Motorola is a company that’s easy to miss news about, but the Motorola Razr 2024 and Motorola Razr Plus 2024 are both reasons why you should be paying attention. Motorola’s twin foldable smartphones are some of the best you can buy, with gorgeous designs, incredible screens, and a folding mechanism that’s a genuine competitor for Samsung’s Z Flip devices.
This year, Motorola has made some big tweaks to its two flip phones, but one of the ones you may have missed was a change in their water-resistance ratings. In previous years, the Motorola Razr and Razr Plus sported IP52 ratings for water and dust resistance, meaning they were splash-resistant but not particularly protected against drops into deeper water.
Has Motorola changed this up for 2024’s Razr and Razr Plus?
Yes, it is. The Motorola Razr 2024 and Razr Plus 2024 both have IPX8 ratings, meaning they’re very different from previous generations of Motorola flip phones.
The rating brings Motorola’s devices into line with other flip phones, like the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 5, which also has an IPX8 rating. Considering the foldable market is something of an arms race at the moment, it’s important for Motorola to close gaps like this where it can.
But what does IPX8 actually mean? Thankfully, it’s easy enough to understand.
The important thing to know about an IP rating is what each letter and number means. The “IP” stands for “ingress protection,” while the two symbols afterward represent the resistance to dust and water (in that order). Dust is rated from 1 to 6, while water protection goes from 1 to 9. So, in this context, an IP rating of IPX8 indicates that the Motorola Razr and Razr Plus both have strong water resistance and are able to withstand total immersion in up to 1.5 meters of water for up to 30 minutes.
What about the “X”? Well, that means it doesn’t offer any serious protection against dust and other physical ingress or hasn’t been tested to resist such. So make sure to keep your device away from sand, dusty environments, grit, and any other potentially damaging small particles.
So this means you can throw your phone into the water, yes? Well, you can, but we still wouldn’t recommend it. IPX8 is classed as water-resistant, not waterproof, which means it’s not completely sealed against ingress. Water can get in; it’s just much less likely to do so. Also, keep in mind that this rating is for fresh water, so it may not perform as well in the salty water of the sea or in chlorinated pool water.
As ever with IP ratings, your best bet is to use them as an insurance policy, not a feature. If you’re going to immerse your phone on purpose, we recommend always putting it into a waterproof case or pouch first — the IP rating just means your phone is more likely to survive if it accidentally falls into the bath or pool.
Two new highly requested iCloud plugins just got added to ChatGPT, giving people who rely on Apple’s Mail and Calendar services a way to search emails, check appointments, and manage their schedules directly through the chatbot.
The integration is rolling out to all ChatGPT plans, including the free tier. You can access it on the web, desktop, and iOS.
Google Play is borrowing one of the Nintendo Switch’s most useful little tricks. A new Sidekick tool called Playbacks captures a short clip after something interesting has already happened, sparing players from running a screen recorder throughout an entire game.
Playbacks is part of Google Play Store v53.8 and keeps saved clips on the phone. Google first announced it earlier this month, but the new Play Store update marks its arrival for players. Anyone who has watched a perfect win vanish because the record button came too late already understands the appeal.
Samsung’s scandal over its Game Optimizing Service, or GOS, has returned with a bill attached. South Korea’s Fair Trade Commission has tentatively fined the company 20.1 billion won, or about $15.1 million, over gaming claims made for the Galaxy S21, Galaxy S22, and Tab S8.
The regulator says Samsung promoted the devices as gaming powerhouses without disclosing that GOS placed preset CPU and GPU limits on certain demanding games. Samsung disputes that conclusion, calling GOS a legitimate way to manage heat.