Motorola Razr 40 review

Introduction

The Motorola Razr 40 is a toned-down version of the Razr 40 Ultra, one meant to make Razr a mass market phone once again. These days it's not a flip-up phone anymore, but a foldable, yet operating it bring the same coolness you got from the V3 almost 20 years ago.

The Razr 40 makes the foldable experience more accessible than ever, but it still feels like a perfectly balanced phone. It has the same high-quality build as the Razr 40 Ultra, the same large internal display with clean software and even a bigger battery and larger main camera sensor. It misses on the large external display and gets a mid-range Snapdragon 7 Gen 1 chipset, but manages to shave over €200 from the asking price.

The Razr 40 is of the same size and weight as the Ultra, but it has Vegan Leather exterior instead of glass. And while its outer display is much smaller at 1.5-inches it can still serve for quick notification checks and camera viewfinder.

Go past that and you see the same 6.9-inch foldable LTPO AMOLED from the Ultra with extended 1080p resolution, 1B colors, up to 144Hz refresh rate and HDR10+ support. Well, the Ultra's max refresh rate was higher at up to 165Hz, but we barely ever saw the phone even use that.

The most notable change is the SoC - now a Snapdragon 7 Gen 1 chip instead of the flagship 8+ Gen 1 inside the Ultra. And suspect the superior battery life that should come from this transition will be more important to the Razr target audience than the lost performance.

Moving on to cameras, we see the main 64MP sensor of the Razr 40 is actually notably bigger than the 12MP imager on the Ultra. The 13MP ultrawide camera with AF and macro is the same, as well as the 32MP selfie cam embedded in the foldable screen.

What's missing in the camera department is 4K@60fps option and HDR10 video capturing.

Moving on to the battery - the Razr 40 has a 4,200mAh cell, up from 3,800mAh on the Ultra. The 30W wired and 5W wireless charging speeds are shared between the two Motorola foldable phones, though.

The Razr 40 runs on clean Android 13 with a couple of Motorola tweaks and apps, a combo many have come to love though the years.

Motorola Razr 40 specs at a glance:

• Body: 171.0x74.0x7.4mm, 189g; Plastic front (opened), Vegan Leather (closed), Vegan Leather back, aluminum frame (7000 series), hinge (stainless steel); Water-repellent coating (IP52).
• Display: 6.90" Foldable LTPO AMOLED, 1B colors, 144Hz, HDR10+, 1400 nits (peak), 1080x2640px resolution, 22:9 aspect ratio, 413ppi; Second external AMOLED, 1000 nits (peak), 1.5 inches, 194 x 368 pixels, 282 ppi, Gorilla Glass Victus.
• Chipset: Qualcomm SM7450-AB Snapdragon 7 Gen 1 (4 nm): Octa-core (1x2.4 GHz Cortex-A710 & 3x2.36 GHz Cortex-A710 & 4x1.8 GHz Cortex-A510); Adreno 644.
• Memory: 128GB 8GB RAM, 256GB 8GB RAM, 256GB 12GB RAM; UFS 2.2.
• OS/Software: Android 13.
• Rear camera: Wide (main): 64 MP, f/1.7, 0.7µm, PDAF, Laser AF, OIS; Ultra wide angle: 13 MP, f/2.2, 120˚, 1/3", 1.12µm, AF.
• Front camera: 32 MP, f/2.4, (wide), 0.7µm.
• Video capture: Rear camera: 4K@30fps, 1080p@30/60fps, gyro-EIS; Front camera: 4K@30fps, 1080p@30/60fps.
• Battery: 4200mAh; 30W wired, 5W wireless.
• Connectivity: 5G; eSIM; Dual SIM; Wi-Fi 6e; BT 5.3, EDR; NFC.
• Misc: Fingerprint reader (side-mounted); stereo speakers.

The Motorola Razr 40 is officially not a waterproof smartphone. It has a water-repellent coating to its internals, meaning it will probably withstand the occasional splash of water or some rain drops, but it should not get properly wet.

Unboxing the Motorola Razr 40

The Razr 40 is packed within a regular-sized paper box. Inside you will find a 30W power adapter, a USB-A-to-C cable, a SIM ejector and some paperwork.

Above the phone, within an almost hidden paper compartment, you can find a semi-transparent hard case of two parts for the Razr that's in the same lilac hue as the phone.

The supplied case fits well on the phone and looks good. However it did interfere with the USB cable and we had to often fiddle with that one to achieve good connection.