Motorola Razr 40 Smartphone Review – Foldable phones have generated a whole new world of hype and interest in the smartphone industry and it is this very reason why so many manufacturers have started making foldable smartphones. Motorola released two new foldable smartphones this year, the Motorola Razr 40 and 40 Ultra. The Razr 40 Ultra has everything you can imagine and then some more. While extra novelties are always good, they come at a steep price increase.
The Motorola Razr 40, on the other hand, has got all the right stuff needed to provide a fantastic foldable smartphone experience, but without the novelties found in the Ultra model. This has allowed Motorola to adequately price the smartphone and hence it has generated a lot of buzz in the smartphone industry. The flip smartphone arrives with an apt battery size, an impressive display, and many more attributes. Today, we are going to review the Motorola Razr 40 to see if the new foldable smartphone lives up to its hype and promises and whether you should consider buying this foldable smartphone. So, without any further ado, let’s get into a detailed review of the Motorola Razr 40 smartphone.
Table of Contents
Motorola Razr 40 Smartphone Review
Highlights
- The Motorola Razr 40 features a 6.9-inch Foldable LTPO AMOLED panel for the main display While the cover display consists of a 1.5-inches AMOLED panel.
- Motorola Razr 40 is powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 7 Gen 1 chipset that arrives with a 1×2.4GHz clocking speed.
- The smartphone runs on the latest Android 13OS with a stock user experience.
- The Motorola Razr 40 features a 64MP dual-camera system on the back and a 32MP selfie camera at the front.
- The smartphone features a Li-Po 4200 mAh battery with 30W fast wired charging and 5W wireless charging support.
Design and Display
The design of the Motorola Razr 40 is a welcoming change compared to the previous generation, This time, Motorola has integrated the cover display along with the camera module to give a smooth and polished look. The combined module is placed horizontally at the top, with the camera module on the left side and the cover display on the right.
The cover display has a 1.5-inch AMOLED panel and the text on it looks absolutely crisp and the contents, whether that’s a media player or some notification, look fantastic. This crispiness will also continue outdoors as the cover display has a 1000-nit peak brightness. That’s all at the top part of the back panel, while the bottom part has a simple Moto logo. The back panel has a faux leather finish, while the side frame is made of aluminum and that is a bit odd considering the foldable hinge is made of stainless steel.
They could have provided the side frame in stainless steel as well, but I guess they wanted to keep the weight under 200 grams. On the front is the 6.9-inch Foldable LTPO AMOLED display with a 144Hz refresh rate, 1 Billion colors, and HDR10+resolution support. The main panel can get up to 1400 nits of peak brightness, which will ensure proper visibility under direct sunlight. Also, due to the use of an LTPO display, the refresh rate is adaptive and can preserve battery life.
The hinge is well made and the mechanism is very solid. Motorola Razr 40 can be purchased in four colors – Sage Green, Vanilla Cream, Summer Lilac, and Grape Compote. Aside from this, the device has a plastic body and also has a Water-repellent coating. All in all, the smartphone offers a pretty decent set of specs in the display department.
Memory and Internal
The Motorola Razr 40 has been outfitted with the 4nm Qualcomm Snapdragon 7 Gen 1 chipset. This processor hasn’t been seen in a lot of smartphones, but it’s quite decent in the realm of Android processors. The SoC can reach up to a 1×2.4GHz clocking speed making it capable of running all your daily apps smoothly in real-life usage.
The Adreno 644 GPU inside the chipset can easily run modern games like Genshin Impact, CODm, and PUBG mobile with moderate settings and smooth framerate. Since the chipset is manufactured at 4nm technology, it doesn’t heat up that much in the first place, so there’s little to no throttling under normal circumstances.
The foldable phone also comes equipped with the latest Android 13 OS with a stock interface. It is also 5G ready and capable of downloading your favorite content at gigabit download speeds. Apart from that, the phone comes with up to 12GB of RAM and 256GB of internal storage, whereas the base variant arrives with 8GB RAM and 128GB internal storage. With this hardware, the device has an optimum performance while the software ensures that the interface is free from bloatware apps.
Camera
The Motorola Razr 40 has a dual rear camera system with a 64MP sensor for the main camera and a 13MP sensor for the ultra-wide camera. The main camera sensor is optimized to capture twice as much light, so it can capture images and videos with amazing details, saturated colors, and a high dynamic range. The 13MP ultra-wide camera manages shots without much distortion around the edges. This is something that tends to happen with ultra-wide sensors, but not with this smartphone.
However, the color science of the ultra-wide camera is not as great as the main one. There’s a definite color shift between the two sensors, but you won’t notice it until you directly compare the pictures from both cameras. People rarely do that, so it wouldn’t be much of an issue. The night photoshoot is good, thanks to the night mode and the optimizations put in place by the company. It manages to capture some amazing details in the photos and both cameras are capable of beating out other foldable phones in the same price bracket.
