Motorola Razr+ 2024 smartphone review – The flip phone with an enormous outer display

Please note: We have updated our rating system and the results of version 8 are not comparable with the results of version 7. More information is available here.

If you compare the Motorola Razr+ 2024 with its predecessor, the first thing you'll notice is that the manufacturer has managed to significantly reduce the thickness of the frame below the screen. Unlike its predecessor, you can no longer see a very wide metal strip but instead, only a thin line. As a result, the outer display has grown significantly in size, namely by 10 % to 4 inches.

Different materials are used for the back which depend on the choice of color: Our Midnight Blue test device comes with an artificial leather back that has a strip with a smoother texture in the middle and is more structured on the sides. This creates a high-quality feel both visually and to the touch. If the dark blue is too boring for you, you can also get Hot Pink in faux suede, Spring Green or the Pantone color of the year 2024 Peach Fuzz in faux leather.

The case makes quite a stable impression: it can hardly be twisted when applying moderate force and it doesn't creak at all. The outer display is protected by Gorilla Glass Victus, which provides a high level of protection against scratches. Nevertheless, applying a protective film is probably still a good idea.

Thanks to its slightly less tight hinge, you can now open the Razr+ even more easily with one hand. Even so, it holds its position just as stably, allowing you to prop up the flip phone like a tent and take photos as if you are using a tripod. You can also completely flip the phone around and hold it like a camcorder to record videos or take photos. Furthermore, the system seems to recognize quite well what you are trying to do and activates the corresponding screen layout automatically.

The Razr+'s case is protected according to IPX8, meaning it be submerged in freshwater for up to 30 minutes. The manufacturer hasn't said anything about the phone's protection against dust.

Compared to its predecessor, the new Razr+ is ever so slightly longer and thicker, but this difference isn't noticeable to the naked eye. Its weight has stayed almost the same, despite the new model having a larger battery capacity.

Motorola doesn't make it the easiest for you to find out whether and how environmentally friendly the Razr+ is produced. For some of the manufacturer's devices, there are calculations on how much CO₂ equivalents the device consumes in its production and life cycle, but unlike its parent company Lenovo, these are not accessible via a central hub and cannot be found for the Razr+ at all despite lengthy research on the internet.

At least Motorola has opted for a plastic-free solution for the phone's packaging, and all films and cable ties are made of paper. The packaging is also printed using petroleum-free soy inks.

So far, Motorola only offers limited self-repair options. Repair instructions and spare parts can be found in cooperation with iFixit, but at the moment, this is only for older devices. For example, you can replace the screen on the Razr 2019, but you have to take the entire device apart to do so. Unfortunately, it isn't possible to say whether this will be easier for the Razr+ 2024 in 5 years' time due to the lack of instructions right now.

The Motorola Razr+ 2024 supports WiFi 7, the latest Wi-Fi standard. In terms of speed, however, it is slower than its predecessor and, despite its support for the little-used 6 GHz band, it is also slower than many other high-end smartphones.

Comparable flip phones usually deliver well over 1 Gbit/s but with the Razr+, you get 944 Mbit/s (receiving) and just under 650 Mbit/s (transmitting). This means you can't totally make use of a gigabit internet line, but fast data transfers should still be possible and streaming in 4K quality is no problem at all.

Taking a look at its cellular modem, everything you will currently need is on board: It supports 5G, the fastest mobile communications standard, and there are so many frequencies (both 5G and 4G) that the phone can be used worldwide to access the web on the go.

During our test, we randomly checked the smartphone's reception quality. The Motorola Razr+ 2024 consistently performed very well even in difficult environments, often beating the Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra, for example.

Motorola uses the standard Google app for making calls. The app has a simple design and allows quick access to saved favorites, your contacts as well as a number keypad. You can also block individual numbers or completely reject calls from unidentified numbers.

Its call quality via the earpiece is quite good, but the other person's voice sounded distorted at high volumes during our test. Our voice came across as slightly muffled to the person on the other end of the line. The other party could be heard very loudly via the loudspeaker and hands-free microphone if desired. The microphone recorded our voice at quite a distance; according to the other party, it seemed as if we were far away from the phone even though we were sitting directly in front of it.

