After using the $1,900 Motorola Razr Fold again, I'm doubling down on my buying advice
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Close Home Tech Smartphones After using the $1,900 Motorola Razr Fold again, I'm doubling down on my buying advice The latest foldable features key advantages over the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7 and Pixel 10 Pro Fold, but you should wait before buying one.
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Adam Doud, Contributing WriterContributing Writer May 1, 2026 at 6:30 a.m. PT
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Just months ago, at MWC, Motorola let journalists like me go hands-on with the upcoming Razr Fold -- and again at the Razr launch event in Los Angeles this week. Only this time, the company revealed everything to me, and it's put everything into perspective.
I got a few more details about the US price tag (which is still pretty high), preorder and shipping dates, and a few other new and interesting features of the Razr Fold. Overall, my impressions went from mostly positive to cautiously optimistic, given this new information. But there are still some questions to be answered.
What's new with the Razr Fold
For starters, the outside screen is a 6.6-inch pOLED screen with Gorilla Glass Ceramic 3. The inner screen will be a massive 8.1 inches, making it the largest in North America. It will run on the Snapdragon 8 Gen 5 processor and come with 16GB of RAM and 512GB of storage.
The cameras will be the same ones seen in the Motorola Signature -- 50-megapixel sensors across the ultrawide, main, and 3x optical zoom. With the exception of the processor, those are exceptional specifications across the board. Actual performance and camera quality will have to wait until I get a full review of the device, but Motorola showed us its super-res zoom capability.
Also: I've tested every Razr and Galaxy Flip: 3 reasons Motorola crushes Samsung at foldables
This is similar to other phones that have this capability. Basically, you can snap a shot with the telephoto camera up to 100x, and once you open the image in the gallery, post-processing kicks in. The result is a fairly sharp photograph of something incredibly far away, but that comes with a caveat.
First, I don't have a sample to show you (yet) because I demoed this feature with preproduction units (and they didn't give us a copy). Also, I haven't had a chance to view the photo on a screen larger than the Razr Fold's. So, while the photo might be good enough for social media, how it holds up under pixel-peeping scrutiny will have to wait for our full review, coming in a few weeks.
Motorola also introduced a FIFA edition of the Motorola Razr Fold, which complements the FIFA edition flip from CES. It's a huge partnership with the most popular sport in the world in a year where the world will play for a title. All of that is extremely well played.
The $2,000 elephant in the room
European pricing was announced back in March of 2026 at €1,999 (roughly $2,320, excluding region-based adjustments). In the US, the Fold checks in at $1,900, which still feels high, even if the Samsung Galaxy Fold 7 and Google Pixel 10 Pro Fold both live in that same neighborhood.
In Europe, the €1,999 price includes the €100 Moto Stylus Ultra. The Pen Ultra is a nifty little device that, sadly, does not silo in the phone itself, but it comes with its own carrying case. It's an active stylus with some cool features on its own, such as pressure sensitivity, a quick-action button, and a smart menu of options on demand. In the US, the $1,900 price does not include the stylus, which is fair enough.
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Overall, while the processor leaves something to be desired (and really not that much), there are otherwise a lot of firsts in the phone, including the first triple 50-megapixel camera set on a North American foldable, the biggest and brightest screen, and the biggest battery. That is a 6,000 mAh silicon-carbon battery in there, and it's capable of up to 80W of fast charging, which matches OnePlus's 2023 (and only) foldable, the OnePlus Open.
The Motorola Razr Fold (left) and the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7 (right).
Kerry Wan/ZDNETThe phone is a tad thicker than the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7, and has a battery that is over 40% larger and charges faster. This phone is no slouch. It's a strong contender to be my daily carry when I hit trade shows from now on, espeically is the cameras hold up as well as promised.
Third, this phone will likely have a very balanced, all-around great camera experience. Yes, the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7 has a 200-megapixel main sensor, but after that, things fall off pretty quickly. Meanwhile, the three 50-megapixel cameras should give a more consistent all-around experience.
Also: Motorola Razr Ultra (2026) vs. Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 7: I tried both, and there's a clear winner
One last note we learned about on the Razr Fold (and the flip Razrs as well), all four phones will support video wallpapers on the cover screens and the inside as well. While it's easy to write that off as a gimmick, I tested it out in April, and it's actually a pretty fun feature.
The two limitations are that 4K videos won't work and that videos must be in portrait orientation. That seems odd, because for both the open Fold and the closed Razrs, the screen is square, so it shouldn't matter. We'll run with it.
My buying advice (for now)
While I was initially very excited to check out a fresh competitor in the large-screen foldable market, I'm a little less enthused, now that the Razr Fold's full specs and pricing has been revealed.
But there's one indisputable fact to consider, which gives me hope. This is a Motorola phone, and the company's M.O. has long been to launch a phone at a high price and put it on a permanent sale a few weeks later. For example, the new Razr Fold has a retail price of $1,900 but will likely see aggressive discounts during major sales events like Prime Day and Black Friday. I expect a similar trend with the other Razr phones Motorola is launching soon.
So, if you don't want to fork out almost two grand, the best buying opportunity may come in only a matter of months -- possibly weeks.
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