Hi, this is Wayne again with a topic “Moto RAZR 2 Impressions: Nostalgia Reloaded?”.
Hey what’s up mkbhd here and welcome to tech timber, it’s what we’re calling it brought to you by the waveform shirt, of course link down below. Let me just say this is going to be a pretty action-packed month and then like just getting into the rest of the year, but there’s a lot of good stuff coming trust me. I’Ve tweeted about it. I’Ve teased a little bit just make sure if you haven’t hit that notification bell on the channel. Yet this this would be a good time so now that i’ve primed you for it a bit. This is the first thing we’re taking a look at, which is a first look at the razer ii.
This is it it’s the new new razer, so time flies, it seems like just yesterday we were seeing the first folding phones and right away now we’re on the second generation, and the second generation to me is where the most interesting stuff happens, see the first gen Stuff, it’s all cool, but it’s a lot of proof of concept testing the waters. Let’S see if this works or not. The second generation is where the adjustments are made. It’S where they heard our voices, it’s where they know what tech to improve, what design to improve and what to actually work on and what to drop. What to forget about. So this is the second gen moto razer and to me, what i’m seeing here is motorola, really doubling down on almost everything you can see. The design is basically the same. It’S that vertical flip phone foldable, but with you know some little dimension and shape tweaks. For this one so looks like it’s about the same thickness, but the chin here is now tapered, so it feels a little bit thinner. The fingerprint reader that used to be on the chin has now moved to the motorola logo. On the back and honestly, i like that a lot, it feels like a throwback to a lot of the other motorola phones back in the day where there’s always a dimple on the back and the bottom of the phone is now a little bit different. It’S a more traditional looking bottom with the speaker and the usb-c port, and now a physical sim card tray and then the button layout has also been adjust a little bit. The power button moved over to the left, while the volume rocker stayed on the right nice and there’s three colors now. So this is your exclusive look at all three colors in one shot: you’re not going to see this anywhere else. This is your polished, graphite, the dark one.
Then, liquid mercury is the silver one and blush gold over here, which is all the rage and the color moves right up into the body and the bezels all around the display. So you can even see it from the front. You’Ll never not know which color you have. So it’s clearly a bunch of little things right.
It still looks almost the same from afar still evokes all the same nostalgic flip phone feelings, but i think these are all good adjustments and then there’s a new 48 megapixel f. 1.7 main camera with ois here on the front. So the camera was a pretty big weakness on the first razor and from the few photos i’ve taken messing around with this new one. It doesn’t look like a drastic change right. It’S still a kind of a small camera module, it’s an improvement from the first one. Don’T get me wrong, but this isn’t a multi-camera flagship array with an ultra wide and a telephoto and everything like that.
It’S more of a bump up in the lane. They were already in really the bigger change. You’Ll actually notice here with the camera, is the new camera ui, because they’ve redone, the layout of the camera app. So it’s a bit simpler with just photos and videos readily accessible and then all your other modes tucked away neatly.
But you know i kind of get the feeling that cameras are going to be the limitation of this form factor in general, like anyone who goes for this thin vertical flip style, it’s so thin that you can’t really fit a huge array of flagship cameras in something. Like this, so it’s better of course than last year, but this isn’t about to jump, to be like a flagship. Camera array see this the galaxy note 20 ultra with the huge camera bump. You literally can’t fit that in the top of the razor. So it’s just the lane that it’s in now motorola has also updated the hinge here on the razor.
You know the most important part of a folding phone that helps you get that satisfying close. So it goes from the aluminum body up here to a stainless steel. Gapless hinge now they call it a zero gap hinge, but that’s not because there’s no gaps ever in it. It’S because the hinge itself allows it to fold completely flat with no gaps in the middle, which is awesome, but the hinge itself still does have the tiniest gap behind the display, and you can kind of see it a bit as it’s folding and really the folding Mechanism with the display moving down a little bit into the bezel, as you close, it is still the same. It’S it’s not a complete re-engineering, it’s kind of like what samsung did with the fold. It’S just a little cleaner, hopefully a little more durable than the previous version from last year. But still, if you look to the sides of the display, you can actually see the gears of the hinge turning in on each other as you fold them open and closed and the main display itself is going to be a 6.2 inch. Oled again same shape same notch at the top, and i was actually thinking visually. It looked like there was a lot less visible crease with this version, but then, as i started, folding it and using it more and more for a couple days slowly.
