Motorola Razr Fold vs Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 7 | TechTalkTown
Motorola Razr Fold vs Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 7
Motorola Razr Fold
Motorola
8.3
Best US book foldable, big battery
Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 7
Samsung
8.2
Best clamshell Samsung has made
Motorola Razr Fold
What Reviewers Agree On
Best battery life of any notebook-style foldable — roughly 14h31m (16h10m optimized), far ahead of the Galaxy Z Fold 7's ~10h44m
DxOMark's #1 foldable camera (≈164 points, ~8th overall), with a triple 50MP system Motorola made a genuine strength
Standout software — multitasking, laptop mode and a Pixel-meets-Samsung balance reviewers repeatedly praise
Excellent, very bright displays — an 8.1-inch ~6,200-nit inner panel and a 165Hz ~6,000-nit outer screen
Active stylus support (Moto Pen Ultra) that works even on the cover screen, a Z Fold limitation
Pros & Cons
Motorola Razr Fold
Pros
Best battery life of any notebook-style foldable — roughly 14h31m (16h10m optimized), far ahead of the Galaxy Z Fold 7's ~10h44m
DxOMark's #1 foldable camera (≈164 points, ~8th overall), with a triple 50MP system Motorola made a genuine strength
Standout software — multitasking, laptop mode and a Pixel-meets-Samsung balance reviewers repeatedly praise
Excellent, very bright displays — an 8.1-inch ~6,200-nit inner panel and a 165Hz ~6,000-nit outer screen
Active stylus support (Moto Pen Ultra) that works even on the cover screen, a Z Fold limitation
Detailed Comparison
Design & Build
Motorola Razr Fold
Motorola's first book-style foldable trades the iconic flip for a Samsung-like book form, with a Material Expressive look, a flat-folding hinge and a notably heavy body.
Motorola's first book-style folding phone is a premium option, not the budget-friendlier alternative the category could use, with a 6,000mAh battery, top-tier chipset and serious camera hardware.
At 243g it's about 28g heavier than the Galaxy Z Fold 7, largely because of the camera array, though it feels balanced and not heavy in the hand.
The design is Google Material Expressive instead of a misguided attempt to match Apple.
Motorola leveraged decades of hinge engineering to pull the screen taut, resulting in a surface that is startlingly flat and masks the crease.
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Undercuts the Galaxy Z Fold 7 by about $100 ($1,899 / £1,799) and includes a case plus a 90W charger in the box
Best book foldable you can actually buy in the US, since the Oppo Find N6 and Honor Magic V6 aren't sold there
Deal Breakers
Uses the non-Elite Snapdragon 8 Gen 5 in a $1,899 flagship — a clear cost-down some reviewers find disappointing
Heavy at 243g (≈28g more than the Galaxy Z Fold 7) and only IP48/IP49 rated, not full IP68
Motorola's poor track record for timely updates, plus a genuine source conflict over whether it gets 7 years or only 3 years of OS updates
Foldable repair costs and Motorola's screen-peeling warranty history are recurring trust concerns
Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 7
What Reviewers Agree On
The new 4.1-inch edge-to-edge Flex Window with 120 Hz refresh and 2,600-nit peak brightness is the single biggest year-over-year upgrade and finally matches Motorola's all-screen approach.
The slimmer 6.5 mm unfolded body plus the wider 21:9 6.9-inch inner display make the Flip 7 noticeably more comfortable to type on and use as a daily phone than any previous Flip.
Battery life is a real, measurable step up — the 4,300 mAh cell pushes most reviewers comfortably through a full day, and Engadget's video rundown jumped from 13 hours on the Flip 6 to 18.5 hours on the Flip 7.
Seven years of OS and security updates on Android 16 / One UI 8 match the best long-term support in the industry and help offset the foldable price premium.
The hinge is meaningfully sturdier this year — JerryRigEverything's bend test couldn't break it, dust ingress through the new IP48 seal was minimal, and Samsung now rates the hinge for over 200,000 folds.
