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00:00Hey what's up guys, MKBHD here, and welcome to the first direct comparison video I've
00:08done in a really long time.
00:10So in one corner we've got Motorola's nostalgic, blast from the past, icon reimagined, the Razr.
00:17And in the other, Samsung's much cleaner, maybe more modern and clinical Galaxy Z Flip.
00:24So I plan to actually take a little more time to fully review each of these.
00:28The Razr I've had for a week or so, the Z Flip for like two days, so that's not enough
00:32time to review them fully, especially when durability matters with these folding phones.
00:37But in the meantime, just from my experience so far, there's a lot of things that make
00:41it really interesting to actually be able to compare two different folding phones.
00:45They're very different in a lot of ways, and they're very similar in a lot of ways.
00:49Spoiler alert, almost every measurable way favors the Z Flip, except for one.
00:56And we'll get to that one.
00:57So we'll start at the top with the price, which is probably the easiest, most objective thing.
01:01You know, folding phones started way up at $3,000, then $2,400 and $2,000.
01:06Now we have the Razr down to $1,500.
01:09Still their most premium phone, but not by an insane amount.
01:12And the Z Flip has undercut that a little bit at $1,380, which makes it not even the
01:17most premium phone in Samsung's own lineup.
01:20So if we have anything to look forward to in these folding phones, it's two things.
01:24It's the technology getting better, and it's the price going down.
01:28And we're just starting to get both of those two things.
01:31So anyway, number one is the price, $1,500, $1,380, still both very premium, but a little
01:36bit of a difference there.
01:37So Samsung wins.
01:38Then number two is the display on the inside itself.
01:42And this has been a point of contention, of course, a lot lately.
01:44So the Razr came first with a somewhat expected 6.2 inch, 21 by 9 plastic OLED display, not
01:51super high resolution, 2142 by 876, and with some interesting shaped bezels.
01:58Then second, we got Samsung's Galaxy Z Flip, which made big claims with better numbers,
02:036.7 inch, 1080p OLED, and then as Samsung calls it, the world's first flexible glass
02:09display.
02:10Now we've since gotten teardowns and a little bit more of an explanation on exactly what
02:15that means.
02:16But essentially, it is a very, very thin layer of glass, but also with a non-removable
02:21plastic soft sort of protective covering over it.
02:24To me, I mean, it turns out durability isn't really that much of a big advantage of the
02:29glass display because it still has a non-removable, soft, scratchable, damageable protective layer.
02:35And you can't put like a screen protector on this glass display or anything.
02:38It's not really that different.
02:39The only difference is just how it feels when you're using it.
02:42The Z Flip feels more rigid throughout most of the height of the display, where the Razr
02:48has a bit more variation of height all the way through.
02:51This is something I'll go more in depth into in the full review.
02:54But for now, the Z Flip, Samsung wins.
02:57And then we got to talk about number three, the crease.
03:00Today, right now, there is no perfect folding screen where you can just fold it straight
03:04in half and unfold it and not have a crease.
03:07Even our hands have creases.
03:09So that's going to take the tech slowly getting better.
03:12And as of right now, that's what it's doing.
03:14But at the moment, it's hard to say which one is a better crease because they're clearly
03:19both very visible.
03:21But when you look at it, Samsung's hinge has produced more of a single dent crease in the
03:25middle of the display that you feel every time you run your finger over it.
03:29But the Razr has less of a single dent, but more of a larger, soft double crease, thanks
03:36to the screen being stretched over panels that are behind that plastic display.
03:40So to my eye, it's less of a visual interruption with the Razr, but also a weirder feel on
03:45the hand.
03:46Then number four, the hinge.
03:49Low-key, I think hinge innovation and hinge engineering is going to be the most important
03:55part of the evolution of folding phones from here forward for the next couple of years.
04:00A good hinge is going to really make a good folding phone, and a bad hinge is going to
04:06doom a folding phone.
04:07Like you look back at what happened to the Royal FlexPai, one of the first ones ever,
04:11clearly a bad hinge.
04:13Like no matter what you do from there with a hinge like that, the rest of the phone
04:17will feel like trash.
04:18But now we've come a long way.
04:19So the Motorola version of the Fold pushes the screen down into the phone a bit, and
04:23the hinge is not entirely gapless, but it's pretty close.
04:28And then it's got this springy weight where once you get to halfway, it really wants
04:32to open, a lot like the original Razr and from flip phones back in the day.
04:37They really want to be either open or closed and nowhere in between.
04:41The Z Flip is different.
04:42This is Samsung's second attempt at a folding display hinge, and to me, it's the best one
04:47yet.
04:48I prefer it.
04:49It's nearly gapless.
04:50There's brushes even on the inside to keep little bits of debris out.
04:54And to me, the hinge weight being more stiff is better.
04:58It makes it easier to open with one hand.
04:59It makes you feel more confident and in control more of the time.
05:03And it's less of a throwback to the older phones, but I guess not everything about folding
05:07phones has to be a throwback.
05:08Plus, of course, there's Samsung's additional benefit to being able to stop the hinge halfway
05:13and use it as a little tripod, whether it's for selfies or video calls or whatever other
05:18apps in the future support this.
05:19So I'm going to say Samsung wins on the hinge.
05:22And then I'm also going to talk about number five, the bezels on these phones, because
05:26they're different, but they're worth talking about.
