Hands on: Motorola Razr 50 Ultra review
This review first appeared in issue 360 PC Professional Edition.
Motorola’s latest high-end flip phone The price is competitive. Priced at £1,000 including VAT, it’s the same price as the iPhone 15 Pro and more importantly £50 cheaper than its direct rival. SamsungGalaxy Z Flip6. So the question is: has anything been sacrificed?
This is certainly not the style. In fact, I think the Razr 50 Ultra is the coolest phone you can buy. It comes in four colors that are as eye-catching as the names Motorola gave them, namely Spring Green, Midnight Blue, Peach Fuzz, and Hot Pink, a throwback to 2005’s pink Razr V3. Everything about the design is well thought out and smooth, from the soft suede-effect “vegan leather” (i.e. plastic) back that shows off the paint job nicely, to the massive cover display – but more on that later.
It also feels great in the hand. I found the size and weight of the phone to be very comfortable whether it was open or closed, and the folding mechanism opened and closed quickly in a satisfying and addictive way. The IPX8 rating means it can be submerged underwater without any issues.
These specs are nothing to sneeze at either. UK model has 12GB Memory That’s coupled with a generous 512GB of built-in storage as standard, and it’s powered by Qualcomm’s shiny new Snapdragon 8s Gen 3 chipset. As we will see, this is a very tempting proposition with only a few drawbacks.
Shown outside and inside
The most striking thing about the Razr 50 Ultra’s design is its full-coverage display. It’s much larger than last year’s Razr 40’s outer screen and the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip6’s display. As well as providing plenty of space for applications, it’s also very sharp and bright – rated at a maximum brightness of 2,400cd/m22 – Using it is a pleasure in itself.
The only flaws with the external display are the two holes punched for the camera lens, and a third, smaller hole for the flash. I like the way it flows around the screen camerabut it may create practical obstacles – for example, certain buttons on the screen Year The TV Remote app cannot be accessed. You can resize apps to fit better, but it’s cumbersome; it’s not an issue that plagues the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip6.
The foldable internal display is brighter than the external display, with a brightness of 3,000cd/m2. It looks just as good and is very flat when open: I can’t even see the crease unless I’m holding the phone at an angle, and I can barely feel it when I slide my finger across the screen.
Software Sins
The Razr 50 Ultra runs Motorola’s version of Android, but the company offers less customization than other manufacturers. The whole experience looks and feels like using Google Pixel, though Motorola is only promising three major OS updates, compared to five from Google and Samsung.
However, Motorola did add a lot of interesting features to the Android interface, especially gesture shortcuts. For example, I like how you can open the camera app by twisting your wrist a few times. The feature works even when the phone is closed, meaning you can snap a selfie with a quick twist of your wrist and then hold the phone up in front of your face. I also like how you can “hack” the phone twice in the air to turn the headlight on and off.
Unfortunately, not everything about Motorola’s Android platform makes such a good impression. Razr 50 Ultra software includes AI Wallpaper generator that can theoretically generate any background you describe – more freedom than using a Google or Samsung phone.
Unfortunately, the results are clearly influenced by AI biases that I think we abandoned years ago. If you’re looking for guys, you’re definitely going to find white guys, while “Friends on the Beach” gave me images of girls in bikinis, and “A Strong Guy” gave me a shirtless muscular guy. This stereotype can feel inarticulate, and you can’t keep trying until you get a satisfactory result because there’s a limit to the number of wallpapers you can render in a month. There’s not even an option to purchase more pictures; you’ll have to wait until next month to go again.
Photography Tips
The Motorola Razr 50 Ultra makes for a fun shooting experience in almost any situation. As I mentioned, you don’t need to unfold the phone, you can just twist your wrist (or tap the camera app) to take a selfie. When you turn on your phone to take a portrait, the cover display makes it easy for your subject to see what the camera is seeing; it’s great to see your friends smile when they see you on the cover screen.
You can also take advantage of the phone’s folding design to stand up on its own and start the countdown by raising your palm. My favorite feature is switching to “camera mode” by simply opening the screen halfway and pointing the camera at the action. Razr Plus starts recording video Automatically, you can stop by tapping anywhere on the lower half of the screen.
As for image quality, the photos and videos taken by the Razr 50 Ultra made a great first impression, with bright, rich colors, but I did encounter some issues in my testing. Even after I clicked on the desired focus point, focus wasn’t always accurate, especially when shooting close-ups; and although I was careful to use a digital level, my landscape photos sometimes appeared skewed. I also feel like the blurry bokeh background looks processed and artificial, without the smoothness you get from a full-size camera lens. Still, the overall quality is good for everyday casual snapshots, and I tend to forgive minor shortcomings when the process of shooting is so enjoyable.
Performance and battery
The Snapdragon 8s Gen 3 chipset inside the Razr 50 Ultra is a midweight model with similar performance levels to last year’s Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 (like the Galaxy Z Flip5), but with lower power requirements.
That means it can’t keep up with the Flip6, which contains a full-featured Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 chip: it scored 4,848 on Geekbench 6’s multi-core test, compared to the Flip6’s score of 7,022. But it’s still a fast phone. mine app It runs very smoothly and snappily; even fancy tricks like opening the camera with gestures or moving apps from the large internal display to the smaller overlay screen work immediately. The phone also performs well at playing games and movies, including high-resolution multiplayer games such as call of Duty: mobile.
The only issue I had was with Motorola’s AI capabilities. Issues with the wallpaper generator aside, I found the AI-enhanced features like text editing and photo editing to be laggy, especially compared to similar features on the Pixel 8 Pro and Galaxy S24, with tasks sometimes failing entirely.
It’s a clunky experience, but that’s probably down to the first-generation software. Qualcomm claims the Snapdragon 8s Gen 3 has powerful on-device AI processing, and I found the Google Gemini to run smoothly on the Razr 50 Ultra’s cover display (something you can’t do on the Galaxy Z Flip6). Motorola says new AI features will be added to the phone in future updates, so hopefully overall performance will be optimized and improved as well.
While the Razr 50 Ultra isn’t the fastest phone out there, its power efficiency is impressive. Its 4,000mAh battery is only 7.5% larger than the one in the Galaxy Z Flip5, but offers nearly 50% longer battery life. In our testing, the Razr 50 Ultra typically got more than 14 hours of screen time.
The phone also supports 45W fast charging, although it doesn’t come with a charger in the box, so if you want fast charging you’ll need to buy a suitable power supply separately. You can also charge via Qi2 wireless chargeralthough when I tried this I ran into a weird glitch where the screen would wake up every few seconds while charging. Hopefully a future software update will resolve this issue.
an open and closed box
If you’re tired of the same old smartphone design, the Razr 50 Ultra is the perfect cure. In addition to the inherent appeal of the folding format, it’s bright and colorful inside and out, the oversized cover display is both attractive and functional, and the opening and closing action of the hinges is very pleasing.
There are rough edges. The AI-powered image generator shouldn’t be released with its current bias, and other AI tools aren’t as snappy as they are on other phones.
Frankly, though, you can ignore the AI gimmicks and still find a lot to like about the Razr 50 Ultra. Perhaps the best reason to hold off on buying this phone is that, historically, Motorola has a habit of offering deep discounts on its high-end phones after the initial launch period, often with Pantone. Even at full price, though, the Razr 50 Ultra’s array of great looks makes it a good deal. Here’s a simple tip for anyone who wants to take a walk on the other side.
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