Motorola Razr 40 hands-on

02 June 2023

Yesterday, Motorola unveiled its next generation of foldables - the Motorola Razr 40 Ultra and the Motorola Razr 40 - two phones similar in their essence, but different in a lot of key aspects.

The Motorola Razr 40 Ultra is already available in Europe, and will ship in North America on June 23 - we have the review for you. But the Razr 40 is still a few months away.

We were able to spend a bit of time with the Razr 40, so here go our first impressions.

The Motorola Razr 40 is behind the Ultra in a few ways, but might actually be more attractive as an overall clamshell foldable. The most noticeable difference is the cover display. It's less than half the size of the 3.6-inch Razr 40 Ultra's cover display at 1.5 inches. The smaller canvas is good for notifications and only select interaction, but it has allowed the Razr 40 to pack a 10% larger 4,200mAh battery.

On the inside, the displays are the same size at 6.9 inches, but the Razr 40's FHD+ AMOLED refreshes slightly slower at 144Hz. That's still higher than most of its competitors will go though, so we wouldn't hold it against the Razr 40.

Now, let's look at the Motorola Razr 40 on its own. It comes in three distinct colors - Sage Green, Vanilla Cream, and Summer Lilac. No Viva Magenta here, at least for now.

No matter which color you choose, you get faux leather-bound panels, which make the Razr 40 comfortable to hold and softer to the touch. We'd also guess the leather-like material will fare better against scratches than glass.

The frame of the Razr 40 is made of 7000-series aluminum and it has a matte finish that both looks great and is fingerprint-resistant.

The phone uses Motorola's teardrop hinge, which can support the phone in multiple angles (for selfies, propped up to watch a video, etc).

The Motorola Razr 40 is IP52 rated - that means it's resistant to dust and can withstand dripping water. Motorola did say it coated the insides against moisture, so unless you drop it in the pool it should be okay.

Overall, the lightly curved design of the Razr 40 makes it comfortable to hold and the leather top layer gives it a soft and pleasant surface to touch. The thing is, there's nothing razor-like about this phone, maybe Motorola should reconsider the monicker for something more appropriate about the phone's feel.

Going with a smaller cover display is arguably the key drawback on the Razr 40 compared to its Ultra sibling. The cover display is meant to give glanceable information so that you can decide whether you need to open the phone and use the bigger display or not.

The one on the Razr 40 is similarly integrated to the one on the Galaxy Z Flip4. If you need to have a bigger cover screen - look to the Ultra - but if you're fine with this one, consider you're also getting a larger battery.

Paired with the efficient Snapdragon 7 Gen 1 chipset, the 4,200mAh power pack has the potential to go a long way on a single charge.

So then, consider what Motorola has done with the Razr 40. It's nearly as capable as the Ultra, yet is arguably more stylish, and will last longer on a charge. And, the Razr 40 will undercut the Razr Ultra and the Galaxy Z Flip4 by some margin when it finally goes on sale, which might make it a gateway into clamshell foldables for the masses.

It may be a bit early to compare the Motorola Razr 40 to the original V3, but this could certainly be a modern winner for Motorola.