A Great Phone Weighed Down By Poor Software Support

For many years a lot of consumers were so used to getting a vastly different phone every year that it feels like they were thrown off to immeasurable degrees when the next phone in their favorite lineup wasn’t changed much, and that’s probably what some people are feeling about the Motorola Razr 2026, a phone that I’ve spent the last couple of weeks using day in and day out to review its capabilities and how it is as a phone overall.

Is this a phone worthy of praise and more to the point, worthy of your money? That remains to be seen and quite honestly depends on what you yourself are looking for in a device. I can tell you that after spending a couple of weeks with this phone as my daily driver, Motorola has put out a really great phone that fits neatly into the foldable space. Quite possibly as one of the best foldable phones to date that consumers can get their hands on.

Without mincing words, the Razr 2026 is a great phone. It’s also a great foldable. However, there are drawbacks that definitely keep it from being an excellent foldable and that comes down to two things: The price and the software support. With a price increase of $100 compared to last year’s model, it’s now a little harder to justify this over competing clamshell foldables. It also won’t be getting software updates as long as some alternatives. That might be enough to turn some people away. Let’s dive further into this review and see if the Razr 2026 is worth the investment.

Rating

The Motorola Razr 2026 is a testament to Motorola’s commitment to providing a top-notch user experience in the foldable space, as well as smartphones in general.

Pros & Cons

Pros

• Top-tier external display with access to most apps
• A battery that lasts all day and then some
• An almost barebones Android experience with next-to-no software bloat
• Good-quality camera that rivals most phones in its price range
• The crease is basically invisible when looking straight at the display
• The best-looking flip phone you’ll find in 2026
• Pretty good performance for the base model
• Really fast fingerprint sensor

Cons

• Charging speed leaves a little bit to be desired
• The $100 price increase makes it a tougher sell
• Only 3 years of OS updates and 4 years of security updates
• No charger in the box

Disclaimer

Motorola sent us out the Razr 2026 for review. We’ve been testing it for the past few weeks before writing this review to see how it holds up. This is not a sponsored review, and Motorola did not see this review before publishing.

Motorola Razr 2026 Specs

Motorola Razr 2026 Review: Design and Build Quality

If you’ve seen a Razr from the past couple of year, then you already have a good idea of what the Motorola Razr 2026 looks like. Design-wise, it really does look almost entirely the same as the previous versions of the phone from 2025 and 2024. The model from 2024 is when Motorola decided to swap to the larger cover display, and it has stuck with that here on the 2026 model. That’s a very good thing because it’s part of what really makes this flip foldable more enjoyable to use. What’s more is that this display is compatible with almost every app you could install on the device. There are almost no limits here.

Of course, there are some things with the design that has changed. For one, the colors and textures on this year’s devices is different. That’s unsurprising, as Motorola works directly with PANTONE thanks to their partnership. This affords them a collaborator to help come up with some fresh styles on an annual basis. And every year since the PANTONE partnership has begun, Motorola’s style choices have killed it. This year is no different. I’ve been reviewing the ‘Bright White’ model and while this one isn’t my personal favorite, it still looks really god and is by far the best looking flip foldable out there right now. Especially with the silver sides and hinge that compliment the shifting hues of the Bright White.

The crease mostly disappears into the background

One of my biggest gripes, and really only gripes I suppose when it comes to foldables, is the crease in the main display. Each year and each new iteration from the brands that put these kinds of phones out, it gets a little less noticeable. That’s true here with the Motorola Razr 2026. I do notice it less than the Galaxy Z Flip 6 and other similar devices I’ve handled. It’s not completely invisible to me, and I can certainly feel it when my finger runs over it.

However, unless I tilt the phone at an angle where I’m looking essentially at the USB-C port on the bottom of the phone, you can’t really tell the crease is there. Mind you this is with the display on. If the display is powered off it’s pretty easy to see. But, you’re really never going to flip open the phone and then just turn the display off and set it down. If you flip it open, you’re going to use the phone. And when you’re done, you’ll most likely flip it closed. So, it will be pretty hard to notice the crease is there and that’s awesome.

The build quality oozes the feeling of premium

Even though the price has gone up to $799, that still doesn’t really put the Razr 2026 into the premium price bracket. And yet, the device is so well-made, the build quality is so good, that it oozes the feeling of a premium phone. If I were to list any complaints about the design at all other than the crease, it would be that flipping the phone open can sometimes require deliberate intention and attention. More times than I care to admit, I went to flip open the phone with one or both hands and found myself nearly dropping the device.

In other words, just be careful when using this phone. This was more than likely a result of where I was holding the phone when trying to open it. Either way, something in me wishes it was just ever so slightly easier to flip open as I feel like that would help.

