Motorola Razr Plus (2024) Review: Elevating style, eliminating issues
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Motorola Razr Plus (2024) Intro
Motorola changed the flip phone market from the ground up last year with the launch of the Motorola Razr Plus, the first flip phone with a big and fully usable cover screen.
And this year, it is back with the new Motorola Razr Plus (2024), which fixes some of the few flaws of the original edition, and doubles down on being arguably the most stylish phone around!
So... you bet we are excited about this review!
We will explain all the details further on, but for starters let's say that along the usual upgrades like a faster chipset, Motorola has made two big changes that we are very happy to see: a much, much sturdier hinge (a weak point of the original) and a big upgrade in haptics aka vibration feedback.
And did we mention this phone looks incredibly cool? We already know of a few ladies in our office that cannot wait to get their hands on this, so chances are it would also make for a great gift for some.
As for the price, the Motorola Razr Plus (2024) retails for $1,000, the same as last year's model. Not cheap, but not crazy expensive either.
Disclaimer: We use a new review rating system at PhoneArena, which is why the total score of all devices tested under this protocol is lower than you might be used to. We believe it's a better system, covering a number of categories and providing a holistic view of the device, and we encourage you to look at the scores in context, rather than focusing on the number. You can learn more about our PhoneArena Review Score here.
Table of Contents:
Motorola Razr Plus (2024) Specs
A more appealing set of premium Razr specifications
First, let's get the numbers out of the way, these are the Motorola Razr Plus (2024) specs:
| Razr Plus (2024) | Razr Plus (2023) |
|---|---|
| Larger cover display measuring at 4" with 2400 nits peak brightness | Cover display is 3.6" and maxes out at 1100 nits peak brightness |
| Main display now has Dolby Vision HDR content and up to 3000 nits peak brightness | Main display supports only HDR10+ and up to 1400 nits peak brightness |
| Vegan leather finish | Glass or vegan leather options |
| IPX8 water resistant (up to 1.5m for 30 min) | Comes with less effective water-repellent coating and no water resistance certification |
| New more powerful Snapdragon 8s Gen 3 chipset | Older and not as capable Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 |
| 45W wired charging | 30W wired charging |
| Faster, 15W wireless charging | 5W wireless charging |
| New and more capable 50MP main camera | 12MP main camera |
| 50MP 2X telephoto cameara | Only digital zoom, no telephoto camera |
| No ultra-wide camera | 13MP ultra-wide camera |
| Faster UFS 4.0 storage | UFS 3.1 storage |
Motorola Razr Plus (2024) Design and Display
Mostly the same as last generation
The Razr Plus is one stylish flip phone (Image by PhoneArena)
It was no coincidence that at last year's Razr Plus unveiling, Motorola invited a ton of fashion influencers to promote their new flip phone and make it popular with not only gadget nerds, but first and foremost the female audience. Motorola knows that flip phones are especially popular with women and wants to make this one stand out.
The Motorola Razr Plus (2024) keeps that stylish appearance. The color we have for review is called Spring Green and we love it. It comes with a soft vegan leather finish on the back, only interrupted by the beautifully sculpted round glass Motorola logo.
Buttons are clicky and feel well put together, but most importantly, Motorola has fixed the hinge!
A much improved hinge is my favorite feature (Image by PhoneArena)
The wobbly hinge of the previous generation phone was our biggest concern, and now the phone feels so much better put together (Motorola confirms that it has reworked the hinge for this generation).
The company now also gives the Razr Plus (2024) IPX8 water protection certification, which is great to have. Of course, we would not go swimming with a flip phone, but it should be perfectly safe if you forget it in the rain or if you leave it by the pool.
You not only get a charger, but a gorgeous faux leather case and an accessory that allows you to carry the phone as a handbag. And we can confirm that the ladies love this! (Image by PhoneArena)
The best part, however, comes when you look inside the box. There is a lot to unpack there and who said unboxings should be boring!
Everything inside the box:
- Phone
- 68W charger with USB-C output (but phone only supports 45W)
- USB-C cable
- Faux leather case
- Same color over the shoulder strap for the case
- SIM tool
- User manual
This is really quite the package, you have... well, everything! Fisrt, the fast charger that you don't get with other phones! But we are especially impressed by the fashion-forward case that matches the beautiful green color of the phone. A special touch here is the over-the-should strap that will allow the ladies to carry this phone as a handbag, and a few of our co-workers absolutely loved this idea.
