Galaxy Z Flip vs Motorola Razr: What we REALLY think By CNET Highlights

So yesterday Samsung took the wraps off of the Galaxy Z flip, and this phone already has huge implications for the Motorola Razr and for every other foldable phone, and we're going to tell you exactly what we think about it. One of the biggest things is price, so this is gonna, be the cheapest foldable available on the market. Samsung is going to sell it for 1380 when it goes on sale, Friday that is $600 less than their fold from last year, and the Motorola Razr was 1500. So that's about $120, less already for the Galaxy, flip, and I'm thinking. If you want to have a foldable phone and that clamshell design, you're, probably gonna, think that cheaper is a little better, especially since these are still over $1000 each yeah, so I mean Samsung is doing this because they really want this to be accessible to more people. The fold was kind of this, almost experiment for tech early adopters.

If you wanted to shell out $2,000 on this device, that was basically who this was for when you're priced at Sub 1400 you're getting closer to even iPhone pricing at this point, so it just makes it a lot more affordable for people, but that doesn't mean it's cheap. It's still pretty pricey, absolutely I think that the people who are going to be buying foldable phones. You know it's hard to see them right now, at this stage, being the only phone that somebody will use, but I could see somebody saying like ah 1400, maybe I could get this as a backup just to show that I'm like cool, and it's sort of a status symbol, which was how Samsung was trying to sell it. Yeah, I mean- and this is just a huge deal for Motorola and the razor that was kind of seen as the cheap foldable when they announced it was gonna, be $1500. You know everybody was like wow.

This is, you know, significantly cheaper than what the fold is, but Samsung's really trying to undercut them to just you know make sure that people are gonna, buy the Z flip and not buy the razor, and, to be honest, when I look at the specs and when I look at the design, I see a lot more points in the Z flips favor, for example. The Z flip is the first foldable phone in the entire world to use bendable glass, which is sort of like the holy grail of what kind of screen you want in. This plastic is really prone to damage. It's a lot softer, and it suffers from even like Nicks and scrapes from my fingernail. Then you've got foldable glass which well we haven't tested it yet, but it makes the screen a lot smoother, so it diminishes the crease that is in every foldable phone and in theory at least it will also make the phone sturdier — yeah I thought it was fascinating playing with the flip yesterday and how the crease kind of seemed to go away a little more.

You could see it in the light, but it wasn't quite as like in-your-face I think is what we've seen with some other foldable exactly and with the Motorola Razr. It's got this really weird thing where, when you open it and close it its creaky, you can kind of hear its squeak, and it's a little. Unsettling and I must have open and closed the Galaxy flip dozens of times yesterday when I tried it out three different units, and it didn't creak or squeak a bit. One thing we don't know is how long these are really gonna. Last Samsung's said that there are works for two hundred thousand folds, which is five years.

Is that right, yep yeah Motorola? What if they said, I mean I, asked Motorola many times what they're folding tests was like, which they later told us and how long it was rated for in their testing, and they did not tell me so who knows, there's one other element about the hinge that I want to bring up and that's basically on the razor you've got these exposed gears that you can see from inside the phone when it's open and also from the top looking down, and although I don't think, anything's gotten caught in our review units yet or any of the units that we purchased I'm a little concerned about that. You know maybe like a piece of hair or crumb or a thread getting wound up in those gears and kind of gumming up the works. When you look at the Galaxy Z flip, it really fixes a lot of the early mistakes that we saw in the original galaxy fold. So you have the bezel. You can't get your fingernail in between the screen and that bezel you've got this little I call them T caps, these little plastic bits on the side.

That kind of help keep any dust and debris from working its way under the screen and Samsung also says that they've reinforced that hinge area with fibers. That will help keep out dust. That's something we're going to have to keep an eye on, but it is a fascinating design. Difference. Samsung spent time talking about the hinge yesterday during the keynote- and you know one of the other interesting things a that you find out.

That is that you can open it and just like leave it. So it can sit on your desk like this, you don't have to be holding it. It's you know, I think they have like video conferencing or some uses for that it'll be interesting to see. But you know it was. It was interesting to see what that hinge could do versus what we see in the razor that was actually my favorite part of the phone and I think it's the part that stands out most and I think that's.

