Motorola Razr 2025 overview: Balling on a funds

The Motorola Razr 2025 is a uncommon case of an incremental smartphone improve that finally ends up creating a superb worth proposition. Compared to the Razr 2024, it is true that the newer mannequin has no noticeable efficiency good points and reuses largely the identical design and shows.

However, Motorola picked simply the proper locations to make simply the proper upgrades. And at the very same worth as prior Razr base mannequin, that is sufficient to make the Razr 2025 really feel like a steal. After utilizing older Razr flagships and the a number of Samsung Galaxy Z Flip generations, I’m satisfied that the Razr 2025 is all of the foldable you want.

Starting at simply $700, you may choose up a Razr 2025 for manner lower than the highest Android telephones whereas nonetheless feeling such as you’re getting a premium expertise. I’ve spent almost two weeks with the latest entry-level Motorola foldable, and I already know I can comfortably hold this cellphone in my pocket for the lengthy haul.

Motorola Razr 2025: Price and availability

The Motorola Razr 2025 is broadly accessible for buy within the U.S. and Canada as of May 15, 2025. The smartphone begins at $699.99, however you may already save huge with retailer and service reductions. One of one of the best Razr 2025 offers from Best Buy can prevent $100 simply by activating your gadget with a service on the time of buy.

The Razr 2025 is just supplied in a single configuration, with 256GB of storage and 8GB of reminiscence. You can select from the next colorways:

Motorola Razr 2025: What I like

At a look, it will be tough to inform the distinction between the Motorola Razr 2025 and the Razr 2024 mannequin it replaces. The two telephones’ dimensions are almost an identical, with the newer mannequin being barely thinner, barely shorter, and barely lighter. The design adjustments made to the Razr 2025 are so minute that older instances will nonetheless match — we’re speaking about fractions of a millimeter right here.

So, what’s new in regards to the Razr 2025? There are some new colours and end choices, and I examined Pantone Lightest Sky, which is an ivory-like colorway with a refractor design. However, the most important design enhancements are under-the-hood upgrades you will not be capable of see.

The huge information is that the Razr’s dust-resistance score is again after the 2024 sequence’ IPX8 certification forewent mud safety. Now, the Razr 2025 is IP48 licensed towards mud and liquid ingress, and that is large for sturdiness. Dust-resistance is particularly vital for foldables, since any type of particles getting within the hinge or below the show might be deadly to your gadget.

The different key design improve goes hand-in-hand with the IP48 score, and that is the titanium-reinforced hinge. Past Motorola foldables utilized a chrome steel hinge, and it merely wasn’t adequate in comparison with foldables from the likes of Samsung. Now, the hinge feels sturdier, stronger, and extra satisfying to open and shut. Compared to the weaker hinge on my Motorola Razr Plus 2023, the distinction is evening and day.

There aren’t some other design adjustments to talk of, however that is not a foul factor. The base-model Razr’s design was already strong. The 3.6-inch pOLED panel is a lot shiny, and let’s be trustworthy, something greater than the 90Hz refresh price supported by the duvet display could be overkill. On the within, the 6.9-inch AMOLED is attractive with a 120Hz refresh price and three,000 nits of peak brightness.

The foldable show crease continues to be seen, and it would really feel odd to slip your finger throughout it for the primary time. But that awkwardness fades away rapidly. Although there aren’t any new show upgrades on the Razr 2025, this nonetheless seems like a unbelievable set of screens for a $700 foldable.

While the Razr 2025 technically has a brand new MediaTek Dimensity 7400X processor, the efficiency enhancements could also be in identify solely. It’s nonetheless a 4nm chip, and our benchmark exams revealed that the Razr 2025 truly performs worse than the Razr 2024. Not by sufficient of a margin to matter, but it surely’s price stating. Also, needless to say benchmarks do not actually inform the entire story when utilizing a cellphone, so take what you’ll from these numbers.

There have been a handful of instances once I observed the Razr 2025 lag behind, and the frequent denominator gave the impression to be quick multitasking paired with extreme warmth. If I deliver the smartphone open air in Arizona warmth whereas streaming music, taking pictures and movies, and looking the online, the Razr 2025 would possibly stutter right here and there.

These have been all minor, momentary hiccups — this foldable is on no account sluggish. But in case you anticipate it to carry out like a flagship, you may find yourself a bit dissatisfied. The benchmark outcomes present that the Razr Ultra 2025 and the Galaxy Z Flip 6 are working laps across the base mannequin I examined.

Meanwhile, with a 4,500mAh battery, the Razr 2025 constantly lasted a full day, which is great for a clamshell foldable.

The Razr 2025’s fundamental digital camera continues to be a 50MP, f/1.7 sensor, and it performs properly in most conditions. Motorola touts that this smartphone gives Pantone Validated Color and Skin Tones, which ought to assist your Razr 2025’s digital camera seize correct and lifelike colours.