The crease became visible again in this very unique, like triple crease. Look because of the back plate behind it and again it’s not a huge deal if you’re using the phone like normal, just looking at content on the screen, but if you’re looking for the crease, it’s still there and also i’ve got to say, i’ve always found these A little bit difficult to quickly open with one hand – and i think you know part of it – is because it’s a glossy phone and it’s a little bit slippery. But just i know it would take a bit away from the nostalgia.
But i think some of these are gon na need, like a little notch, a little cut out indent at the bottom, so it’s you’re able to quickly open it and confidently, not think you’re gon na drop it it’s a small thing, but it would help usability a Lot closing, it is still awesome, though also motorola in their marketing language says that this is again a uh. What do they say? A water repellent design, uh and that’s not like an ip rating. That’S not water resistance of any kind.
It’S really just saying that there are parts behind the display that if there’s a little condensation or a little extra moisture, it will protect those parts but uh yeah. This is still definitely a phone you’re going to want to protect from water. Don’T go dunking this in water thinking, it’s water repellent so pretty much everything we’ve gone over so far minor changes right, very familiar phone.
I think the last two are probably the most telling as far as what motorola’s strategy is with razer, and that is the specs and the software. So the specs are snapdragon 765g, which makes it 5g capable 256 gigs of storage and 8 gigs of ram. So not the highest end, most power hungry chip, which is probably smart for a phone with a 2 800 milliamp hour battery like this.
But that also tells me this form factor, isn’t ready for peak flagship hardware. Yet, like you can’t fit, you just can’t fit a flagship sized battery in here. You can’t fit a flagship sized camera array in this phone.
You can’t fit a flagship, processor and specs in here at least not yet anyway. So that shows motorola is set on this form factor, at least for razer and they’re, going to do the best they can within it. But what i like is that they’ve put a lot of thought into how people use this razer form factor, and the software with the outside display, especially, is like the best show of that.
So there’s a new card ui here, which makes it more quickly useful for launching apps and addressing notifications. Basically, the outside screen of the razer is definitely its biggest advantage over something like the z-flip, which just has a tiny outside screen for the time, and so why not double down on it right? You can quick launch apps, you can use those cards, you can even pull up a full size, keyboard and type on it. If you want to which you probably don’t want to, but you can or you can watch youtube videos on it. Nothing will really stop you or limit you here.
It’S a whole launcher and everything so motorola knows that outside display on the razer is a big deal. It’S an advantage. They have over other vertical folding phones and they’re gon na make sure we can do anything. We want with it, but basically that’s about it. Overall, it’s a pretty minor update, there’s no high refresh rate, there’s no wireless charging, no crazy. You know design change or anything like that.
It’S a lot of what we expected, but also includes still all of motorola’s, very underrated. Software optimization still has double chop for the flashlight still has double rotate for the camera. All that’s still here so now. The question is for the price.
This is again going to be 13.99 and for this price for the second version, the question is a little harder. Does the nostalgia still hit the same way that makes you want to spend that much on a folding phone? You know knowing it’s probably going to get better again: the next generation. I know the first one came out and everyone went. Oh, i don’t care how much that is that nostalgia.
It was powerful. I got ta have that phone. I don’t care how much and so that that sold a few of them and people like the razer, but now that it’s starting to evolve a little bit. Is this still gon na be a phone you want for 1400 bucks questions out there.
Let me know what you think in the comment section below either way: that’s been it thanks for watching and i’ll catch you very soon in the next one peace you .