Now that the 2024 Motorola Razr household is right here, it is already time to start out waiting for the Motorola Razr Plus 2025. It might appear early, however chances are high, Motorola is already creating and testing subsequent yr’s mannequin with higher specs, a more recent chipset, and doubtlessly up to date designs.
Because it’s nonetheless fairly early to invest on particular {hardware} or updates, we’ll focus as an alternative on what we need to see on the Razr Plus 2025, based mostly on my first hands-on impressions of the Motorola Razr Plus 2024. This yr’s telephone is already an improve over the Razr Plus 2023, however a few of Motorola’s decisions have us already waiting for 2025 for Third-gen fixes.
A very flagship chipset
Efficiency hasn’t actually been a difficulty with the latest Razr telephones. The 2023 mannequin does pretty properly, contemplating it makes use of a barely older chip than lots of its direct rivals, just like the Galaxy Z Flip 5. That mentioned, it is a half-step between the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 and the extra highly effective 8 Gen 2, and it is the latter chip that the Razr was actually competing with, making the telephone really feel a bit underpowered.
With the Razr Plus 2024, Motorola opted for the Snapdragon 8s Gen 3, which is a toned-down model of the premium Snapdragon 8 Gen 3. It nonetheless affords loads of AI capabilities, however not as many because the 8 Gen 3, nor does it provide issues like 8K video recording for individuals who care about that. So as soon as once more, Motorola went for the choice that feels half a step behind its rivals.
It isn’t essentially a foul factor, and the 8s Gen 3 remains to be a really succesful chipset that proved to work properly on telephones just like the Honor 200 Professional, however I’d like to see the Razr Plus 2025 launch with the Snapdragon 8 Gen 4, tapping into all of the capabilities that the brand new Oryon cores will provide.
Extra digicam enhancements
The jury remains to be out on whether or not or not Motorola’s new digicam system is the bee’s knees, however the brand new 50MP major sensor and Picture Enhancement Engine ought to work wonders for photos and lead to an output that is higher than what we bought with the Razr Plus 2023. That mentioned, the setup on the Razr Plus 2024 is sort of distinctive, as the corporate ditched the ultrawide sensor for a 2x telephoto digicam, with the goal of capturing higher portraits.
It is an fascinating transfer, to say the least, and one which not everybody will likely be pleased with, particularly with the cheaper Razr 2024 sporting an ultrawide sensor.
Ideally, we might get the most effective of each worlds, and Motorola would give us three rear sensors on the Razr Plus 2025. For the time being, it is nonetheless pretty unusual to search out three cameras on flip telephones, not to mention a telephoto lens, however it’s not fully unprecedented: The Huawei Pocket 2 has 4 rear cameras, together with a 8MP 3x telephoto lens.
Having three cameras means Motorola would seemingly have to alter its design a bit to accommodate, particularly if it desires to retain the large cowl show.
Tone down the quilt display
The quilt display is by far the most effective factor concerning the Razr Plus 2023, however there isn’t any doubt that it was overpowered, sporting a excessive pixel density and a 144Hz refresh price. For such a small show, that appeared like overkill, particularly on a telephone whose battery life was sub-par at greatest. One purpose to make use of the smaller show is to reframe from utilizing up a lot battery, however pushing all these pixels appears a bit counterintuitive.
The brand new Razr Plus 2024 addresses this considerably by implementing an LTPO show. This implies it ought to have the ability to drop all the way down to low refresh charges when crucial, like when viewing static content material, thus preserving battery life.
That is wonderful and dandy, however on such a small show, a 165Hz panel appears totally too highly effective for what most individuals will likely be doing on it. And let’s face it: gaming and watching films are nonetheless higher experiences on the primary show. Motorola ought to simply decrease the quilt display refresh price to 90Hz, because it did on the cheaper Razr 2024, as it should nonetheless present a smoother expertise with out utilizing as a lot battery energy. Both that or Motorola ought to at the very least present the choice to alter the quilt display refresh price individually from the primary show.
A greater software program promise
Motorola has improved considerably on the software program entrance, however the firm remains to be far behind its greatest rivals. Final yr’s Razr Plus is about to obtain three OS upgrades and 4 years of bi-monthly safety updates, which matches the Razr Plus 2024 software program promise. That is not unhealthy in any respect, even when it is beneath the seven years promised by Samsung and Google for his or her newest telephones. The issue is that on the time of writing, final yr’s mannequin remains to be ready on Android 14, whereas nearly each main OEM (together with Sony) has up to date their 2023 flagships to the most recent model.
To present Motorola credit score, the corporate has been fairly spot on with its bi-monthly updates, however when paying $1000 for a telephone, we should always not have to attend this lengthy for main software program updates to reach.
Motorola ought to try to do a lot better with the Razr Plus 2025, providing longer software program help and pushing updates sooner. It will be good to see the corporate take part in Android beta packages extra extensively, as to offer extra customers an avenue to check out the most recent model earlier than the steady replace launches.
Equipment
Motorola is beginning to actually make a splash with the Razr collection, however it seems like the corporate is not leaning into equipment as a lot because it ought to. The 2023 mannequin did not have a lot in the best way of first-party circumstances, and it took me fairly a couple of tries to discover a third-party Razr Plus 2023 display protector that I actually appreciated.
This yr, Motorola is launching new first-party circumstances that may allow you to add straps so you possibly can carry the telephone like a handbag. I like the thought, and it is the kind of enjoyable accent choice I wish to see the corporate lean extra into. Along with first-party circumstances, Motorola ought to companion with extra accent makers to develop on the probabilities. Thinborne makes a few of the greatest circumstances round, as they’re skinny and sturdy, and a few even help MagSafe equipment. I’d like to see extra case makers give us choices past Samsung and Google, and as one of many high Android OEMs in North America, Motorola must get in on this.
