Moto Razr review—RIP to our Moto Razr (March 30, 2020 – March 31, 2020)

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  The new Moto Razr. After the touchscreen died, I ended up controlling it with this mouse. [credit: Ron Amadeo ]

After being on backorder for months, my Moto Razr arrived on March 30, 2020. It was beautiful. Motorola had perfectly captured the essence of old-school Moto Razr design and updated it with futuristic folding display technology. While it was still an impractical flip phone, it was fun and cool and different. The Moto Razr was something I was excited to write about.

But my Razr was not long for this world. Straight out of the box, every fold was accompanied by a groan or creak from the hinge system. I would later learn that these noises were cries of agony-every actuation brought the smartphone closer to death, as if little bits of lifeforce were leaving the phone with every flip. First, the phantom touch inputs started. While the phone was opening and closing, apps would mysteriously start up. Buttons would press themselves. Things were not good.

"This is fine," I thought. "Opening and closing the phone only happens for a very short amount of time. Once it opens and everything settles down, things are fine." Things were not fine for very long, though. These phantom touch inputs were the death throes of the flexible OLED panel, and soon they started even when the phone was open and stationary. Sometimes I could open a multitouch test app and watch as touchpoints danced across the screen. Opening and closing the phone one or two more times would usually clear up these errant touch inputs, and things would be fine again.

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