Motorola Razr (2025) review: An awesome phone at a great price

The Razr is back, in a big way. I may be more of a fold guy, but, perhaps due to their lower price, clamshell flip-style devices seem to be more popular. Motorola’s Razr line has become increasingly competitive over the past few years, to the point where they now easily compete with Samsung’s foldable head-start in the Galaxy Flip, and to where Motorola is pushing into the higher-end with phones like the Razr Ultra.

On paper, however, the Motorola Razr isn’t necessarily much to think twice about. But, at $700, the phone is finally starting to make foldable form-factors a little more accessible. So is it worth going for a foldable phone at that price, or does it sacrifice too much just to be a foldable?

Motorola Razr (2025) specs

Motorola Razr (2025) review: Design

Motorola has really refined the design of the Razr over the past few years, and at this point, it has a pretty distinct look, which I quite like. That look includes an edge-to-edge display on the inside, but more importantly, a large cover screen that flows around the front-facing cameras. I really like this design. It looks modern and unique.

For this generation of Razr devices, Motorola has also partnered with Pantone for some unique colors, which I also love. The new Razr is available in a series of color options, including the so-called Pantone Spring Bud color that I’m reviewing. Basically, it’s a light green, but it looks nice, and I like the textured rubber-feeling back of the device.

Image source: Christian de Looper for BGR

The phone is also pretty thin. It’s become increasingly important for foldable devices to be thin considering the fact that they essentially double in thickness when they’re folded closed. Unfolded, the phone feels sleek and slim, but it never felt overly bulky when folded up, either.

Recent Razr phones have also had a tall aspect ratio, which is another thing that sets them apart from some other flip-style devices. I kind of like this as it allows me to see more content on the display, especially when using apps like Threads. That said, the taller aspect ratio does mean that I can’t quite reach the top of the display when I’m using the phone with one hand. That may or may not matter to you.

The rest of the design is more or less as expected. There’s a power button and volume buttons on the right edge, along with a USB-C port on the bottom.

Generally speaking, the Motorola Razr is a well-designed device that feels premium to hold.

Motorola Razr (2025) review: Display

The main screen on the phone looks quite nice. It’s not as high-end as the screen on the Motorola Razr Ultra, but it’s still crisp enough despite its lower resolution and plenty smooth thanks to its 120Hz refresh rate. It’s also a little dimmer than the screen on its higher-end sibling, but I found that it was still easily bright enough for every use case, including in outdoor environments. Lastly, it’s a fraction of an inch smaller, but that wasn’t a big deal at all.

Image source: Christian de Looper for BGR

If I had to complain about the screen, it would be that its resolution could be higher, but in real-world use I never found that text was blurry or that images weren’t detailed.

The cover screen is smaller than the one on the Razr Ultra, sitting at 3.6 inches. This is due to the forehead above the screen, which is made from the same textured material as the back of the other half of the device. I assume the display is smaller to cut down on costs, but I definitely would have preferred the larger display here, even if it had to be slightly lower quality.

Speaking of quality, it’s perfectly fine. Its resolution is high enough to make for crisp text even in smaller fonts, and while it’s not as bright as the interior screen, again, it’s perfectly bright enough. Its refresh rate is lower too, sitting at 90Hz, but given what you’ll likely use the cover screen for, I don’t necessarily think that’s much of an issue.

Motorola Razr (2025) review: Performance

One of the ways in which the standard Motorola Razr is different than devices like the Razr Ultra is in overall performance. While the Razr Ultra has a high-performance Snapdragon 8 Elite processor, the standard Motorola Razr has a more mid-range chip in the form of the MediaTek Dimensity 7400X.

Image source: Christian de Looper for BGR

To be clear, in most day-to-day use cases, the phone feels perfectly smooth, and there were never big issues with lagging or stuttering. It did take a little longer to load games, and every now and then you might experience an issue, but for the most part, the phone is easily powerful enough.

That said, the lower performance compared to higher-end phones is likely to come into play down the road as the phone ages. The device will likely slow down quicker than other devices, so you might want to replace it sooner. That’s just a trade-off for having a lower-performing phone.

Again, though, the performance out of the box is perfectly fine, and there certainly weren’t tasks that I felt the phone couldn’t handle.

Motorola Razr (2025) review: Battery and charging

Powering the phone is a 4500mAh battery, which is a little smaller than the battery on the Razr Ultra but not by much. I found that this battery was easily able to get me through a full day of use and well into a second day, and light users might find that two days of use is achievable. I’m pretty good at charging my phone and charge it overnight, so I never really worried about battery when I was using the Razr.

