AdminFor most years, the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip lineup doesn’t have much competition, but in 2022, that all changed as the 2022 Motorola Razr became a serious contender to the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 4.
It wasn’t Motorola’s first foldable clamshell phone, but it was the company’s first truly great product and left us with high hopes for the 2023 Motorola Razr.
We’re already hearing a bit about this upcoming phone, so below are all the news, leaks, and rumors we’ve heard so far, and will add to this article as we hear more.
Underneath this, you’ll also find a list of things we expect from the Motorola Razr 2023 to make it an even better foldable phone than the Razr 2022.
To the point
- What is this? Another Motorola foldable phone
- when is it coming out? Probably around August 2023
- How much it will cost? Probably around £949.99 / AU$1,599 (around AU$1,155)
Motorola Razr 2023: release date and price
We’ll probably have to wait a bit for the Motorola Razr 2023 as the Razr 2022 didn’t land until August 2022, so August 2023 is the most likely release month for the next model.
Motorola doesn’t stick to August every year, but these phones are always announced at least towards the end of the year, so if anything, August is probably the earliest we’ll see them.
That said, the CEO of Lenovo (which currently owns Motorola) said in February 2023 that the next Razr will arrive “very soon”, so it’s possible it will land sooner than expected.
There is also the question of which countries it will actually be made available in, as while the 2022 model is available in the UK and Australia, it is currently not available for purchase in the US – although previous models have been launched there.
There are no price rumors yet, but the 2022 Motorola Razr starts at £949.99 / AU$1,599 (around AU$1,155), so a similar price point for the next model is entirely possible.
The 2022 Razr marked the best price-performance balance ever achieved by Motorola’s foldable series, and ultimately made them competitively priced against the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip counterpart. Of course, it would be great if prices continued to drop, but that seems a step too far, even if Oppo’s new rival seems to be pushing the needle in that direction, with the impressively affordable Oppo Find N2 Flip.
Motorola Razr 2023: news and leaks
Before we get to the leaks, a few messages straight from the CEO of Lenovo, to which Motorola belongs. They claim the 2023 Razr is “much better” than the current model, with the improvements focusing on hinges and apps.
Now let’s move on to the leaks and there aren’t many Motorola Razr 2023 leaks so far, but we’ve heard a few things including one claim that comes from Evan Blass (opens in a new tab)a reputable leaker who tweeted that there will be two new Razr models in 2023. They will apparently be codenamed Juno and Venus, but no additional details have been given.
Of these, Juno is likely to be the successor to the Razr 2022 as an earlier leak on 91 Mobile phones (opens in a new tab) said Motorola’s 2022 Razr successor was codenamed Juno and would again have a 144Hz screen.
So what about Venus? There are no news about this. The source above actually also mentioned another phone, codenamed Felix, which is apparently the company’s first rollable phone, but that’s likely beyond that – a potentially marketable version of the Rizr rollable concept that we got a glimpse of at MWC 2023.
The Venus could be a phone more like the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 4, but that’s just speculation for now.
Blass recently resurfaced with an apparent rendering of the upcoming phone, showing the Razr with a much larger display on the cover. In the new design, the hood wraps around the camera lenses and takes up much more of the front surface when closed. We’d love to see a more usable external screen, and the next live image seems to confirm that. It also showed off a potential two-color design that we find quite fun and attractive.
At the same time, many reports from My smart price (opens in a new tab)(citing FCC certification and other sources) says the phone will be called the Motorola Razr Plus and will come with a 3,640mAh dual-cell battery and be capable of 33W fast charging. An earlier report said the Razr would have a battery 2850 mAh, but this was probably due to incomplete information.
The FCC certification shows that the phone’s dual-cell battery consists of the aforementioned 2850mAh battery and an additional 790mAh unit. Of course, after obtaining FCC certification, the Moto Razr Plus or Moto Razr 2023 are expected to be launched soon.
What we want to see
There’s a lot we’d like Motorola to work on with the next Razr model, with the following five at the top of our list.
1. Better cameras
The Motorola Razr 2022 has much better cameras than previous models, but there is still room for improvement in the Razr 2023.
We want to see improvements in post-processing, a better ultra-wide camera – as the Razr 2022 disappoints – and ideally even the addition of a telephoto lens; although that last part may be too much hope.
2. Long-term update support
Motorola promises only two years of Android version updates and three years of security patches in the Razr 2022, which is simply not enough, especially for such an expensive phone, and even more so when Samsung and OnePlus offer four years of Android updates and five years of security patches for select phones.
So we want Motorola to commit to much longer software support with the Razr 2023, otherwise it might be hard to recommend.
3. Waterproof
It seems like it would be hard to make a foldable phone waterproof, but somehow Samsung has managed it with the latest phones, so we’d like Motorola to do the same with the next Razr.
Technically, you get some on the Razr 2022, but its IP52 rating falls far short of what Samsung offers.
Decent water resistance is standard on premium phones, and for good reason – because the last thing you want is a little rain that turns your purchase into an expensive paperweight.
4. Wireless charging
While the Motorola Razr 2022 has a reasonable battery life and charges fairly quickly, it only supports wired charging, which is a shame for such an expensive phone, especially since its main rival – the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 4 – offers wireless charging. So we would like the Motorola Razr 2023 to offer this too.
5. Smoother performance
There’s no shortage of power in the Motorola Razr 2022, however, in our review we found that the actual performance wasn’t always great, with some noticeable spikes and stutters.
Given the hardware and price, this is truly unacceptable, so we’d like the Razr 2023 to be optimized to consistently offer smooth performance as this will help it rank among the best foldable phones.
