After a month with the Razr Fold, I can’t go back to the Galaxy Z Fold 7

I used the Fold 7 a lot, switching between it and the Pixel 10 Pro depending on what I was doing on any given day. A little over a month ago, I bought it Motorola Razr Foldand it cleans up the Z Fold 7 in almost every way — and it replaced the Fold and the Pixel 10 Pro at once.

The Razr Fold is the least compromised foldable I’ve used, even compared to the Z Fold 7. It’s not as thin or light as the Galaxy, but it makes up for it in every way, especially in the cameras.

While the Z Fold 7 struggles with its pet peeves and has a telephoto and ultra-wide experience that can only be described as embarrassing, the Razr excels.

In regular wide shots like the forest scene above, both phones take great photos. The Razr has a 50MP primary camera, while the Z Fold 7 has the same 200MP sensor as the Samsung. Galaxy S26 Ultra. Nevertheless, the Razr took my favorite photo of the two. It’s close, but I prefer the way the Razr handles colors and dynamic range. As you look at the other photos, it gets less and less close.

While Samsung phones aggressively switch to macro mode even when they don’t need it, the Razr Fold is more reserved, only switching to macro mode when you get it. a lot close to something. Such is the case with the second set of photos, where the Razr uses the main camera to take photos, while the Fold 7 switches to an ultra-wide camera for macro photography.

As seen in the third comparison, the Fold 7 also misses the focus, where Samsung focuses on the outside of the tree rather than the middle. The worst is the last photo, 10x zoom. Neither phone produced a great image here, but the Razr’s 50MP 3x is sharper than the Fold 7’s 10MP 3x.

What I love most about the Razr’s photos is that they have personality, something that even the Pixel struggles with. The Razr isn’t afraid of contrast and the color profile is beautiful. There are times when it overshoots HDR, but those are few and far between, and I love taking pictures with the Razr Fold.

Battery life on a Motorola phone is incredible. The Fold 7’s battery life isn’t bad, but its 4,300mAh battery can’t compete with the Razr’s 6,000mAh silicon-carbon battery. I recently wrote about how pleasantly surprised I was by Endurance of the Galaxy S26 Ultraand the Razr Fold is even bettereven on days when I use the built-in screen a lot.

Since I started using the Razr Fold, there have been a few instances where it has gone a full 48 hours between charges, even with my normal usage. The hardest day I had with him was earlier this week. A one-hour trip with GPS, music streaming and social media, followed by two hours in the hospital waiting room, which served as a hotspot for my laptop, ended with about an hour of uninterrupted camera use. Even with all my normal usage when I got home, the Razr Fold was at 39% when I went to bed.

Going from 7am to 1am with that kind of use and still having that much power is impressive no matter how you look at it. When I do charge the Razr, it’s also quick thanks to the 80W charging.

The Razr’s design is another highlight. The Z Fold 7 is by no means a bad design; It’s impressive that Samsung was able to fit the Fold 7’s hardware into something so thin and light. But while the Razr Fold is 28g heavier than the Fold 7 and 1.2mm thicker, I can’t tell the difference in thickness or weight when I hold the two side by side. In fact, I find the Razr Fold more comfortable than the Fold 7 thanks to the rounded corners and plastic back.

I know Motorola calls it “vegan leather” or something, but the truth is, it’s plastic, and that’s okay. It’s a warmer, softer material than glass, and the texture on my Lily White version feels like silk. The Razr Fold’s frame tapers inwards at the edge where the phone opens, unlike the square-shaped Fold 7. This makes it easy to open.

The Razr has something else that the Fold 7 doesn’t: a stylus. Samsung included S Pen support on the Fold 3, 4, 5, and 6, but it removed it last year, and I couldn’t be more disappointed. I know it’s not ideal to carry the pen separately rather than keep it inside the device, but I’d rather have the option than not, and I really like the Moto Smart Pen. It feels as good as any S Pen and has almost all the same features. It even works with both the cap and the internal screen, something no foldable S Pen can do, and it’s unaffected by magnets. If you use a magnetic case or accessory with an S Pen-equipped Samsung phone, the magnet can interfere with the stylus, whereas the Razr doesn’t have that problem.

Motorola’s software is great when folded. One thing I particularly appreciate is the task switcher, which allows you to switch between a regular app carousel and a grid layout on the inner screen, while the cover display always uses the carousel. This is something I’ve wanted from Samsung for years, but it just hasn’t happened until now. Good Lock lets you change the layout of the task switcher, but whatever you choose applies to both screens at once.

The Razr also lets you open three apps side-by-side. One of them stays mostly off-screen until you tap it, at which point it slides and pushes the app away from the screen.

There are still some things that are better about the Z Fold 7. The availability of accessories is great. With Spigen, dbrand, and everyone making stuff for Galaxy devices, it’s easy to find cases and screen protectors for your Samsung phone. Motorola doesn’t have that luxury.

It’s been hard to find any decent accessories for the Razr Fold, and the only glass screen protectors I’ve found are terrible. All three of them came out and I didn’t find any cases from the usual manufacturers either. When you’re using a phone this expensive, it’s a good idea to protect it, and it’s harder than I’d like.

While I love a lot of Motorola’s software, One UI still has better parts, and it all comes down to multitasking. I know I praised Motorola’s software above, but it’s far from perfect. The Razr can be opened in either a 50:50 or 90:10 split screen with nothing in between, while the Fold 7 lets you easily resize apps.

Pop-up windows aren’t great on the Razr either. As you can see in the images above, you can’t resize them much. They’re locked to the same aspect ratio as the cover screen, and if you try to make them bigger than the one shown above, it just opens the app fully. Again, this isn’t a problem in One UI, where you can resize pop-up windows to almost any size or shape.

The 8 layers and layers 8 Ultra I’m almost here and instead of being excited, I’m not. There’s no indication that Samsung will eventually use silicon-carbon batteries; I doubt the cameras will make any leaps in quality, and Motorola’s software is generally one of the best available. you ignore its software updates.

Samsung’s hardware has felt stagnant for years, putting the Motorola Fold 7 to shame at almost every turn, and I’d be surprised if it didn’t do the same with the Fold 8.