Motorola Razr+ vs. Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 4: Which foldable phone is for you?

This article is part of our series?Battle of the Brands, in which we compare category-leading products to their counterparts to determine which are actually worth your money.

The Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 4 finally has new competition: the Motorola Razr+. While both phones are great, we found Moto’s latest foldable phone to be one of the very best you can buy, all thanks to its impressive spec sheet and versatile design.

But Samsung has been king of the hill for a while, with its Z Flip 4 proving to be one of the most popular flip phones to emerge. So the question is, which one should you get? Both have similar specs, designs and prices. Should you go with the widely acclaimed Z Flip 4, or bet on the alternate Razr+ for your flipping phone needs?

Let’s break them down and figure out which of these $999 foldables is right for you.

Motorola Razr+ vs. Galaxy Z Flip 4 at a glance

Quick comparison

It’s no contest — the Razr+ has a way better cover screen

The most obvious difference between the Razr+ and Z Flip 4 is on the front. Samsung includes a 1.9-inch cover display that can show you small widgets and notifications, and act as a miniature camera viewfinder for taking selfies. Meanwhile, Motorola packs in a 3.6-inch cover screen that’s so large, it stretches behind the dual camera system. You can easily guess which one is more fun to play with.

Every time I pick up the Razr+, I’m instantly drawn to that big screen on the front. Not only is it larger and brighter than the Galaxy Z Flip 4’s, but it’s also far more versatile. You’re severely limited in terms of what you can do on the Z Flip 4’s cover display due to its size, whereas the Razr+ capitalizes on its size with all sorts of neat features.

It has its own home screen with a slew of widgets, shortcuts and wallpapers you can configure to your liking. The clock face is much bigger (and is also customizable), and it’s a lot easier to see what you look like when using it to take selfies.

The biggest draw of the Razr+’s cover screen is the ability to run full-fledged apps. Motorola lets you run any app installed on your phone, which means you can fire up everything from Google Maps and Gmail to YouTube and — yes — Call of Duty. You can also type out messages with the onscreen keyboard, which is an incredibly handy feature to have.

This simply isn’t possible on the Galaxy Z Flip 4. There’s an argument to be made that Samsung’s approach means your phone will become less distracting when you can only see a tiny bit when your phone is closed, but at the end of the day, the Razr+ is simply far more fun — and versatile — to use. I cannot stop checking my email, managing my to-do list and playing Stack Bounce on this thing. It’s so much more fun than Samsung’s device.

TL;DR: The Z Flip 4’s 1.9-inch cover screen is no match for the Razr+’s 3.6-inch display, which can do everything from show you media controls to open full-fledged apps.

The Razr+ also has a nicer folding display than the Z Flip 4

Motorola also beats Samsung when it comes to the main display.

The Galaxy Z Flip 4 ships with a 6.7-inch 2640 x 1080 Dynamic AMOLED 2X display with a 120Hz refresh rate and 1,200 nits of peak brightness. It’s a very nice screen, don’t get me wrong, but it pales in comparison to the Razr+’s display.

Moto’s phone has a larger 6.9-inch display with a faster 165Hz refresh rate and 1,400 nits of brightness. You get more room to play games, watch movies and read your favorite ebooks on the Razr+, in addition to a smoother and brighter experience.

Side by side, I much prefer the Razr+. I especially appreciate the boost in brightness since I’m always walking the Ocean City, NJ, boardwalk in broad daylight. The Z Flip 4 is easy to see in direct sunlight, but the Razr+ is just a bit easier, and I consider that a win.

TL;DR: While both the Galaxy Z Flip 4 and Razr+ have nice screens, the Razr+’s is slightly nicer with its larger size, faster refresh rate and higher brightness.

Similar designs, very different hinges

Beyond the screens, you’ve got two very similarly designed flip phones. The Razr+ loses its signature chin for a uniform bezel around the display, bringing it in line with the design language Samsung has been following since the inception of the Z Flip series. They’re both almost as thin and light as each other, with a few grams and millimeters missing here and there. You’ve got power and volume buttons on the sides of each device, a USB-C port on the bottom, stereo speakers (which are about the same quality) and a right-mounted fingerprint scanner.

