We’re a family of Samsung users, but can’t decide between the Moto Razr+ and Galaxy Z Flip 5

Thanks to the advent of foldable displays, flip phones have seen a massive resurgence in recent years. The most popular options come from Samsung and Motorola, with the Galaxy Z Flip 5 and Razr+ being among the best foldables around. There are plenty of comparisons between the two phones, but with successors to both models right around the corner, my family set out to do something different to create the perfect comparison.

My wife, Millie, switched to flip phones in 2022 when she got the Galaxy Z Flip 4 through Samsung’s upgrade program, before following it up with a Z Flip 5. Motorola was kind enough to send over a Razr+ review unit for this article. Over a month, both Mille and I have switched between the Z Flip 5 and Razr+ to provide an in-depth comparison, just ahead of new annual refreshes for both.

Cover screen

There’s a clear winner

The cover screen on the Moto Razr+ is an absolute joy to use. While we prefer the dimensions of the Flip 5’s display, almost everything else about the Razr+ is better. The 120Hz refresh rate makes it far more usable for extended periods, and the way it handles apps will make you want to use it a lot.

Like the Flip 5, the Razr forces you to use the default keyboard on the cover screen, but seeing as that’s Gboard, it isn’t an issue at all. Gboard is, in my eyes, the best mobile keyboard out there, and it’s all we’d want to use anyway.

Millie appreciated the cover screen more than I did. She used it extensively to control Spotify, reply to messages, and even read a few Kindle book pages while waiting in line somewhere. She spends almost as much time using these devices closed as she does open, and the Razr+ elevated that experience far beyond what her Flip 5 can do.

I used it a lot, too, but primarily for changing music, paying for things, or quickly replying — everything else I did on the main display.

By comparison, the Flip 5 has a frustrating cover screen experience. It’s far better than previous Z Flips, but can’t hold a candle to the Razr+. We do prefer the shape of it; it sits closer to the hinge of the phone, which gives you additional usable space above the cameras. But that one positive isn’t enough to make up for the 60Hz refresh rate and limited software.

The included widgets are all well and good, but you can’t open apps unless you configure them all in Good Lock, and even then, they’re unstable. The only keyboard you can use is Samsung’s in-house option, which is plagued by laggy response times and appalling auto-correct.

The hinge

The Razr feels cheap

Both Millie and I immediately noticed that the Z Flip 5 is the better built phone. The hinge has no wobble, achieves an IPX8 rating for water resistance, and has a smooth range of movement.

Some foldables can feel lumpy, for lack of a better word. As you open or close them, the hinge feels like it occasionally catches on something, requiring extra force and often makes a noise. The Flip 5 takes consistent effort to open and close, stays quiet through the whole range of motion, and can hold almost any position between those two positions.

The Razr+ feels flimsier, there’s no way around it. When you hold it closed in the palm of your hand, you can feel the two halves of the phone flex slightly. As implied earlier, its hinge also feels inconsistent, and it doesn’t hold as many angles as the Flip 5. It can stay open, closed, and remain in an L shape, but nothing in-between. The vibration motor is significantly worse, too — you can hear it more than you can feel it.

Performance and battery life

The Flip 5 needs faster wired charging, and the Moto stronger wireless charging

Both phones perform well, but the Razr+ tends to chug when you ask it to install or update many apps simultaneously. Whether this comes down to its slower UFS 3.1 storage or its older Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 chip is unclear, though I do think the processor is behind another issue. While both phones can get toasty under pressure, Motorola’s device runs warmer much more frequently.

Battery life is about equal between the two. While they’ll never compare to what I get from my Galaxy S24 Ultra, Millie and I both easily made it until bedtime before the phones needed charging, with the Flip 5 having about 5-10% more left in reserve. What isn’t the same is charging the phones, which is equally frustrating for both, but for different reasons.

