Motorola Razr (2025) isn't a lazy rehash – it brings the best of 'Ultra' to the masses

The flip phone market has a new entrant in Samsung’s more affordable Galaxy Z Flip 7 FE – short for “Fan Edition” – and, while that’s exciting in itself, I’m not sure Samsung’s option holds any ground up against the base Motorola Razr which, for 2025, is about as good as you could ask a more-affordable foldable flip phone to be.

The flip phone form factor has always been more affordable compared to the more capable and advanced book-style devices, and that’s largely because it’s inherently designed to be. After all, this isn’t stuffing a tablet into a phone. Rather, it’s a phone that just happens to fold in half.

And, frankly, no one knows flip phones better than Motorola.

While Samsung and Motorola have traded blows for years in the foldable space, 2025 is where Motorola feels as though it has hit its stride. The Motorola Razr Ultra we reviewed recently is quite literally as good as you can ask a flip phone to be. It has excellent displays, plenty of power, a good camera, and a great design too. Plus a ton of AI, should you care about that. But even without any fluff, it’s just a good phone at its core.

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The problem is just the price because, at $1,299, the Razr Ultra just prices itself out of what is already somewhat of a niche market.

That’s where the base Motorola Razr (2025) steps in. At $699, it’s a much easier sell. The MediaTek 7400X chipset is powerful enough for this price point, and the package as a whole just doesn’t suffer from any pressure in regards to that price.

After using Razr (2025) for the past few weeks, I’ve been pretty happy with it in just about every regard. The performance is good, the cameras are just fine, and the battery life is absolutely rock solid. The outer display is the main thing you’re giving up compared to Razr Ultra, as the smaller panel quite literally leaves less space for apps. But, frankly, I don’t see this as a huge issue. I can still use every app that I actually want to use. For example, I can easily pull up a boarding pass on Google Wallet (which always gets a fun reaction from gate agents), read the full contents of a text or email, or play a video on YouTube when I don’t need a huge canvas for it. The base Razr still packs wireless charging, 256GB of storage, eSIM support, and basically all of the little perks that you’d get from buying a proper flagship, just at a fraction of the price.

That’s where I think Motorola will shine compared to the Galaxy Z Flip 7 FE. Samsung’s $899 “affordable” device is called a “Fan Edition,” but it’s just a recycled version of last year’s phone with a worse chip. Technically, the Razr (2025) is just reusing the design from 2023’s flagship Razr, but it’s giving it new life with the help of this delightful “Spring Bud” design and strategic decisions on what the overall package brings to the table.

But the real kicker is the price.

Samsung just feels as though it’s offering a worse version of last year’s phone, and for only $200 less. Motorola’s strategy isn’t all that different, but it comes with a much bigger difference. At $699, the base Razr (2025) is meaningfully more affordable than the Razr Ultra, and even the Razr+. The Galaxy Z Flip 7 FE, put simply, is not.Franky, I find Samsung’s “affordable” Flip rather insulting, as when you compare the appropriate 256GB storage tier, it’s $300 more than the base Motorola Razr (2025), but it’s also only $100 less than the regular Galaxy Z Flip 7, which is simply laughable.

I’m curious to see if Motorola’s latest release will age better than past “low-end” Razr releases, most of which have turned into a laggy mess within a year or two. Razr (2025), though, is starting from a much better point. I think Motorola has built something for the masses here.

Would you buy one?

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