The best things in life are free, or so the saying goes. Unless, of course, you want to buy one of the best folding phones. Then, my friends, you can expect to pay anything from a grand upwards, just as you would for any of the best flagship phones on the market right now.
Except, hold up, the new Motorola Razr 40 just announced at a flippin' bargain price that hugely undercuts the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 4's position. For £799 of your finest English pounds you can bag a brand new Razr 40, which as a launch price is truly exceptional (the Z Flip 4 was £999 at its launch, so 20% more).
So what do you get for the money? Well, I'm pleased to say that Motorola has been super savvy here, delivering what I suppose we can call an 'entry-level folding phone' (is that even a thing?) with flagship features.
Principal to which is the 6.9-inch internal screen – a larger offering than the 6.7-inch panel of its Razr (2022) predecessor, but for a cut of the older model's then price. In fact, as you can see in the shopping widget above, the older and kinda inferior Razr still costs more cash than the new Razr 40.
Inside the Motorola Razr 40's flippable shell is a Qualcomm Snapdragon 7 Gen 1 processor, which while I can call that 'a few steps behind' the current roster from Qualcomm, is still a powerful chip (top-tier Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 might've been a better option, but was never going to happen at this price point).
So what gives? What does the Razr 40 surrender that makes its more accessible asking price possible? I could say 'nothing', but the main distinction is the scale of its exterior 'cover display'. This lil chap is just 1.5-inches, positioning Moto's entry flip phone on a slightly different tangent (the pricier Razr 40 Ultra, meanwhile, flips the script with a 3.6-inch cover display).
For context: the cover display of the earlier Razr 2022 is 2.7-inch, while the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 4 features a 1.9-inch panel. We're not talking world-breaking differences here, of course, but if you've been following the flip phone pattern – such as the 3.26-inch toting Oppo Find N2 Flip – then you'll know that, typically, more has been the trajectory.
Thing is, I don't think that matters: the aforementioned Oppo's cover display wasn't very responsive, so its bigger scale didn't suddenly make it more usable. And Motorola's got plenty of experience in the flip phone space, after all, being the first to (re)-introduce the Razr back in 2018 (as a homage to its 2004 original).
It'll be interesting to see the response to the Razr 40, as I genuinely think Motorola has dangled the proverbial carrot to make folding phones truly affordable. As the antithesis to the near-£3K Google Pixel Fold (I know, hardly a like-for-like device, but c'mon), Motorola is clearly onto something here.
The Motorola Razr 40 will go on sale 'in coming weeks' this June, available in a variety of colourful finishes courtesy of Pantone: Sage Green, Vanilla Cream, and Summer Lilac. All of which sound like seasonal artisanal coffees, but hey, I'm still lapping it up at this price...
