Listed below are 5 methods I truly use the quilt display on my Motorola Razr

I like the quilt display expertise that Motorola has curated for its Razr flip telephones. I’ve stated it earlier than — usually whereas bashing the hoops that Samsung makes you leap by way of to get the identical usefulness from its Flex Window — and I’m positive I’ll say it once more, however solely as a result of I imagine so strongly in it. As somebody who would like to push all his associates to choose up a flip telephone, it’s a lot simpler to advocate Motorola’s open, easy-to-use interface, which is able to seize and go at a second’s discover.

Nevertheless, simply because it’s straightforward doesn’t imply individuals will know the way to use it. All of the sudden, you could have this small, sq. show in entrance of you that’s each a telephone and never fairly a telephone — it really works like one, but type of does its personal factor. So, with that in thoughts, I believed I’d sit down and stroll by way of a number of of the methods I’ve began utilizing the quilt display on my Motorola Razr (on this case, the Razr Extremely) each day.

My love for all issues flip telephone began when Samsung launched its Galaxy Z Flip 4. It was my first probability to mess around with the shape issue, and I instantly knew it was the one for me. And, if you happen to bear in mind the Galaxy Z Flip 4, you’ll do not forget that it had a tiny, inconvenient cowl display that provided little greater than a fast peek at an e-mail or the flexibility to learn a textual content. Positive, you could possibly open the door slightly wider with Coverscreen OS, but it surely by no means made the quilt display sufficiently big to make use of comfortably.

So, when Motorola cranked its cowl display from a 1.6-inch (or so) window to a sweeping 3.6-inch panel, it modified a number of issues. All of the sudden, I had sufficient area to open up a full QWERTY keyboard that also gave me simply sufficient area across the edges to see the message I used to be responding to. And, with that new flexibility, the Razr’s cowl display grew to become my favourite place to reply to messages. It’s a lot simpler to faucet out a fast response after which slot my telephone again into my pocket with out the temptation to doomscroll social media or examine 100 different issues. In fact, I nonetheless do these issues on the quilt display, however I don’t really feel fairly as drawn to them.

Apart from, responding to messages on the Razr Extremely’s cowl display isn’t reserved for simply texting. I’ve managed to maintain up with Telegram group chats, Instagram DMs, and an infinite stream of emails forward of a busy summer season of launches, all from the consolation of a four-inch show. Don’t get me fallacious — I’m not sitting right here writing this text from the quilt display of my telephone, however I might if I needed to.

Bear in mind after I stated I like avoiding the temptation to waste time on my Razr? Effectively, right here’s the place I instantly admit that was solely a half-truth. Or, at the very least it was true till Motorola added a devious little app referred to as GameSnacks to its cowl display. My stumble into the world of GameSnacks began in the identical means as most tech reviewers — with Stack Bounce. Motorola first added it to the Razr Plus (2023), and it impressed one thing of a contest between all of us. We agreed to provide the sport our greatest shot, finally acknowledging the best scorer in all of our opinions (you’ll have to return and skim mine to search out out who it was).

Then, the next yr, all of us switched to Freekick Soccer in honor of the World Cup. We ran by way of the identical competitors, solely to search out out that none of us was ok to earn a excessive rating value mentioning. Now, on my third technology with a Motorola Razr in my pocket, the world of GameSnacks is my oyster. I’m not competing with another tech reviewer as a lot as looking for the one sport I can really feel like an skilled in. You’d assume it could be straightforward, as GameSnacks has a number of dozen titles in its pantry, however I’m nonetheless out right here searching for it.

Maybe the very best (most harmful) a part of losing time in GameSnacks is that it comes pre-loaded on each Razr by default. It additionally routinely has an area within the cowl display slider as quickly as you arrange the telephone. You’ll want a continuing knowledge connection to play, which suggests it’s a no-go on lengthy flights, however I like to think about that as my compelled break from display time.

After I consider using my Razr Extremely closed, I’m normally eager about one factor: making my very own life simpler. Many of the AI options that Motorola has added are designed to do the identical. They do their easiest to take the considering out of my arms and attempt to let my telephone do it for me. And essentially the most handy half is that I can do a number of these issues from the consolation of my cowl display — it’s like a hands-free win-win.