Putting that aside, the phone feels so good in your hands. I used this as my daily driver for the duration of my time reviewing it, and I enjoyed taking it out of my pocket and handling it for everything. It was a bit odd at first but that passed rather quickly, and it was simply a nice feeling to hold the phone whether it was open or closed.

After spending a couple of weeks with it it also never once felt like something was going to wear out on me. Namely the hinge, which I always just fear is going to start having issues but never has. At least not on the devices I’ve used personally. Overall, the design and build quality are both excellent. Motorola knocked this out of the park.

Motorola Razr 2026 Review: Display

I really, really like the display on this phone and I didn’t think I was going to have any strong feelings about it. I mostly just assumed I was going to think it was ok but nothing more. I actually quite like the display. It gets very bright. For starters. Now that the weather is getting nicer where I am, I found this to be majorly beneficial to me seeing information on the display outside. The brightness hasn’t changed at all on the standard model Razr from the 2025 variant. It’s still 3,000 nits peak brightness on the main display and 1,700 nits peak brightness on the cover display. Still, it’s nice to see these get as bright as they do.

The brightness also helps to prevent me from really noticing the display’s crease when the phone is open. As I mentioned earlier I can still feel it if I’m scrolling and my finger runs over it. So it’s not like I can completely forget that it’s there. But I don’t really see it at all when I’m using the phone, so it’s not much of an issue. This is especially true for things where I’m heavily invested into what’s happening on screen, like playing a game or watching a TV show.

What has changed with the display this year is the display panel type. Last year’s Razr used a pOLED while this year Motorola is using what it refers to as an Extreme AMOLED panel. Since these aren’t any brighter and the resolution hasn’t really changed, this is probably to highlight display durability. This seems like the most logical reason to give it that name.

The cover display is a delight to use

Obviously, the cover display isn’t the main way I or most people will probably use this phone. However, it is a delightful experience and especially quick. It was so nice to just pull the phone out of my pocket when getting a message from a friend and being able to read and respond to it right from the small front display. No need to flip it open. This is much faster and more convenient than using the main display for quick actions like a very short message. It’s not really any different from pulling the Pixel 10 Pro out of my pocket and interacting with its one and only display. However, it’s a tiny bit different since the phone is folded up and therefore much more compact.

It’s also incredible that you can use almost any app on this cover display. Telegram, Discord, Gmail, even Google Maps, or YouTube. The only downside I can see to the cover display is that you can only really keep four apps on it. You can swap these out as often as you like though. You also get access to the panels which remind me a lot of the tiles on my Pixel Watch 4. They’re more or less like widgets, at least that’s how they feel to me when swiping through them. You can easily manage your panels by long pressing on the cover display and this is how you swap out your apps too. However, if you want the apps to work you will need to go into settings, then external display, and give permissions to any apps you want to work on it. This is a simple toggle, so it’s quick and easy.

Motorola Razr 2026 Review: Performance

With a MediaTek Dimensity 7450X inside and a moderate amount of RAM at 8GB, I wasn’t quite sure what to expect with performance here. Then again, I’ve used several phones that have considerably less performance-heavy specs than flagships from Samsung and other brands, so I also assumed it wouldn’t be too bad, and I was right. Performance on the Motorola Razr 2026 is more than suitable for a wide range of users. And unless you absolutely want or need something that pushes the limits at the top end, you shouldn’t have any complaints here. I didn’t. Save for maybe with the gaming, as I do play a fair amount of mobile games and have grown accustomed to the best possible performance and graphics.

Sadly, that is something you won’t quite get with the Razr 2026. It’s not bad, really, just not as good as I’m used to, and I find it hard to come back from that. Outside of peak mobile gaming performance, the Razr 2026 was pretty smooth during my time with it. I never really noticed many (if any) snags or hitches that made things feel sluggish or janky.

What I really appreciate, as always, is that the fingerprint sensor on the Razr 2026 is pretty fast. It unlocks almost immediately after placing your thumb on the sensor. My only complaint with the fingerprint sensor is that Motorola placed it under the power button. This is both a good and bad thing in my opinion. While it’s in a location that’s easy to access and it feels natural unlocking the phone with this placement, this is also the same reason it can be a tiny bit annoying. As I would find myself picking up the phone only intending to the hit the power key to wake the display and the sensor would incorrectly read the fingerprint. Precisely because I wasn’t trying to unlock the device. That said, it works fast when you intend to use it and that’s important.

We also run the phone through benchmark tests to see how it performs on paper in contrast to real world performance. As some people also want to look at things from this perspective.

Benchmarks

For the benchmark tests, we run the phones we review through three different benchmarks. This includes Geekbench 6, 3DMark’s Wildlife Extreme Stress Test, and AnTuTu Benchmark. The Razr 2026 performed well in all these tests in comparison with other devices in its range.

