Serious cameras, skinny dimensions and a massive battery are three things Motorola will be bringing to the American foldable phone race later this year to finally give Samsung some much needed competition. For everywhere else – where book-style foldables are in more ready supply – a hands-on session at Mobile World Congress suggests the firm has a real contender on its hands at the first time of asking.

The US isn’t first in line: The UK and Europe will be getting the Razer Fold initially, with North America having to wait “a few more months” after the April 13 pre-sale date and late April shipping to get hold of one. It won’t be cheap, either: I was told £1759/€1999, although that will include a Motorola Razr Pen Ultra active stylus in the box. But the hardware could make it a real threat to the Galaxy Z Fold7‘s American dominance.

While the phone was initially previewed at CES back in January, Moto wasn’t ready to reveal every juicy spec detail. Now the picture is complete, it’s possibly the book-style foldable I’m most excited about.

The 6.6in outer display feels exactly like a traditional candybar-style smartphone, with a regular aspect ratio rather than going down the original Google Pixel Fold’s stubbier route. It’s satisfyingly slim (if not worrying the Honor Magic V6 for the outright class win) and the Blackened Blue model’s woven rear panel feels distinctive compared to the glass-backed competition. It has texture, which also helps create lots of grip.

It’s 9.9mm when closed and 4.6mm when open, so thicker than a present-day flagship phone – but not by so much it stood out to me. The hinge felt firm and held the phone confidently in its tent and laptop modes. I like that the outer screen is protected by Gorilla Glass Ceramic 3, a first for any foldable, but an IP48 resistance rating is now merely OK when rivals are managing IP69.

Inside there’s a generous 8.1in flexible OLED, with a sharp 2K resolution and high refresh rate. The Bose-approved, Atmos-ready stereo speakers could make it a streaming show binger’s best friend.

It’s powered by a Snapdragon 8 Gen 5, rather than the top-tier Elite chip, but felt snappy and responsive enough during my demo, which included a round of upcoming football game FIFA Heroes – picked to mark Motorola’s World Cup partnership, which includes a special edition version of the Razr Fold with gold World Cup decals on its rear panel. It looked great at high settings and played flawlessly.

More importantly the new silicon draws from a huge 6000mAh battery – no longer the biggest of any foldable, but significantly more than either Samsung or Google puts in their book-style handsets. 80W wired and 50W wireless charging has both those rivals licked for speed too.

Motorola is also talking a big photography game, having claimed the number one spot on the DXOmark rankings for foldable phones, and into the top 10 of all phones period. That’s partly down to it using an all-new Sony supplied LYTIA 828 main sensor, with 50MP resolution and f/1.6 aperture. It’s backed up by a 50MP, 122-degree ultrawide with macro focus, and a LYTIA 600 telephoto good for 50MP and 3x optical zoom.

On the software side you’re getting a three app split view, which should be a boon for productivity. Motorola is also promising seven years each of new Android generations and security updates, suggesting it’ll be a great long-haul purchase.

The Motorola Razr Fold will be up for pre-order in the UK and Europe on April 13, for £1759/€1999, before shipping later that month. Expect the US to follow a few months later.

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