As those of you who follow me on ActualidadiPhone Already know that I’ve been using an iPhone as my personal device for over five years while analyzing dozens of Android devices throughout the year. In August, Motorola kindly invited me to attend a presentation of the first “affordable” foldable device on the market. And that’s when I started to wonder if the time had finally come. To switch to foldable smartphones?
I spent a month testing the Motorola Razr 40, and here’s why I compared it to a foldable device. Find out what my experience was like with this type of device. and consider whether these devices really are the future of telephony or if they are a passing fad.
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Things that make me insecure
It always starts with bad news. And I won’t lie to you. There are several reasons why I am skeptical of using folding devices in my daily life. and i will give you spoilerI will continue to use my “traditional” smartphone, at least for a while.
We start with quality perception. It’s not the first or last foldable smartphone to pass through our hands. But there is no doubt that it caused the same feelings in me. Perceived quality does not depend on the price paid. This speaks volumes about the Motorola Razr 40, a device you can buy for next to nothing. 599 euros on Amazon And that’s without envying any other device that recently cost 1000 euros under the pretext of having “foldable” technology.
The results for me are always the same. It might meet the needs of the average Pocophone user, but not the average high-end buyer. It is often presented as a product that looks strong but still delicate from every pore. There was almost never any movement in the opening. Regardless of which mechanism you choose to use. It gets the smoothness you expect from a mobile device. And unfortunately, this does not improve over time, but only gets worse. This perception of poor quality has nothing to do with the materials used in production. But mainly due to instability the joints and especially the screen often appear. This deserves a separate issue.
For that screen More is not always better. These devices want to be tablets without actually being them. The result is often a panel whose dimensions exceed all logic. This allows the consumption of multimedia content without any incentives. Full of black stripes everywhere. whose sole purpose is to make us forget about those enormous surfaces that are absolutely useless. In the case of the Motorola Razr 40 we find a special panoramic format that allows us to enjoy the sidebar on YouTube, Netflix and other apps. Other applications, such horizontal panels do not have any content, and this is the inevitable result of folding. So…what are the motivations?
And now we have the previous two reasons combined. The crease on the screen is the first seam to separate on a foldable device. There will be those who have pros and cons in this matter. But I found the folding to be unbearable. Although in most situations this does not affect the device at all, outdoors and especially when the screen is turned off or showing dark colors. The folding of the panels, which became more accentuated with each opening and closing gesture we made, was unbearable for me. This crease is clearly noticeable when touching the screen. And to add my other insurmountable point, the resistance of the screen, which is the most important point of any smartphone, is zero.
The panels are no longer scratched by outside elements. But you can destroy it with your own nails and that helps. A feeling of exposure and fragility that prevents you from enjoying the device under normal conditions. Normal use on the beach carries a high risk. Not only because of the sand that will get into the hinges. but also because of the risk of scratching the board with sand and passing your fingers through it.
Ending with something that should be a tourist attraction. and it became the straw that broke the camel’s back. Turning on your phone for everyday use has become tiring. At a time when facial scanners aim to improve the way we begin to interact with our devices, they are as effective as possible. Barriers to device deployment (As happened on this Razr 40 and not on any other foldable device.) This seems like an unnecessary step to me, especially given some of the incentives I found behind it.
I wouldn’t mention price as the final obstacle to overcome. It would be hypocritical of me as a regular consumer of Apple devices, so I’ll leave that up to your discretion. What is clear to me is that the main attraction of a foldable device is the screen. And it seems to me that one of the weakest points is my own David and Goliath. That adds to a perceived quality that always seems terrible to me. And as a result, valuable time wasted in the deployment process. At least on the Razr 40, the external screen proved to be completely inadequate.
Something that looks like success to me.
As a victim of the iPhone 15 Pro Max in my daily life lCarrying this Motorola Razr 40 in your pocket in America is no luxury at all. The weight distribution is perfect. And the size when folded is larger than other high-end devices. That it doesn’t have this function is very slight.
Functions that must be performed when the phone is folded such as reading notifications and taking photos. It seems like one of the most interesting tourist attractions to me in this era. where every second is like gold I love being able to take a selfie or read a full WhatsApp message with just one gesture. It’s true that these are tasks I usually do with a smartwatch while on duty, but the Motorola Razr 40 makes me think it’s even possible to do without it.
The possibility of expanding content and applications that are well adapted to these large screens without suffering from having to carry them in your pocket is another point where it looks like a real success. For me, and that makes me dream of clarity. Foldable while I’m using this Motorola Razr 40
in the end, The price that Motorola is offering on this device looks a bit attractive to me. It’s a waste of excuses for those who want to enjoy foldables and find the price barrier an insurmountable obstacle.