Starting off with Geekbench 6, the Razr 2026 ended up with a single-core score of 1,108 and a multi-core score of 3,268. As for the GPU score it ended up at 3,167. That’s not really all that bad, but it is also worth noting that those scores are lower than Google’s Pixel 10a, which costs hundreds less. Again, though, keep in mind that the on paper scores don’t really reflect real-world performance.

Next we take the phone through the AnTuTu Benchmark test to see how it scores and it runs the phone through some CPU and GPU tests. Again here the scores end up below the Google Pixel 10a which is a close enough device to compare this phone to. We would be comparing it to the Razr 2025, but we only reviewed the Ultra model and that’s not really a close comparison. With that out of the way, the score for the Razr 2026 with AnTuTu ended up at 1,030,712.

Finally we run the phone through the 3DMark Wildlife Extreme Stress Test, and this checks mostly the graphical side of things. You can see the scores for the best loop, lowest loop, and stability below. While the scores here are once again lower than the Pixel 10a for the best loop and lowest loop, the stability is considerably higher.

• Best Loop: 1,059
• Lowest Loop: 1,054
• Stability: 99.5%.

Thermals

Part of our benchmarks include running the phone through some thermal tests to see how warm it gets or doesn’t get during periods of extended use. We do this by checking the thermals after about an hour to an hour and a half of playing a game like Genshin Impact at high settings, and then we also check it after the Wildlife Extreme Stress Test since this is intended to push the phone to its limits.

Finally, we check the temperature after recording 4K video at 60 frames per second for 10 minutes. For the Genshin Impact test, it ended up with a flat 96-degrees Fahrenheit. the 3DMark tests was actually quite close to this at 95.3. Meanwhile, the video recording reached the highest temperatures at 98.3, but even then you’re still looking at under 100-degrees. This is pretty good as it means you won’t have to worry about uncomfortable temperatures. And a lot of that is likely due to the chipset inside.

Motorola Razr 2026 Review: Battery Life and Charging

Motorola didn’t increase the charging speeds this year with the Razr 2026 but it did increase the battery capacity and that’s always good to see. Right off the bat I’ll say battery life with this phone was perfectly fine but I would have liked to see it go a little higher, considering it has almost 5,000mAh and has considerably less battery life than the Ultra model. For comparison, the standard Razr 2026 has a 4,800mAh battery in it, and the Ultra model has a 5,000mAh battery in it. In terms of battery life, it lasted for about 12 hours, 32 minutes, and 30 seconds on a single charge. This is compared to the Razr Ultra 2026 which lasted for 19 hours, 23 minutes, and 9 seconds. A pretty big difference I’d say for just a 200mAh gap in the capacity. So like I said. It’s perfectly suitable but could be better.

In other words, you may want to consider utilizing different ways to extend battery life between charges. In my normal day-to-day use, I really wasn’t hurting for battery life at all, and it was much more impressive this way. While a long video streaming stint at full brightness might kill the battery faster than I’d like, normal everyday use would often leave me with close to 50% battery left by the time I was ready to relax in the late evening. I was ending up with about 45% by the time I was ready to turn in and go to sleep.

Even better is that I could leave my phone off the charger and listen to Audible while I go to sleep, and still wake up with about 40% battery left. I could then easily plug the phone and it would be back to full in well under an hour. So unless you’re a super power user who never puts their phone down, I don’t think battery life is going to be an issue here.

When it comes to the charging, this phone only supports 30W wired and 15W wireless. Quite a bit slower than the Razr Ultra 2026. And yet, because I was never really draining the battery completely with my normal use, it never really took a long time to get to 100%. Having said that, we do test how long it takes to charge once we drain the phone’s battery to 1% so we can see how long it takes to get to 100%. And for me using a 30W wired charger, it took 1 hour, 15 minutes, and 3 seconds. Not bad. Basically you can expect reasonable times if you need to plug this in as you get ready for work.

Benchmarks

For the benchmarks, what we do is bring up a 24-hour 4K video stream on YouTube of a fireplace and turn the screen brightness up, then let it play until the phone gets to 1% battery life. Then we stop the stream and plug the phone in and count times for the charging speed. This is the same test for every device that we review. You can see the results we ended up with in the table below.

Motorola Razr 2026 Review: Software

The software experience on the Razr 2026 is generally pretty good for the most part. The biggest downfall of this device is that it isn’t going to have the best software support in terms of how long it will get OS updates and security updates. Compared to devices from Google and Samsung, which will get up to 7 years of software updates, the Razr 2026 is only going to get software updates for up to 4 years. Specifically, this is 3 years of OS updates, and 4 years of security updates. That’s quite the difference, and ultimately means that after 4 years, you’re generally compromising your device security.

