First Impressions: Motorola RAZR+

[Mr. Lucky]

"RAZR+" is the name of the U.S. version of the phone known internationally as "RAZR 40 Ultra" - I don't know why they renamed it for this market. If you've watched any of the unboxing videos, they often show a clear case included. There was no case with mine, nor was it listed in the box contents. Maybe the Ultra version included one and that's what the early reviewers received? In any event, a case is definitely needed. Early reviewers rave about the red RAZR+, as it's the only one with a "vegan leather" back cover, supposedly making it grippier. IMO, it doesn't make any difference. The phone is slippery in the hand without a case, but that's because the sides (where you're actually holding it) are slick. The material on phone back is irrelevant!

Rather than rehash topics that have already been covered in the numerous online videos, I'll comment on items I haven't seen mentioned elsewhere.

1. Answering calls: You can answer an incoming call with the phone open or closed. If it's closed, you'll see the typical Android slide-to-answer screen on the outer display, and the call will be automatically placed in speaker-phone mode. If you prefer privacy, just open the phone and the call will be automatically answered. Likewise, to end a call, close the phone. BTW, I suggest resisting the urge to open the phone by flicking your wrist (ala a Star Trek communicator). The hinge seems solid and robust, but I think snapping it open in this manner continually would take its toll. When open the phone is open it is more than 6.5" tall, so there's a lot of leverage being exerted. Caveat emptor!
2. The primary (inner) screen is gorgeous! The resolution and refresh numbers didn't mean much to me, but seeing is believing. If you watch a 4K video with a personal close-up, you can see peach fuzz on a child's face! I loaded some high-res images from my previous phone, a Pixel 5, and they were noticeably clearer and more detailed. This really makes the user experience enjoyable.
3. External display: Every video I've watched shows the resizing bar, which can be swiped up to move the viewable area above the camera cutouts. This is useful when using an app that has text or buttons that would be obscured by the cutouts. Unfortunately, I use the old 3-button ("< o □ ") navigation rather than gestures. I ride a motorcycle, and gesture navigation was constantly being activated while riding. The reason I said it was unfortunate is because using the button navigation is mutually exclusive with being able to resize the external screen - it's always above the camera cutouts with 3-button navigation. Not a big deal, but something to be aware of.

All things considered, I'm glad I got the phone. The small folded size lends itself to being placed is shallow pockets without fear of falling out. You can also use the phone partially open and it acts as a tripod for video conferencing, etc. My wife is so impressed that she is switching from iPhone to get her own RAZR+. I never thought I'd see the day she would switch from Apple!

 

[Mr. Lucky]

Update to #3, above: After some more hands-on with the phone, I learned that I'm not restricted to partial screen when using 3-button navigation. Since I don't have the resize bar, the same function can be performed with the Recent Apps button ( □ ). Long pressing it toggles between partial and full screen.

Unrelated, but is it possible to edit a post you've made? I noticed some typos in my original posting, but the "... Edit thread" function seems to only allow the title to be edited. Is that right, or something peculiar to the Firefox browser I'm using?

 

[ocnbrze]

if you look at the bottom left of your post, you should see a report and edit button.

 

[Mr. Lucky]

if you look at the bottom left of your post, you should see a report and edit button.

Thank you!

 

[rnlcomp]

Thoroughly enjoying my razr+, opted for the Glacier Blue. I was originally using a Zflip4 that the screen cracked under warranty and Samsung refused to warranty it even though it was clearly a defect as it had never been dropped and always in a protective case, they offered a discounted price of $275 to replace the screen. Grudgingly I accepted and sent it in.

As luck would have it UPS lost my phone enroute so they reimbursed me full value and Motorola got the cash instead. The Razr is much nicer than the zflip.

 

[ocnbrze]

Thoroughly enjoying my razr+, opted for the Glacier Blue. I was originally using a Zflip4 that the screen cracked under warranty and Samsung refused to warranty it even though it was clearly a defect as it had never been dropped and always in a protective case, they offered a discounted price of $275 to replace the screen. Grudgingly I accepted and sent it in.

As luck would have it UPS lost my phone enroute so they reimbursed me full value and Motorola got the cash instead. The Razr is much nicer than the zflip.

should have gotten the z fold 4. i love my phone. the factory screen protector was coming off and they just replaced it no charge. over course i had to take into a samsung experience store to do it.....that's about 40 minutes away from my house. weird that they would not use the warranty on it. did they give a reason why?

anyways glad you like your new moto phone.

 

[Mr. Lucky]

The Razr is much nicer than the zflip.

The z-flip is no slacker, so that's saying something!

 

[rnlcomp]

should have gotten the z fold 4. i love my phone. the factory screen protector was coming off and they just replaced it no charge. over course i had to take into a samsung experience store to do it.....that's about 40 minutes away from my house. weird that they would not use the warranty on it. did they give a reason why?

anyways glad you like your new moto phone.

They offered no reason other than they wouldn't warranty a cracked screen. As for the Fold, I don't want to carry around a tablet or the equivelant of two cell phones when folded. I wanted the smaller form factor of the flip.

 

[rnlcomp]

I found something I dislike about this razr, well not exactly the phone itself but Motorola's use of an almost vanilla android os. Font selection is next to nill. There's only 4 choices and they all look damn near alike. I liked being able to use TTF fonts with Samsung's One UI.

 

[nickdalzell]

I had similar issues. I got spoiled by Samsung and all I try with more stock Android is trying to either TouchWiz or OneUI them, and the results are always lacking enough to bother me. There's no theme store that can extend to the entire system UI (like a Custom ROM), there's no way to add in third-party fonts (like my beloved Rosemary), and no way to theme the SMS app, with background/bubble styles, and no third party app that can achieve what the Samsung Messages app can do.

Maybe I'm just not the target market for Vanilla? Although I was able to change the touch sound of my Nexus 6 to the Samsung nature-bwop noise, so we had that at least. I think my root fu with the Nexus 6 was the closest I got to recreating the TouchWiz UX on a Motorola. Still couldn't get S-Voice to work properly (it worked, but couldn't set alarms or send messages, but you could get jokes and wolfram alpha stuff out of it) and S-Memo wouldn't sync, and the rest wouldn't even sideload with root.