I Used The Motorola Razr Fold As My Primary Device And Now I Am Tempted To Switc ...
At A Glance:
[*]Display: 6.6-inch FHD+ LTPO AMOLED cover screen (165Hz, 6,000 nits) + 8.1-inch 2K LTPO AMOLED main screen (120Hz, 6,200 nits), both Pantone validated
[*]Chipset: Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 5, LPDDR5X RAM, UFS 4.1 storage
[*]Cameras: 50MP Sony LYTIA 828 (primary) + 50MP Sony LYTIA 600 (periscope telephoto) + 50MP ultrawide
[*]Battery: 6,000mAh silicone carbon, 80W wired, 50W wireless, 5W reverse wireless
[*]OS: MyUI based on Android 16, 7 years of OS updates
[*]Variants: 12GB+256GB / 16GB+512GB / 16GB+1TB
[*]Price: Starting at Rs 1,49,999
There is something genuinely poetic about holding the Motorola Razr Fold in 2026. The year is important because in 2004, Motorola gave the world the original Razr, a phone so impossibly slim and so undeniably cool that it became one of the best-selling mobile phones of all time. Then came 2019, and Motorola brought the Razr back, reborn as a flip-style foldable that felt more like nostalgia than a product. Promising, but not quite there. Fast forward to now, and the Moto Razr Fold arrives as a proper, book-style foldable, the kind that opens wide like a small tablet. And just like that, it has come full circle.
The question, of course, is whether this is a satisfying full circle or the kind that sends you dizzy. At Rs 1,49,999 for the base variant, it had better be the former.
Build Quality: The Hinge Is The Key
http://business-world-image-bucket.s3.ap-south-1.amazonaws.com/DSC07217.JPG
Let us start with the most important part of any foldable phone, which is also the part that has historically caused the most anxiety for buyers: the hinge.
I will not bury the lead here. The hinge on the Moto Razr Fold is just exceptional.
Motorola has used titanium for the hinge construction, and the difference it makes is immediately tangible. The phone opens with the kind of smooth confidence you would expect from something engineered rather than improvised. Unlike, say, the Vivo X Fold range, where opening the device sometimes feels like you are coaxing it into cooperation, the Razr Fold opens effortlessly. Closing it? It snaps shut with a deeply satisfying click that, frankly, is going to become a habit. You will find yourself opening and closing it just for the sound. Do not read this as a complaint; it is pure engineering.
What also stands out is the flatness of the device when fully unfolded. Several competing foldables have a slight ridge or bulge at the hinge area, but the Razr Fold lies completely flat. This is the kind of detail that does not show up in a spec sheet but makes a meaningful difference when you are actually watching a video or reading something on the main display.
Build Quality
On build quality, the aluminium frame feels premium without being fussy about it, and the device is surprisingly lightweight for a large-screen foldable. It slips into a pocket without ceremony, and you genuinely forget it is there until you need it. That is a bigger compliment than it sounds.
The cover screen is protected by Corning Gorilla Glass Ceramic 3, and the device carries IP46, IP48, and IP49 ratings for water and dust resistance. In practical terms, this means spills and splashes are handled without drama. What you should avoid, however, is sand. The dust protection here is limited, and the IP49 rating, while covering high-pressure water jets, does not extend to fine particulates. Treat it carefully at the beach, in other words.
One more thing worth noting: Motorola has, rather cleverly, declined to put a fold-cycle count on this phone. It seemed fishy initially, but on further investigation, we got the answer that put our curiosity to rest. When asked, the brand essentially said they are confident it will last years and years, and putting a number only puts consumers in a mild state of anxiety. Honestly, that logic is sound. If Motorola tells you 400,000 folds, you will spend your ownership counting.
What About The Crease?
No foldable review is complete without the crease conversation, so let us have it.
Yes, there is a crease on the Razr Fold. Anyone who tells you otherwise is either not looking closely enough or is extremely good at selling things. That said, and this is the important part, it is genuinely minimal for a device at this stage of its life. Compared to older foldables such as the Vivo X Fold 5 and the Google Pixel 10 Pro Fold, the Razr Fold's crease is noticeably less prominent. Against a fresh unit of the Oppo Find N6, the Oppo does edge it out. Just stating facts here. That said, the Motorola Razr Fold sits in a respectable position on the crease spectrum.
The honest truth is that you notice it in certain lighting conditions. You completely forget about it twenty minutes later. By day three of regular use, it simply stops being a thing your eyes register. That is probably the best thing you can say about a foldable's crease.
