Now that the 2024 Motorola Razr family is here, it's already time to start looking ahead to the Motorola Razr Plus 2025. It may seem early, but chances are, Motorola is already developing and testing next year's model with better specs, a newer chipset, and potentially updated designs.
Since it's still quite early to speculate on specific hardware or updates, we'll focus instead on what we want to see on the Razr Plus 2025, based on my first hands-on impressions of the Motorola Razr Plus 2024. This year's phone is already an upgrade over the Razr Plus 2023, but some of Motorola's choices have us already looking ahead to 2025 for 3rd-gen fixes.
A truly flagship chipset
Performance hasn't really been an issue with the most recent Razr phones. The 2023 model does fairly well, considering it uses a slightly older chip than many of its direct competitors, like the Galaxy Z Flip 5. That said, it's a half-step between the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 and the more powerful 8 Gen 2, and it's the latter chip that the Razr was really competing with, making the phone feel a bit underpowered.
With the Razr Plus 2024, Motorola opted for the Snapdragon 8s Gen 3, which is a toned-down version of the premium Snapdragon 8 Gen 3. It still offers plenty of AI capabilities, but not as many as the 8 Gen 3, nor does it offer things like 8K video recording for those who care about that. So once again, Motorola went for the option that feels half a step behind its competitors.
It's not necessarily a bad thing, and the 8s Gen 3 is still a very capable chipset that proved to work well on phones like the Honor 200 Pro, but I would love to see the Razr Plus 2025 launch with the Snapdragon 8 Gen 4, tapping into all the capabilities that the new Oryon cores will offer.
More camera improvements
The jury is still out on whether or not Motorola's new camera system is the bee's knees, but the new 50MP primary sensor and Image Enhancement Engine should work wonders for images and result in an output that's better than what we got with the Razr Plus 2023. That said, the setup on the Razr Plus 2024 is quite unique, as the company ditched the ultrawide sensor for a 2x telephoto camera, with the aim of capturing better portraits.
It's an interesting move, to say the least, and one that not everyone will be happy with, especially with the cheaper Razr 2024 sporting an ultrawide sensor.
Ideally, we could get the best of both worlds, and Motorola would give us three rear sensors on the Razr Plus 2025. At the moment, it's still fairly uncommon to find three cameras on flip phones, let alone a telephoto lens, but it's not completely unheard of: The Huawei Pocket 2 has four rear cameras, including a 8MP 3x telephoto lens.
Having three cameras means Motorola would likely have to change its design a bit to accommodate, especially if it wants to retain the massive cover display.
Tone down the cover screen
The cover screen is by far the best thing about the Razr Plus 2023, but there's no doubt that it was overpowered, sporting a high pixel density and a 144Hz refresh rate. For such a small display, that seemed like overkill, especially on a phone whose battery life was sub-par at best. One reason to use the smaller display is to reframe from using up so much battery, but pushing all those pixels seems a bit counterintuitive.
The new Razr Plus 2024 addresses this somewhat by implementing an LTPO display. This means it should be able to drop down to low refresh rates when necessary, like when viewing static content, thus preserving battery life.
That's fine and dandy, but on such a small display, a 165Hz panel seems entirely too powerful for what most people will be doing on it. And let's face it: gaming and watching movies are still better experiences on the main display. Motorola should just lower the cover screen refresh rate to 90Hz, as it did on the cheaper Razr 2024, as it will still provide a smoother experience without using as much battery power. Either that or Motorola should at least provide the option to change the cover screen refresh rate separately from the main display.
A better software promise
Motorola has improved somewhat on the software front, but the company is still far behind its biggest competitors. Last year's Razr Plus is set to receive three OS upgrades and four years of bi-monthly security updates, which matches the Razr Plus 2024 software promise. That's not bad at all, even if it's below the seven years promised by Samsung and Google for their latest phones. The problem is that at the time of writing, last year's model is still waiting on Android 14, while just about every major OEM (including Sony) has updated their 2023 flagships to the latest version.
To give Motorola credit, the company has been pretty spot on with its bi-monthly updates, but when paying $1000 for a phone, we should not have to wait this long for major software updates to arrive.
Motorola should strive to do much better with the Razr Plus 2025, offering longer software support and pushing updates faster. It would be nice to see the company participate in Android beta programs more widely, as to give more users an avenue to try out the latest version before the stable update launches.
Accessories
Motorola is starting to really make a splash with the Razr series, but it feels like the company isn't leaning into accessories as much as it should. The 2023 model didn't have much in the way of first-party cases, and it took me quite a few tries to find a third-party Razr Plus 2023 screen protector that I really liked.
This year, Motorola is launching new first-party cases that will let you add straps so you can carry the phone like a purse. I love the idea, and it's the type of fun accessory option I want to see the company lean more into. In addition to first-party cases, Motorola should partner with more accessory makers to expand on the possibilities. Thinborne makes some of the best cases around, as they're thin and durable, and some even support MagSafe accessories. I would love to see more case makers give us options beyond Samsung and Google, and as one of the top Android OEMs in North America, Motorola needs to get in on this.