What's going to put the razor in trouble as well is that you can actually use it open versus its snapping, all the way, open or snapping all the way shut. So there are some interesting orientations too. You know you open up an app, and you can see part of the app on the top like video conferencing, as you were saying, and you get other on-screen controls on the bottom. It's just a really neat thing, and it shows this much more complete design and I thought when the razor first came out like oh, this is the most complete design for a foldable phone that I've seen and this one just tops it for me, I mean we haven't tested, it that'll happen, but even just looking at it. It's like oh yeah, that that is what we want.

Yeah, another shortcoming in the razor. Was it uses kind of less powerful components? The camera has been criticized, I mean you've spent time with it. So you would know really well without there's a slide and 16 megapixel camera that you used for taking all of your shots and I. Think that makes a lot of sense, but on the Z flip you have actual usable cameras, there's also a very like small five megapixel camera on the inside, but you're not really meant to use that that's just sort of for video conferencing, it's sort of like oh well. We got to put something there to try to keep the price down and keep people happy on the Z.

Flip you've got the same 10 megapixel camera that you have on the other Galaxy devices, and you have two 12 megapixel cameras on the back. So you know more megapixels doesn't always mean better photography, and in this case, what that second told megapixel camera is giving you is wide-angle, which is good for both selfies and for getting more of the scene in the shot and I find that I use this a lot on. Other phones like the Galaxy Note 10, to see it here, I just think that it gives whoever's buying this a lot more options. So on a phone, that's cheaper, you're, getting bendable glass, you're, getting potentially better cameras, or at least more usable cameras, I think I've. Looking pretty good for the Z flip yeah I mean we're really going to have to see how durable these are when they finally come out and because I think that's really the big question for consumers, durability and what the heck are.

You going to do with this yeah. You know it's interesting kind of Samsung's. First design was basically a tablet. Essentially you know the front screen didn't seem that useful. You know, and you spent a lot of time with it, whereas this clamshell it's kind of making your phone smaller and more pocketable kind of, although it's still kind of thick.

You know, I, think that one thing when we talk about foldable is how using a foldable phone changes, how you use your regular phone just what your relationship is to the device and with the galaxy fold, you know I thought when it first came out that that four point six inch external display that Samsung calls the cover, display everything you can do on the inside of the fold you can do on the outside. It's just tiny and I'm. Just like. Oh, this isn't going to work. This is too cramped for typing, and then the Motorola Razr came with a 2.7 inch cover display, and you can do even less with it. But you can look at certain things, and you can at least tap canned responses and use your voice.

But you've got this ridiculous.1.1 inch display and that's what the diagonal. It looks like a pill shape on the outside of the Galaxy Z flip, and you can do almost nothing with it. So there aren't any voice controls for it. You can, it's basically an indicator, so you can see things like an alarm or a missed call or if there's available, Wi-Fi and then there's also like a little tiny viewfinder, which is sort of funny, but it doesn't work very well because if you're holding the phone even taking a selfie, it's going to be very small, and you don't really know because of the shape and squat and kind of wide, where it's positioned in relation to you, and then I can flip it around and take a picture of you, and you can see yourself in the viewfinder, but then you're looking off to the side. I.

Just don't know if it's really thought through and that's where I think sort of the biggest potential weakness a busy flip is compared to the Motorola. Razor is what do you do with that outside you're going to be using the inside of the screen fully unbuttoned I, guess for like 99.9% of everything, you're going to do on this phone. I feel like a missed opportunity when this goes on sale, Friday, it's going to be in a lot more places than what we found. The razor more carriers are gonna, carry it so AT&T and Sprint are gonna. Have it Verizon sitting this one out because it has the razor, but for a lot of people they'll be able to walk into stores on and actually by it.

You can also get the Z flip from Samsung experience stores from Samsung comm. On the razor side, you can go to Moreau Paula, comm, Verizon and select Walmart stores. Motorola had pre-orders for this, so it was really, really hard to find in stores I think we called everything in the Bay Area and only two stores, one or two stores actually carried the razor. The flip should be in stores right away on Friday. So if you're wanting to buy this, you should be able to walk into an AT&T store or one of the partners and buy it.

Yeah, Samsung! did say that there was very limited availability, though so, if you are interested in it, just note that those are some of our first thoughts after spending time with these phones, we're going to spend a lot more time with both of them and compare them against each other. Thanks for watching I'm Jessica Delacruz, I'm Shari chicken tuna see net for more coverage.

Source : CNET Highlights