Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 5G vs Motorola razr 5G Foldable Phones

 Foldable phones have now evolved to their second generation and we are noticing several meaningful improvements all around. Motorola recently introduced the second generation of its slick razr, which was also the first clamshell-style foldable smartphone in the world.

Motorola razr is simply meant to be a phone. There is no attempt here to forcefully add any experimental or transitional productivity and creativity angle to your Android experience. Instead, Motorola focuses on making your transition to Foldables as seamless as possible while also delivering a phone that’s a distinct luxury and a conversation starter.

In the second iteration, Motorola has concentrated on aspects that actually matter to the consumers in this segment and has refined almost all aspects of the razr experience.

The only other clamshell competition as of today is Samsung’s Galaxy Z Flip which also recently evolved to its second-generation with Galaxy Z Flip 5G. So, which one of the two is better? Let’s stack the Motorola razr 5G against the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 5G and find out.

Design and durability

Clamshell foldables are all about their fascinating design that makes them veritable head turners.

As is true for all sorts of foldable devices, the magic starts with the hinge. Motorola has engineered an innovative soft-fold, zero-gap hinge where the display rolls into a dew-drop shape within the hinge when folded. There is no crisping whatsoever thus resulting in a screen that remains crease-less even after a period of usage and a phone that shut close without any visible gap between the two folds.

The razr hinge offers just the right amount of resistance which means you can flip the phone open and shut it close single-handedly (and with a gratifying snap). This simple ability or flippable design helps users emotionally connect in a better way and thus makes a huge difference to the end-user experience.

The Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 5G, on the other hand, looks and functions like a regular phone with a flexible display and hinge. The display folds with a hard crease and there is a very noticeable gap between the two folded halves. The hinge is stiffer and it takes two hands to fold open or close the phone – something that needs to be done repeatedly in the absence of a functional cover display (more on that in a bit).

The Motorola razr 5G uses 3D formed glass on both front and back which makes it feel more premium than the Z flip which has a plastic front. The razr 5G is the only clamshell foldable to have p2i nano-coating that protects it against accidental spills and splashes. It has also been tested for 200,000 flips.

The razr 5G is relatively compact and slimmer (16m) than the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 5G (17.3mm) when folded.

Display

The razr 5G takes a dual display approach and that’s an important differentiation that lends it a massive edge over the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 5G.

The primary flex view display is an OLED screen with vibrant colors, deep blacks, and a 21:9 aspect ratio. The choice of aspect ratio makes the display ideal for cinematic viewing and is also optimized for comfortable one-hand usage.

Flexing foldable screens is cool, but it gets annoying if you have to do it every time even for basic tasks. That’s precisely why the cover display is extremely important to foldable experience.

The secondary, 2.7-inch Quick View display on the razr 5G lets you do almost everything without ever having to open the phone. You can view notifications, make calls, take selfies, reply to messages, control music playback, get directions, converse with Google Assistant, and more whereas the Z Flip and Z Flip 5G’s 1.06” screen on the outside can only show time and basic notifications.

The quick-view display on the Motorola razr has gesture navigation. A right swipe takes you to the selfie camera and you may swipe left from the home screen to access the app tray. Swiping further left takes you to quick shortcuts to call or text your friends. The display supports a host of apps and a full-fledged keyboard that you can conveniently type on without opening your phone.

Camera and Software

The cover display also allows razr 5G to efficaciously use the primary 48MP camera with bright f/1.7 aperture lens, OIS, and Laster AF as both rear and front camera. The quad-pixel sensor manages excellent details and wide dynamic range, and Motorola’s image processing software is intelligent enough to understand tricky lighting and make required adjustments.

When using the 48MP sensor as a rear camera, the quick view display can be used to reproduce instant previews so image subjects can see the photo before it’s captured. Dual LED flash and Night mode come in particularly handy while shooting images in dark ambiance.

The Z flip 5G, on the other hand, comes with only a dual 12MP camera setup with a single LED flash. The teeny tiny cover display makes the rear cameras unfit for use as front cameras.

There is another 20MP f/2.2 sensor on the inside of razr 5G that can be used for selfies and video calling when the razr is in its unfolded state. In comparison, the Galaxy Z Flip 5G has a 10MP f/2.4 aperture inner camera.

Coming to the software, the razr 5G enjoys the near-stock Android advantage. The software is clean and bloatware-free Android experience. Motorola’s My UX app ads several refinements and experiences without changing the way android works or creating any unnecessary overlays. These include chop-chop for flashlight, double twist for camera, as well as a variety of new features, letting users take music, videos, and games to the next level with custom settings and advanced controls.

The Galaxy Z Flip and Galaxy Z Flip 5G come with standard One UI 2.5 which is clearly not as smooth as a clean android experience.

