The Motorola Razr Plus 2025 looks like the upgrade I was hoping for

Why? For one, the Razr Plus 2025 looks a lot like the Razr Plus 2024. Put the phones side-by-side, and you’d be hard-pressed to tell the difference. There’s also chatter about the Razr Plus 2025 specs having much in common with its predecessor, down to the exact display sizes and cameras.

Assuming these leaks are accurate, the Razr Plus 2025 won’t be a revolutionary smartphone. Instead, it’s shaping up to be a spec bump for the Razr Plus 2024. Is that boring or disappointing? Maybe for some people. But in my eyes, it’s precisely the type of upgrade I was hoping for.

The Motorola Razr Plus 2024 is one of my favorite phones from last year. It wasn’t a drastically different handset from its predecessor, but Motorola did a fantastic job fixing virtually all of my complaints about the Razr Plus 2023. The hinge felt much better, the cameras were noticeably improved, the larger cover screen was perfect, and the longer battery life was greatly appreciated.

I used the Razr Plus 2024 for most of last summer, and it’s a phone I’ve continued to come back to now and then since its release. In February 2025, the Razr Plus 2024 holds up exceptionally well.

Even after months of use, the hinge still feels sturdy and smooth. The inner display crease remains virtually unnoticeable. The Snapdragon 8s Gen 3 continues to be very performant, and I still quite like the cameras — even the controversial 2x telephoto camera. Motorola’s cover screen software remains the best you can get on a flip phone. The widgets/panels are easy to navigate, notification management is excellent, and the ability to run any app on the cover screen without jumping through a dozen hoops is as it should be (take note, Samsung).

Using the Razr Plus 2024 today, I still consider it one of the best folding phones you can buy in the US. I don’t love Motorola’s paltry three years of promised Android OS upgrades; otherwise, that’s where my complaints start and end.

This is all to say that Motorola has an exceptional foundation for its flagship flip phone — a foundation it doesn’t need to overhaul any time soon.

If the Razr Plus 2024 is our starting point, we have a phone with fantastic hardware, high-quality displays, good cameras, fast performance, and reliable battery life. As such, Motorola can keep much of what worked on the current model — and it looks like that’s precisely what the company is doing. However, that’s not to say Motorola isn’t making any changes.

Perhaps the biggest upgrade for the Razr Plus 2025 over the Razr Plus 2024 is its chipset. Word on the street is that the new Razr Plus will have a Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite. While the Snapdragon 8s Gen 3 in the Razr Plus 2024 is a good piece of silicon, the Snapdragon 8 Elite should be a fairly significant upgrade — not just in performance but also in power efficiency and image processing.

It’s those last two aspects I’m curious about. The Razr Plus 2024’s 4,000mAh battery reliably gets me through a full day of solid usage. The Razr Plus 2025 is expected to have the same 4,000mAh battery capacity, but with the better efficiency of the Snapdragon 8 Elite, we will likely see prolonged battery life. How much longer remains to be seen, but there should be an improvement nonetheless.

I’m also interested in what Motorola does with the Snapdragon 8 Elite’s new image signal processor (ISP). I was surprisingly pleased with the 50MP primary and telephoto cameras on last year’s Razr Plus, and all signs point to identical camera hardware for the Razr Plus 2025. It may not be the most thrilling proposition, but I think there’s immense potential in Motorola sticking with tried and true sensors and squeezing more out of them with a new generation of image processing.

And finally, I’m excited to see what Motorola does on the design front. The latest renders show the Razr Plus 2025 in a dark green color paired with two-toned leather and classy stitching. Motorola experimented with a combination of vegan leather and vegan suede on last year’s phone, and it looks like experimentation will continue for the 2025 model. This dark green style looks great, and I cannot wait to see what else Motorola has up its sleeve.

As much as I enjoy seeing wild new smartphone designs and features, I also appreciate when a company recognizes it has something good on its hands. If Motorola had missed a few marks with the Razr Plus 2024, I’d expect and hope for those things to be addressed with the Razr Plus 2025. And, naturally, I’d want a more extensive upgrade than we’re likely getting.

But considering how damn good the Razr Plus 2024 already is, I think Motorola is making the right call by playing it safe for the 2025 model. Last year’s Razr Plus has stood out to me more than almost any other phone from last year, so the idea of that same phone with a newer chip and even flashier design is one I can get behind.