I've been using a new phone for the past month, as shown in the photo above. Hmm, that might not be the best way to show it off, how about this comparison?

There we go! This is the Motorola Razr+, which released in 2023 and up until this month was arguably the latest and greatest flip-style folding phone in the North American market (by many accounts, at least). This phone launched at $999, but is currently on sale at Best Buy for $349, and I figured to hell with it, let's try a folding phone. For half-ish the price of Apple's budget phone, let's get into the folding market to see what all the hype is about.

Two types of folds

There are two types of folding phones, both of which have a "normal" phone mode, but transform into something else when you want it. The "flip" phone is what I have, and lets you sometimes use a smaller device that does less. Meanwhile, the "fold" style phone lets you sometimes use a bigger device that does more.

I think Apple's more likely to jump into the fold category since it would be a premium device and people with that budget likely want to do more with their phones, but the flip category was on mega sale and I think still shares a few insights that I didn't really have from just watching some videos about folding phones.

Size and thickness

I've always loved the idea of a small phone, but the practicalities of small phones always falls flat for me. They have terrible battery life compared to normal phones and everything is cramped on the screen. These are simply facts, and while some people are happy to have those trade-offs, they're not things that work for me. That's what makes the flip style folding phones most compelling to me personally. This phone is basically as large as my iPhone 16 Pro Max, but it's absolutely tiny in my pocket. In fact, here it is (just barely) fitting in the coin pocket I use to carry my AirPods.

This is admittedly not something I'd do, but it is nice having it take less space in my pocket regularly, as well as in my running shorts, which tend to have smaller pockets and are less comfortable to carry around a large slab like the 16 Pro Max. The RARZ just slips right into those pockets and feels invisible when I'm working out.

Of course, this phone is thicker than my iPhone when folded up. I acknowledge this, but it's not a big difference, especially when I consider my iPhone is normally in a case which brings these thicknesses closer together in practice. When open, the thickness is very similar between the two phones, with the RAZR feeling thinner due to its rounded edges.

The bottom line is that a thinner folding phone would be great, and while it's not a big deal in a flip style phone like this, I think it would make a much bigger difference if you were using a fold style phone.

How I use the outside screen

I basically never use the phone for more than a few seconds in its folding mode, I'm always opening it up to do what I want. The sorts of things I do on it include:

  • Send short replies to text messages
  • Check the last few notifications
  • Change smart home stuff
  • Ask the assistant to do things
  • Pay with NFC at a store
  • Use playback controls

If that list feels oddly familiar, it's probably because that's also a pretty good summary of the sorts of things a lot of people use their Apple Watch to do today. When we put the "jobs to be done" product hat on, it really seems like the overlap for this type of foldable and smart watches is pretty significant. Given Apple's dominance in the smart watch (watches in general, really) market, they probably wouldn't be too keen on replicating those tasks on their first folding phone. "Get the new iPhone which makes your watch kinda redundant!"

The cameras shine in the folding form factor

The cameras really get to shine in the folding form factors. In the shot above, you can see how I can fold the phone at an angle to hold the camera at whatever angle I want to take a photo. This lets me take still shots without the need for a tripod, and the timer mode lets me set up for a group shot without needing someone else to hold the camera for us.

If you fold the phone completely up, you can use the main camera sensor as your selfie camera as well, since you can see your framing on the outside screen. This is awesome for getting the maximum quality for selfie shots and videos, as well as getting to use all external lenses, so suddenly ultra-wide selfies are possible!

A few third party apps also flip into a custom UI layout when half-folded. YouTube makes the video use the whole top half of the screen and expands the controls to the bottom half. It's pretty nice, although I think this would be better on a fold style phone where the video would be larger

Authentication is key (and it's weird here)

Much of my time with the RAZR+ has involved fumbling with the device to get my finger on the side-mounted fingerprint sensor. This has been very frustrating as this sort of device is naturally held in different configurations, and it's not always true that your finger is naturally going to rest on the sleep/wake button. I really wish this phone has Face ID.

But then I also realized that this phone needs two Face ID sensors: one for when the phone is closed and one when it's open. Apple technically could make Face ID work only on the inner camera, but that would suck, so they really need to make it work in both form factors and that's gonna be expensive.

Side note: after being used to an under-screen fingerprint reader in my Pixel 7 for the past few years, it was annoying going back to a reader in the sleep/wake button. In my opinion, the ideal device would have Face ID with an under-screen Touch ID fallback.

Handling is a little awkward

It’s been just a week, so take this with a grain of salt, but using a flip phone is a little awkward most times I want to use it. The external screen is good, but it’s really not useful for most of the things I do quickly on my phone, so I’m unfolding the device almost every time I reach for it. This is adding a second step to doing something on my phone almost every time I reach for it compared to a traditional slab phone.

