As a Samsung fan, I love what Motorola is doing with the Razr

The new Motorola Razr lineup is getting mixed opinions. Some Motorola fans find the new phones lazy; others are indifferent. Reactions really are all over the place.

I don’t think the 2026 Razrs are perfect, but compared to what Samsung is doing with its devices lately, I love what Motorola has done with its flip phones. And, to be perfectly honest, I would readily pick one over a Galaxy Z Flip 7.

What Motorola is doing better than Samsung

As I said at the outset, to some, the 2026 Razr lineup is disappointingly similar to the 2025 models. The cameras have had some minor tweaks, and the batteries are slightly larger, but the chipsets in the Plus and Ultra are the same as in 2025. More importantly, the prices have gone up.

It may sound hypercritical of me to say I like what Motorola is doing while criticizing Samsung for not innovating enough, but there’s a key difference. The hardware Motorola has released this year is leaps and bounds ahead of what Samsung has, which makes it easier for me to love these phones — even if they’re not that different from last year’s models.

What’s better about Moto’s hardware versus Samsung’s? Everything, really. The specs of the Razr Plus compared to the Z Flip 7 are almost embarrassing when you remember they have the same $1,100 starting price. A 50MP ultrawide camera instead of 12MP, a brighter, 165Hz, 10-bit main display, and a 200mAh larger battery with 45W wired charging rather than just 25W on the Z Flip 7. I haven’t used a phone with a Snapdragon 8s Gen 3 or an Exynos 2500. But based on my experience with Exynos chips in other Samsung phones, I’d bet the Snapdragon-powered Razr offers smoother, more consistent performance than the Flip. 7.

Specs on paper don’t tell the whole story. Software and features play a significant role in how a phone feels to use, and while I usually enjoy singing One UI’s praises, I can’t this time. On a flip phone, One UI lacks the features and ease of use that people expect from the form factor, especially with the cover screen. Motorola lets you use almost all of what the phone has to offer without opening it, while Samsung hamstrings the experience by locking important features behind Good Lock modules that often don’t work how you’d hope they would.

Unless you go digging through the aforementioned Good Lock modules, the Flip 7 unnecessarily limits what apps you can use while the phone is closed. The experience with the apps you can use isn’t great either, as you’re forced to use Samsung’s keyboard, even if you have an alternative like Gboard set as the default.

The Razr, meanwhile, lets you use any app you want on the cover screen, set them up without opening the phone, and use Gboard. Apps and keyboard aside, the Razr has Desk Display, which can display media playback, notifications, or a carousel of favorite photos when you put the phone in tent mode on your desk. These aren’t new features, either. Desk Display debuted with the 2024 Razrs, and my 2023 Razr Plus got it in a software update. Samsung has had years to see what people love about the Razr, but it has failed to learn any lessons from it, leaving Motorola with 50% of the US foldable market share. Unless Samsung makes some drastic changes this year, that won’t change anytime soon.

The overall experience of the 2026 Razrs is leaps and bounds ahead of what Samsung is offering with the Flip 7, and if that’s true of the cheaper Razr and the competing Razr Plus, I can only imagine how much better the expensive Razr Ultra is.

Samsung is still in the race, but not by much

There are still reasons to buy the Z Flip 7 over a Razr, paramount among them software support. Motorola may have committed to seven years of updates for the Razr Fold, matching Samsung, but all three of the Razr flip phones — including the $1,500 Ultra — will only get three years. That’s not good enough. If Samsung can support the $200 Galaxy A17 5G for six years, then Motorola should be able to at least match that. Ultimately, it’s hard for me to recommend any of the three Razrs until software support changes, which is frustrating when the phones are this good.

Software support aside, I love what Motorola is doing with its folding phones, and Samsung has to start making improvements if it has any hope of keeping up. I might be a Pixel user these days, but I still have a soft spot for Samsung, and I want its products to be the best. But when it comes to flip phones, they aren’t.

How do you feel about the 2026 Razr lineup? Are you as bored by Samsung’s foldables as I am? I’d love to hear from you.