Motorola Razr 50 Ultra review: a flip in the right direction

Motorola’s iconic Razr series has seen its fair share of reinventions over the years, but the new Razr 50 Ultra (Razr Plus 2024 in the US), is the most impressive in recent memory. We would go so far as to call it the most enjoyable flip phone we’ve ever used, even if it falls behind Samsung’s Galaxy Z Flip 6 on paper. So why’s this seemingly modest refresh impressing us so much?

Motorola’s made incremental improvements to its already strong Razr 40 Ultra (Razr Plus 2023 in the US). The cover screen’s a bit bigger, the hinge is more sturdy, the interface packs more polish, and Moto’s photo processing has improved for 2024.

But there are some drawbacks to the Razr 50 Ultra out of the gate. For starters, it has a less powerful chipset than the Z Flip 6, so it doesn’t look set to be as much of a gaming champ. It also misses out on dust resistance, a new feature for the new Z Flip, and its camera spec falls behind. Most notably, it misses out on an ultra-wide camera, instead loading up a 2x periscope camera with a modest 1/2.76-inch sensor and no OIS.

So, for anyone on the market for a new flip phone who's tossing up between Motorola and Samsung, it’s anything but an easy decision.

Motorola Razr 50 Ultra: Design

The new Razr may look like last year’s 40 Ultra, but it feels better. The bigger cover screen size is more finger and thumb friendly, the hinge is more secure throughout its range and the metal frame’s rounded corners and vegan leather back look seriously elegant.

While the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 6 is a couple of grams heavier and a little thicker than the Razr 50 Ultra, thanks to its tapered sides, Moto’s foldable feels more svelte. The Razr’s polished metal is more slippery, though, especially now Samsung’s given its Z Flip 6 a matte frame, so handle the Razr with sweaty hands at your peril.

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The polished frame is 6000 series aluminium, which is slightly less ding-proof than the 7000 series of the Razr 40 Ultra, but it’s more warp-resistant. The eco-leather back feels and looks great, and the back and sides are colour matched. We’ve been testing the Spring Green Razr 50 Ultra, and it’s also available in Midnight Blue, Peach Fuzz and Hot Pink.

IPX8 water resistance falls slightly behind the Z Flip 6’s IP48 water and dust resistance, but both are as dunkable as one another. At the base is a USB-C port, the single SIM slot is on the left (the phone also takes an eSIM for dual-SIM support), and the volume and power buttons are on the right side. The power button doubles up as a fingerprint scanner which was nice and responsive in our testing.

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After using last year's Razr 40 Ultra for a few days, the hinge developed a little wobble when part-folded. This was apparently common, so it’s great that the 50 Ultra’s hinge feels so much more secure after three weeks of daily use. The new Z Flip 6 does pack the sturdiest hinge around, holding its position comfortably through a wider angle with no wobble, but the Razr 50 Ultra is the runner up even besting  the Galaxy Z Flip 5.

Motorola Razr 50 Ultra: Cover screen

The Razr 50 Ultra’s cover screen is the star of the show, packing serious wow-factor when it fires up. There’s a thin border framing it, but alongside other flip phones including the Z Flip 6, the Razr looks like it’s plucked out of the future.

With a 4-inch AMOLED display, the Razr’s cover screen is larger than that of an original iPhone, and with a 165Hz refresh rate and a 2400 peak brightness, plus a crisp 417 PPI pixel density, it’s as smooth, bright and sharp as a flagship main display.

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The cover screen experience is also more powerful than that of the Z Flip 6. While this starts with its size, which makes it better for everything from typing to watching and app swiping, the out-of-the-box third-party app support takes the functionality up a notch. For context, the Galaxy Z Flip 5 and 6 only run all third-party apps on their cover screens with a bit of jiggery-pokery, and the experience isn’t as smooth.