Samsung's first-year free inner-display replacement and improved Samsung Care+ coverage take some of the durability anxiety out of owning a foldable.
Deal Breakers
Charging is stuck at 25W wired and 15W wireless — a full charge takes ~89 minutes, and reviewers from Engadget, Trusted Reviews and Notebookcheck all single it out as the most embarrassing miss on a $1,099 phone in 2025.
The rear cameras (50 MP main + 12 MP ultrawide) are unchanged from the Flip 6 and there is no dedicated telephoto — Engadget, Wired and Trusted Reviews all flag image quality and zoom as the Flip's biggest functional gap versus traditional flagships.
The Exynos 2500 trails this year's Snapdragon 8 Elite and Notebookcheck measured pronounced thermal throttling under sustained load, so the Flip 7 is not the foldable to buy for serious gaming.
The Flex Window is bigger but the cover-screen software is still hostile to full apps — you have to install Samsung's own Good Lock + Multistar modules to run anything beyond a six-app allowlist, which The Verge, Engadget and Trusted Reviews all call out as overdue for fixing.
The IP48 rating means the phone is water-resistant but explicitly not dust-tight — a single grain of sand in the hinge can still kill the folding screen, a foldable-category caveat both The Verge and Notebookcheck flag.
Undercuts the Galaxy Z Fold 7 by about $100 ($1,899 / £1,799) and includes a case plus a 90W charger in the box
Best book foldable you can actually buy in the US, since the Oppo Find N6 and Honor Magic V6 aren't sold there
Cons
Uses the non-Elite Snapdragon 8 Gen 5 in a $1,899 flagship — a clear cost-down some reviewers find disappointing
Heavy at 243g (≈28g more than the Galaxy Z Fold 7) and only IP48/IP49 rated, not full IP68
Motorola's poor track record for timely updates, plus a genuine source conflict over whether it gets 7 years or only 3 years of OS updates
Foldable repair costs and Motorola's screen-peeling warranty history are recurring trust concerns
Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 7
Pros
The new 4.1-inch edge-to-edge Flex Window with 120 Hz refresh and 2,600-nit peak brightness is the single biggest year-over-year upgrade and finally matches Motorola's all-screen approach.
The slimmer 6.5 mm unfolded body plus the wider 21:9 6.9-inch inner display make the Flip 7 noticeably more comfortable to type on and use as a daily phone than any previous Flip.
Battery life is a real, measurable step up — the 4,300 mAh cell pushes most reviewers comfortably through a full day, and Engadget's video rundown jumped from 13 hours on the Flip 6 to 18.5 hours on the Flip 7.
Seven years of OS and security updates on Android 16 / One UI 8 match the best long-term support in the industry and help offset the foldable price premium.
The hinge is meaningfully sturdier this year — JerryRigEverything's bend test couldn't break it, dust ingress through the new IP48 seal was minimal, and Samsung now rates the hinge for over 200,000 folds.
Samsung's first-year free inner-display replacement and improved Samsung Care+ coverage take some of the durability anxiety out of owning a foldable.
Cons
Charging is stuck at 25W wired and 15W wireless — a full charge takes ~89 minutes, and reviewers from Engadget, Trusted Reviews and Notebookcheck all single it out as the most embarrassing miss on a $1,099 phone in 2025.
The rear cameras (50 MP main + 12 MP ultrawide) are unchanged from the Flip 6 and there is no dedicated telephoto — Engadget, Wired and Trusted Reviews all flag image quality and zoom as the Flip's biggest functional gap versus traditional flagships.
The Exynos 2500 trails this year's Snapdragon 8 Elite and Notebookcheck measured pronounced thermal throttling under sustained load, so the Flip 7 is not the foldable to buy for serious gaming.
The Flex Window is bigger but the cover-screen software is still hostile to full apps — you have to install Samsung's own Good Lock + Multistar modules to run anything beyond a six-app allowlist, which The Verge, Engadget and Trusted Reviews all call out as overdue for fixing.
