Watch The Motorola Razr Fold Repeatably Until Its Display Hinge Begs For Mercy
Those durability issues were directly addressed by CNET, which decided to test out the hinge on the Motorola Razr. Needless to say, the result were rather… interesting. The publication used its FoldBot to open and close the Razr repeatedly under controlled conditions to see if it could make it to 100,000 folds.
Unfortunately, the display hinge threw in the towel at just 27,000 cycles. At that point, the hinge became incredibly stiff, making opening and closing the device harder to achieve. It was also discovered that the flexible plastic display developed a new set of creases that seemingly correspond to the metal plates that makeup the hinge.
According to results from the Deloitte's 2018 Global Mobile Consumer Survey, the average American checks his or her phone 52 times a day. The fact that the Razr has a secondary Quick Display to easily glance at notifications might reduce that number a little bit, but owners are still going to be opening and closing the device likely dozens of times per day. Even at a conservative rate of opening/closing the device 40 times a day, you’re looking at just over two years of use before display failure (given the 27,000-fold benchmark).
For reference, the CNET put the revised Samsung Galaxy Fold through the same test back in October and its display failed at 120,000 folding cycles. In other words, Motorola’s showing looks incredibly bad next to Samsung. The same FoldBot used in the Galaxy Fold test was modified for use on the Razr.
The publication caps off its results with the following caveats, writing, “Do the results of our test indicate that the $1,499 Razr won't last a full year of regular wear and tear? Not quite. Besides our concerns about the FoldBot's design modifications from the Galaxy Fold to Razr, the stats on average daily phone checks were all thus far collected from non-folding phones.
“Who's to say if foldable phone users might actually check their phones more frequently because of that satisfying click?”
The Motorola Razr is currently available to purchase with a price tag of $1,499. It will soon be joined by the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip which will have a similar form-factor, a much faster Qualcomm Snapdragon 855 processor, a larger battery while being priced at around $1,400.
