Nobody wants to buy the Razr Fold, and it's all Motorola's fault

Just because I praised Motorola yesterday for seemingly working on what's shaping up to be my favorite foldable device of 2026, that doesn't mean I'm not going to criticize today the same Lenovo-owned brand for setting up a different and equally promising (at first) foldable for complete failure this year.

Yes, I'm talking about the first-ever Razr Fold edition, which is inexplicably not a thing yet despite Samsung, for instance, already being on its seventh (!) Galaxy (Z) Fold generation and prepping an eighth one for a release in just a few months. So what do you do when you're this late to a rapidly growing market segment expected to absolutely blow up once Apple enters the arena as well this fall?

If you're Motorola, you apparently tease your Galaxy Z Fold 7 rival like it's some unseen industry breakthrough, fail to actually put it on sale months after its first (semi) announcement, and lose everyone's interest by confirming an excessive price point (belatedly).

Less than 15 percent of you would still buy the Razr Fold

And if you don't think that figure is bad enough, you should keep in mind that Motorola's first book-style foldable doesn't have a release date attached to its name yet (either in Europe or the US), so depending on how much more time will pass between now and the handset's commercial debut, the number of PhoneArena readers interested in the Razr Fold could shrink even further.

Will you buy the Razr Fold at this price?

What should be deeply concerning for Motorola is that over 60 percent and nearly 25 percent of respondents to a PhoneArena survey from just a few weeks back were "very excited" and "moderately excited", respectively, about the Razr Fold's second announcement at that time, which highlights just how important pricing often is for new (and, especially, long overdue) products like this.

It basically only took a few days (and an unexpectedly high price tag) for those numbers to drop to 6.1 percent of respondents to my latest Razr Fold-related poll saying they'll buy the phone because it looks amazing and a little over 8 percent planning to do the same because the specs and features are just right.

Are you excited about the Razr Fold's (second) announcement?

Motorola can derive a glimmer of hope from the close to 19 percent of you who are "still thinking" about a Razr Fold purchase, but the 24 percent of respondents who are "probably not" getting this device and especially the 42.72 percent of people who are "definitely not" biting are almost entirely former prospective buyers lost for good due to a decision that doesn't make a lot of sense.

Is there still hope for the Razr Fold?

Probably, but only if Motorola reconsiders the foldable's price tag (which rarely happens after an official announcement) and if the Z Fold 7 alternative is released soon in as many key regions as possible (which is also starting to seem highly unlikely).

The Razr Fold doesn't look bad at all, which makes this entire situation that much more painful for Motorola and Motorola fans. | Image by PhoneArena

Otherwise, this product looks pretty much dead on arrival, which would obviously make me sad as a longtime Motorola fan and cause the brand quite a bit of damage (especially from a consumer perception standpoint) at a time when foldable vendors need all the help they can get to resist Apple's big charge later this year.

What I don't understand about the Razr Fold is why it needs to cost €1,999 in Europe (and, presumably, $1,999 or so stateside) when this is the same company that typically charges $699.99 and up for a perfectly acceptable Razr (2025) clamshell. And let's not bring the state-of-the-art Razr Ultra (2025) flip phone and its incredible (and incredibly frequent) deals into this discussion.

Will you buy the Razr Fold?

Yes, but only at the right price

69.42%

Yes, at any price

2.98%

Yes, but only if it comes out soon

2.3%

I don't think so

15.56%

Absolutely not

9.74%

739 Votes

The bottom line is that smartphone makers might be going through some tough times in terms of production costs and rising prices for key components, but it definitely feels like Motorola could have kept the Razr Fold at least a little lower and not completely destroy its chances of becoming even a moderate box-office hit before it's actually released. After all, the company was warned by a PhoneArena poll from January that the Razr Fold only stood a chance "at the right price."

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