Hardware and Battery

Due to design and space constraints, getting a full day battery mileage out of foldable clamshells can be quite challenging.

Motorola tackles the said challenge with aplomb. The razr 5G is powered by a power-efficient 7nm Snapdragon 700 series chipset and is equipped with a 2800mAh battery which is 12% larger as compared to its predecessor.

The handy cover display can reduce primary display usage by over 40 percent. And since the display is one of the most exacting components, this less demanding secondary screen helps significantly reduce battery drain. Further, the optimized and light stock Android software helps with more prudent use of available resources.

In comparison, the Galaxy Z Flip 5G houses a relatively bigger 3300mAh battery capacity but it also employs a more demanding Snapdragon 800 series chipset and has no cover display to shoulder the burden. As a result, the battery performance is not better than the razr 5G in any way.

The Motorola razr 5G supports 5G in over 25 markets and also supports carrier aggregation for blazing-fast 5G performance. Samsung does not claim global band support or carrier aggregation for Galaxy Z Flip 5G.

Motorola razr 5G Vs Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 5G: Which is better?

When it comes to clamshell foldable phones, consumer priorities are well sorted. These are phones targeted at people who value compact design and are looking for a standout phone that creates differentiation for them, imparts that luxurious feel, and instantly grabs attention.

And Motorola razr 5G is certainly the best clamshell phone as of today. Its biggest advantages over the Galaxy Z Flip 5G include a more premium design, a functional quick-view cover display that lets you do almost everything without unfolding the phone, its innovative hinge that successfully avoids annoying crease while allowing for one-hand flipping, excellent camera performance, and the clean software.

When it comes to the ultra-premium foldable segment, price differences don’t matter as much as consumers tend to prioritize more evolved experience.

The Z Flip 5G is yet to be launched in India but the global pricing indicates that it would be priced higher than the Galaxy Z Flip.

The razr 5G comes at an effective price of Rs. 1,14,999 including a 10,000 Instant Discount (Online) and (Cashback) offline on HDFC Credit Cards and Debit & Credit Card EMI Transactions. In addition, razr 5G users get a No Cost EMI schemes of up to 12 months (EMIs starting 10,417/month only) from all leading banks and a special double data, double validity benefit with Reliance Jio 4,999 recharge that implies savings of approximately Rs. 14,997.

Oppo Reno4 Z 5G Review

Oppo just announced the first three of the Reno5 family, and it’s likely going to be a large family. How do we know? Well, there are a total of eight Reno4s in our database, and it’s one of them that we’ll be presenting to you today – the Reno4 Z 5G.

The most affordable of the 5G-enabled 4th-gen Renos, the Z 5G retails for €300 – that’s less than half the Reno4 Pro 5G’s official asking price and roughly two-thirds of the Reno4 5G’s price tag.

The Reno4 Z 5G is powered by a Mediatek Dimensity 800 chipset instead of the Snapdragon 765Gs in the other two. Still, it’s not really grounds for concern – a close relative to that SoC, the 800U we got to see recently, performed admirably. Another moderately polarizing bit could be the 6.57-inch LCD. The OLED lovers might scoff at the choice of panel technology, but this one does come with a 120Hz refresh rate. Which brings us to the next point – a 4,000mAh battery with a 120Hz LCD? Sounds a little troubling, but we’ll see about that.

Three proper cameras and three sort-of cameras made their way to the Reno4 Z 5G. There’s a 48MP primary unit on the back, joined by an 8MP ultra-wide, and then you get a 2MP macro module and a 2MP unit for depth sensing. Another one of those is keeping company to the 16MP selfie camera in a pill-shaped cutout in the display’s top left corner.

Oppo Reno4 Z 5G specs at a glance:

Body: 163.8×75.5×8.1mm, 184g; plastic frame, plastic back.

Display: 6.57″ LTPS IPS LCD, 120Hz, 1080x2400px resolution, 20:9 aspect ratio, 401ppi.

Chipset: MediaTek MT6873V Dimensity 800 5G (7 nm): Octa-core (4×2.0 GHz Cortex-A76 & 4×2.0 GHz Cortex-A55); Mali-G57 MC4.

Memory: 128GB 8GB RAM; UFS 2.1.

OS/Software: Android 10, ColorOS 7.2.

Rear camera: Wide (main): 48 MP, f/1.7, 26mm, 1/2.0″, 0.8µm, PDAF; Ultra wide angle: 8 MP, f/2.2, 119˚, 1/4.0″, 1.12µm; Depth: 2x 2 MP, f/2.4.

Front camera: Wide (main): 16 MP, f/2.0, 26mm, 1/3.06″, 1.0µm; Depth: 2 MP, f/2.4.

