Motorola RAZR battery life review: Fast to charge, faster to die

Motorola RAZR
(Image: © Daniel Bader / Android Central)

The Motorola RAZR has a lot of things that might attract your attention, including the front display, folding main screen, and the cool form factor. However, look beneath the surface features, and the 2510mAh battery is likely to cause some concern.

Can a phone with two screens, and a form factor that means you'll open the main screen many times per day, survive a whole day with a battery that's smaller than the iPhone 8? I've been using the Motorola RAZR for a little over four days, and here are our first impressions on its battery.

Curb your expectations of the battery life

Motorola RAZR chin

Source: Daniel Bader / Android Central (Image credit: Source: Daniel Bader / Android Central)

If you're expecting all-day battery life, you should curb these expectations. Despite advances in software optimizations and processor efficiencies, there's no substitute for physics, and a smaller capacity means smaller battery life. That's not to say it's worse than any other phone, however.

The RAZR borrows the worst feature from the Pixel 4.

The Motorola RAZR feels a lot like the Pixel 4 in terms of battery life and usage. Google's smaller flagship has been rightly lambasted for its small 2800mAh capacity, which results in reduced battery life. The Motorola RAZR is the same, which is unsurprising given there's a lot of similarities between the specs on the two devices.

Actual battery life can be categorized in two ways: total battery life, including standby, and screen-on-time reflecting the time it's being used. Each of these displays a very different side to the Motorola RAZR.

Total battery life is very disappointing

Motorola RAZR

Source: Daniel Bader / Android Central (Image credit: Source: Daniel Bader / Android Central)

There's no way around it: the total battery life on the Motorola RAZR is bad. With light to moderate usage, it averages 13 hours total, plus or minus an hour. With heavy usage, this drops by an hour or two. Regardless, this is very bad, and largely due to the capacity, which is limited by the design factor.

The choice of going for a flip design, versus the elongated fold with the Galaxy Fold, and the thin design of the phone when opened means the 2510 mAh was probably the largest battery that Motorola could fit into the RAZR.

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The total battery life is about 30% of what you can expect from the Galaxy Fold, which has a 4500mAh battery. It's also about 50% of what you can expect from the full suite of Android flagships, including the Galaxy Note 10+ and OnePlus 7T.

We've come to expect smartphones to last a full day, but with the Motorola RAZR, you have to curb your expectations.

Screen-on-time is about average

Motorola RAZR

Source: Daniel Bader / Android Central (Image credit: Source: Daniel Bader / Android Central)

While the total battery life is disappointing, the actual usage is almost on par with most Android phones. Most phones offer between four and six hours of screen-on time (SoT) on a full charge, and the Motorola RAZR does, albeit while trending at the very bottom of that range.

You can expect about four hours of screen-on-time on a single charge.

During the past four days, I've averaged around the four-hour mark for screen-on-time. The maximum has been four hours and 42 minutes, while the lowest has been three hours and 42 minutes. Thankfully, it's trended up as the adaptive battery features have begun to learn how I use the phone, and I'm slowly eking out a few extra minutes of usage.

Where things get interesting is in the software, as heavy usage like gaming or using the RAZR camera extensively doesn't have a large impact on the battery life, but usage that relies on a data connection does. Take, for example, a game like World Series of Poker. An hour of playing this with the screen on full brightness barely registered on the battery stats, but the constant data connection and Google Play Games usage during that hour drained 12% of the battery.

Motorola says an update is scheduled for tomorrow when the RAZR goes on sale, so it'll be interesting to see if this improves the battery in any way.

You'll be charging the RAZR often

Motorola RAZR

Source: Daniel Bader / Android Central (Image credit: Source: Daniel Bader / Android Central)

Coming from the Galaxy Fold and iPhone 11 Pro, the Motorola RAZR battery life has ultimately been very disappointing. Compared to most Android phones, it's plain bad, but if you're a Pixel 4 user, you'll be used to some of the compromises you need to make.

Always travel with a charger. You'll almost certainly need it during the day.

These primarily include always keeping a charger on you. Thankfully, TurboPower makes it really easy to charge the phone quickly. In about an hour, you can mostly charge it to full (we're still testing the exact time it takes to charge from empty to full). Motorola says a few minutes of charging can get you all-day battery life, which is surprising given the phone is incapable of lasting a full day.

Software plays a large part in battery life, however, and while it's unlikely, it's possible that Motorola will discover a way to improve the battery through software optimizations. Until they do, however, the Motorola RAZR battery life is sacrificed with this unique foldable form factor.

Nirave Gondhia

Nirave Gondhia has been writing about the mobile industry for over a decade and began his career selling and fixing phones in the UK. He's used every flagship smartphone over the past five years and carries at least two phones at all times - currently, he's using the iPhone 11 Pro, [Samsung Galaxy Fold and Motorola RAZR. Say hi to him on Twitter at @nirave.

7 Comments
  • It seems that Motorola has provided Android's answer to the Mayfly found in nature 🙂
  • Is the size and/or lasting power of the battery really that big a deal for most people? I mean sure they could've beefed up the battery some making the phone a bit thicker, but are folks really that far removed from a charger? I mean I've got at least two at home, one on each side of my house, access to one at work and another in the car AND I keep a cable and plug cube in the car. So sure you can find yourself running low on power and not able to charge, but are you ever that far removed from being able to top things off? Also how much power you use is in part dictated by how you use your phone. If you're some hardcore power user watching videos and gaming all the time that uses more power than a couple of simple games and casually surfing the net (which is my usage mostly and why I usually end my evening with a good forty percent still in the battery...).
  • This may surprise you, but there are people who do not have constant access to a power plug. And carrying a battery pack nullifies the pocketability of this phone.
  • That, and some people use their phones for extended times without breaks. A few weeks ago I had to document network closets for large hospital. I spent 12 hours taking about 200 photos, ALL of them with flash because some of them had no lights or had light behind the equipment. Add to that conference calls, email, database usage, GPS, and fighting for cell signal in a building built like a bunker. I went home with the phone at 56%. I don't see why the Razer, with a mid range SOC and OLED screen, should get less than half the battery life of a phone with an 845 and an LCD screen, when there is only 1000 mAh difference between them.
  • Keep telling people that commenting on battery life in the first couple of days of using a new phone is just absurd. When will they listen? They just want to make waves and are specs focused.
  • Sounds like the original razr. Crap battery life and over priced. I wasn't impressed when they unveiled it and honestly after seeing it today at Verizon it's even less appealing. Just doesn't do it for me. I do hope motorola finds success with this phone because I'd love to see the Moto x come back. I loved that phone.
  • I mean, when this was first announced, were you expecting miracles? A for Effort.