If you want to win the ladies and the style-conscious, that's how you do it! Great job, Motorola!
The main screen looks vibrant and almost perfectly crease-free (Image by PhoneArena)
The new Razr Plus has an unchange 6.9-inch main display size, but this time the screen gets support for newer HDR standards and can get brighter, reaching up to 3,000 nits. The screen also runs at an unusual 165Hz, which is a good thing, and even smoother than the 120Hz refresh rate you typically see on other phones. Colors look nice and vibrant here, so no complaints!
The cover screen up front is a bit larger at 4.0 inches (vs 3.6 inches on the 2023 model). And again, it gets brighter, hitting 2400 nits at max vs 1100 nits on the previous model.
But it is really cool to see that Motorola has nearly completely eliminated the crease. Okay, it's still there, but you don't see it, you have to go looking for it, which is good enough for us.
Motorola Razr Plus (2024) Camera
The biggest upgrade with the new Razr Plus
Two main cameras and no ultra-wide lens (Image by PhoneArena)
Like most flip phones, the Motorola Razr Plus (2024) only has two main cameras, but while most phones pair the main camera with an ultra-wide one, this Razr does not have an ultra-wide camera at all and instead the secondary shooter is a 2X telephoto zoom lens. Strange decision, but one could suggest that a 2X zoom lens is more suitable for portrait photos and maybe the fashion-centric audience prefers that. Or at least that's one possibility.
What we know is that we haven't seen any other recent modern phone that lacks an ultra-wide camera, so that takes some getting used to.
As for the main camera, it scored quite good on our PhoneArena Camera Score, which is reassuring. It provides a good amount of detail and pleasing colors, so images turn out quite good!
You can also easily use the main camera for selfies, which means that this phone takes much better selfies than traditional, non-folding phones.
It does also have a dedicated front camera on the main screen, which does fine, but not quite as good as the main camera.
So what about that 2X telephoto camera? Well, it lacked a bit of detail and that's what brings its score down in our camera score, but let's waste no time and look at some photos, shall we?
Main Camera
We do like the vibrant colors of photos captured in good daylight and there aren't many things to complain about: detail is good enough, the colors have a good amount of pop and these fine images.
You also have the option to shoot portraits at 24mm (1X), 35mm, 50mm (2X), and 85mm. Obviously, these focal lengths mirror the most popular prime lenses for traditional cameras. Portrait quality is good, but we noticed some issues pop up here and there, and subject separation from the background was not quite ideal. Images at the longer range of the zoom, especially at 85mm looked a bit too soft, so we would stick with the native 24mm (1X) and 50mm (2X) modes.
Zoom Quality
The Moto Razr Plus (2024) zoom camera does not score as well as you might hope in our camera score, but that is justified. At the native 2X zoom, the amount of detail is good and we do like the images, but the moment you go further at 5X zoom or 10X you start to see some big problems with detail and it's just not worth it shooting at 10X.
Selfies
Selfies with the front camera on the main screen turn out like the one above, but you would get a better result if you use the main camera instead.
Video Quality
As for video, the Razr Plus can shoot up 4K at 60FPS, or you can do slow motion at either 120/240fps or Super Slo-Mo at 960fps (you need a ton of light for that). There is also support for HDR video, which is not turned on by default.
The lack of an ultra-wide camera for video recording is a bit more concerning than for photos, at least in our opinion, but what about main camera video quality.
Well, it's not perfect, not close to that either, but it will get the job done for most people and in 4K you have the option of up to 10X zoom.
There are also cool features like Auto Focus Tracking, where you tap a person or animal to keep them in focus, as well as Adaptive Stabilization, which adjusts the stabilization based on how you are holding the phone and your movements.
The familiar camcorder mode is also very much here and still as cool as it was last year.
Motorola Razr Plus (2024) Performance
More RAM and storage
A slight boost in performance (Image by PhoneArena)
Under the hood here you will find the Snapdragon 8s Gen 3 chipset, which is one beat behind the flagship 8 Gen 3 processor, but not by much.
There are two ways to look at this: one is the pessimistic one and saying this is not the fastest chipset that we could have. Technically true, but the other point of view is whether you actually need all the power and speed in such a flip phone?