In fact, there are limits to which Moto AI options Motorola has ported to its cowl display. You possibly can ask your Razr to Pay Consideration, making a be aware in your digital journal, or Catch Me Up, operating by way of your notifications like textual content messages, or you’ll be able to ask Moto AI a query and look ahead to a solution. Additionally, when you have the Razr Extremely, you’ll be able to faucet into Look and Discuss, which turns your flip telephone right into a sometimes-watching assistant, ready so that you can come inside an arm’s attain earlier than it opens a Gemini Dwell-like interface.

I’ve used a mixture of Look and Discuss and easily opening Gemini itself, relying on what solutions I’m after. I normally go for Look and Discuss for a number of quicker duties like kitchen questions whereas I’m cooking and should work hands-free, whereas I’ll flip round and ask Gemini for extra research-oriented help, particularly whereas I’m planning out what to do in Philadelphia across the Grand Slam Monitor occasion. It’s confirmed a lot simpler to ask Gemini for a number of recommendations on attending to and from Franklin Subject after which having NoteBook LM generate a fast podcast so I could make my plan whereas I log morning miles.

Granted, you’ll have so as to add Gemini to your cowl display through the app drawer — it now not comes as considered one of Razr’s default 4 apps.

Again in my pre-smartphone days, my on a regular basis carry was an iPod Contact. As a middle-schooler, I beloved that factor. It had all of the music I might ever ask for (at the very least in my iTunes library), and it seemed a lot cooler than the SanDisk MP3 participant I received for my tenth birthday. Then, I received my LG G3, and my iPod Contact went in a drawer. My screens received progressively bigger, and I had increasingly management over what music I used to be enjoying as soon as I picked up a Spotify subscription. Now, I like that my Motorola Razr has pushed me again to the nice outdated days.

By that, I imply that Motorola’s Spotify widget is barebones in a great way. It doesn’t allow you to seek for songs, and you may’t decide the place your playlist begins; you get a grid of the final eight belongings you performed — artists, podcasts, playlists, no matter — and Spotify takes over from there. It’s like the right combine between my finely educated Spotify algorithm and the radio, simply with out the pitfalls of both one.

That stated, there’s one pretty giant drawback with Motorola utilizing Spotify as its default music widget: It doesn’t work with the Playlist Studio. See, Motorola determined so as to add an AI-powered picture generator and a playlist generator, however it could solely make the latter work with Amazon Music. So, though you’ll be able to create units of ten songs to suit nearly any immediate, the one option to convey them over to Spotify is to make the playlists by hand. Sadly, I believe Motorola’s new AI function will lose out to my time-tested Spotify library on this state of affairs, however perhaps a future replace will change that.

In the event you haven’t figured it out by now, I exploit the quilt display on my Motorola Razr Extremely lots. I’m glad Motorola doesn’t give me the display time metrics for it, as a result of I believe I’d be ashamed of simply how usually I whip it out of my pocket for one factor or one other. Nevertheless, my screentime numbers won’t be too completely different from after I reviewed the extra conventional Pixel 9 or iPhone 16. In truth, they could be just a bit bit higher.

What I imply is that after I pull a daily outdated candybar-style telephone out of my pocket, the whole lot is true there. I can leap from Spotify to Instagram to TikTok and lose an hour with out eager about it. The whole lot is completely sized to the tall, skinny show, which makes it straightforward to lose observe of time. On the Razr Extremely’s four-inch cowl show, although, social media is inconvenient. You possibly can sustain with the ultimate day of the Premier League season on X (thanks, Manchester United, for beating Aston Villa), but it surely’s robust to catch most of an Instagram submit in a single body, and Reels and TikToks come out sufficiently small that they’re not value doomscrolling.

In a means, that slight inconvenience is my favourite half about scrolling social media on the Motorola Razr Extremely’s cowl display. I get simply sufficient of a repair, however I’m extra keen to tug the plug when the advertisements change into even slightly inconvenient. Once they do, I merely revisit the rest on this checklist, and I’m instantly reminded why I fell in love with the Razr to start with.