Motorola Razr 2022 review

Design

Motorola's Razr line of old had many things going for it, but arguably its biggest allure was the iconic design. The rebooted Razr foldable display models have been doing a pretty great job of capturing and recreating that iconic design up until the 2020 Razr 5G. That isn't exactly the case with the new Razr 2022, though.

Motorola has decided to refine the design this year and go with a more "traditional", for lack of a better term, clamshell. One much more akin to what Samsung or Huawei are putting out. This could be a somewhat polarizing change, and not everyone will appreciate it or consider it refined. In our opinion, the new Razr 2022 design is much more mature and streamlined foldable construction-wise compared to its predecessor.

Gone is the signature "chin" at the bottom of the phone. Instead, Motorola has extended the display all the way down, allowing for a much bigger diagonal of 6.7 inches and much more screen area this time. Moving away from a display notch to a smaller selfie punch hole also contributes to the growth of the usable display area.

Interestingly, the Razr 2022 is much wider than most flip devices, even to an uncomfortable degree, depending on your thumb stretching abilities.

The new display is more "refined" in another less obvious way too. The iconic Razr clamshell design has always required a tight, near-flat fold on the display so that the two halves can land nearly on top of each other with minimal space in between. In order to facilitate this with older foldable displays and hinge designs, Motorola used a neat trick of slipping parts of the display assembly into the bottom chin of the phone upon closing. On the Razr 2022, such tricks are no longer necessary. The display's r-curve is tight enough to facilitate the near-perfect fold-over, and so is the new hinge design.

Speaking of the hinge, we have nothing but praise to give out. It feels really smooth and is tension-based, meaning that the phone can be half-opened freely at (almost) any angle. It has a very satisfying "snap" at both ends and practically no flex to speak of. Even so, the hinge does not feel overly tight or harsh.

The initial force required to open the Razr 2022 is noticeably less than on other flip phones like the Galaxy Z Flip4 or the Huawei P50 Pocket. We aren't quite sure what Motorola did with the hinge or who, if anybody else, had a hand in its development, but it is exquisite.

The display crease is another area where Motorola did a great job. Creasing is still a concern with current foldable display tech; there is no way around that. And while we can't speak of the longevity of the mechanism or how the crease will look after some extended use out of the box, it is so minimal that it is barely noticeable. The crease is nice and symmetrical on both halves of the display. It is also very shallow and quite wide. The last bit might sound like a downside, but it really isn't since it results in a very gentle curve down into the center of the hinge. This makes the crease itself almost impossible to actually detect with a finger. All-around, impressive stuff!

Rounding off the design section, we have to mention that chin or no chin, Motorola still did a great job of curving and sloping the outer edges of the Razr 2022 to emulate the iconic feel of the family. We also like the new camera placement and how it ties together with the cover display.

We also have a bit of bad news for those of you wondering whether you'll be able to open and close the Razr 2022 and use it one-handed. The phone is simply way to wide to be comfortable to open and close with one hand. It can be done, but not if you have smaller hands.

Materials and build quality

The Razr 2022 is a very well-constructed device. We already praised the hinge for its smooth actuation and lack of flex. It is actually made of stainless steel. The only potential fault we can see with it over time is damage from dirt that can accumulate around the moving parts. But, out of the box and with initial use, it performs above and beyond.

Regarding the rest of the materials on the Razr 2022 - you get Gorilla Glass 5 on the upper part and matte Velvet AG glass for the lower part. It all feels great though we wish that Motorola hadn't made the top glass piece covering the display quite as glossy. As it currently stands, it is a real fingerprint magnet.

The middle frame of the Razr 2022 is made of Series 7000 aluminum - another excellent choice for durability.

While the bill of materials on the Razr 2022 is impressive overall, at the end of the day, it is still a foldable. The current display tech seems to mandate the use of a plastic frame around the foldable display, which is present here as well.

Also, the question of ingress protection is not straightforward. Motorola claims that the Razr 2022 has a "water-repellent" design, which should protect against "moderate exposure to water" - things like light rain, splashes and spills. Moto claims an IP52 rating, which means far less water resistance than say, the Galaxy Z Flip4's IPX8 rating. But perhaps dust is less likely to enter the device here.

Controls and connectivity

Despite its form factor, the Razr 2022 has a pretty standard control layout. There is nothing on the phone's top bezel except for the secondary noise-canceling microphone.

Motorola decided to put the third microphone near the top of the left bezel of the phone. That bezel is otherwise empty except for a few antenna lines.

The right-hand side of the Razr 2022 houses the power button, which is also a capacitive fingerprint reader. The reader itself is very quick and accurate. We had no issues with it whatsoever. You can set it to always be on or only activate with a push of the power button.

The volume rockers on the Razr 2022 sit right above the power button. They are big and "clicky" but not exactly easy to use due to their location way up high on the frame. On a more positive note, the Razr 2022 is aware of its orientation and swaps the volume up and down buttons accordingly when you are using the cover display.

The bottom of the Razr 2022 is quite busy. One of the two speakers is here. The other, doubling as an earpiece, sits above the main display. Also here, we see the single Nano-SIM slot.

The Razr 2022 lacks a second SIM physical slot, but there is eSIM support so you could have two active SIM cards.

The built-in storage, however, is not expandable.

The USB Type-C port on the Razr 2022 is rated for up to 30W USB-PD charging and supports USB host or OTG functionality. Not only that, but it also has video output via Type-C alt mode. This is how Motorola's "ready for" platform works in wired mode.

Regarding sensors, the Razr 2022 has an accelerometer, gyroscope and compass. There is also a proper hardware proximity sensor and at least one ambient light sensor located under the main display inside the phone. We suspect that there might be another one somewhere outside the phone, but we couldn't find it. In case you were wondering, there is no notification LED anywhere on the device.

The Razr 2022 has Sub6 SA and NSA 5G network support, dual-band Wi-Fi 6e, Bluetooth 5.2 with LE support and NFC. There is no FM radio on board.