The Motorola Razr Fold shouldn’t matter. Samsung has a stranglehold on book-style foldables in the US, while companies like OPPO, HONOR, and vivo have been pushing the form factor forward in other markets around the globe. In just a few months, we expect Apple to turn the entire industry on its head with the long-awaited iPhone Fold.

The Razr Fold is multiple years late to the foldable party. It’s thicker and heavier than the latest Galaxy Fold, lacks the Pixel Fold’s clever AI features, and will surely be overshadowed by Apple’s foldable later this year.

But despite all of that, the Motorola Razr Fold still stands out as something special. Using it over the last couple of weeks has been an absolute treat, and for my money, it’s the best folding phone available in the US right now.

The Razr Fold’s hardware is (mostly) a home run

Although Motorola has ample experience with flip-phone foldables, the Razr Fold is still the company’s first-ever attempt at a book-style one. Because of that, I expected some hardware pain points for what’s essentially a first-gen device. However, Motorola absolutely nailed it here.

Measuring 9.9mm when closed and 4.6mm open, the Razr Fold isn’t as impressively thin as the Galaxy Z Fold 7’s 8.9mm closed and 4.2mm open measurements. The same is true of its weight; at 243 grams, the Razr Fold is noticeably heavier than Samsung’s 215-gram foldable.

On paper, that’s not a great look for Motorola. But in practice, I’ve found the Razr Fold to be supremely comfortable. Holding the Razr Fold, it feels much closer to a “normal” slab phone than, say, the Google Pixel 10 Pro Fold (which continues to feel like a brick by comparison). The Razr Fold easily slides in and out of pockets, fits nicely in one hand while closed, and the rear camera housing serves as a nice resting point for your index finger — helping alleviate some of the extra grams.

Beyond the thickness and weight, Motorola gets a lot of smaller details right, too. The two ends of the phone are curved slightly inward, making it extremely easy to open (much better than the Z Fold and Pixel Fold). The textured back on my “PANTONE Blackened Blue” unit feels wonderful, and the side-mounted fingerprint sensor is not only fast and reliable, but you can also swipe down on it to view your notifications/quick settings. It’s such a nice touch.

I’m less enthused about the “AI Key” that sits next to the volume buttons when the Fold is shut. In addition to the awkward placement (I’ve repeatedly pressed the AI Key when I meant to adjust the volume), Motorola greatly restricts what you can do with it. The button supports <span style="margin:0px;padding:…