This ended up being largely the case, however you may discover within the digital camera samples beneath that Motorola’s High Dynamic Range (HDR) processing generally is a bit aggressive. For instance, whereas the sundown pictures and the restaurant indicators I captured appear to essentially pop, the colours are undoubtedly oversaturated in comparison with what I noticed in the true world.

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There’s plenty of post-processing magic occurring right here, as a result of when it would not work proper, it is noticeable. The evening skyline within the sixth photograph above appeared to present the Razr 2025 hassle, as a result of it ended up being a grainy and blurry mess.

The fundamental digital camera is joined by a 13MP ultrawide lens, which can be unchanged this 12 months. By default, you may shoot in 0.5x, 1x, and 2x zoom lengths, and something additional will closely depend on digital zoom. Unfortunately, there is no telephoto lens.

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To be clear, the Motorola Razr 2025’s digital camera is not dangerous. It’s truly fairly good when you think about that it is a space-constrained foldable at a midrange worth level. However, I’d’ve favored to see less-aggressive colour science and a extra pure look to among the pictures.

Motorola Razr 2025: What I do not like

There’s no avoiding the truth that the Razr 2025 is overloaded with AI. There are not less than 4 AI suites supplied on this smartphone: Moto AI, Gemini, Perplexity, and Copilot. If you do not wish to use any of those AI options, that is completely superb. The Moto AI options require a Motorola account, so simply keep signed out in case you’d fairly not see them. Plus, it is fast and straightforward to vary the double-press of the house button from an AI launcher to a digital camera launcher.

I personally did not benefit from the Moto AI expertise on the Razr 2025, largely as a result of the gadget is simply too underpowered to course of AI queries in a quick and safe method. For occasion, Catch Me Up — a characteristic that summarizes your notifications — must ship them to a cloud server for processing earlier than you will get the low-down on what you missed. Not solely is the delay inconvenient, the cloud processing might be a privateness concern.

For what it is price, Motorola says knowledge despatched to its cloud servers is at all times encrypted, and that knowledge will not be shared with third-party AI assistant apps. That will not be sufficient for everybody to belief the service, nonetheless.

You ought to know that it is extremely straightforward to make use of the Razr 2025 with out ever touching an AI characteristic, so these criticisms should not be a dealbreaker. The reality is, Gemini is a wonderful AI assistant, and it is all I would like. For me, the usual Gemini expertise is sufficient to neglect about Moto AI, Perplexity, and Copilot.

What could be a dealbreaker is the Razr 2025’s software program help window. It covers simply three years of Android OS upgrades and an additional 12 months of safety updates. That’s quick in comparison with different telephones on this worth vary from Google and Samsung. Motorola’s monitor file of transport well timed and bug-free software program updates is not nice, both, though it has improved some as of late.

My remaining nitpick is that the rear digital camera lenses are a mud and fingerprint magnet resulting from how far they protrude from the display. Be ready to scrub them usually, particularly in case you use cowl display apps in full-screen mode.

Motorola Razr 2025: Competition

For now, the Razr 2025’s fundamental competitors within the U.S. is the last-generation Razr 2024. It’s already discounted to $600, and can solely get cheaper. Usually, I’d suggest choosing up the older mannequin and saving a couple of dollars, however not this time. By choosing the Razr 2024, you may get one fewer OS improve (for the reason that first was used for Android 15), no mud resistance, a smaller battery, and a weaker hinge. The financial savings aren’t price what you’d have to surrender.

If you will have a Razr Plus 2023 or older, the bottom Razr 2025 will surprisingly be well worth the improve. It’s brighter and far more sturdy, whereas providing longer battery life and the identical or greater display sizes than older fashions.

The costly Galaxy Z Flip 6 is not in the identical worth level because the Razr 2025, however the rumored Galaxy Z Flip 7 FE — a less expensive Samsung clamshell — may be.

Motorola Razr 2025: Should you purchase it?

You can buy this if…

• You desire a compact and versatile cellphone with few compromises
• You want a brand-new cellphone priced at properly below $1,000
• You desire a foldable with unrestricted cowl display entry

You should not purchase this if…

• You want greater than three years of Android OS upgrades
• You discover Moto AI extra of a nuisance than a helper
• You desire a bigger and extra helpful cowl display

There are quite a lot of causes to cease and take into consideration whether or not the Motorola Razr 2025’s compromises are price it. Motorola’s sketchy monitor file with software program updates issues me, and the three-year OS replace promise falls wanting trendy expectations. Moto AI may not be as safe as you need, and the duvet display is much less succesful than the one you may discover on a Plus or Ultra mannequin.

When all is claimed and completed, I believe all these factors are forgivable when you think about the Razr 2025’s reasonably priced worth of entry. Paying $700 or much less for a cellphone certain to final you not less than 4 years is a fairly strong deal. Even when you have the cash to spend on a dearer cellphone, the Razr 2025 finds a worth candy spot. None of the lacking options from the Plus 2025 or Ultra 2025 variants considerably hamper the expertise.

If I had carte blanche to decide on a clamshell foldable, I’d select the Motorola Razr 2025 due to its stellar price-to-performance ratio.