The selfie camera in the smartphone has a 32MP sensor that takes some impressive images. It can capture some great selfies with even skin tones. When it comes to video recording, the Motorola Razr 40 can shoot up to 4Kvideos@30FPS from both the main rear camera and the selfie camera. Also, the main camera has OIS and support for gyro-EIS for stable video recording, so it’s suitable for recording action scenes.
Battery and Others
The Motorola Razr 40 has a Li-Po 4200 mAh battery capacity that should easily last about 1 – 2 days with lighter usage. But, when you play games for a long period or do some video recording, it is very taxing on the processor. In that case, the phone may not last a full day. However, the smartphone supports both wired and wireless charging, which will keep your battery phobia at bay.
The battery can be quickly recharged back to its full glory with the 30W fast wired charging along with 5W wireless charging, which is something that the previous generation of foldable phones lacked. Apart from that, the smartphone comes with a side-mounted fingerprint sensor, triple-band Wi-Fi 6E, Bluetooth 5.3, NFC, stereo speakers, and GPS. However, it is disappointing that the device arrived with an outdated USB Type C 2.0 port even at this price segment. The price of the smartphone starts at $699 (Rs 49,999 in India) approx. for the base variant.
Motorola Razr 40 Pros and Cons
Motorola Razr 40 Specifications Detail
Down below you can see the full specifications of the Motorola Razr 40 smartphone.
| Specifications | Motorola Razr 40 |
| Network | 2G, 3G, 4G, 5G |
| Announced | June 2023 |
| SIM | Dual SIM |
| Dimensions | Unfolded: 170.8 x 74 x 7.4 mm Folded: 88.2 x 74 x 15.8 mm |
| Weight | 188.6 g |
| Size | 6.9 inches 1.5 inches (cover display) |
| Display | Foldable Display LTPO AMOLED 1B colors 144Hz HDR10+ 1400 nits brightness ~413 PPI density Cover Display AMOLED 1000 nits brightness 282 PPI density |
| Protection/Others | Water-repellent coating Gorilla Glass Victus (cover display) |
| Resolution | Unfolded: 1080 x 2640 pixels Folded: 194 x 368 pixels |
| OS | Android 13 |
| Chipset | 4nm – Qualcomm SM7450-AB Snapdragon 7 Gen 1 |
| CPU | Octa-core 1×2.4 GHz Cortex-A710 3×2.36 GHz Cortex-A710 4×1.8 GHz Cortex-A510 |
| GPU | Adreno 644 |
| Card slot | No |
| RAM | 8GB, 12GB |
| Internal | 128GB, 256GB UFS 2.2 |
| Camera | 64 MP (wide) PDAF, Laser AF, OIS 13 MP (120Ëšultrawide) AF LED flash, panorama, HDR Max – 4K@30fps, gyro-EIS |
| Selfie | 32 MP (wide) HDR Max – 4K@30fps |
| Loudspeaker | Yes (stereo speakers) |
| 3.5mm jack | No |
| WLAN | Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac/6e, dual-band or tri-band (region dependent) |
| Bluetooth | 5.3, A2DP, EDR, LE |
| GPS | GPS, GLONASS, BDS, GALILEO, QZSS |
| NFC | Yes |
| Infrared port | No |
| Radio | No |
| USB | USB Type-C 2.0 |
| Sensors | Side-mounted fingerprint, accelerometer, gyro, proximity compass, barometer (USA only) |
| Battery | Li-Po 4200 mAh 30W wired 5W wireless |
| Colors | Sage Green, Vanilla Cream, Summer Lilac, Grape Compote |
| Expected Price | $699 (Rs 49,999 in India) approx |
Conclusion
The Motorola Razr 40 provides a premium flagship experience that its competitors lack and it is launched at a price point that is left wide open. Most manufacturers are selling foldable smartphones at a premium price point and Motorola changed that by bringing in the Razr 40 at a relatively budget price point. It garnered some praise and applause for daring to bring the foldable smartphone value to a new price point.
It did what other foldable smartphones failed to do. Motorola has the Razr 40 for the flagship and the Razr 40 Ultra for the ultra-premium market. Motorola has simply managed to do the impossible and made it a win-win situation. Its closest competitor is the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 4, both in terms of performance and price point. The newer Samsung Galaxy Flip models are quite expensive and are not in the same realm as the Motorola Razr 40 smartphone.
With this, you are getting a pretty decent experience bit of minor compromises are also there such as an outdated USB port, a bit limited processor speed, absence of reverse charging support, etc. Anyways, the smartphone doesn’t disappoint in terms of the value it offers. In our opinion, this is a decent device to go with, however, the final decision is up to you.