Motorola also loads up handy cover screen pages including contacts, calendar, weather, Spotify and more, and there’s even a screen just for widgets. Pull down from the top of the front display for quick toggles to easily fire up a WiFi hotspot, access Bluetooth settings, or quickly open your Wallet. Moto’s gestures are also back, so you can double chop to activate the flashlight and wrist twist to launch the camera.

Motorola Razr 50 Ultra: Main display

Motorola’s new hinge gives the main screen the most subtle crease of any flip phone we’ve tested, including the Galaxy Z Flip 6. You can only tell it’s foldable when light hits the crease line at a specific angle. This is really impressive stuff from Moto.

Also, the screen protector on all foldables doesn’t have a cutout for the selfie camera making it look cleaner – last year’s Razr and this year’s Z Flip both do.

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When open, the Razr 50 Ultra's screen is tall and at 6.9 inches is slightly larger than the Z Flip 6’s 6.7-inch screen. The LTPO AMOLED panel has a peak 3000 nit brightness when displaying HDR content, is smooth at 165Hz – you can choose either 60Hz or 165Hz – and the screen supports HDR10+, though at the time or writing, there’s no Netflix HDR certification on my model.

The tall screen is a stretch, but Moto’s one-handed mode helps there, and while it isn’t fantastic for 4:3 photos, it’s superb for widescreen, 21:9 movies.

I had no issues seeing what was on-screen out and about, even on a sunny day, and that’s true of the cover screen as well. Choose between natural, radiant and vibrant colour modes, and whatever you pick will be applied to the cover screen.

Motorola Razr 50 Ultra: Camera specs

Wide: The Motorola Razr 50 Ultra's main camera has a 1/1.95-inch sensor, smaller than those of the Galaxy Z Flip 5 and Z Flip 6 but larger than that of the Razr 40 Ultra. The wide f/1.7 aperture lens features OIS, and the phone has a 24mm equivalent focal length.

Telephoto: The Razr 50 Ultra ditches the ultra-wide camera in favor of a telephoto portrait camera with a roughly 2x reach. The high-resolution 50MP sensor is 1/2.76-inch, and it's matched with an f/2.0 lens with a 48mm equivalent focal length and no OIS.

Selfie camera: Open up the phone, and the screen has a centered punch-hole selfie camera at the top. It has a 32mm resolution with an equivalent 24mm wide angle.

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The Razr 50 Ultra’s camera takes advantage of the usual flip phone party trick photo modes. When it’s half-folded, and the camera app's fired up, the top half of the screen acts as a viewfinder, while the bottom half serves up your shooting controls.

Moto also wants you to hold the Razr like a camcorder while capturing video. This creates a steadier grip when shooting in landscape orientation. Naturally, the large cover screen also acts as a viewfinder for selfies, so when the phone's closed, give the Razr a wrist twist, and you can quickly snap a photo.

Photo resolution can be bumped up to 50MP, though the Razr 50 Ultra takes 12MP photos by default, and you can record 4K video at up to 60fps.

Motorola Razr 50 Ultra: camera review

We've given Motorola a tough time in the past for its cameras. Either its photo processing was clumsy with contrast, it used underperforming sensors, or the experience was buggy and underpowered. This was usually reflected in the price – Moto is traditionally excellent value on the whole – but for photography enthusiasts, the brand was difficult to recommend. In our fortnight of taking pictures on the Razr 50 Ultra, though, we've had a surprisingly painless experience.

Motorola’s processing is better than ever, and there are some situations we prefer the Razr 50 Ultra to the – on paper – superior Galaxy Z Flip 6 camera. Specifically, the Razr's shots are less oversharpened and artificially boosted, so shots look a bit more natural. The exception is for faces. Motorola tends to apply too much contrast, while Samsung boosts shadows a bit more and treats portraits with more nuance.

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When the lights drop, night mode kicks in automatically, and the primary camera is competitive here, especially when it comes to white balance, capturing cooler, more realistic shots than the Z Flip. Though when you zoom, the Razr switches to the 2x camera which misses out on OIS, and the handheld results beyond 4x can be a blur-fest.