Image source: Christian de Looper for BGR

The phone supports 30W wired charging, which is fine but not as fast as some alternatives. It also supports 15W wireless charging. Unfortunately, the device doesn’t support Qi2, so you won’t be able to connect it to any magnetic accessories. There are some magnets in the phone likely to support the folding mechanism, but they don’t really work very well with upright Qi2 stands, for example.

Motorola Razr (2025) review: Camera

On the back of the Razr can be found a dual camera system made up of a 50 megapixel main camera with optical image stabilization and a 13 megapixel ultra wide camera with a 120-degree field of view. The camera is a slight step down from the one found on the Razr Ultra, which also has two cameras but includes a higher-end ultra wide sensor.

Image source: Christian de Looper for BGR

It is a little unfortunate that the camera is lower quality than the one on the Razr Ultra, which already wasn’t as good as other cameras on non-foldable phones in that price range. Seemingly, camera quality is one of the main ways that companies are compromising when it comes to foldable devices. I hope this trend goes away soon.

Generally speaking, I found the camera quality on offer by the Razr to be similar to other phones in this price range. That is to say, the camera won’t compete with higher-end, more expensive phones, but images captured by it also aren’t terrible. In good lighting, the camera captures vibrant colours and good detail. In low lighting, images are a bit more hit or miss. Sometimes they come out a little blurry, while other times they’re more crisp. The ultrawide camera struggled more than the main camera in low lighting, which is pretty common.

The lack of a telephoto camera does make a difference too. Zoomed images were much blurrier and less detailed than they could have been, especially at higher levels of zoom. The phone limits zoom to 10x and for the most part in well-lit environments, shots taken at that level were serviceable but not great. In low lighting, they were much worse. That said, at lower levels of zoom, images turned out fine. Again, they’re simply not as impressive as they would be if the phone had a telephoto camera, but you should at least get decent shots in most situations.

Of course, one of the big advantages to using a device like this is the ability to take selfie shots with the main camera instead of whatever lower-quality front-facing camera is built into a device. This phone does have a front-facing camera in the main screen, but most should only use it for things like video calls when they want to actually use the main screen for something else. I liked being able to take high-quality selfie shots with the main camera system, and it certainly made for better shots.

Motorola Razr (2025) review: Software

The Motorola Razr ships with Android 15, and for the most part, the software experience is decently close to stock Android. However, there are a number of pre-installed apps that I didn’t really need. For example, the phone comes with both Perplexity and Microsoft Copilot out of the box, which is a little confusing. It also comes with a range of Motorola-designed apps like Motorola News, Notes, Moto Buds, and more. Some of these can be uninstalled, but some of them cannot.

A big focus for this generation is Moto AI, which I really didn’t find to be all that helpful. To use Moto AI, you’ll need to sign in with a Motorola account, after which you’ll be able to do things like generate images, search, and so on. Moto AI is powered by Perplexity and Microsoft Copilot, so you can expect a similar quality of results as you would from those services.

Image source: Christian de Looper for BGR

That said, with all these AI services, things can get a little confusing. As an Android phone, Google’s Gemini is front and center, and you’ll still trigger Gemini using wake words or by holding down on the power button. I generally find that Gemini is the easiest AI service to use on an Android phone, especially considering its integration with Google services.

Thankfully, you can largely ignore AI services that you don’t want to use and stick to using Gemini if you prefer to. Perplexity, for example, can be uninstalled, and you can ignore Moto AI if you simply don’t log into your account.

Conclusions

The 2025 Motorola Razr is an awesome flip-style foldable that gets a lot of things right, especially for a device in this price range. It has a sleek design with solid build quality, a decent camera, and great battery life. Its performance isn’t top-tier, but it’s about on par with other mid-range phones, except for devices like the iPhone SE and the Google Pixel 9a. If you’re looking for a flip phone that doesn’t cost an arm and a leg, the Motorola Razr is the way to go.

The competition

There’s plenty of competition in this price range, but the best device for you depends on whether you want a flip phone or are content with a slab phone. If you’re happy with a slab phone, then there are plenty of great options, and it’s not hard to find a Galaxy S25 or Pixel 9 for around that price.

If you want a flip phone, however, your options are much more limited, and frankly, the 2025 Motorola Razr is the only reliable choice right now. That doesn’t make it a bad choice, though. It may be the only option, but it’s still a good option.

Should I buy the Motorola Razr (2025)?

Yes. The 2025 Motorola Razr is an excellent flip phone at a good price.