It’d be easy to mistake one device for another, but you can instantly identify which is which when you open them. The Razr+ has a new hinge that Motorola re-engineered to be more durable and close flatter. That’s great and all, but it can only open at angles between 45 degrees and 135 degrees. Meanwhile, the Z Flip 4 has a free-stop hinge, which means it can open at any angle you want. That way, no matter how awkward the angle, you can prop it up and use it how you want.

Motorola’s hinge does have a couple of advantages, however. For one, it can block dust and dirt a lot better, giving the device an IP52 rating (the “5” signifies its level of dust protection, which is excellent for a folding phone). It also closes flatter than the Z Flip 4’s hinge and reduces the crease on the display thanks to a new teardrop-style design.

While the Z Flip 4 has much better water protection at IPX8, dirt protection is simply nonexistent, which might be important for some folks.

You’re also getting very different colors with each phone. The Z Flip 4 ships in Bora Purple, graphite and blue while the Razr+ comes in Infinite Black, Glacier Blue and a vegan-leather-covered Viva Magenta. They’re both very distinctive in their own right, and there are plenty of options to fit your style.

TL;DR: Both phones look really similar, but the Z Flip 4’s hinge is stiffer and can stop at whatever angle you want. Meanwhile, the Razr+ gives you extra dust protection and a vegan leather color option.

Excellent performance and all-day battery life on both phones

They may have 2022 specs, but the Razr+ and Z Flip 4 perform just as well as any modern-day flagship phone.

Both devices include the Snapdragon 8 Plus Gen 1 processor, a tried-and-true chipset with excellent performance and efficiency. I found that both phones offered enough horsepower to handle my everyday workload whether I was typing out tweets, checking emails, nervously scrolling through Slack to make sure I didn’t miss anything important or playing a graphics-heavy game. They each handled everything really well, and the 8GB of RAM on both was enough to keep most of my apps open while I didn’t use them.

You’ll find up to 512GB of storage in the Z Flip 4, while the Razr+ has 256GB. Neither are expandable via microSD card, so if storage is a high priority for you, you’ll want to go down the Samsung route.

Battery life is also incredibly similar between the phones. The 3,700mAh cell in the Z Flip 4 and slightly larger 3,800mAh cell in the Razr+ performed well, easily lasting me a full day with around 20% left in the tank after 16 hours of moderate use. In our battery test where we loop a 4K video at 50% brightness with airplane mode on, the Z Flip 4 died after 14 hours while the Razr+ died after 14 hours and 42 minutes.

Recharging is a bit of a mixed bag. The Razr+ is technically faster at 30W over USB-C versus 25W on the Z Flip 4, while wireless charging maxes out at 15W on Samsung’s phone and only 5W on Motorola’s. You also only get reverse wireless charging on the Galaxy, which is a bit of a bummer.

TL;DR: You won’t notice much difference when it comes to performance and battery life on the Galaxy Z Flip 4 and Razr+, which is a good thing since they’re both very powerful.

The Galaxy Z Flip 4 has much better cameras

In case you were wondering, Motorola has not topped Samsung when it comes to camera quality. I don’t mind the two rear sensors on the Razr+; the primary 12MP f/1.5 lens can take some nice photos in good lighting conditions, while the 13MP f/2.2 ultra-wide is convenient to have when you want to fit more of a scene in a frame.

But from photo and video quality to image processing and color tuning, the Galaxy Z Flip 4 is more capable of capturing something you’ll enjoy looking at. The device’s main 12MP lens might not have as large an aperture as the Razr+ at f/1.8, but it takes nicer-quality photos in practically every setting. Photos are richer with more detail, more pleasing colors and a far-less-processed look.

