Cameras have never been a strong suit for Motorola, but it’s giving special emphasis to the new “Photo Enhancement Engine” that’s exclusive to the Razr+. The company says it “uses AI” to produce finer image details, better dynamic range, improved bokeh, and more advanced noise reduction, all on the uncompressed raw image data. The Razr+ also gets a few extra camera features, such as Adaptive Stabilization for smoother videos, Action Shot for when you capture moving subjects, Long Exposure to create light trails, and Super Zoom, which enhances your zoomed-in photos. I’m not sure how much “AI” has to do with some of these.
There are two generative AI features, too: Style Sync and Image Canvas. The former lets you snap a picture of your outfit (or any kind of special texture), and it’ll generate four images using that pattern that you can then use as a wallpaper. Magic Canvas lets you generate images via a text prompt. These two features are available on both Razrs.
Later in the fall, Motorola will launch “Moto AI,” which it says is powered by both in-house and Google’s large language models. This will include features like “Catch me up,” which will summarize your clutter of notifications so you can focus on what’s important. A “Pay attention” feature will enable the phone to start recording instantly and transcribe and summarize the recording automatically. Then there’s “Remember this,” which can save onscreen information that you can ask the device for later.
Photograph: Julian Chokkattu
Unfortunately, all this AI power doesn’t help Motorola improve its software update policy. These new Razr smartphones will only get three Android OS updates (they launch with Android 14), and four years of security updates.
For comparison, Google and Samsung offer seven years of software updates on their flagship phones. Longer software support means more features down the road, bug fixes, and security patches.
Accompanying these new phones is the Moto Tag, a small AirTags-like accessory that supports Bluetooth LE and ultra-wideband tech to help locate lost devices. It uses Google’s Find My Device network and will work with any Android phone. However, if you use it with a Moto smartphone, you can press the multifunction button on the Tag to remotely capture a photo.