If there’s one smartphone firm that I simply can’t shake in 2024, it’s Motorola. After such a powerful 2023, this 12 months has been oddly bumpy for the corporate. Whether or not it’s due to poorly-received price range handsets or mind-boggling software program choices, I’ve raised my complaints about Motorola a lot this year.
Fortunately, after an enormous latest product launch and an opportunity to take a seat down and speak with two of the corporate’s executives, I’m feeling a bit higher about Motorola than I used to be earlier this 12 months. I actually don’t suppose issues are good, and there’s loads of room left to enhance, however I additionally don’t suppose issues with Moto are fairly as bleak as I initially feared.
I’m not prepared to surrender on Motorola simply but, and I don’t suppose it’s best to both.
The Razr 2024 is simply what Motorola wanted
There are a few the reason why I’m feeling higher about Motorola — and the primary has to do with its newest smartphone launch. The corporate just lately introduced the Razr 2024 and Razr Plus 2024 as its two latest foldables. Merely put, I’m actually proud of how the telephones turned out.
Final 12 months’s Motorola Razr Plus was certainly one of my favourite telephones of 2023. This new mannequin appears to be like like that very same cellphone once more however with some actually essential upgrades. The hinge feels higher and is simpler to open, the quilt show is even larger, and the brand new cameras appear actually promising. Mixed with stable specs underneath the hood and a few actually pretty colours, I’m discovering little to complain about. It additionally nonetheless prices the identical $1,000 as final 12 months’s mannequin — something we may not be able to say about the Galaxy Z Flip 6.
The cheaper Razr appears to be like good, too! The quilt display is a lot larger than final 12 months’s Razr 2023. As a substitute of what was primarily a glorified smartwatch display, now you can use it similar to you possibly can the Razr Plus’ cowl display. Its leather-based colours additionally look glorious, it has the identical 50MP fundamental digital camera discovered on the Razr Plus, and it even has an even bigger battery than its costlier sibling. The very best half? It nonetheless prices simply $700. Final 12 months’s Razr was an unimaginable deal, and the 2024 mannequin appears to be like like a fair higher one.
I’m saying all of this with out having absolutely reviewed both of the brand new Razrs, and there’s at all times the possibility they received’t carry out in addition to I’m hoping. But based on my hands-on time with the phones, I don’t have any purpose to suppose that. Motorola appears to have accomplished precisely what it wanted to with these telephones — conserving what labored, fixing what was damaged, and conserving costs the identical. Contemplating how good final 12 months’s Razrs have been, I can’t wait to see how these new ones maintain up.
Studying from previous software program errors
Motorola seems to have gotten the {hardware}, specs, and value proper with the Razr 2024 household. However that’s not the one purpose I’m so excited. Neither cellphone is plagued with the software issues I’ve seen on other Motorola phones this 12 months, and I couldn’t be happier about it.
The software program on Motorola telephones in 2024 has been … dangerous. Because of app folders riddled with ads, a brand new default climate app that’s a fair worse ad-filled mess, and a lock display cluttered with articles and different on-line content material, it’s all made Motorola telephones really feel fairly low-cost. Fortunately, none of that is current on the Razr Plus 2024 or the Razr 2024.
That’s nice, however what provides? I requested Motorola about this. The corporate’s head of AI and software program experiences, Jeff Snow, instructed me a part of the reason being to “preserve continuity between the exterior and inner screens.” He additionally stated, “Within the Moto Gs, we’re [Motorola] attempting out some software program capabilities that we would lengthen into that tier.”
I imagined this could be the case — check the waters with software program bloatware on the cheaper telephones however maintain it away from costlier telephones. Nevertheless, after seeing those self same software program issues on the Motorola Edge 2024, I wasn’t certain what to anticipate.
I want Motorola wasn’t messing with this type of stuff in any respect, however on the very least, I’m glad to see there’s nonetheless restraint to not litter flagship-grade telephones with crummy software program. Within the case of the brand new Razrs, it makes them really feel so significantly better. Right here’s to hoping Motorola will get the message and reconsiders these “software program capabilities” on different telephones this 12 months — flagship or not.
What about software program updates? Effectively…
Bloatware has solely been certainly one of my issues with Motorola telephones. Software program updates are one other one. Not like the bloatware situation, which has solely popped up just lately, software program updates have been a thorn in Motorola’s facet for years.
The brand new Razr telephones proceed this development. Motorola guarantees simply three years of Android OS upgrades and 4 years of bi-monthly safety updates for each the Razr 2024 and Razr Plus 2024. In a world the place Google and Samsung are promising seven years of software program updates for flagship and midrange telephones alike, it’s a extremely disappointing sight.
I requested Nicole Hagen, government director of product advertising and marketing at Motorola, about this, and he or she instructed me, “It’s at all times an inner debate” and that “it at all times comes right down to balancing.” That “balancing” refers back to the assets Motorola must put towards {hardware}, software program, its new AI instruments, and so on.
Hagen additionally addressed firms like Samsung and Google with their seven-year replace promise. “After we have a look at the life cycle or lifespan of our units, it’s not over 4 years,” she stated. “Our objective is to sort of maintain our merchandise through the life cycle that they’ve with their customers, and we really feel that we’re doing that with our coverage.”
Snow additionally chimed into the dialog, saying that the balancing act additionally has to contemplate people who find themselves utilizing their telephones, realizing how their present software program works, and being “reluctant to alter.”
Personally, I don’t purchase that argument. Can software program updates introduce new options and person interfaces which will take a while to get used to? Positive. However that hardly ever occurs with Android updates lately. Additional, it doesn’t excuse Motorola for sticking with such a restricted replace coverage when its rivals are working circles round it.
Fortunately, it seems like there’s room for this to alter. “It’s one thing we’re at all times taking a look at. Particularly as now we’re beginning to take a look at bringing AI options to extra telephones, how can we lengthen that to extra telephones is one thing we’re taking a look at as effectively,” Snow stated.
Motorola has to maintain this up
Two promising new foldables, indicators of restraint for bloatware, and a minimum of an inkling that Motorola might change its methods with software program updates. Whereas not all of these issues are dwelling runs, they do a minimum of present me that Motorola remains to be value being attentive to as we make our means by this second half of 2024.
Does all of this excuse the corporate’s many missteps earlier this 12 months? No. Nevertheless it does give me extra hope for what the rest of the 12 months entails. Motorola remains to be churning out stable {hardware} and is seemingly nonetheless able to delivering good software program, too. Each of the brand new Razrs are proof of that, and I desperately hope that’s true of different Motorola telephones we see after this.
