New Motorola Razr 5G: Hands-on first impressions By CNET

This is the new Motorola racer, and I know what you're saying didn't: Motorola release a racer in February. Yes, they did, but this one takes the problems and the nitpicks of that phone and attempts to fix them. It's built better, has better specs, better cameras adds 5g, adds software improvements to that outside display and costs. Less, though, still a lot, because it is a foldable phone. After all, my first impressions are that this new racer is a solid refinement for the better. So let's go hands-on with the Motorola razor in my kitchen: hey um, it's like the pandemic, so like.

What's this guy supposed to do hey before we jump in, though take a moment and subscribe to our CNET YouTube channel for a variety of new videos every day spanning products, software and some of the most out there gadgets you have ever seen. So when the Motorola racer came out in February of this year, it was a first, a modern smartphone that could fold in half like a clamshell from the early 2000s, hence its lineage to the OG racer flip phone and its nostalgic appeal. After seeing the z, flip's, 2020, specs, availability on more carriers and lower thirteen hundred and eighty dollar price compared to the fifteen hundred dollar price of the razor, many people dismiss the racer despite its coolness, but it's funny how things can change in six months, in August, Samsung added 5g to the z-flip and released the Galaxy Z, flip 5g for 1450. And now Motorola made numerous refinements inside and out to the racer, including the addition of 5g support, updated, specs and new hardware and release for well all intents and purposes, an entirely new phone and all while dropping the price to 13.99 50 less than the z flip 5g and get this the racer still seems cooler than the z flip 2. Motorola did a number of mechanical improvements to make it feel closer to its top shelf price.

In fact, before you even pick up the new racer, you can see some of those refinements. The nostalgic razor chin is more tapered and sleek. This new design has a hint of Motorola star TAC essence. The back is no longer plastic, but glass which looks premium in the polished, granite version. I got my hands on and speaking of that when I pick up the new racer, it feels solid and that's because the body is made of aluminum and covered in glass on the front and back it still uses the zero gap hinge design from the February razor, but with adjustments.

Its springs are tighter, making the screen more taut and, along with that tapered chin easier to flip open with one hand the ends of the hinges are more pronounced. It's almost like it's wearing shoulder pads. It not only looks good but in my hand the hinge shoulders nestled instinctively between my thumb and index finger for a solid grip when closed the hinge is perfectly flat, meaning you can stand it up I'll, be it upside down. Okay, maybe I'm not sure how useful that feature is the volume rocker and power button are no longer on the same side of the phone, and instead the power button is on the left side, which should make it easier to distinguish from the volume rocker on the right side and one of my favorite improvements on the new racer, at least the one that I got to go hands-on with. It doesn't squeak like a leather baseball glove when it opens and closes.

That is huge because the review unit I had in February squeaked loud the new razor is designed to be in either the open or closed position. There's no z-flip flex mode here, Motorola claims the screen is rated to be opened and closed, 200 000 times to give you an idea how many times that is, you could open and close the phone 100 times a day for five years and still not hit that number. It has a 6.2 inch, internal OLED display, and it's made of five different layers with a hard coating on top now in certain lighting, when the screen is off, you can make out the edges of the steel plates that are at the top and bottom behind the screen. Now your pickiness on this may vary. That said, there's still not a permanent crease, like oh say, on the Galaxy Z flip, which, to be honest, that doesn't even bother me either.

The top of the racer display has a Motorola back wing shaped notch, which houses an upgraded selfie camera with a 20 megapixel sensor. Motorola's main camera on the outside of the phone is now 48 megapixels and uses pixel binning to reduce image, noise and brighten shots in medium to low light situations. It also packs optical image stabilization, which should help those photos further with longer shutter speeds. The camera also has a time of flight sensor to help to focus on low light, as well as portrait mode photos powering the cameras and the phone is eight gigabytes of ram, a 2 800 William hour battery with 15 watt, turbocharging and a snapdragon 765 g processor. And yes, the g stands for gaming.

The battery is bigger than the one in the February racer, but not huge when compared to other non-folding phones. Motorola said that the use of the racer's exterior display helps reduce the strain on the battery. Now, that's just something: we're going to have to wait until we can test this phone, especially considering that it also has 5g to see what the battery life is like. The new racer has 256 gigabytes of storage and runs android 10, which brings a slew of new and useful features, especially to that exterior quick view display when the phone is locked and closed, just wave your hand over the phone or tap on the power button to use the outside screen in peak display mode. This lets you see, notifications by pressing and holding on an icon.

Now, if you swipe up while holding on the icon, you can see more notifications for that app or send a quick reply or give a like on instagram, for example. But when the phone is closed and unlocked, oh man, the quick view display turns into a mini android phone. You get swiped down to get the control panel swipe up to get the notification shade, swipe to the left, to go to the camera and swipe to the right to see and use apps that you've selected, you can use apps like YouTube, Facebook or Gmail on the petite display, complete with a mini keyboard. Motorola even threw in an addictive game for the display called Castro odyssey. Honestly, it has the best music better if using an app on the quick view display and then open the phone it'll pick up right where you were so.

If I'm watching a YouTube video about telescopes, I can continue watching it on the larger interior display. Just by opening the racer up now, Motorola said that any app that supports a 4-3 ratio should be able to work on the quick view display. So the possibilities are pretty pretty exciting, and I really look forward to trying out a bunch of more apps on it. Perhaps the racer's biggest improvement is that it isn't exclusive to Verizon anymore. You can get an unlocked version and use it on the likes of ATT and T-Mobile better.

Yet this little guy has support for 5g now Motorola said they place multiple 5g antennas in both ends of the phone that way whether the phone is open or you're. Using the phone closed you should always have the best 5g connection possible. Now, while the current state of 5g in the US is a mix of hype, hope and whatever the opposite of harmony, is that doesn't mean that 5g networks won't grow and become more robust over time, but it's nice that the racer has 5g. So even if you're not able to connect to a 5g network where you live right now, well, you might be able to do so eventually. Now, specifically, the racer supports the sub 6 flavor of 5g, which currently can be found on a t and T-Mobile in the U.

S. Some other odds and ends the February racer only had an e-sim, but the new racer supports dual sims: a physical NATO sim card, as well as an ENIM there's also NFC for Google Pay. The phone has water, repellent NATO coating on all internal components and on the exterior of the phone. So if you get a few rain drops on it, you should be okay, just don't go. Dropping your razor in the toilet.

Motorola is also committed to two OS updates and two years of security updates, and it promises a speedy release of those updates. Now, Samsung just announced they're going to be doing three of those OS updates, so I'd like to see Motorola get there, but two is better than one. I guess now, some things the new racer lacks are dual speakers: a headphone jack wireless charging, IP rated water and dust resistance, a high refresh rate display again. These are compromises made to make the razor simultaneously better less expensive and still have a screen that folds in half on paper. Motorola's seams have struck a good balance and I look forward to testing the razor out.

The new Motorola razor will be out this fall for 13.99 in the US. It will come in three colors polished, granite, blush gold or liquid mercury, which full disclosure also happens to be the name of my queen cover band. But you know what guys I want to hear from you. What do you think of the new Motorola racer? What do you think of its improvements? Do they go far enough? Are you interested in getting one throw your thoughts and questions in the comments?.

Source : CNET