Samsung's Galaxy Z Flip 4 and Lenovo's Moto Razr 2022 are two of the available options for anyone looking to purchase a clamshell-style foldable smartphone, but which one of them is worth buying? Samsung leads the market when it comes to foldable smartphones. Its Galaxy Z Flip 3 was the best-selling foldable smartphone of 2021, thanks to a combination of features, price, and little to no competition.
Motorola didn't launch a foldable smartphone last year, and brands such as Oppo and Xiaomi, which tried to fill the gap with foldables of their own, limited their phones to China, thus allowing Samsung to coast to an easy victory. The Galaxy Z Flip 3 did get a serious rival in the form of the Huawei P50 Pocket, but it didn't launch until a few weeks before the end of the year.
Motorola has made some significant changes to the design of its new foldable smartphone. The wide notch in the display is gone, and the thick chin has also been removed. It also claims that the hinge has been improved. On the other hand, the Galaxy Z Flip 4 is a refinement of the design of its predecessor. It is now slimmer and lighter and also has thinner bezels. In addition, it retains the IPX8 water-resistant rating of the previous generation. Samsung sells its phone in Bora Purple, Graphite, Pink Gold and Blue. And with its Bespoke Studio, buyers can style their phones in several color combinations. In contrast, the Razr 2022 is available in Black and White.
The Razr 2022 Has A Bigger Cover Display
Despite being rivals, the Galaxy Z Flip 4 and the Moto Razr 2022 have several similar features. For starters, the main folding display on both phones is a 6.7-inch FHD+ OLED panel. They are also powered by the same Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 processor. However, while the Galaxy Z Flip 4 uses an LTPO panel with a 120Hz refresh rate (1Hz to 120Hz), the Razr 2022 has a 144Hz refresh rate and support for DC dimming. In addition, there is a cover display on both phones that refreshes at 60Hz, but they are of different sizes. The one on the Flip 4 is a 1.9-inch 260 x 512 Super AMOLED panel, while the Razr 2022 has a larger 2.7-inch P-OLED display.
Samsung offers the Flip 4 in 128GB, 256GB and 512GB variants, all of which have 8GB of RAM. Motorola also offers the same storage configuration, but the 512GB version is paired with 12GB of RAM, while the other two have 8GB of RAM. Neither of the phones has a MicroSD card slot for expanding storage, so buyers are stuck with whatever configuration they pick up. The differences extend to the cameras. The Razr 2022 has a dual camera setup that includes a 50MP primary camera with OIS and a 13MP ultrawide angle camera with a 121-degree field of view and the ability to capture 2.8cm macro images. It also has a 32MP front-facing camera that sits inside a punch hole on the main display. In contrast, the Galaxy Z Flip 4 has a 12MP primary camera with OIS and a 12MP 123-degree ultrawide angle camera. It also has a 10MP selfie camera. In addition, Motorola and Samsung have bumped up the battery capacity of their smartphones compared to the previous generation. The Razr 2022 now has a 3500mAh battery and support for 33W fast charging. On the other hand, the Galaxy Z Flip 4 has a 3700mAh battery that charges at 25W, and unlike the Razr, it has support for wireless charging and Wireless PowerShare. Both phones run Android 12 out of the box but with One UI on the Galaxy Z Flip 4 and MYUX on the Razr 2022. Samsung promises four years of OS upgrades and five years of security updates for its flagship phones, but Motorola doesn't have a concrete update plan for its phones. However, it is expected to get at least upgraded to Android 13.
Samsung has put a starting price of $999 on the Galaxy Z Flip 4, which is about $100 more than the Moto Razr 2022, which starts at ¥5999 (~$890). Even though it is a bit more expensive, the Galaxy Z Flip 4 is the better device. It has a superior display (LTPO panel) that can vary the refresh rate to as low as 1Hz to conserve battery. Furthermore, its battery is bigger, has better software support, and has an IPX8 rating. In addition, while there are reports the Razr 2022 will get a global launch, it is not yet known when that will happen. This gives the Galaxy Z Flip 4 a head start as it is already available to pre-order in several countries across the globe.