The build feels relatively sturdy with a zero-gap hinge and flush closure, though the soft inner screen still makes dust and dirt a concern.
Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 7
Samsung redesigned the Flip 7 to feel like a real phone rather than a fashion accessory: 6.5 mm unfolded (down from 6.9 mm on the Flip 6), 188 g, an aluminum frame and Gorilla Glass Victus 2 front and back. The hinge is sturdier and rated for over 200,000 folds, and a new side-mounted continuous-read fingerprint sensor is faster to register. The phone still carries an IP48 rating — water-resistant but not dust-tight — and that single grain-of-sand caveat remains the form-factor's biggest weak point.
The Flip 7 measures 6.4 mm thick unfolded — down from 6.9 mm on the Flip 6 — equal to the thinness-focused Galaxy S25 Edge while still adding a bigger screen and battery.
The new hinge closes with a beefier 'thunk' than its predecessors and takes a bit more strength to open, making the whole device feel more solid in the hand.
The clamshell shape slips into a shirt pocket or shoulder bag without bulging out, and the folded square feels more secure in-hand than a traditional slab phone after a month of daily use.
The new side-mounted fingerprint sensor uses a continuous-read scan that doesn't make you lift and replace your thumb during setup — faster to register and more reliable to unlock than the old method.
Like every foldable, the Flip 7's IP48 rating means dust particles larger than 1 mm can't enter, but a single grain of sand in the hinge could still kill the folding screen.
The well-crafted chassis is slimmer than the Flip 6's but the IP48 rating means it is resistant, not completely protected against dust — particles smaller than 1 mm can theoretically still enter and block the hinge.
The Flip 7 is rated for over 200,000 folds — up from earlier Flips — and Samsung's improved Care+ now covers cracked inner or outer screens at no extra cost on the top-tier plan.
Bezels-as-thin-as-1.25 mm, glass and aluminum construction, and a sturdy Armor Aluminum hinge add up to a premium, water-resistant design.
Performance
Motorola Razr Fold
Snapdragon 8 Gen 5 with 16GB RAM — fast for everyday use and surprisingly good in long sessions, but the choice of the non-Elite chip in a $1,899 phone is the headline criticism.
Motorola stuck Qualcomm's excellent Snapdragon 8 Gen 5 (16GB RAM, 512GB) inside its first full-fold flagship.
With a phone this expensive it is a bit disappointing Motorola couldn't go all the way with the Elite chip.
In a 20-minute stress test the Z Fold 7's 8 Elite was ~10% better on the first loop, but the Razr Fold ran better through the 20 minutes and ended ~20% ahead on sustained performance with similar thermals.
Recording 4K120 for a long time makes the Snapdragon CPU run quite hot, though it cools down fairly fast.
The non-Elite chip, 243g weight and IP49 dust rating could be causes for concern, even if the experience is smooth.
Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 7
The Flip 7 ditches Qualcomm for Samsung's in-house Exynos 2500 — a 3 nm 10-core chip with the new Xclipse 950 GPU and 12 GB of RAM. It's faster than the Flip 6's Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 in everyday use, but reviewers agree it doesn't reach Snapdragon 8 Elite levels, and Notebookcheck logged pronounced thermal throttling under sustained load. Trusted Reviews argues that's the right trade-off for a thermally constrained clamshell; Notebookcheck and MKBHD say it's a step backwards versus the Fold 7's Snapdragon 8 Elite for Galaxy.
The Exynos 2500 has more power than last year's top Snapdragon 8 Gen 3, but doesn't reach the levels of the Snapdragon 8 Elite — so there's a real performance gap between the Flip and Fold range this year.
Geekbench 6 multi-core lands at 7,584 and single-core at 2,251 — fast enough for everyday use but visibly trailing this year's Snapdragon 8 Elite flagships.
