Motorola’s 2026 Razrs are almost worth buying just for their stunning looks… almost - Ars Technica

For the last several years, Motorola’s smartphone headliners were the Razr flip phones, but 2026 is different. This time around, Moto’s first tablet-style foldable, the Razr Fold, somewhat overshadows the flip phones, but a bulky $2,000 folding phone that isn’t made by Samsung occupies the smallest niche in the smartphone market. A Razr flip phone is much more practical, both financially and logistically. But are these phones actually worth buying over a flat phone?

Smartphones are no longer something you need to convince people to buy. Unless you’re going out of your way to exclude technology from your daily life, a smartphone is just a necessary convenience. The way some companies market their phones—making relatively boring phones look like a lifestyle choice—doesn’t really take this into account. However, Motorola knows what a Razr is.

These phones are first and foremost about vibes. They’re fun and colorful; there are desk clock displays, mini apps for the outer display, and a quirky camcorder camera mode. Foldables are universally gadgety and visually interesting, but the Razrs take this to the extreme with unique textures and Pantone-certified colorways. That gives the Razrs a selling point before you even get to the specs or hardware. And they need that because the speeds and feeds are nothing special.

The 2026 Razrs don’t change much in the design department versus last year’s versions, but that’s fine. They still look great. There are wood panels, soft touch plastics, vegan leather, and synthetic fabrics—all things you won’t find on the latest devices from Samsung, Google, or Apple. These are, hands down, the prettiest phones you can buy right now.

However, even years into the foldable era, these phones are still not an easy choice for smartphone buyers, and some people shouldn’t even consider getting one despite the stylish design. When buying a new phone, many folks immediately put it in an OtterBox or similarly armored case and slap on a screen protector. Then, a year or two later, when they need to take the case off for some reason, they are surprised by the color of their phone. If that’s you, the 2026 Motorola Razrs are not the phones you are looking for—just move along.

All of Motorola’s Razr flip phones have big external screens, offering enough real estate to run apps and reply to messages, and Moto lets you do a lot more with this screen compared to Samsung’s Z Flip line.

On one hand, having an external screen can be a bit gimmicky. The phones come with a collection of games optimized for the external display, and opening the phone to use the big foldable OLED will often be faster for most tasks, but using the external screen can help steer you away from distracting apps. It provides just enough functionality to check a notification or reply to a message without tempting you to start doom scrolling.

The foldable form factor also pays off if taking selfies is your thing. While there is a selfie camera under the foldable OLED, you can and should use the primary cameras with the external display instead. Motorola’s cameras aren’t up to the standards of Google or Apple, but the larger main camera sensors on these phones do a better job than any camera peeking through a hole in your screen.

But a phone that folds in half also comes with some inevitable downsides. While Motorola says its hinge is reinforced with titanium and has been tested to many thousands of folds, this is still a possible point of failure. The kind of day-to-day abuse that wouldn’t affect a flat phone could cause serious problems for one with a hinge in the middle. These devices are also only IP48-rated, which means fine particles could work their way inside and affect the hinge’s functionality, although the Razrs are just as water-resistant as traditional designs.

Even if the hinge is mechanically sound, the constant folding could be a problem for the phone’s flexible OLED. With several generations of Razrs behind us, there are enough user reports to say that OLED damage from wear and tear is possible. Most of these screens will last for as long as the phone itself does, but some won’t.