In our lab, the phone's main camera had to prove what it can do once again. While the center of the image looked sharp in studio lighting, we noted a clear drop in sharpness towards the edges. At 1 lux illumination, the image became very grainy.

The Motorola Razr+ 2024 comes with a matching charger, a USB cable and a SIM tool.

The Premium Protective Cover Edition that we tested also comes with a blue plastic case, which is covered with a slightly velvety fabric on the hinge and the back. You also get a strap with which you can hang the phone in its protective cover like a handbag.

A standard 12-month warranty covers phones purchased in the United States. If you buy it directly from the manufacturer, you also get one year's free protection against display breakage. You can additionally purchase Moto Care, which is an accidental damage protection lasting for 2 or 3 years. However, to get the best deal, you should also compare other cell phone insurance policies.

You'll have to make even bigger compromises when it comes to the phone's GPU: In many benchmarks, it came behind the GPU of its predecessor. We will take a look at whether this also results in any differences when gaming in the next section.

Again, the Razr+ delivered high performance, so you can still run graphically demanding apps. However, other flip phones are sometimes significantly faster in this aspect.

On the other hand, the Razr+ 2024 proved to be super fast at surfing the web during the benchmarks, which is perhaps also partly due to the more up-to-date version of Chrome browser.

Objectively, too, pages load very quickly and you'll never have to wait even for large images while scrolling.

The Razr+ 2024 comes with UFS 4.0 storage, which is a super noticeable update compared to its predecessor: Its sequential write and read speeds have more than doubled, while hardly any changes can be seen in random writing and reading.

During everyday use, data transfers aren't slowed down by the storage and loading times are kept very short.

The temperatures inside this small case are actually somewhat lower than in the phone's predecessor, but things still get very warm under prolonged load: we measured up to 47 °C. You can clearly notice this and it may also get uncomfortable if you hold the phone for a long time.

During very complex applications such as ray tracing in the Solar Bay benchmark, we measured some significant performance losses, while when running the simpler Wild Life, its performance remained relatively stable even after several runs.

The previous Razr+ model didn't sound bad at all for having such a slim body when listening to music or movies via its internal speakers.

And this year's Razr+ isn't any different: The earpiece doubles as a second speaker, so slight stereo effects are possible. The sound is even a little louder than its predecessor and it once again impresses with clear low mids, making the sound feel round and warm.

Of course, the phone doesn't come close to a real hi-fi system, but the speakers do a pretty good job for a flip phone.

If you want even better sound, you can additionally connect external speakers or headphones via its USB-C port. Wireless connection via Bluetooth can also be done without any problems. Its support for wireless audio codecs is very good: Thanks to SBC, AAC, aptX, aptX HD, aptX Adaptive, aptX TWS+, LDAC, LC3, Opus and LHDC V2-5, pretty much everything that can currently be used for wireless sound transmission is on board.

In idle mode, the Razr+ 2024 isn't much more power-hungry than other flip phones. Under full load, however, this changes, with it drawing up to 12 watts on average and even more at its peak.

The phone can be recharged at up to 45 watts using the supplied charger—it takes about 1:30 hours to charge it completely. You can also charge the phone wirelessly at up to 15 watts and in addition, the phone supports reverse charging at up to 5 watts.

Thanks to the phone's slightly larger 4,000 mAh battery compared to its predecessor, its battery life has also improved: the phone lasts 12:06 hours when surfing the web. This is a reasonable value for a flip phone, but still relatively short compared to conventional cell phones.

Under high load, you'll get a runtime of around 4:34 hours before the phone has to be plugged in again. If you like to watch movies and download them beforehand, you can do this for around 17 hours. As a result, you should easily be able to watch a good few episodes of a TV show.

At the time of writing, you can already get the Motorola Razr+ 2024 for a reduced price of US$899.99 on Amazon.

Please note: We have updated our rating system and the results of version 8 are not comparable with the results of version 7. More information is available here.