The new chip never felt particularly sluggish during gaming, Galaxy AI features or other taxing activities, though the phone would get warm during camera testing or sustained Google Maps use.
Throttling is once again a major issue with the latest Flip generation, including at times a very pronounced reduction in performance under sustained load.
Battery & Charging
Motorola Razr Fold
The standout: the largest battery in the book-foldable space delivering class-leading endurance, plus 80W wired charging — three times faster than the Galaxy Z Fold 7.
Lasting an impressive 14 hours 31 minutes, the Razr Fold is officially the best notebook-style foldable for battery life (16h10m with refresh-rate optimized).
The Galaxy Z Fold 7 managed only 10h44m in the same test, with a 4,400mAh battery versus the Razr Fold's 6,000mAh cell.
I found the battery basically impossible to kill in a single day, even with the Fold's hotspot supplying an entire office internet connection over 12 days.
It charges at 80W wired — over three times as fast as the Galaxy Z Fold 7's 25W — plus 50W wireless and 5W reverse, with a 90W charger and a case included in the box.
The 6,000mAh cell is colossal — about 20% larger than the Pixel 10 Pro Fold's — though there's also more display to power.
If you use the camera a lot or run games, the battery does drain quite quickly and you may need an afternoon top-up.
Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 7
Samsung shoehorned a 4,300 mAh cell into a slimmer body (up from 4,000 mAh on the Flip 6) and the more efficient Exynos 2500 turns that into a real endurance gain — Engadget's video rundown jumped from 13 to 18.5 hours. Most reviewers easily get a full day, with light users pushing into a second. Charging is where Samsung has not moved at all: 25W wired (same as Flip 6, ~89 minutes to full), 15W wireless. On a $1,099 phone in 2025 with rivals doing 45–80W, every reviewer flags this as the biggest miss.
The 4,300 mAh battery gives 'battery performance a little worse than your average slab-style phone, but not by much' — moderate use ended most days with 40–50% remaining.
Engadget's standard video rundown jumped from 13 hours on the Flip 6 to 18.5 hours on the Flip 7 — a result so unexpectedly good they ran the test two more times to confirm.
Light usage days easily push into a second day — about 3 hours of mixed use (social, messaging, video, gaming) ended the day at 11pm with over 40% left.
Wired charging tops out at 25W — the same as the Flip 6 and the base S25 — and Samsung still has the gall to call it 'Super Fast Charging' when rivals are at 45W or higher.
On Reddit, the dominant view of foldables is still 'fragile, expensive, and not popular enough to justify the premium' — multiple r/gadgets and r/Android commenters argue the $1,099–$2,000 foldable category as a whole is overpriced and undersupported.
The IP48 rating means the phone is water-resistant but explicitly not dust-tight — a single grain of sand in the hinge can still kill the folding screen, a foldable-category caveat both The Verge and Notebookcheck flag.
On Reddit, the dominant view of foldables is still 'fragile, expensive, and not popular enough to justify the premium' — multiple r/gadgets and r/Android commenters argue the $1,099–$2,000 foldable category as a whole is overpriced and undersupported.
Exynos 2500 isn't a bad chip, but it isn't as good as the Snapdragon 8 Elite right now on the combination of peak performance and power efficiency — and this could be a preview of Samsung going fully Exynos on the S26.
20 minutes of Diablo Immortal at max graphics caused a little jitter and warmed the phone up, but nothing serious — daily performance hiccups were absent.
0–50% takes 28 minutes, 0–100% takes 89 minutes on the included 25W charger — well off the half-hour full charges Xiaomi, Honor and Oppo are doing on similar-sized batteries.
The Flip's battery is relatively small compared to rivals like the Xiaomi Mix Flip 2, and the slow charging compounds that — a clear gap on Notebookcheck's verdict-page cons list.
Samsung is leaving capacity on the table by sticking with conventional lithium-ion when silicon-carbon batteries (like the 5,820 mAh cell in the Honor Magic V5 in the same form factor) clearly exist.
