The new Motorola Razr looks like a perfect wedding of old and new: a cutting-edge (and very expensive) foldable smartphone reviving the sleek flip-phone designs of a more civilized age. The clever hinge even avoids creasing the display, a problem with other first-gen foldables. Alas, it's not very good, reports Joshua Topolsky.
The prevailing reason I could see for having a phone that folds in half in this way is that it makes the phone smaller and easier to carry. That's nice, but a somewhat inessential problem for most people. Furthermore, the folding nature of the device and difficulty of opening it quickly and with a single hand made some things I normally do with my phone more difficult. To quickly reply to a message took more time. Glancing at Twitter became a two-handed affair. Taking a picture of something besides my own face couldn't be done single-handedly.
CNET's Patrick Holland has concerns.
Is the Razr durable? This one's tricky. Motorola released a video on how to care for the Razr that claims the "screen is made to bend; bumps and lumps are normal." I haven't encountered any bumps or lumps on the screen, but bumps and lumps are not normal. If you have a bump or lump on your body you should see a doctor.
What could be a better example of show-off feature that will be obsolete if not broken in months than a rumply bumpy foldable phone screen?
