The new foldable Motorola Razr seems not so foldable after all


Maybe the flip phone should remain a thing of the past?
Motorola earlier this month resurrected the iconic Razr, selling the new foldable smartphone for $1,500. Despite consumers' nostalgia for the original flip phone of the early 2000s, the new Razr was met with lukewarm reviews. "It has features and functionality that would barely pass as acceptable on a $250 phone," wrote Dieter Bohn at The Verge.
Now, the phone's problems are going from bad to worse. Input's Raymond Wong wrote Monday that the phone's screen was "breaking and peeling at the fold" after just one week of use. "I have no idea how it happened," he wrote, "but I can promise you it wasn't from impact; the phone was closed in my front jeans pocket the entire ride and there's no visible damage anywhere on the device."
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Seems like maybe Mark Gurman at Bloomberg was a bit too optimistic when he predicted that "the foldable screen — which Motorola stresses is built to withstand daily use — feels like it might work well for several months, but not for years."
What's causing the phones to break? 9to5Google speculated the problem could be related to cold weather. But whatever the reason, it's hard to disagree with Wong: "A $1,500 phone should not break like this," he said. "Not in a week, not in a month, and not in six months or even a year."
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Jessica Hullinger is a writer and former deputy editor of The Week Digital. Originally from the American Midwest, she completed a degree in journalism at Indiana University Bloomington before relocating to New York City, where she pursued a career in media. After joining The Week as an intern in 2010, she served as the title’s audience development manager, senior editor and deputy editor, as well as a regular guest on “The Week Unwrapped” podcast. Her writing has featured in other publications including Popular Science, Fast Company, Fortune, and Self magazine, and she loves covering science and climate-related issues.
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