Here are 5 ways I actually use the cover screen on my Motorola Razr

I like the duvet 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 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 pals 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.

Nonetheless, simply because it’s straightforward doesn’t imply individuals will know methods to use it. Immediately, you’ve got this small, sq. show in entrance of you that’s each a telephone and never fairly a telephone — it really works like one, but sort of does its personal factor. So, with that in thoughts, I believed I’d sit down and stroll by just a few of the methods I’ve began utilizing the duvet display on my Motorola Razr (on this case, the Razr Extremely) on daily basis.

My love for all issues flip telephone began when Samsung launched its Galaxy Z Flip 4. It was my first likelihood to mess around with the shape issue, and I instantly knew it was the one for me. And, in case you keep in mind the Galaxy Z Flip 4, you’ll do not forget that it had a tiny, inconvenient cowl display that supplied little greater than a fast peek at an e-mail or the power to learn a textual content. Positive, you might open the door just a little wider with Coverscreen OS, but it surely by no means made the duvet 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 just a few issues. Immediately, I had sufficient house to open up a full QWERTY keyboard that also gave me simply sufficient house 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 test 100 different issues. In fact, I nonetheless do these issues on the duvet display, however I don’t really feel fairly as drawn to them.

In addition to, 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 countless stream of emails forward of a busy summer time of launches, all from the consolation of a four-inch show. Don’t get me improper — I’m not sitting right here writing this text from the duvet display of my telephone, however I might if I needed to.

Keep in mind once 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, not less than it was true till Motorola added a devious little app known 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 offer the sport our greatest shot, in the end acknowledging the best scorer in all of our opinions (you’ll have to return and browse mine to seek out out who it was).

Then, the next 12 months, all of us switched to Freekick Soccer in honor of the World Cup. We ran by the identical competitors, solely to seek out out that none of us was adequate to earn a excessive rating price 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 professional in. You’d suppose it will be straightforward, as GameSnacks has just a few dozen titles in its pantry, however I’m nonetheless out right here on the lookout 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 robotically has an area within the cowl display slider as quickly as you arrange the telephone. You’ll want a continuing information connection to play, which implies it’s a no-go on lengthy flights, however I like to think about that as my pressured break from display time.

After I consider using my Razr Extremely closed, I’m normally fascinated about one factor: making my very own life simpler. A lot of the AI options that Motorola has added are designed to do the identical. They do their best possible to take the pondering out of my fingers and attempt to let my telephone do it for me. And essentially the most handy half is that I can do loads 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 notice in your digital journal, or Catch Me Up, operating by your notifications like textual content messages, or you’ll be able to ask Moto AI a query and look ahead to a solution. Additionally, if in case you have the Razr Extremely, you’ll be able to faucet into Look and Talk, 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 Stay-like interface.

I’ve used a mixture of Look and Speak and easily opening Gemini itself, relying on what solutions I’m after. I normally go for Look and Speak for just a few quicker duties like kitchen questions whereas I’m cooking and need to 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 Observe occasion. It’s confirmed a lot simpler to ask Gemini for just a few tips about 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 one in all 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 liked that factor. It had all of the music I might ever ask for (not less than in my iTunes library), and it seemed a lot cooler than the SanDisk MP3 participant I obtained for my tenth birthday. Then, I obtained my LG G3, and my iPod Contact went in a drawer. My screens obtained progressively bigger, and I had increasingly more management over what music I used to be taking part in as soon as I picked up a Spotify subscription. Now, I like that my Motorola Razr has pushed me again to the great 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’ll’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 skilled Spotify algorithm and the radio, simply with out the pitfalls of both one.

That stated, there’s one pretty massive downside 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 will 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 method to convey them over to Spotify is to make the playlists by hand. Sadly, I feel Motorola’s new AI characteristic will lose out to my time-tested Spotify library on this state of affairs, however perhaps a future replace will change that.

For those who haven’t figured it out by now, I exploit the duvet display on my Motorola Razr Extremely so much. I’m glad Motorola doesn’t give me the display time metrics for it, as a result of I feel I’d be ashamed of simply how usually I whip it out of my pocket for one factor or one other. Nonetheless, my screentime numbers won’t be too completely different from once 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 once I pull an everyday outdated candybar-style telephone out of my pocket, the whole lot is correct there. I can leap from Spotify to Instagram to TikTok and lose an hour with out fascinated about it. Every part is completely sized to the tall, skinny show, which makes it straightforward to lose monitor 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 price 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 drag the plug when the advertisements turn out to be even just a little inconvenient. Once they do, I merely revisit anything on this record, and I’m instantly reminded why I fell in love with the Razr to start with.