Display: The Part That Earns Its Money
http://business-world-image-bucket.s3.ap-south-1.amazonaws.com/DSC07218.JPG
There are two screens here, and both of them are good enough that you stop thinking of them as "the cover screen" and "the main screen" and start thinking of them as just... screens that work.
The outer display is a 6.6-inch FHD+ LTPO AMOLED panel with a 21:9 aspect ratio, which is clever design thinking. The 21:9 ratio means that when you use this as a regular phone, replying to messages, checking notifications, and watching a YouTube Short, there are no awkward black bars gobbling up the screen. It behaves exactly like a standard slab smartphone, just one that happens to fold. It supports a peak brightness of 6,000 nits and a refresh rate of up to 165Hz, though in everyday scrolling and usage, the device sensibly settles at 120Hz. More on the 165Hz situation in the performance section, because it is a conversation worth having.
Unfolding it gives you the main display, i.e., an 8.1-inch 2K LTPO AMOLED with an 8:7.2 aspect ratio, capable of up to 120Hz and a peak brightness of 6,200 nits. Both displays are Pantone validated, which means they meet the colour accuracy benchmarks set by the global colour authority. In plain English: these screens are honest with colours, not just punchy.
In practice, the displays are genuinely excellent. After watching a fair amount of content on Netflix, Jio Hotstar, and YouTube on both screens, everything from animated shows such as Jujutsu Kaizen to grimmer and more nuanced films such as Avatar: Fire and Ash and Spider-man: No Way Home, and Avengers (all of them). The colour profile leans towards the vivid and punchy side, which is characteristic of Motorola's display tuning. Colours always pop. If you prefer a more clinical, true-to-life rendering, you can adjust it in settings, but the default profile is the kind that makes content pop and makes you enjoy looking at your phone. Details are sharp, the picture is bright, and at 6,200 nits on the main display, outdoor visibility is not a concern whatsoever.
This is, put simply, an ultra-flagship-grade display experience. You get exactly what you would expect from a phone at this price point, which is also what you should demand.
Audio: Loud, Dense, And Bose-powered
Stereo speakers on a foldable are often an afterthought, tucked in wherever physics allows, and producing sound that is technically stereo in the same way that a studio flat is technically a two-room property.
The Razr Fold does not have that problem. The stereo speakers here are Dolby Atmos-tuned by Bose, and the difference shows. The sound gets genuinely loud when you need it to, but more importantly, it stays dense and full at higher volumes rather than thinning out into a tinny mess. My favourite shows did not sound hollow. Dialogue was clear, action sequences had some weight to them, and the overall experience did not immediately make me reach for a pair of earphones.
To be clear, for a truly immersive audio experience, you will still want your TWS or a decent pair of headphones. But the mark of a good speaker setup on a phone is that it does not feel like a compromise — it holds its own for casual use. The Razr Fold clears that bar comfortably.
Performance: Another Snapdragon Powerhouse
The Moto Razr Fold is powered by the Snapdragon 8 Gen 5 chipset, paired with LPDDR5X RAM and UFS 4.1 storage. It is available in three variants: 12GB RAM with 256GB storage, 16GB RAM with 512GB storage, and 16GB RAM with 1TB storage.
This is the same silicon powering the OnePlus 15R, Vivo X300 FE, and Motorola's own Signature series smartphone. It scored close to 3 million on AnTuTu, and the Geekbench numbers are appropriately flagship-tier. In day-to-day usage, this translates into a phone that simply does not give you a reason to think about the processor. Apps load instantly, multitasking is fluid, and the device handles everything you throw at it without flinching.
I put it through the kind of workload that a normal person might consider extreme, but a tech journalist considers Tuesday. I ran the main screen with multiple apps open simultaneously, edited vertical video shot at 8K 30fps directly on the device using Instagram Edits and YouTube Create, and the Razr Fold kept pace with all of it without complaint.
The multitasking aspect deserves special mention because it is genuinely the Razr Fold's best argument for existing. The 8.1-inch main display, combined with the Foldable Display menu in settings, transforms the way you use a phone. Split-screen is not a gimmick here, i.e., it is the point. I ran YouTube, a notes app, LinkedIn, and Instagram as my constant quartet, with two open at any given time. You can also float apps as windows over the main content, which sounds chaotic on paper but is, in practice, exactly the kind of chaos that makes you feel productively powerful. If you live in your phone the way I do, this form factor starts to make a lot of sense.
