Before we got fancy touchscreen displays, foldable phones were all the rage.
And while big touchscreens are great for browsing the web and playing Goat Simulator, you really
shouldn’t fold them.
Like, really.
Now, there’s the Moto Razr.
It’s a phone… with a touchscreen… that folds.
Now, I know what you’re thinking—didn’t Samsung try this already, with the Galaxy
Fold?
They did, and it was not great.Something tells us the Razr is different.
This new version uses the same flexible OLED tech as the Galaxy Fold—but unlike Samsung,
Moto made a phone that actually fits in your pocket.
If you’re a human and you wear pants, maybe this is a phone you could actually use.
Here’s the thing though—pulling it in and out of your pocket is a lot easier than
pulling it apart, but that’s what we’re here to do.
So lets get started.
Some heat and an opening pick separates the back panel allowing us to slide it down.
But, Before it comes all the way off, we’re forced to reckon with a sneakily placed fingerprint
sensor cable.
Hidden cables like this are frequent casualties during repairs.
Since the lower case of the Razr needs to slide away from the device, if you miss that
sneaky cable you’re gonna have a bad day.
The outer display comes off next, and it’s a lot more stubborn than the lower case was.
But, eventually, more heat and careful prying wins the day.
This little 2.7 inch OLED display comes with a minor flex cable booby trap, but we got
it off intact, which is more than we could say for the outer display on the Galaxy Fold
we tore down last year.
Sliding the antenna assembly away from the phone we’re once again greeted with a hidden,
delicate cable that needs to be disconnected before the assembly comes all the way off.
Seems like booby traps are becoming a theme with this phone.
We’ve got one of the Razr’s two batteries in our sights, and after drowning it in isopropyl
alcohol we’re able to pry it out of the phone.
This first battery has a typical capacity of 1245 mAh.
This may be a small battery but it only represents about half of the Razr’s total power reserve,
there is still a second battery hidden in there somewhere.
Before we get to that, we’ve got a motherboard to take out and it’s held in place by T3
torx screws.
In fact, all of the screws in this Razr have been t3 torx.
We love seeing manufacturers use a single screw type in a device as it simplifies disassembly
and repair.
All the cables connected to the motherboard are coated in, well… goo.
This goo is likely part of the Razr’s splash resistance strategy.
It’s probably hydrophobic, like dielectric grease, to keep liquids away from sensitive
cable connectors.
This the only water-resistance measure we could identify.
For 1500 dollars you might be getting a very cool device but you’re not getting top of
the line specs for your money, the Razr sports a middle of the road Snapdragon 710 and 6Gb
of RAM.
Getting to the cameras requires removing several screws that secure a mid-frame and some careful
board flipping acrobatics to disconnect the second battery.
This is just another example of the Razr’s complexity making for awkward repairs.
Finally, we remove a board that is home to both the 5 Megapixel selfie cam, and the 16
Megapixel rear facing camera.
Several more screws and a bracket that’s glued and clipped AND magneted hold the Razr’s
folding FlexView display in place.
The display slides out with the secondary battery hitching a ride.
With all the difficulty in getting this sucker out it amazes us that Motorola is offering
screen replacements for only 299 dollars—less than an iPhone 11 Pro Max.
Oh yeah and that secondary battery, it’s glued in place in a well on the underside
of the display.
The idea of prying a battery out against a delicate OLED display is not our idea of fun.
This battery is rated at 1265 mAh bringing the total battery capacity of the Razr to
2510 mAh, which is fairly low compared to other flagship phones.
With the display out of the way, we’re left with the Razr’s bare frame and we can see
how the hinge works with its support plates to accomplish the folding magic.The folding
act of this Razr comprises a continuous geared hinge, a cat-head cam, two support plates,
and a few springs.
Motorola's patents illustrate the way the cam and the support plates work together to
protect the fragile OLED display.
They provide support and hold it taut while the phone is open, then allow room for a generously
loose fold (which helps to prevent a crease in the display from forming) when it shuts.
To Motorola’s credit, all this disassembly was nondestructive—but, repairing this contraption
is not for the faint of heart.
The Razr might be the most complicated phone we’ve torn down yet, and for that reason
it scores a 1 out of 10 on our repairability scale.
From stubborn brackets to awkwardly layered boards and perhaps the most intense battery
replacement procedure yet, you’ll have your work cut out for you.
But it’s cool to see what’s possible, and if this design catches on, maybe Moto
can work on making the next version as repairable as it is pocketable.