Foldable smartphones have been teased for years, but 2019 has been the year we finally started to see them come to market.
We saw the Galaxy Fold originally go out to reviewers back in April, but its initial launch was short-lived after a series of unfortunate and inadmissible flaws. Thankfully, those issues have since been sorted out, and the phone is back up for sale.
On the other hand, the new RAZR won’t be out for another couple of months, but despite having decidedly midrange specs, Motorola seems to have done a lot right based on our initial impressions. In fact, in some ways, it even beats out the pricier and more premium Galaxy Fold.
Foldable flagship
Samsung Galaxy Fold Foldable Phone
The Galaxy Fold is Samsung’s most ambitious phone yet, able to fold out from a thick, narrow phone-sized device with a small screen to a thin miniature tablet, and it all fits in your pocket. It has a whopping six cameras, flagship-tier specs, and all-day battery life.
$1,930 at Best Buy
Pros
- Top-tier specs
- Long battery life
- Massive real estate
- Great cameras
Cons
- Fragile and not water-resistant
- Very expensive
- Cover screen is cramped
Futuristic throwback
Motorola RAZR
The RAZR is a modern reimagining of the most popular flip phone ever made, folding out vertically into an otherwise typical smartphone with mid-range specs and a single rear camera. It’s by no means a flagship, but the compact, nostalgic design could win you over.
$1,500 at Motorola
Pros
- Terrific build quality
- Splash resistance
- Clever use of the cover display
- Less expensive
Cons
- Dated specs
- Tiny battery
- Unimpressive camera
Specs aren’t the whole story
Source: Hayato Huseman / Android Central
The Galaxy Fold and 2020 Motorola RAZR are two very different phones with one thing in common: both fold in half to become much more compact when not in use, though the philosophy behind each is different. The Galaxy Fold starts off as a thick yet narrow phone that opens up to be a miniature tablet of sorts, with a 7.3-inch AMOLED display at an unusual 4.2:3 aspect ratio. The RAZR instead folds out from a thin clamshell to an even thinner 6.2-inch phone with a more typical 21:9 aspect ratio.
Perusing through the spec sheet, it quickly becomes clear that the Galaxy Fold is far more current in its internals; where the RAZR touts an aging and modest Snapdragon 710 chipset, the Fold features a top-of-the-line Snapdragon 855, along with double the RAM, quadruple the storage, and a battery nearly twice as large. The Galaxy Fold is in every way a flagship-tier device — as it should be for nearly $2,000.
You also get the same fantastic cameras as on the rest of Samsung’s 2019 lineup, including the Galaxy S10+ and Note 10+, with some additional cameras included to ensure you can shoot no matter what configuration you’re using. By contrast, the RAZR has a single rear camera, just as its 15-year predecessor did. Based on our initial hands-on, it’s nothing to get excited about. Part of this is because the RAZR’s hardware was finalized over 18 months ago, meaning it’s limited by older imaging hardware and processing.
Things aren’t all bleak for the RAZR on paper, though. It’s P2i splash-resistant like many of Motorola’s other products, meaning a bit of rain won’t do it any harm. By contrast, while Samsung has put a large focus on fixing the fragility of the Fold’s display, it’s still by no means water-resistant, and you should keep it away from water whenever possible. More
By HAYATO HUSEMAN https://www.androidcentral.com/
Source Photo: Daniel Bader / Android Central
