CNET has put the new Motorola Razr to the test by folding it repeatedly for thousands of times using a machine called Foldbot made by SquareTrade. The result? Its hinge started acting wonky by around 27,000 folds. To note, a 2017 study found that Americans check their phones 80 times a day. That means the Razr could start showing problems within a year.
Last year it ran its tests for over 11 hours, with the redesigned Galaxy Fold surviving just over 100,000 folds without any problems. Of course, these were precisely controlled, essentially sterile tests, reproducing exactly the same motion over and over in what amounts to a clean room. That’s not exactly a seal of approval for general use, since the real world is filled with pesky things like dust and lint, and your hands aren’t doing exactly the same thing every time you close your phone.
The Motorola developed a “hitch,” with the hinge appearing to fall out of alignment, and the automated folding machine was unable to close the device correctly. However, the screen on the device is still working. Failure, in this case, is a relative metric — it’s not like the phone exploded.
CNet’s video hosts admit they used the phone somewhat before recording to test that everything was working correctly with the automated machine, so that may have had an effect. Even so, Moto’s folding phone could have fared better, and these results don’t speak well for the phone’s potential durability.