The Z Flip 5 impresses with its 15W wireless charging, but any goodwill you get from that dives off a cliff when you realize wired charging is limited to just 25W. The Razr+, meanwhile, only charges at 10W wirelessly, but it makes up for that with 30W wired charging, That 5W difference can be felt in both directions, but those faster wired speeds end up meaning the Razr+ is a breeze to top up.

The software

Feature-packed vs barebones

The biggest complaint I have towards the Razr+ comes down to software updates. Truthfully, Millie didn’t notice much of a difference when her Flip 5 got Android 14, and even with One UI 6.1, she’s never bothered to use Circle To Search or other Galaxy AI features apart from when I first showed her that they were there. But to hardcore users like myself, it matters — and I think regular users should care too.

The Razr+ is still running Android 13, and there’s no sign of Android 14, even days away from the announcement of its successor. Also, security patches only come every other month, and they are often late. Several European users, myself included, had a bug that prevented the phone from installing the January patch. The only way to fix it was to update it using a PC, factory resetting the device in the process.

Moto promises three years of Android updates and four years of these bi-monthly security patches, but I have almost no confidence in that promise. Meanwhile, the Flip 5 gets four Android upgrades and a fifth year of security patches, all of which are monthly and on time. My mother’s 2021 Galaxy A52 5G got Android 14 before the end of 2023, and now it even has the non-AI Galaxy S24 features from One UI 6.1.

What makes this worse is that the Razr+’s software, while barebones, is a joy to use. Motorola’s widgets, home screen customization, and gestures like chop-chop for the flashlight instantly become part of the experience you miss when you use something else. It’s all slick, fast, and well-made.

Samsung had a habit of throwing software at a wall and seeing what sticks, but the good news is when they hit something good, it’s really good. The Flex mode panel provides useful options for bending the phone in half, and Good Lock modules makes it shine that much more.

For both myself and Millie, One Hand Operation + is something we miss whenever we use a non-Samsung phone, as it allows us to customize Android’s gesture navigation system. You can create actions for swiping straight out from the side of the phone, diagonally up, or diagonally down. With these configured, we can perform back, home, and overview actions all from the side of the device without reaching for the bottom edge. Once it becomes a part of your muscle memory, it’s hard to go without it.

Foldables still suffer from reliability issues

Both phones gave their lives for this article

Both of these phones share reliability issues surrounding their display and hinge. When my first Razr+ unit arrived (a lovely Viva Magena model), it had a lump in the display that quickly spread to a crack after a few times opening and closing it. To their credit, the Motorola PR team had it replaced quickly, this time with a less exciting, but still attractive, blue.

A few weeks later, Millie was using her Flip 5 as usual when one of the rubber caps on the hinge popped out and killed the display. Even though the Flip 5 has been babied all its life, and it happened through no fault of our own, Samsung denied a warranty for this issue, claiming the rubber seal can’t fail without misuse.

No matter how much we argued, we had to pay for the repair. Thankfully, we have the phone insured, but the £90 (roughly $113.67) excess is still more than we should have paid for what is clearly a manufacturing defect.

That could, and probably should, put some people off. But Millie, who loves using foldables, is willing to deal with these issues. Still, it does show that these devices are not nearly as durable as their non-foldable alternatives, and that makes it a difficult buy for millions of smartphone users.

So, which did we prefer?

Both? Both are good

Ironically, while Millie and I agree on almost every aspect of this article, we chose different phones as our favorites. It should be no surprise that she picked her Z Flip 5, even though I offered her the Razr+ as a permanent swap if she wanted it. While the cover screen is a lot better, Samsung’s overall software experience and the improved construction won her over — as did familiarity, if we’re being honest.

Me? I’d take the Razr+ in a heartbeat. Objectively, it’s worse in a lot of ways, and I’m not sure I’d recommend it to others over the Flip 5. But the majority of its issues are more endearing than dealbreaking, reminding me of the early days of Android hardware — having a flawed, but functional, phone in my life once more makes me feel like a teenager again. The Razr+ has this underdog charm, and I’m simply a sucker for that.