Motorola Razr+ (2023) Review: The Folding Flip Phone, Reinvented

We tested the Moto Razr+ (2023) primarily on T-Mobile and Telus’ sub-6GHz 5G and 4G LTE networks in San Francisco and Vancouver (Canada) and didn’t experience any problems with call quality of data speeds. This phone lacks mmWave 5G, but supports dual SIMs (nano SIM + eSIM), and works on all major US carriers. It’s available unlocked but also from T-Mobile and AT&T (sorry Verizon customers).

When it comes to audio performance, the Razr+ delivers. It packs stereo speakers (bottom edge plus earpiece) with Dolby Atmos that sound incredibly good considering the form factor. As you’d expect, this handset lacks a headphone jack, but it supports digital audio devices over USB Type-C for wired listening with your favorite DAC / amp, plus LDAC and aptX HD for high-quality wireless sound over Bluetooth.

The Moto Razr+ (2023) combines Qualcomm’s high-end Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 SoC with 8GB of RAM and 256GB of UFS 3.1 storage. Obviously, this phone feels pretty quick and responsive no matter how many apps you’re juggling. Our standard collection of social media, communication, and entertainment apps ran without skipping a beat, and the high refresh rate kept everything silky smooth on both displays.

As you can see from our benchmarks (below) the Razr+ doesn't compete with today's latest flagships, but it's plenty fast, with performance generally on par with other Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1-equipped handsets. Sustained workloads – like serious gaming – are a major challenge, though. As with most other folding flip phones we’ve tested, the Razr+ exhibits significant thermal throttling, dropping to 53.4% after 20 minutes in 3DMark’s Wild Life stress test.

While this is unfortunate, hard-core gamers aren’t the target audience for this product, so we don’t expect most Razr+ users to experience any performance issues with typical day-to-day apps.

GeekBench is a purely synthetic benchmark and can be heavily targeted for optimization. Regardless, the Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 processor delivers a notable improvement in single and multi-threaded performance over previous generation Snapdragon 8 Gen 1-equipped Android flagships.

Recently, Geekbench was upgraded to version 6, which includes new ways of testing multicore configurations and uses higher-resolution assets. Since this benchmark is brand new, we don't have as many data points, but as you can see, the Moto Razr+ (2023) performed quite well in this test.

Futuremark's PCMark for Android is an excellent suite of tests if you want to benchmark a wide range of tasks on any handset -- things like image and video editing, as well as lighter-duty, everyday workloads such as email and web browsing. When you see the test running live, it's clear the scripted application tests are carefully selected and tuned to make use of the each mobile platform in a very controlled way...

Here the Moto Razr+ (2023) shows similar performance to current Snapdragon 8 Gen 2-equipped devices, slotting just above Samsung's Galaxy S23 Ultra.

AnTuTu’s latest benchmark returns a number of metrics ranked with somewhat nebulous scores, rather than frame rates or time to complete. Here we're running the latest version of AnTuTu across multiple Android devices. AnTuTu returns four top level performance results which are all included here: CPU, RAM, 3D, UX (or User Experience), along with a total score...

According to AnTuTu, the Moto Razr+ (2023) under-performed vs. current generation Android handsets, which was unexpected.

However, in AITuTu, which is specifically an image recognition and classification benchmark for AI and machine learning workloads, we see a different picture. Here there are big gains for Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 powered devices like the Moto Razr+ (2023), putting it right alongside the Samsung's Galaxy Z Flip4.

Next we're checking how the Moto Razr+ (2023) compares in GFXBench, which has been one of the standard mobile graphics/gaming performance benchmarks for years. To ensure that display refresh (v-sync) and resolution aren't limiting factors, we're comparing off-screen test results here. GFXBench tests OpenGL ES graphics workloads and we're specifically testing OpenGL ES 2.0 and 3.0.

Based on other Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1-equipped devices we've reviewed, the Moto Razr+ (2023) under-performed in these tests, which was surprising, but Moto is probably being conservative with the VFC to keep the device cool and maximize battery life.

Futuremark's 3DMark Sling Shot is a newer benchmark module that's been added to the 3DMark mobile suite. Unlike previous gen 3DMark mobile tests, Sling Shot is a much more advanced OpenGL ES 3.1 and Metal API-based benchmark that employs more advanced rendering techniques, like volumetric lighting, particle illumination, multiple render targets, instanced rendering, uniform buffers and transform feedback.

3DMark Sling Shot Extreme Benchmark

Here again, the Moto Razr+ (2023) under-performed in this test, showing decent graphics performance but poor physics performance. The CPU cores are underperforming here for an unknown reason.

Unfortunately, the Moto Razr+ (2023) does exhibit similar throttling to what we experienced with other folding flip phones, managing a stability score of 53.4% in the Wild Life Stress test.

Other specs are quite familiar, and include sub-6GHz 5G, CAT 22 LTE, tri-band WiFi 6e (802.11ax), Bluetooth 5.3 (LE), NFC, A-GPS / LTEPP / SUPL / GLONASS / GALILEO positioning, plus the usual array of sensors. The side-mounted capacitive fingerprint reader is fast and accurate, but face unlock is hit and miss. A linear vibration motor provides superb haptics, if slightly weaker than expected.

Since the Razr+'s internal real estate is limited, battery capacity is only 3800mAh and is split between two cells (one in each half of the clamshell). That’s far less than today’s modern flagships. Regardless, battery life is still acceptable, with our PCMark Work 3.0 battery test lasting 11 hours and 44 minutes at 165Hz (adaptive). In the ten days we spent using this phone, it usually kept ticking for an entire day of regular use on a charge.

When it’s time for a refill, the Razr+ supports 30W wired charging (USB PD) and 5W Qi-compatible wireless charging (which is pretty slow). Unfortunately, there’s no charging brick supplied in the box, and no reverse wireless charging.

Next up: the software, pricing, and the review verdict...