A veteran of this model, Motorola estimates, based on its own research, that 37% of customers plan for their next phone to be foldable. “I think what makes foldable phones like the new Razr and Razr so appealing is that they blend the nostalgia of the early 2000s with today’s technology,” Lexi Valasek explains via email. manager, innovation, strategy and research, at Motorola North America.
Samsung entered this new market in 2019, with the Z Fold, which opens to become a mini-tablet, followed by the Flip in 2020. In 2021, the company estimated the global market for these foldable phones at 10 million copies. In Samsung’s case, 70% of buyers preferred the Flip over the Fold, which was almost twice as expensive.
In 2022, the president of Samsung’s mobile division, TM Roh, explained in his blog that “very quickly, it became clear that this flexible and revolutionary design fits perfectly with our modern lifestyles.”
It’s hard not to agree with him on one point: the screens of the new phones are almost all huge, ranging from 6.1 to 6.9 inches diagonally. Putting them in a pants or shirt pocket is a challenge, a problem that the new flips solve.
Unfolded, the Razr 40 and Flip5 look like normal phones. The former has a 6.9-inch OLED display and a 144Hz refresh rate; the second, 6.7 inches and 120 Hz. The colors are vibrant and the touch is very agile in both cases. Folded, they shrink to small 3.6-inch and 3.4-inch devices.
The Flip5, that said, is significantly better equipped under the hood, with a Snapdragon 9 Gen 2 processor rather than Gen 1, and a quick spin on the Geekbench 6 platform confirms this. We excluded the iPhone from the list, which they would outrageously dominate. To our surprise, the Flip 5 is the most powerful Android phone tested this fall.
On the photographic side, we compared the two main camera batteries, on the back when the phone is unfolded, with an iPhone 15 Pro. The Razr 40 and the Flip5 have similar equipment, two main cameras of 12 or 13 megapixels, significantly less flamboyant statistics than what we find on the Android market in 2023.
Compared to these two champions, our razr 40 fared very poorly. The colors seem washed out, sometimes saturated, the autofocus is hesitant and the contrasts lack vigor.
Here are two comparisons, each in three stages. The differences are, however, less noticeable in La Presse, due to the optimization of the photos.
Despite its photographic weaknesses and lower performance, the Motorola flip has some advantages. First, its price, about $300 lower than its Samsung rival – the difference varies depending on the frequent discounts granted by manufacturers.
Once closed, it only displays a tiny 1.5-inch diagonal touch screen on which you can display some important information, including the time, notifications, weather and appointments. By quickly rotating your wrist twice, the photo menu appears and you can take a photo by pressing one of the volume buttons. This is the option that we guess is the star of the razr 40, that the small screen constantly reminds us of.
High marks for the water-repellent vegan leather covering, available in three colors – beige, purple and black.
Unlike the Razr 40, with the Flip5 you benefit from a small 3.4-inch screen that is more comprehensive once the phone is closed. This is also a marked development for this range from Samsung, while the Flip4 only had a 1.9-inch screen.
The screen is more versatile, allowing for example the display of a keyboard to respond to text messages, a calendar, notifications and the weather, in total a dozen widgets. Unlike the Fold, however, you cannot display a video or an application on the small screen and see it develop in large format in the unfolded phone.
The design is more classic, with an all-glass exterior shell, for which no less than eight color choices are offered. Half unfolded, the Flip5 can be divided into two parts, for example a video or the camera displayed at the top, while the controls are available at the bottom.
From a purely technical aspect, it seems obvious that the best choice here is the Flip5, more powerful, with remarkable photos and a small, much more versatile exterior screen. However, it’s difficult to ignore the fact that the Razr 40 is in another price category, closer to the mid-range. Its value for money remains interesting and its design is well thought out in several aspects.
Two interesting choices, no doubt, for different reasons.
