advantage stronger.

I also came away impressed by the cameras. A 50MP main, 50MP ultrawide and 50MP telephoto setup gives the Razr Fold the versatility an expensive foldable should have had years ago.

There are still reasons to look elsewhere. Samsung has more experience building this kind of phone, Motorola needs to prove it can maintain seven years of software support, and 256GB of storage feels stingy on a $2,799 device.

But none of those problems fundamentally undermine the Razr Fold.

Motorola has not built a foldable that is interesting because it is Motorola’s first attempt. It has built one that deserves to sit beside Samsung and Google simply because it is a very capable folding phone.

For anyone who wants a traditional book-style foldable with a big battery, strong cameras and a large internal display that actually feels useful, the Razr Fold belongs on the shortlist.