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In bright environments and when capturing daytime telephoto shots, the Razr flexes its optical zoom with typically better performance than the Z Flip 6. While the Razr is the best flip phone available in the West for a gig snapping faraway objects, you'd definitely be better off with a non-flip phone packing a periscope camera like the Pixel 9 Pro and OnePlus 12 if zooming is a priority.

Even though the Razr 50 Ultra's sensor is a bit smaller than Samsung’s Z Flip 6, you can still get decent depth separation in shots, likely thanks to the f/1.7 aperture, creating a soft background with close-up objects nearer than a meter.

The Razr also handles really high-contrast environments, like neon signs and backlit environments, well, applying a healthy amount of HDR effect without making the shot look like a washout.

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As for portraits, given Motorola pitches the 2x camera as a portrait camera rather than a tele camera, we had high hopes. In reality, the Razr is decent but not class-leading, with its portrait mode doing a respectable job provided subjects are nearer than about four meters and aren't in front of a busy backdrop.

Samsung's video stabilization is typically excellent, so while Motorola's video is adequate, if you're after a vlogging option, Samsung does edge ahead. The Razr is also notably weaker at night for video than bigger-sensor competition.

Motorola Razr 50 Ultra: additional features

The Razr 50 Ultra runs Android 14 with three years of OS and four years of security updates. This isn’t super-competitive for the price, but the core experience is impressive. The cover screen being so capable is part of the reason, and the clean, relatively stock-feeling interface is the other reason.

Motorola does load up some non-native apps like Notes and Smart Connect, but these are generally useful. Smart Connect in particular is great for Windows users, as it unlocks webcam functionality when paired with your computer, as well as a shared clipboard, app streaming and more.

You can also part-fold the phone and place it on a surface to activate the always-on display and set the phone up as a desk clock of sorts. So, while this isn’t true stock Android, it feels less bloated than Samsung, Honor, and Xiaomi’s interfaces, and on the whole, it is super-enjoyable to use.

The Razr 50 Ultra runs smooth and cool. It’s powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 8s Gen 3, the same chip found in the Honor 200 Pro , and Moto does a good job of maintaining consistent performance.

Benchmarks put it behind the Galaxy Z Flip 6 and similarly priced non-flip phones, so if you're after pure power, you'll want to look elsewhere. We nevertheless gamed on it for hours and found day-to-day performance to be solid.

It's worth noting, if you're coming from a past-gen Moto flagship with USB-C port video out, the Razr doesn’t support the feature, so Smart Connect is only available with wireless Miracast.

With a Z Flip 6-matching 4000mAh battery, the Razr 50 Ultra easily lasts a full day, especially when we rely on the cover screen more than the main display. Even with hot spotting on, plenty of music playback, and 30m of gaming, it didn't drop below 15% before the end of the day, which is super-impressive given the phone's battery capacity.

The Razr 50 Ultra charges fully in under 50 minutes with 45W wired charging, it hits over 50% power after 20 minutes, and there’s 15W wireless charging too.

Motorola Razr 50 Ultra: Verdict

The Razr 50 Ultra is a confident step in the right direction for Motorola. Its design and feature-set come together with flair, and its camera is competitive for a flip phone, while also being promising for Moto's upcoming phones.

The star of the show is the Razr 50 Ultra's cover screen. Its native third-party app support, ample size and excellent quality all come together to help the Razr edge ahead of the Galaxy Z Fold 6 when closed.

While we're not convinced a telephoto camera is more useful than an ultra-wide when you have a 50MP primary camera that likely supports in-sensor cropping, only you can decide whether that omission is a deal-breaker.

It's also worth noting you're paying a premium for the Razr 50 Ultra being foldable, so if you're after pure camera quality, you're definitely better off putting your pennies and pounds elsewhere. However, if you're looking for the sleekest, most novel phone around right now, the Razr 50 Ultra is probably the best flip or fold phone of 2024.