Motorola Razr Plus 2024 is a device that was supposed to be Rabbit R1

I’ve been trying out the Motorola Razr Plus 2024 (or Razr 50 Ultra as it’s known outside the US) over the past few days, mostly trying to judge it on its merits as a foldable phone. However, it recently struck me that it has an awful lot in common with a completely different device due to its unique combination of hardware and software features.

The Razr Plus has (at the time of writing) the largest external display on a flip-style foldable phone, as well as Google Gemini built-in, the first phone in the UK to feature such a system, with three free months of Gemini Advanced offered with purchase. Therefore, once the Gemini is assembled and used, the Razr is basically an exaggerated Rabbit R1.

In the interest of full disclosure, I haven’t personally tried the R1. Although from what I’ve read, the people who actually reviewed the device couldn’t do much with it either. Cheap gimmicks aside, I learned enough from my colleagues from my time with the device to appreciate its core purpose — acting as an easily accessible AI hub for answering questions and generating images, as well as performing actions on your behalf in certain pre-approved apps via its Large Action Model system.

The Rabbit R1 ($199) and Motorola Razr Plus 2024 ($999) sit in two very different price ranges. However, the R1’s functionality is limited to its AI capabilities, while the Razr Plus is a full-featured smartphone with three cameras, a much more powerful chipset, larger storage capacity and battery, and can be opened to reveal a full 6.9-inch display when needed pOLED.

It’s true that Razr doesn’t offer anything similar to Rabbit’s LAM, so you’ll have to do a lot of things manually, even if Gemini helps point you in the right direction. Also without a rotating camera, the Razr either has to be open to aim correctly when following the photo prompt, or you have to get creative with selfie angles to get what you want in the frame.

Then there are issues specific to Google Gemini. First, the app isn’t optimized for Motorola’s external display, and the prompt box takes up a large portion of the screen with no way to minimize it to view Gemini’s responses. Additionally, while the basic form of Gemini is probably the best free chatbot out there, you may not want to be limited to Google’s AI platforms. Fortunately, you can easily open another AI app of your choice from the folded screen, and even assign some like Copilot to the power button hold command to bring it up instead of Gemini anywhere on the phone.

As Marques Brownlee recently noted, AI seems more like a feature that’s added to existing devices, rather than something that requires its own dedicated hardware. And the fact that Motorola is eating Rabbit (presumably some kind of salad) when it comes to offering a palm-sized AI box is a perfect illustration of that, with the more mature smartphone form factor proving to be a better home for the technology than something purpose-built.