New year, same phone? The Motorola Razr 2026 is a victim of its own success

Motorola’s new Razr is here, and it’s time to get excited, right? Well, yes, but also no.

In these heady days of everyone expecting a significant spec improvement or a new design for every annual product update, the Razr 2026 defiantly ignores them. It sticks to an established design and established specs, too.

I’ve had a short time with the Razr 2026, called the Razr 70 in the UK, and have discovered a phone that has become a victim of its own success.

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By  Stephen Radochia

Fantastic design

But so familiar

I have the Razr 2026 in its Pantone Sporting Green finish in my hands. The color is described as dark green, but it’s a more vivid and vibrant color than this suggests.

The rear panel and top edge of the cover screen are soft to the touch and have an intricate pattern when you look closely.

As with all of Motorola’s phones since the partnership with Pantone began, it looks excellent. More importantly, it’s unique, and no other brand is doing anything as interesting or eye-catching with colors as Motorola.

It’s a cohesive package, too. When you set up the phone, the default wallpaper complements the Sporting Green finish, and the metal chassis’s shine adds class and visual interest.

What’s more, the rear panel has plenty of grip, so the phone doesn’t slide around when face up on a surface.

The titanium hinge is apparently very similar to the one used on previous Razr phones, aside from a few unnamed small build upgrades, according to Motorola. It’s quiet, smooth, and closes with a very satisfying thunk.

However, almost all of this can be said about the Razr 2025. The dimensions are identical, the phones are the same weight, the screens are the same size and resolution, and the IP48 dust and water-resistance rating returns.

The Razr 2026 has MIL-STD-810H toughness certification, though, which the Razr 2025 didn’t advertise.

But because the body looks and feels basically the same, and everything is made with the same materials, it doesn’t appear that this is due to any specific upgrades.

Early software gremlins

It’s still early days

I’ve only used the phone for a short time, and the MediaTek Dimensity 7450X processor (the same as the Razr 2025) is adequate.

However, the three years of operating system updates beyond Android 16 that are already installed are a bit tight.

I had a few problems setting up the phone for the first time, with it failing once, forcing me to start over. It has encountered additional software gremlins since then, so I’ll be resetting it before the full review.

It also takes noticeably longer to restart than other Android phones.

I tried the phone just a few days after the announcement, and software updates are likely to arrive during my review time with the phone.

There’s early evidence that the Razr 2026/Razr 70’s software may need a little love to bring out its best.

Trying the camera out

The screen setting threatened to ruin it

I took a few photos with the 50-megapixel main camera, on what was arguably the perfect day. It was sunny, but with some clouds to help balance things out, and at a location where cameras should do good work.

The main 50MP is the same as before. However, the 50MP wide-angle camera is a potentially good update over the Razr 2025, and even the in-app 2x zoom shortcut appears to be usable (there’s no telephoto or optical-quality mode).

What’s odd here is that the phone’s screen calibration gave the photos a strange look. Colors were amplified, but not in a very natural or pleasant way, and looking at the images on a monitor highlighted the screen’s treatment.

It turned out that the screen was set to Vivid when I checked the Settings. The photos looked so much more normal when I altered the colors to Natural, and even on the Radiant setting.

It’s surprising that Motorola opted for Vivid as the default setting, considering how amped-up it made photos appear.

The Camcorder video mode returns, where folding the phone to a 90-degree angle in the camera app lets you hold the Razr 2026 like an old camcorder.

One new feature here is that a wrist twist activates zoom mode, allowing you to control it without touching the screen. It’s fun and well-calibrated, but you won’t want to zoom much beyond 2x as the image quickly gets very grainy.

Still the best affordable compact foldable

Just not a dramatically improved one

The problem with the Razr 2026’s relative lack of exciting hardware upgrades is that Motorola already has the recipe right, and the last few generations of the Razr have been excellent buys.

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I like the outer screen’s functionality, the ability to use apps, and its true always-on functionality. It’s small, light, well-made, and durable too.

It’s just difficult to see it as new, and I think a lot of people are going to hold this against it.

Certainly, if you bought a Razr 2025, there’s no reason to upgrade at all, and, in turn, that makes it a hard sell if you bought the 2024 phone too, as it was very similar to the 2025 model.

Motorola nailed the compact foldable and has found itself in a bit of a corner with few places to go without dramatically increasing the price.

Motorola hasn’t raised the price in the UK, where it remains at £800, but it bumped up the price by $100 to $800 in the US, which is unfortunate.

The Motorola Razr 2026/Razr 70 is the phone I’ll be reviewing next, and despite the lack of meaningful updates, I’m really looking forward to using it.

I think that demonstrates the lasting appeal of the Razr series, something that can’t be generated by an annual spec bump.