What you need to know
- Motorola has finally announced its Android 10 update for the Motorola RAZR.
- It adds more functionality to the secondary display, My UX, and other features.
- Android 10 will be available for everyone by mid-May.
Leading up to the launch of the Motorola RAZR earlier this year, there was a lot of hype for Moto's nostalgia-filled foldable. Upon the device's launch, however, that excitement quickly turned to frustration as users grappled with its questionable durability, disappointing cameras, and the fact that it shipped with Android 9 Pie in the year 2020.
One of those issues is finally being addressed, with Motorola announcing its official rollout of Android 10 for the phone. MrMobile himself was able to get an exclusive look at the update, which you can see in video form above. If you prefer reading over watching, however, here's a quick rundown of what to expect.
Source: Michael Fisher
All of the usual Android 10 goodies are here, including the likes of dark mode, gesture-based navigation, revamped permissions, etc. That's all great stuff, and it brings the Motorola RAZR's core software up to feature parity with other modern handsets. However, Motorola also threw in a few of its own features to check out.
First and foremost, this update completely overhauls the RAZR's secondary display with a metric ton of new functionality. You'll now find a brand new user interface that's essentially a stripped-down version of Android 10, allowing you to swipe left to access your camera, swipe up to go home, and swipe right to access a panel of various contact shortcuts.
When you're on the new home page, swiping up takes you to a list of cards that showcase notifications and media controls. You can respond to messages with a regular QWERTY keyboard, and if you're using turn-by-turn navigation, you'll get a dedicated card for your directions. It's a lot like the Android notification panel you're used to, and it could be a nice alternative for folks that aren't familiar with Moto Display. That said, Moto Display is sticking around in tandem with the new UI if you prefer to use it instead.
All of this is great to see, but the implementation isn't exactly perfect. There's currently no calendar card/widget and notifications from certain apps (like Gmail) aren't supported for replies on the new UI. We should see more functionality added as time goes on, but don't be surprisied if you run into some initial funk.
There are a couple of other things to check out with the Android 10 update, including:
- My UX for more customization options (system font, accent color, app icons, etc.)
- Color spot and cutout shooting modes for the camera
Motorola says that all RAZR owners should get the Android 10 update by mid-May, so you shouldn't have long to wait for the new software to hit your unit.
It's great to see that Motorola used this update to build upon the RAZR experience rather than just delivering Android 10 and nothing more. Looking ahead, Motorola is also confirming that Android 11 will arrive on the phone at some point down the road. We don't have any sort of timeframe quite yet, but if you have a RAZR and live in the U.S., this won't be your last major OS update.
A foldable that's learning new tricks
The Motorola RAZR is not a perfect phone, but thanks to the new Android 10 update, it's better than it's ever been. Along with things like dark mode and a new gestured-based navigation system, Motorola's also added a ton of new functionality to the phone's secondary display. Whether or not that now makes it worth the steep asking price is up to you.
