Ryan Haines / Android Authority
I take great pride in my reputation as the ‘flip phone guy’ here at Android Authority. Whenever someone needs to go to bat for the small, pocket-friendly form factor, you can almost guarantee that it’ll be me. And yes, that means I’ll be the one to beat the drum for Motorola’s Razr — especially the Razr Ultra — harder than anyone. I think it offers the best mix of hardware and software on a flip phone, especially its cover screen.
Now, there’s a new Razr that I should be throwing my support behind. Motorola has just announced its first book-style foldable, the Razr Fold, and I know I should be excited, but I’m not sure I can be — at least not yet. I still have many questions about how the Razr Fold will compete with the likes of the Galaxy Z Fold and Pixel Pro Fold, and I’m concerned it may not find a large enough audience.
Here are the questions Motorola needs to answer before it will win me over.
Can Motorola’s software thrive on the big screen?
Ryan Haines / Android Authority
Software — it’s a foldable phone challenge as old as time itself. Aside from the hinge and the display crease, it’s probably the number one thing I look for when reviewing a foldable, because it makes (or breaks) the experience from the moment you turn on the phone. And, with the traditional Razr lineup, I think Motorola nailed it. It found the right balance between apps and widgets on the cover screen, and I’ve always loved the clean Pixel-like experience of Motorola’s full-sized software.
However, expanding a software experience is significantly more challenging than shrinking it. You can’t get away with swapping to widgets and compressing the amount of information you show — instead, you have to do the opposite. You have to give things the room to breathe without making them comically large, as Google learned with its original Pixel Fold. Sorry, but a sideways-oriented Strava isn’t what anyone asked for.
Of course, I was never that worried about Google (or Samsung) figuring out how to transition its software to a book-style foldable because both already had longer histories with tablets. They’d figured out what works for the likes of the Pixel Tablet (and Nexus tablets before it) and the Galaxy Tab series. Motorola doesn’t really have that history. Yes, it launched a Moto Pad 60 Pro in India last year, but it shipped with Android 14 and a weak update commitment — not exactly instilling confidence.
I've never used Motorola's software on a big screen, and I'm worried it'll fold under the pressure.
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