Motorola has some decent software for showing playback controls, weather, and a few other widgets on the smaller outside screen, but they’re not great (Motorola’s own weather widget has text cut off by the camera cut outs, for example). I think this is an obvious place where Apple’s current widget system could be updated to support this external display to give you more options for displaying info.

Rubber bezel

This is an interesting thing I don’t know how Apple would address, but the RAZR+ has a subtle, but noticeable rubber or soft plastic bezel around the whole inner screen that’s slightly raised from the glass itself. It’s not a huge deal, and it’s less than the bump you would have around the screen if you are using a phone case, but it’s still not delightful. It’s fine, it just isn’t awesome.

Now this bezel (which is perfectly symmetrical, for what it's worth) isn’t here for yucks, it’s here to protect the screen from slamming into itself when you close the phone. Unlike some early folding phones, this device folds so that both sides are parallel, meaning the display would be pressed up against itself if the slight bumps weren’t there. Apple would probably have to do something similar, lest screens would be prone to cracking when you angrily slam the phone shut to end a phone call (a fond memory of using old flip phones).

The crease

One thing a lot of people get hung up on with folding phones is the crease in the middle, where the display folds in half. The two concerns I tend to see from people, and truthfully I had myself, were that it would look bad because it's not totally flat and would reflect the world around you in an odd way, and that you would feel it constantly while swiping on your screen as you use the phone normally.

Before I say how I feel about this so far, I will say this is a similar situation in my experience to how I felt about spatial personas on the Vision Pro last year. See, I saw the spatial personas in videos and screenshots from other people, and they looked ridiculous to me. However, once I actually did it myself, I was completely convinced and really thought it was a fantastic experience in all the ways people who had used it before had told me it was. Similarly, I've seen people using folding phones tell me that the reflections are not an issue and they don't really think about the crease feeling any different from the rest of the screen. And I didn't quite believe it.

Well, I'm here to say that after some time with a folding phone with a crease, I have to largely agree with the people who said it's not really a big deal. Yes, you can absolutely feel it, and yes, you can absolutely see it if you get a light reflected in the screen at just the right angle. That said, I really don't think about it when using the phone day to day. The reflection is definitely the smaller problem and is effectively never an issue for me. Occasionally, I'll notice it, but I don't really think anything of it.

Meanwhile, the feel of the crease is a definitely more of an issue and is something I hope that they can sort out eventually. Basically, I find I'm rarely crossing the crease when I swipe on my phone, as most of my swipes are on the bottom half of the display. However, in some things I do, such as playing the poker game on Puzzmo, I'm sliding cards from the bottom half of the screen to the top half, and I cross the crease when doing that. This objectively does not feel great, and to me, I can best describe it as swiping on your phone screen when there's a substantial smudge on it and there's a little bit of friction as you go over it. It's not horrible, but it's certainly not good. And like I said, it doesn't come up that often for me, so the majority of the time it's not an issue, but it would be absolutely wonderful if Apple could announce their folding phone and say that there is absolutely no crease.

Current thoughts

This is the most excited I've been about using an Android phone in many years. As I alluded to at the start of this article, I really don't enjoy Android on the whole. It's not the operating system so much as the apps, which I just find worse in every single case compared to the equivalent app I could use to do the job on iOS. Maybe that's another conversation for another day, but I just find it unenjoyable using most apps on Android. And that's why using normal phones, such as the Pixel line, haven't really excited me in many years. Those are just different versions of the phone I already use day to day, just with the software I don't prefer.

But a folding phone is objectively new and is something I literally cannot get from an iPhone, and so that makes this a more interesting experience for me personally. I do find myself enjoying using this form factor, although I also get the strong impression that I am more of the sort of person who would like a folding phone rather than a flip phone, because I don't necessarily want a phone that does less sometimes, I want a phone that does more sometimes. I really love having a smaller phone in my pocket.

I was so convinced that I would like the folding experience that I actually started shopping for a folding phone over the last couple days with the feeling, "fuck it, let's just get a folding phone and try it out." Then I saw the prices and I immediately recoiled. $350 for a flip phone is certainly a splurge, but something I can sort of justify. But to get a reasonably modern folding phone is going to set me back at least $1,400, and that's just insane, so I'll just have to imagine for now. This does also worry me that Apple's folding phone is going to start at $1,999 minimum.

It will be interesting to see if and when Apple releases a folding iPhone, but if they do, count me in. Maybe my feelings will change as I use this phone more, but my initial impressions are that there's definitely something here. Even if the flip style device that I personally got isn't the folding form factor for me.