2023 Motorola Razr Heads To The US With 'Unplugged' Feature In Tow
Motorola is bringing a budget-centric foldable phone to the U.S. alongside a new mid-ranger in the Edge series. The Razr 2023 is priced at $699.99 and will be up for pre-order from October 12 onward, but an unlocked version will be on sale at a limited-time price of $599.99 on October 19 through Motorola's official storefront, Amazon, and Best Buy.
The Razr 2023 will sit below the Razr+ in the foldable hierarchy. The biggest difference here is that it goes for a much smaller 1.5-inch OLED display on the outside and relies on the mid-tier Qualcomm Snapdragon 7 Gen 1 SoC. The Razr 2023 offers a 6.9-inch FHD+ flexible OLED screen with a 144Hz refresh rate, while a 4,200mAh battery with 30W fast charging support keeps the lights on.
At the back is a 64-megapixel main camera, sitting alongside a 13-megapixel camera, while the front camera relies on a 32-megapixel sensor. Motorola will offer the phone in sage green, vanilla cream, summer lilac, and cherry blossom color options. On the software side, it boots Android 13 with a mostly stock flavor of Google's mobile operating system. The Razr 2023 will be offered in a single configuration with 8GB of RAM and 128GB of onboard storage. 5G is part of the connectivity package, while a fingerprint sensor on the side handles authentication.
Budget phone with flagship looks
The Motorola Edge 2023 continues the tradition of offering a sleek build and competitive specs on a budget. Carrying a sticker price of $599.99 for an unlocked unit, this one is already up for grabs in an unlocked state from Motorola's official website, Best Buy, and Amazon. Taking inspiration from Razr 2023, this one also goes for vegan leather aesthetics on the rear shell and blends it with curved glass on the front.
It offers a 6.6-inch FHD+ OLED display with a peak refresh rate of 144Hz, while business inside is handled by MediaTek's Dimensity 7030 SoC paired with 8GB of RAM and 256GB of internal storage. The imaging hardware includes a 50-megapixel main camera assisted by an ambient light sensor, a 13-megapixel ultra-wide snapper, and a 32-megapixel selfie camera.
Motorola has fitted a 4,400mAh battery inside the Edge 2023, and defying its price bracket, it offers support for 68W fast wired charging. Wireless charging convenience is also on the table, maxing out at 15W output, and you can also use it for reverse wireless charging to juice up other gadgets like earbuds. It also runs Android 13 out of the box and will be up for grabs in a single Eclipse Black trim.
A trick to put phones away
Aside from fresh hardware, Motorola is also introducing a new digital detox feature called Moto Unplugged. Think of it like Focus Mode on Apple devices or Zen Mode on OnePlus phones. The idea is that app alerts and notifications are paused, so you get a brief reprieve from staring at your phone's screen for a while. Moto Unplugged will let users customize which apps they want to mute, set the schedule for enabling it, and put it behind a layer of password authentication to prevent accidentally toggling it on and off.
The idea here is that users can choose to disable distractions like social media alerts when working while allowing email alerts to pass through. "Moto Unplugged lets users create their own oasis without totally disconnecting, so they can relax and stay in control," says the company. Moto Unplugged ships with the Razr 2023 foldable phone in the U.S. and will make its way to the pricier Razr+ model in the coming weeks. Motorola also plans to extend this feature to more phones, likely the Edge and budget G series phones, in the near future, but hasn't provided a concrete timeline.