{"id":441898,"date":"2026-05-23T17:45:20","date_gmt":"2026-05-23T17:45:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/441898\/"},"modified":"2026-05-23T17:45:20","modified_gmt":"2026-05-23T17:45:20","slug":"i-spent-a-weekend-on-my-razrs-tiny-cover-screen-and-it-changed-how-i-think-about-phones","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/441898\/","title":{"rendered":"I spent a weekend on my Razr’s tiny cover screen\u2014and it changed how I think about phones"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u200b<\/a><\/p>\n

The rebirth of \u201cflip\u201d phones with foldable displays started with tiny, barely usable external screens. Now, they have beautiful, edge-to-edge screens that can essentially be used as minimalist phones. I decided to put the cover screen on a Moto Razr to the ultimate test.<\/p>\n

Recently, though, if I\u2019m honest, this is a never-ending venture\u2014I\u2019ve been looking for ways to limit my phone usage. Switching to Niagara Launcher made a decent improvement, but I was interested in pushing it even further. So, as an experiment, I limited myself to the 3.6-inch external display on the Razr 2025<\/a> for a full weekend.<\/p>\n

\"razr<\/p>\n

\"How-To<\/p>\n

7\/10<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\tSoC \t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tMediaTek Dimensity 7400X<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\tRAM \t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t8GB<\/p>\n

Big screen = big screen time<\/p>\n

Is this the real reason phones are huge now?<\/p>\n

\"Moto
\n Credit:\u00a0Joe Fedewa \/ How-To Geek<\/p>\n

I\u2019ll start with the most obvious lesson that I learned, which was already an assumption that led to this experiment in the first place. You probably could have guessed it before opening this article, too. Using a smaller screen does indeed make you use a phone less.<\/p>\n

It takes more effort to use apps on a smaller display. UI elements like bottom toolbars take up more of the screen, and you simply have less real estate to work with, which forces you to scroll more. However, this doesn\u2019t make apps unusable. Pretty much all of my normal everyday apps worked fine on the Razr\u2019s external display. Apps such as Google Messages, Gmail, Firefox, Discord, Google Maps, Paprika, Pocket Casts, and more.<\/p>\n

Of course, if small screens take more effort to use, then large screens must be easier to use. But what does \u201ceasier\u201d actually mean in this context? Do big screens make it easier to get in and out of our phones quickly? Or do big screens make it easier for us to get lost in apps that suck away time?<\/p>\n

Has the market shifted toward giant screens because that\u2019s what people want, or is the increased screen time on those devices what tech companies are more interested in? That\u2019s the question I\u2019ve been pondering during this experiment.<\/p>\n

Widgets are better than apps<\/p>\n

Now, I just got done talking about how it takes more effort to use apps on a small screen. That doesn\u2019t tell the whole story, though. I noticed that I was using my Razr more like a tool than an infinite distraction machine.<\/p>\n

As strange as it might sound, small screens are perfect for widgets. That\u2019s how we use smartwatches, and those are essentially just small phones, after all. Motorola allows for adding pretty much any widget to the external display, in addition to some handy built-in widgets. Samsung\u2019s Cover Screen also supports widgets.<\/p>\n

I found myself relying on widgets much more on the external display than I ever did on the full-size display. It was the same old widgets I always have on my home screen, too. Google Calendar, Google Home, weather, the usual. But seeing one \u201cfull screen\u201d widget at a time makes for a more intentional experience\u2014like putting on blinders. On my phone, there\u2019s too much noise around the widgets.<\/p>\n

One-handed usability is underrated<\/p>\n

Better battery life ain\u2019t bad, either<\/p>\n

\"Moto
\n Credit:\u00a0Joe Fedewa \/ How-To Geek<\/p>\n

Smaller physical size has benefits beyond digital well-being. It goes without saying that a 3.6-inch display is easy to use with one hand. Yet, it was so much nicer than I expected. My pocket didn\u2019t feel so bulky, pulling the phone out was easier, and my \u201csmartphone pinky\u201d appreciated the break, too.<\/p>\n

One side effect that I wasn\u2019t expecting was improved battery life. It turns out that essentially cutting the number of pixels on the screen in half requires a lot less power. Who knew! Both nights, I went to bed with over 60% battery remaining. It would not have been difficult to push it to two days on a single charge.<\/p>\n

First steps down the rabbit hole<\/p>\n

All in all, I was very happy with my findings from this little experiment. The only annoyances were with the limitations of how the external display works, not the size of the screen. For example, Motorola doesn\u2019t let you access the phone settings from the external display. A few other things required opening the phone, too.<\/p>\n

So, my next mission is to find a phone with a small screen and only a small screen<\/a>. I\u2019m not talking about a Galaxy S26<\/a> or Pixel 10<\/a>. I\u2019ve got my eyes on the Unihertz Titan 2 Elite<\/a> and Ikko Mind One<\/a>. These phones have cover screen-sized displays with the phone\u2019s full functionality. I\u2019m excited to go even further down the rabbit hole.<\/p>\n


\n \"Galaxy<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

Related<\/p>\n

\t\t
\n\t\t\tAn LTE Smartwatch Might Be the Perfect Minimalist Phone
\n\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n

The perfect accessory for “disconnecting.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u200b The rebirth of \u201cflip\u201d phones with foldable displays started with tiny, barely usable external screens. Now, they…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":441899,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[342,111,139,69,145],"class_list":["post-441898","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mobile","tag-mobile","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/441898","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=441898"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/441898\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/441899"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=441898"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=441898"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=441898"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}