The 165Hz Situation
Here is the wrinkle.
The cover screen supports a 165Hz refresh rate, which is an exciting number. It is also a number that currently exists mostly on paper, because the device does not yet let games actually run at 165fps. In daily usage, the screen operates at 120Hz. During gaming, I tested BGMI, Call of Duty, and Shadow Fight, and the gameplay was smooth, the temperatures were manageable, and nothing was unpleasant. However, you are not getting 165fps, even though the Snapdragon 8 Gen 5 is capable of delivering it; the OnePlus 15R, running the same chip, does exactly that.
Whether this gets resolved through a software update is an open question Motorola has yet to answer. The company has indicated they will look at it, and if they do push out that patch, the Razr Fold would become the first foldable to offer 165Hz gaming. How about that?
Right now, though, it is a feature that exists in the spec sheet and not quite in the experience. That is the kind of gap that is only mildly frustrating when you know the hardware could close it.
Battery: The Powerhouse That Earns Its Keep
The Razr Fold carries a 6,000mAh silicone carbon battery, which is a genuinely substantial pack for a foldable phone. And it shows.
Since making this my primary device, the battery has never once been a source of anxiety in my day. For context, my usage as a tech journalist is not exactly gentle. Photographing products, recording videos, toggling between multiple apps, and doing all of this across both screens adds up. The Razr Fold handled it without running dry before I got home, and there was still enough charge left to carry through into the next morning on lighter use.
In standardised testing, it posted 10 hours and 34 minutes on PC Mark, with the main display active, Wi-Fi connected, brightness at 50 per cent with auto-brightness off. That is not the highest score we have seen, but it is an honest and respectable result that reflects real-world endurance rather than laboratory optimism.
On the charging side of things, the Razr Fold supports 80W wired fast charging, 50W wireless charging, and 5W reverse wireless charging. It goes from 1 per cent to 100 per cent in approximately 58 minutes, which is fast enough not to disrupt your morning routine. The charging brick is included in the retail box, which in 2026 still bears mentioning because some manufacturers continue to make questionable choices in this department.
The wireless charging is a genuine convenience, one of those features that quietly improves your life without drawing attention to itself. Put the phone down on a charging pod and forget about it. The one thing it does not have is magnetic alignment, so you need to place it with a bit of care to ensure it is actually charging. A small inconvenience, but worth noting.
Software: Smooth, Smart, and Slightly Unfinished in Places
The Razr Fold runs MyUI or Hello UI, Motorola's Android skin, now based on Android 16. The base experience is clean and genuinely pleasant to use. There is no bloatware to speak of, the transitions are smooth, and the interface feels considered rather than cluttered. Motorola has also committed to seven years of OS updates, which, at this price point, is the right call and a meaningful reassurance for long-term ownership.
The AI features are present and, for the most part, functional. There is a dedicated AI Key on the left spine that, when held, opens Moto AI. From there, you can access features like "Update Me," which summarises your notifications intelligently and is genuinely useful when you have been off your phone for a few hours. "Image Studio" lets you generate AI images and wallpapers, and there is even an option to manage and download a local AI model on-device. "Playlist Studio," which promises AI-curated music playlists, was not working during my review period, so the jury remains out on that one.
The Foldable Display settings menu, which contains the specific features for the book-fold form factor, is largely well-executed. App display size on the main screen, split-screen configuration, and floating windows all of these work reliably and meaningfully improve the multitasking experience that makes this phone worth considering.
Laptop Mode: A Good Idea in Progress
Laptop Mode is where the software stumbles somewhat. The concept is sensible: prop the device at an angle, and the app splits between the upper and lower halves of the main screen, with controls on the bottom and content on top, mimicking a laptop-style layout.
The execution, however, is finicky. When I placed the device in the laptop position, it would frequently hesitate before deciding which screen to prioritise, resulting in a confused moment of the device staring blankly as I stared back at it. I tested it across Instagram, Outlook, Facebook, X, Chrome, and the experience was consistently inconsistent. After considerable experimentation, I found that it works when placed at a very specific angle, at which point a small laptop icon appears in the lower right corner to confirm the mode has activated. Sometimes it activates without you pressing anything. Sometimes it does not activate at all.
It can get the job done, but it requires more patience than it should at this price. This feels like a feature that is half a software update away from being genuinely good, and I hope Motorola treats it that way.