Benchmarks show the Snapdragon 8s Gen 3 performs about on par and maybe even a bit slower in multi-core tasks than the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 on the Razr Plus from 2023.
In daily life, you don't notice any slowdown, and everything works just fine and feels snappy enough.
What we do appreciated and find a bit more important is having 12GB of RAM on board, perfect for our RAM-demanding AI future.
And the second good thing is that you get 256GB of on-board storage, double that of rivals, which is just more space for your photos and videos. So if we get more RAM and storage, and a very marginally slower chipset... we're fine with that trade-off.
Interestingly, when you look at the 3D Mark gaming performance, you see the Razr Plus 2024 performs better than its predecessor and rival Galaxy Z Flip 5 which is reassuring.
Motorola Razr Plus (2024) Software
The Razr Plus comes with Android 14 out of the box with Moto's clean skin on top, with all the classic features like twist gesture to turn on the camera or the chop gesture to turn on the flashlight.
This year Motorola also adds a bit of AI magic in the form of generative wallpapers. It allows you to generate a wallpaper based on a photo of your outfit, matching them to complete your look. Gimmicky? Yes, but definitely in line with this phone's fashion-first nature.
When it comes to software updates, though, Motorola is not exactly known for being generous, which means you get three years of major Android updates and 4 years of security patches.
Motorola Razr Plus (2024) Battery
Faster charging
This new Razr Plus gets a 5% bigger battery than before, as it has a 4,000mAh vs 3,800mAh on the previous model.
Not a huge change, but still welcome.
In real-world use, battery life was quite good as we recorded an average of 1.6 days of use, more than your typical phone. Also do consider that many times here you will use the cover screen and save some battery this way.
PhoneArena Battery Test Results:
In our battery tests, the Razr Plus 2024 did quite good on the lightest, web-browsing test, scoring over 17 hours, a big improvement compared to the previous model, which means some optimizations to the efficiency cores have played a role.
We also see a very slight improvement in battery life in our YouTube video streaming test, where the Moto scored a bit over 13 hours.
Last, but not least, it scored a quite good over 8 hours in 3D gaming, a test that stresses the graphics chip.
A USB-C port for charging (Image by PhoneArena)
Another upgrade are the charging speeds as the Moto now tops up at up to 45 watts and you have the charger for free in the box. Something important to know here is that while we got a 68W charger in the box, the phone will only charge at up to 45W speeds.
We measured a full 1 to 100% charge took just 52 minutes, which is very fast, and beats the main competitor, the Galaxy Z Flip 5, which takes an hour and a half to accomplish the same task.
Wireless charging is now supported at faster speeds too, at up to 15 watts, but we have not yet been able to test that.
Motorola Razr Plus (2024) Audio Quality and Haptics
Flip phones are not exactly known for their exceptional speakers, but Razr Plus 2024 does a pretty good job.
It gets quite boomy at max volume, but you can hear some distortion, especially in the lows. For more clarity, you would be better off keeping the volume one or two notches below the maximum. Mids and highs, however, come out well defined and pleasing.
One area where the Motorola has improved a lot is haptics. You get much sharper, cleaner vibration feedback, which works great for notifications and typing, and is honestly a very under-rated feature that does not get talked about often. We are very happy to see solid haptics on the Razr Plus.
Should you buy it?
One of the finest flip phones around, for sure (Image by PhoneArena)
Last year's Razr Plus was a big moment for Motorola and the industry, and the new Motorola Razr Plus (2024) is absolutely the right fix to all the little woes of the original.
Motorola has fixed the big issue with the wobbly hinge, it has nearly completely eliminated the crease, it has delivered once again in terms of style, and even battery life and charging have all improved to make this nearly the complete package.
For many people, this would be the perfect flip phone.
However, if you are looking for the best camera on a flip phone, this might not quite be the very best one and the lack of an ultra-wide camera might be important to some people too. The other big "if" is software updates. While other companies have pledged an incredible seven years, Motorola still guarantees only three years of OS updates. Again, not an issue for everyone, but some might not like this.
At the end of the day, though, the pros outweigh the cons, and we can recommend the Motorola Razr Plus (2024) as both your next flip phone and as a great gift for your special someone. And that Galaxy Z Flip 6... well, it surely has some tough competition this year!
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