Now if that doesn’t really bother you and you plan to upgrade around that time anyway, then this is less of an issue. However, with how expensive every has gotten these days, it’s nice to know that your device is going to get software updates for longer periods of time. Because that ultimately means you will spend less money on phones.

Outside of the software support, the experience with the software on the Razr 2026 is great. I’m really a huge fan of things like app support on the external display. You aren’t really limited on apps here. Almost every single app works. All you have to do is go into the settings and tap a toggle that allows it to be used. From there, you just have to long press the external display where the app would sit to place an app. Or if you already have all the spots filled, simply long press one of the app icons to swap it out.

There’s also a really cool feature in Motorola’s software that lets you swipe down on the display with three fingers to take screenshots. This was actually more useful that I had anticipated because I was taking screenshots of stuff a lot to share with friends across Discord and Telegram, and this often seemed easier than holding down the physical buttons.

By far the most useful software feature though is the new Live Updates. I was using this on the external display ALL the time because I chat with friends a ton throughout the day. And this made it very, very easy to do that without having to flip the phone open. The Live Updates works with other types of apps too, like Flight notifications. While I didn’t take any trips to really see this in action, I did end up ordering Uber Eats a couple of times and it was pretty cool and convenient to see those updates show up on the external display. Again this was just infinitely easier than flipping the phone open to check the same exact details. Overall I’d say the software is an excellent experience. It’s fast, there’s almost no unnecessary bloat, and it has some genuinely useful functions to offer. What make it truly great was updates for a few more years.

Motorola Razr 2026 Review: Camera

Motorola isn’t really known for its top-tier camera quality but that doesn’t mean the pictures its phones produce are bad. On the contrary, they’re usually pretty good even by today’s standards. Setting expectations, the images you get from the Razr 2026 aren’t going to outshine pictures from the best of the best phones. The Pixel 10 Pro, the Galaxy S26 Ultra, the Vivo X300, the iPhone 17 Pro Max, all f these phones that are top of their class will end up delivering better images. They also cost a lot more money, generally.

If you consider that, you’re getting some really good value out of the Razr 2026 because the picture quality is quite good even if it isn’t the absolute best on the market. That’s what’s really worth remembering here. You aren’t spending $1,200+ on a phone and the images will still look really good. If you really dig deep you might start to notice where the cracks are. Ultimately, though, I was pleased with the way things looked in most of the images that I got when taking pictures with the camera.

Obviously, the camera shines when lighting is really good and it doesn’t do so bad in lower light conditions either. And there’s some fun stuff to play with, like holding the phone the same way you’d hold a camcorder for video recording. The only thing that seems a bit odd to me is the way you zoom in and out, because you have to tilt the phone to the left or to the right to zoom.

Motorola seems to want users to set the zoom before they start recording. If you tilt the phone to zoom after the recording starts, then you’re not focused on the subject as much and video could tilt. The phone does offer Horizon Lock, but I tried using the tilt to zoom while this was active and zooming didn’t work. It did keep the video stable though. That being said, the gesture itself is really easy to use. So if you don’t intend to zoom at all once the recording is already going, then this is a pretty fun feature and holding the phone this way to capture video feels more comfortable.

It’s also worth noting, however, that if you do use Horizon Lock, it only works with Full HD video and only at 30 frames per second. It is not compatible with 60 frames per second in FHD, and it’s not compatible with 4K recording at all. So you have to choose. All of that being said the camera is pretty good at the end of the day and I think it’s one of the better options in this price range.

Should you buy the Motorola Razr 2026?

No matter how you cut it, $799 is a price point that is going to make most average consumers looking to buy a smartphone take a step back and think about it for a minute. And I don’t think the Razr 2026 offers anything that is going to make the average consumer throw caution to the wind and buy it without a little thought. It’s a great phone, and one of the best flip phones I’ve used. Maybe even the best. However, the price jump from $699 on the 2025 model still warrants a little pondering.

I think if you’re looking for a flip foldable, then the Razr 2026 might be the best choice around this price. The camera is good, performance is pretty good, and you should get decent battery life. Where it really stands out is with the style and design, and the nice software experience. Overall I think the phone is definitely worth buying if you want a flip foldable and don’t want to spend hundreds more to get the Ultra model, as long as you don’t mind losing a few years of software updates like you’d get some of the other flagship phones.

If you want a more flagship experience, then you would be better off spending the extra money for the Razr Ultra 2026, because it’ll have a few extra camera features, and a faster processor. Not to mention better battery life and considerably faster charging. But at $799, you can’t really go wrong here if that’s your target price point.