Motorola Razr+ 2024 Review: The Flip Phone Perfected

Motorola's Razr+ 2024 arrives in premium packaging that hints at the luxurious device inside, with the box itself featuring a soft-touch finish and minimal branding. Opening reveals the phone in its folded state, immediately showcasing the massive 4-inch cover display that's the star of this generation. Below the device compartment, you'll find a 68W TurboPower charger - a generous inclusion that Motorola continues while others cut accessories - and a USB-C cable. Our Midnight Blue review unit has a gorgeous vegan leather back texture that provides excellent grip and a tactile differentiation from the glass-everywhere competition. The hinge feels more refined than previous generations, with a smoother folding action and a more confident snap when closing. At 189 grams unfolded, it's remarkably light for a phone with this much screen real estate. The first fold is always slightly anxiety-inducing with foldables, but the Razr+ inspires confidence - the hinge has a premium, dampened feel that suggests durability.

The 4-inch external pOLED display is genuinely transformative, essentially providing a smartphone experience without ever opening the device. Unlike competitors that limit cover display functionality, Motorola allows virtually any app to run on the external screen - Instagram, Google Maps, Spotify, games, even split-screen multitasking. The display wraps around the camera housing with a clever "island" design that integrates notification widgets and camera previews seamlessly. This isn't just a notification checker; it's a fully functional secondary smartphone. When you do open the phone, a 6.9-inch LTPO AMOLED display awaits with 165Hz refresh rate and 3000 nits peak brightness - specs that match or exceed traditional flagship phones. The Snapdragon 8s Gen 3 provides near-flagship performance with better thermal efficiency, a smart choice for the thermally-challenged foldable form factor. The dual 50MP camera system pairs a main sensor with a telephoto rather than the typical ultrawide, reflecting that portrait and zoom photography matter more to the Razr+ audience than landscape shots. IPX8 water resistance makes this the most durable flip phone ever, capable of surviving submersion without worry - though dust resistance remains absent.

The cover display is even more useful than marketing suggests. During our week of testing, we found ourselves using the phone increasingly without opening it - quick message replies, checking notifications, controlling music, taking selfies, even quick navigation checks. This fundamentally changes the value proposition of a flip phone, as you're no longer constantly opening and closing for basic tasks. The internal display is excellent, with smooth scrolling at 165Hz and visibility in direct sunlight that rivals any phone we've tested. The crease remains visible but is less intrusive than on Samsung's latest flip, disappearing in most content consumption scenarios. Performance benchmarks place the Snapdragon 8s Gen 3 slightly behind the flagship 8 Gen 3, but real-world usage reveals no meaningful difference - apps launch instantly, multitasking is smooth, and even demanding games run well. However, battery life is the Razr+'s weakness, with our testing averaging just 7-8 hours of screen-on time when using both displays actively. The cover display consumes battery faster than you'd expect, and heavy cover display users will want to charge mid-day. The 68W charging helps, reaching 50% in about 15 minutes. Camera quality impressed us, particularly for selfies taken using the main camera with the cover display as viewfinder - this produces noticeably better self-portraits than any inner-facing selfie camera.