Video quality is also substantially better. I’m never encouraged to shoot with the Razr+ because of how bad its video quality is; even at 4K and 60 frames per second, footage can come out choppy with strange artifacting in tricky lighting, while colors all have a weird sharpness to them. Samsung’s video quality is a lot smoother and truer to life. It might not be iPhone-level quality, but it’s certainly better than what the Razr+ can do.

The selfie cameras on both phones produced very similar results. The 32MP shooter on the Razr+ will give you a bit of extra detail, but the 10MP camera on the Z Flip 4 can easily hold its own. I’d feel comfortable using either of them for a quick shot of my friends and I for Instagram.

And of course, you get all the neat camera tricks that come with a foldable phone. You can prop either device up and use it hands-free to take pictures and videos with your friends, bend it slightly and hold it like an old-school camcorder, and use the cover screen as a viewfinder for your subject so they know what they look like before you capture.

TL;DR: If camera quality is important to you, get the Galaxy Z Flip 4.

Samsung’s One UI is more robust, while Motorola’s My UX is simpler

You’re not going to find a bad software experience on either of these Android 13-equipped foldables.

Samsung has been making great software for years with its revamped One UI skin on top of Android, and that experience carries over to the Galaxy Z Flip 4. Its latest version, One UI 5, brings a clean yet robust interface to the device with all sorts of neat features, like the ability to customize your lock screen and gain better control over how your photos look with a custom camera app.

It’s also a lot friendlier to multitaskers with features like split-screen, floating app windows and Samsung’s signature Edge panel. And because the Z Flip 4 is a foldable, you also get Flex Mode, which lets you bend the device slightly and use any app you want on the upper half of the display, while the lower half gives you options to control the app like a trackpad and custom buttons.

Meanwhile, Motorola keeps things nice and simple on the Razr+. The company’s My UX skin feels like next to nothing on top of Android, save for a few UI tweaks here and there. The home screen is almost identical to that of a Google Pixel phone, and everything from the iconography to the quick settings menu will feel familiar to anyone who’s used a near-stock version of Android.

Motorola also throws in a few of its signature features thanks to the bundled Moto app; you can double-chop to activate the flashlight, double-twist your wrist to open the camera, swipe with three fingers to take a screenshot and glance at your notifications with Peek Display. It’s missing a dedicated Flex Mode like the Z Flip 4 has, but you can use some apps like YouTube and the camera while the screen is bent and get a customized experience.

Software support is also roughly the same between the phones. Samsung promises four years of OS upgrades and five years of security patches, while Motorola is only guaranteeing three years of OS upgrades and four years of patches. However, since the Z Flip 4 came out a year prior to the Razr+, they’ll last about as long as one another on their upgrade cycles.

I didn’t mind using either skin in my testing. Both have a healthy mix of features and experiences that’ll come down to user preference at the end of the day. I’m still partial to Google’s Pixel experience, so Motorola’s UI was a bit more appealing to me.

TL;DR: Both phones have excellent software experiences with good update schedules, and it comes down to whether you want something simpler or a more robust feature set.

Bottom line

If you want a bigger cover screen to quickly manage tasks on the go, get the Motorola Razr+. If you value camera quality over everything else, the Galaxy Z Flip 4 — our overall best smartphone pick in the foldable space — is for you. And if you can find either device for well under its original $999 price, that’s the best way to get the most bang for your buck.

It sounds oversimplified, but it’s true. These phones are really similar to one another, so much so that you’ll get essentially the same experience regardless of the device you pick. Performance is blazing fast, battery life lasts all day, software is fast and fluid and design is top-notch with both devices.

Of course, we have to mention that the Galaxy Z Flip 5 is right around the corner. Samsung will almost certainly be taking the wraps off it at its Unpacked event sometime in July, and it’s expected to compete with the Razr+ on a more direct level with a bigger cover screen and better cameras. If what you want is a Z Flip 4 but with a nicer external display, it might be worth waiting.

But if you don’t want to wait and pick up a foldable today, the Z Flip 4 and Razr+ are both well-rounded devices with certain features that help them stand out. You just have to decide which of those features you’d rather have over the others.