Folding phones have been around for the better part of a decade, and there have been several truisms about them that, it turns out, aren’t true at all.The Motorola Razr Fold I’m writing these words on has upended several folding phone myths that I, like everyone else, used to believe.Myth #1: Folding phones must have inferior cameras The Razr Fold’s cameras are identical to the Motorola Signature’s Book-style folding phones have cost around $2,000 since the very first Samsung Galaxy Fold — more expensive than all flagship phones save for those with several terabytes of storage.
It’s understandable that people willing and able to shell out this much money (which, to be clear, I'm not) expect their phone to come with the best camera hardware.The thing is, we’ve been told time and time again that folding phones simply don’t have the space to fit the camera hardware found in flagship phones.While this has been true of all prior book-style foldables released in the US, and it remains true of the competition, this isn’t the case for the Motorola Razr Fold.
This phone comes with a Sony LYTIA 50MP f/1.6 main camera, a 50MP f/2.4 telephoto, and a 50MP f/2.0 ultrawide.It’s the same hardware found in Motorola’s flagship slab phone, the Motorola Signature.You could say that Motorola is only able to do this because its camera is inferior to the competition, but that isn’t the case.
Notable smartphone camera reviewers at DXOMark rated the Razr Fold’s camera above all prior cameras from both Samsung and Google, foldable and slab phones alike.While processing involves some personal preference, I can speak firsthand about how nice it has been to zoom in and out without an immediate dip in shot quality.After carrying around a Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 5 and 6, using this camera has been a treat.
Myth #2: Folding phones don’t have space for bigger batteries My phone’s 6,000mAh battery is larger than that of the iPhone 18 Pro Max The Galaxy Z Fold 5 was my first folding phone, and it had a 4,400mAh battery — smaller than what you’d get in a Galaxy S23 Ultra that year.When I sold my phone for the Z Fold 6, the story remained the same.That has changed with this year’s Z Fold 8 Ultra, whose 5,000mAh battery is now the same size as the one in the Galaxy S26 Ultra.
Going for the foldable no longer means settling for a smaller battery.But it’s not the case that foldables can, at best, break even.The Motorola Signature has a 5,200mAh battery, but my Razr Fold has a substantially larger 6,000mAh one.
Thanks to the level of thinness enabled by silicon carbon batteries, my foldable phone actually has more room for a larger battery, not less! As someone who uses my Razr Fold as my PC, this is huge.I was accustomed to charging my Z Fold 6 all the time, but the Razr Fold lasts over a day, even with my demanding use.This extra battery allows me to make more use of my lapdock as well, since the phone can power an external display for hours with battery life to spare.
Myth #3: A folding phone must ditch stylus support to be thin The Razr Fold is thinner than my previous foldable, and it still has a pen Close I loved my Z Fold 6.If I weren’t in this line of work, I’d probably still be using it.Unfortunately, I was sent the Google Pixel 10a to review, and after feeling just how comfortable that phone was in my hand, my Z Fold 6 suddenly felt far too boxy.
I could have given the substantially thinner Z Fold 7 a shot, but that phone was dead to me since it ditched one of my favorite things about my Samsung phone, the S Pen.Samsung did that because removing the digitizer is what made the phone so thin.The thing is, there is another way to make a stylus, one that allows you to have your cake and eat it, too.
My Razr Fold is not as thin as the Z Fold 7 or the Z Fold 8, but it’s much thinner than my Z Fold 6.I switched to the Razr Fold because it supports an active stylus known as the Moto Pen Ultra.While this active pen does need to be charged, that isn’t the inconvenience that I feared.
The stylus regains hours of use after only a couple of minutes of charging, and its charging case is a remarkably sturdy way to keep the pen safe.That’s a good perk as someone who has accidentally broken several S Pen.Different foldables are shattering other myths Foldables may have more moving parts, but they’re remarkably durable phones.
As the Google Pixel 10 Pro Fold and the iPhone Duo have shown, these phones can also have IP68 protection against dust and water.That’s huge, and it’s the kind of change I hope to see come to next year’s Razr phones.
Read More