On a more positive note, the Razr Fold supports the Moto Smart Pen, which Motorola says will launch in India very soon and will be available as a separate purchase. For anyone who wants to turn a phone into a proper productivity tool, the potential here is real.
Cameras: The Sony Lytia Trio Does The Heavy Lifting
http://business-world-image-bucket.s3.ap-south-1.amazonaws.com/DSC07216.JPG
The Moto Razr Fold borrows its camera system directly from the Motorola Signature, and that is a statement worth sitting with. The Signature is Motorola's flagship, and its cameras were one of its strongest arguments. Here, that same system arrives in a foldable body.
You get three 50-megapixel cameras: a Sony LYTIA 828 primary shooter, a Sony LYTIA 600 periscope telephoto, and a 50-megapixel ultrawide. On paper, this is a formidable trio, and in practice, it lives up to a significant portion of that promise.
The primary camera, the Sony LYTIA 828, is the star of the show. In bright daylight, it delivers sharp, detailed images with a colour profile that leans towards the punchy and social-media-ready end of the spectrum. Dynamic range is handled competently, with highlights and shadows finding a reasonable equilibrium. There is a slightly elevated contrast push, but it is controlled enough to flatter rather than distort. These are images you will want to share without editing, which is probably the most practical benchmark for a camera.
In low light, the results were better than I anticipated. Noise is controlled, sharpness is maintained at a level that does not require squinting to appreciate, and colours stay relatively natural rather than veering into the garish territory that some night modes tend towards.
Portrait mode performs well in straightforward conditions. Subject separation is convincing, and the background blur has a natural quality. Edge detection, however, is not perfect; hair and finer details around the subject can occasionally get caught in the blur, which is a recurring limitation across many smartphones and not unique to the Razr Fold.
The telephoto, despite being a capable 50-megapixel unit, produces images that are noticeably more punchy and high-contrast than the primary camera. Side by side, the tonal difference is visible enough to look slightly jarring, particularly if you switch between focal lengths quickly. Consistency between lenses is something camera software teams continue to work on across the industry, but it is more evident here than it should be at this price point.
The honest characterisation is this: the Moto Razr Fold is not a camera-first foldable. If cameras are your primary criterion, the Vivo X Fold 5 retains its edge in that department. But the cameras here are far from weak. The Sony LYTIA 828 in particular deserves straightforward praise regardless of how you feel about Motorola as a brand. These are cameras you can rely on across most situations, and for a foldable phone, that is genuinely meaningful progress.
Verdict: Should You Buy The Motorola Razr Fold?
Well, that is an interesting question. The Motorola Moto Razr Fold starts at Rs 1,49,999, and it makes a persuasive case for that number.
This does not feel like a first attempt. It does not have the slightly experimental quality that early foldables wore like a warning label. The hinge is refined and dependable. The outer display works like a real phone rather than a curiosity. The battery keeps pace with a full day of demanding use. The performance is flagship-grade. The displays are genuinely excellent. The speakers are rich and complete. And the software, polished roughness around Laptop Mode aside, is smooth and livable.
In the 2026 foldable landscape, the Razr Fold faces real competition. The Vivo X Fold 5 has superior cameras. The Google Pixel 10 Pro Fold brings IP68 durability that the Razr's IP46/48/49 ratings do not match. The Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7 makes a strong case through its slim design. Each of these devices has a clear area of excellence.
What the Moto Razr Fold has is balance. It does not win any single category outright, but it does not lose any either. There is no glaring weak point that would make a reasonable buyer walk away. The crease is minimal and forgettable. The cameras are reliable, if not class-leading. The 165Hz gaming situation is an unresolved promise rather than a broken one, and it may yet be delivered through a software update. The laptop mode needs work. Everything else just works.
Would I have liked it priced closer to Rs 1,20,000? Yes. Does it justify Rs 1,49,999? Also, yes, particularly for someone stepping into the premium foldable space for the first time, who wants a device that feels complete rather than compromised.
The Moto Razr Fold's most important quality is not any single specification. It is the feeling it gives you: that a foldable phone can now simply be your phone, without caveats, without constant vigilance, and without the sense that you have traded reliability for novelty. From the original Razr in 2004 to a proper book-fold foldable in 2026, that journey has been long, and the destination, it turns out, was worth it.
For more tech reviews, keep following BW Businessworld and BWTV Prime.
Pages:
[1]