Video capture: Rear camera: 4K@30fps, 1080p@30fps, gyro-EIS; Front camera: 1080p@30fps.

Battery: 4000mAh; Fast charging 18W.

5G support: SA/NSA bands 1,3,5,7,8,20,28,38,40,41,77,78.

Misc: Fingerprint reader (side-mounted); NFC; 3.5mm jack.

Oppo Reno4 Z 5G unboxing

For the 4 Z 5G, Oppo chose the usual Reno presentation – a teal sleeve holds the white cardboard box. The contents are fairly standard, too, though the 18W adapter is a bit on the lower end of the power spectrum – it’s certainly no 65W SuperVOOC 2.0. If you can put a positive spin on that, it would be that the USB-A-to-C cable isn’t proprietary, unlike on the higher-wattage systems.

Also included is a set of earbuds with a 3.5mm plug – the Reno4 Z 5G is nicely old-school in this respect, unlike the other 2 5G-capable Reno4s. You’ll find one more useful accessory in the bundle is a protective case, a transparent silicone one.

Exynos 2100 Is Samsung’s Most Important Chip

 Just as we are entering the final stretch of the year, the much-anticipated announcement of the Exynos 2100 reported to be coming by mid-December still hasn’t happened. Possibly because Samsung has been busy doing its best impression of Pixar – still in the service of its chipmaking business, mind you.

But even though we’re still waiting for an official launch, some recent developments pretty much confirmed one key suspicion regarding the Exynos 2100. Namely, Samsung’s next flagship system-on-a-chip is shaping up to be its most important silicon in over half a decade, at a minimum.

This significance of the Exynos 2100 is perhaps best described as Samsung finally resigning to the path of least resistance on the chip architecture front. Or Samsung SLI, to be more specific, as that is the chaebol’s division in charge of the Exynos SoC design.

Numerous recent reports and some key benchmark sightings have already all but confirmed that the Exynos 2100 will ditch Samsung’s Mongoose custom cores in favor of standardized solutions from Arm. This would eliminate numerous issues plaguing flagship Exynos chips which persisted across five whole product generations, at this point.

First introduced in 2015, the Mongoose custom cores once had the potential to become the next big thing in the mobile industry. Things did not pan out, unfortunately, as this in-house specification ended up being more trouble than it’s worth fairly quickly. Samsung persisted with its architecture nonetheless, presumably because it poured countless resources into developing it. And yet the results were more often than not inferior to a contemporary white-label solution from Arm.

The issue undoubtedly culminated this year with the Exynos 990. Touted as the best-ever chip from Samsung SLI, the design proved to be less than ideal in practice. Largely due to not-so-good efficiency and the chip’s tendency to overheat, which would result in aggressive throttling as the kernel would scramble to protect the silicon from literally melting inside one’s smartphone. That is typical SoC behavior, mind you, but processors tend to be much better at keeping their temperatures below critical levels while outputting peak performance for way longer than the Exynos 990 is able to do so.

Things have gotten so bad that the Exynos 990 wasn’t even an outright upgrade over the 2019 Exynos 9820, depending on which specific synthetic test you’re looking at. With many of those issues rooted in the Mongoose architecture, Qualcomm has gotten quite comfortable with its mobile chip leadership.

And that’s without even accounting for its patent trolling concerning 4G technologies that essentially prevented Samsung from using its own chips inside smartphones sold stateside. As it was cheaper to license out Qualcomm solutions, have them shipped to factories in the Far East, assemble select smartphones, and then reimport the tech back into the U.S. than try to import devices using Exynos chips made across the street from them, so to speak. It still is, in fact.

But things are looking up, and not just because all the signs are now suggesting the Exynos 2100 will be a serious chip. Namely, Qualcomm’s 5G patent portfolio is nowhere near the level required for the company to keep up its licensing charade indefinitely. Meaning the U.S. might really see another Exynos-powered Galaxy flagship in the near future and that device might not actually be an embarrassment compared to whatever Qualcomm will have in store that year.

Though given the aforementioned licensing issues called Qualcomm’s IP royalty pricing, such a theoretical smartphone would almost certainly be limited to 5G connectivity. And 5G networks are nowhere near widespread enough for this scenario to be a possibility in the next few years. That still leaves Qualcomm with more long-term concerns than what it had a decade ago when Samsung started making SoCs.

No matter the potential, it would still be premature to expect the Exynos Galaxy S21 models to outperform their Snapdragon 888 counterparts. Though that is exactly what some industry insiders have been predicting as of late, so it’s hard not to get even just a little bit excited about Samsung’s 2021 flagships. Starting with the said Galaxy S21 range, which is scheduled to debut less than a month from now, so here’s to hoping we’ll soon find out the Exynos 2100 is a beast worthy of the “flagship” label.