Motorola Razr 5G hands-on review

Camera

The Razer 5G gets improved cameras outside and in, though it's far from a trendsetter in the imaging department. On the 'back', the main camera now uses a 48MP sensor with a Quad Bayer filter array and takes 12MP images. It's paired with a 26mm-equivalent f/1.7 aperture lens with optical stabilization.

This makes for a fairly standard midrange unit - one that you can find on phones, say, one sixth of the Razr 5G's price. It's the only cam facing that way - there's no ultra wide, and there's no telephoto either.

Motorola Razr 5G camera samples

When you open up the phone, in a notch above the display you'll find another camera - let's call it the selfie camera for now. This one relies on a 20MP sensor - this too of the Quad Bayer sort - with an f/2.2 aperture.

We can't see it used for anything other than video calls, however. The main camera outside doubles nicely as a selfie cam with the Quick View display serving as a viewfinder. You get selfies with the quality of main camera photos, which is always a good thing.

The camera app is now called Moto Camera UI 3.0, one of the notable custom bits of software on the Razr 5G. Motorola says the new UI will be seeded to other models in the lineup over time. In the limited amount of time we spent with the Razr we couldn't see radical changes compared to previous iterations though.

Moto Camera UI 3.0

Software and Quick View display

The Razr 5G we got to experience was running Android 10 with the usual Moto bits on top, plus some extra features to make use of the outer display - or Quick View display in Moto speak.

No longer just a glorified always-on display for notifications, the Quick View display on the Razr 5G comes with enhanced functionality to hopefully save you a few trips to the big internal screen. You can run apps on it, initiate calls, even type messages - with an onscreen keyboard. It's usable in a pinch, though perhaps the speech to text route will be more convenient.

Apps on the Quick View display

One of the main use cases for the external display is for picture taking and you get a fully functional camera UI in there for selfie-taking purposes. Alternatively, if you're using the phone in its open state to take pictures of other people, the external display shows a smiley face to keep them looking at the phone, and they get to see the end result in there once you click the shutter release.

Camera UI on the Quick View display

Having said that, the UI on the external screen is still fairly limited. Motorola says that not all apps want to play nicely with the small display, so they've done as much as the form factor allows for.

Wrap-up

Foldables are rapidly evolving, and just as the Galaxy Z Fold2 is superior to the original Fold, so too is the second Razr from Motorola. The Razr 5G from 2020 comes with higher-grade internals, improved materials, and mechanics, and software refinements to make better use of the external display.

Some things aren't quite awesome, however. The most obvious one is the €1500 price tag, but flexible displays do command a premium and you are paying for exclusivity. The other bit that leaves us wanting is the camera system - with a single cam on the Razr 5G's back, you'll be missing out on some shooting opportunities that other phones will easily handle with a simple switch to one of the other modules, modules that the Moto simply doesn't have. The third concern for us at this point is battery life - the Razr's power pack is smallish next to pretty much every phone with a comparably sized display.

We'll be sure to do a full review on the Motorola Razr 5G as soon as we get a chance - a lot of questions remain to be answered.