05:28The Razr's display goes right up to the very edges, pretty much flush on the sides and
05:33the top.
05:34It's nearly gapless, but there is a tiny seam all the way around.
05:38And then you kind of get that weird shape up at the top with the curve.
05:41And then they put these little nubs at the top corners.
05:44And that's what collides with the body of the phone when you close it.
05:47And that's all they need to give you the little gap when the phone shuts.
05:51Samsung's bezel, on the other hand, goes all the way around the phone and it's raised up
05:55a bit over the glass-ish screen.
05:58So it doesn't feel as seamless when you run your finger over it.
06:02And then the rubber nubs are at the bottom corners.
06:05So when you're slapping it shut, the top bezel claps closed with the rubber nubs.
06:10And there's your little gap.
06:11I don't know if either one of these is a better bezel than the other.
06:15It's kind of nice that Motorola's is closer to flat, so it feels more seamless and modern.
06:20But also you do have that big chin at the bottom.
06:21So whichever one you like better.
06:23And then you got to talk about the specs.
06:26So number six is just the internals they put in these phones.
06:29And that's a clear win for Samsung.
06:30Neither of them are at the very highest end, even though their prices are.
06:34But one of them is clearly more future-proof for the price.
06:38And then number seven is your battery.
06:40And you can see these numbers here again on paper.
06:43Both phones have relatively small batteries, but they're split above and below the hinge.
06:47So they combine to make their total amperage.
06:50Samsung does win in terms of total battery size, but it also has a bit of a larger display.
06:55So I can't give a win to one or the other until I do more testing with the battery life.
06:59But so far, they seem to be all right.
07:03I've used the Z Flip for a couple of days and gotten like three and a half hours of
07:06screen on time.
07:07It's about dead by the end of the day, but not awful.
07:10Then number eight is cameras.
07:13Neither of these also are the highest end flagship cameras, but Motorola's falls much
07:17further than that tree, for sure, just from my limited testing.
07:21So Motorola's selfie camera in the front bezel is just pretty bad.
07:25Like there's no way around it.
07:26I haven't had a good experience with it.
07:28And then the 16 megapixel main camera on the back, I like the promise of using the
07:33main cameras as the selfie camera and the outside screen for the viewfinder.
07:37So the selfie camera could in theory be a much higher quality thanks to this.
07:41Unfortunately, this is also a pretty bad primary camera.
07:45So that promise is kind of lost.
07:47Samsung Z Flip cameras are more on par with like Galaxy S10 cameras.
07:51So you have a main 12 megapixel and an ultra wide.
07:55And I've actually been pretty impressed testing the quality of them so far.
07:58So that is a win for Samsung, for sure.
08:00I would not be happy living with Motorola's cameras here.
08:04Then number nine is the designs.
08:06And it's easy to just give the win to Samsung because they've done so much better, especially
08:11with the hinge and the screen.
08:13But I have to actually give an edge in one major way to Motorola.
08:18You see, for years, smartphones have been trying to streamline themselves and optimize
08:23them to be as fast and smooth as possible to save you as much time, half a second there,
08:28a quarter second there, faster processors, more RAM to hold more apps to open faster.
08:33Everything is designed to just get you there a little bit faster, a little bit less time.
08:38But with folding phones, this hinge and this time that it takes you to open up the phone
08:45every single time you want to use it, this is an innovation in the opposite direction.
08:50This adds time to every time you need to open the phone and use it.
08:54So, and you can probably see where I'm going with this, the more you can use a phone like
08:58this without opening it and just breezing through on the outside screen, the better.
09:04And that's definitely where Motorola with this design wins.
09:07With the ability to sort through notifications and mark emails as archived or read, or actually
09:12really read out the entire text message you just got, that stuff is miles better than
09:17the tiny screen Samsung gave us on the Z Flip.
09:20I mean, this is easily the number one thing I dislike about the Z Flip and the number
09:23one thing that I like about the Razr.
09:26And the number 10 is a bit more abstract, but I'm going to call it character.
09:32The Razr just has a little bit more interesting character to it.
09:36Like everyone I show this to knows that it's based on the original Razr.
09:41Everyone remembers that phone and thinks it's cool that this is a new modern version of
09:46that.
09:47And Motorola leans into that.
09:48Where this one is, I mean, I've been out, people ask me, do people turn heads at this
09:51in public?
09:52Not really.
09:53It's much more of a clean, clinical design.
09:56Unless they see you folding it open or closed, people don't really even notice it.
10:01So it's just sort of looking like two phones sandwiched together again.
10:04Some people might like that, but I actually like the character you get with the Razr.
10:10I'm hoping they do a sequel that's even more refined.
10:13So that's a win in the last category for the Razr.
10:16And there you have it.
10:17Honestly, I think it's super interesting that we actually now get to compare multiple different
10:21folding phones coming out.
10:22I remember when the Razr was first introduced, I said in that video, I'm not going to nitpick
10:26because this is a one of a kind first gen folding phone.
10:31It's wild.
10:32We don't know what to compare it to.
10:33But now that we have another basis point for what's possible with a folding phone,
10:38we know what to expect to be good in a folding phone and what we should look for, as opposed
10:44to what's a trade off.
10:45So now I think it is time to nitpick.
10:47And when I review these phones, I will tell you everything that's good or bad about them.
10:51But that ends this video.
10:52Thanks for watching.
10:53Catch you guys in the next one.
10:56Peace.