Motorola has been on a roll lately and in the last couple of months, we got the Edge 50 Fusion, Edge 50 Pro, and Edge 50 Ultra. Now, the brand raises the curtains to introduce its latest premium flip phone, the Motorola Razr 50 Ultra. I got my hands on the device a couple of days ahead of its official launch. So, here are my first impressions of Moto’s latest and greatest flip phone. If you’ve been thinking about getting a flip phone, is Moto Razr 50 Ultra worth it? Let’s find out!
Moto Razr 50 Ultra Specs at a Glance
| Specs | Moto Razr 50 Ultra |
|---|---|
| Dimensions | 171.42 x 73.99 x 7.09mm (Open) 88.09 x 73.99 x 15.32mm (Closed) |
| Weight | 189 grams |
| Processor | Qualcomm Snapdragon 8s Gen 3 (TSMC 4nm) |
| RAM + Storage | 12GB LPDDR5X + 512GB UFS 4.0 |
| Display | Main Screen: 4-inch 165Hz pOLED, 2640 x 1080 pixels, No protection since plastic film on top Cover Screen: 4-inch 165Hz pOLED, 1272 x 1080 pixels, Gorilla Glass Victus |
| Rear Camera | 50MP Primary OIS + 50MP Telephoto AF with 2x Optical Zoom |
| Front Camera | 32MP |
| Video | Up to 4K at 60FPS |
| Dual SIM | Yes; Supports eSIM |
| Connectivity | 17 5G bands, Wi-Fi 7, Bluetooth 5.4, NFC |
| Port | USB Type C |
| Battery | 4000mAh |
| Charging | 45W fast charging, 15W wireless charging, 5W reverse wireless |
| IP Rating | IPX8 |
| Software | Android 14, Hello UI (3 Years of Major OS Updates, 4 Years of Security Patches) |
| Price | Rs 99,999 |
What’s in the Box
The Moto Razr 50 Ultra comes with everything right in the box. So, you won’t have to go looking for extra accessories to buy. The best thing is that Moto Buds+ is included right inside the box. It’s not an early bird drill or anything of that sort. Every Razr 50 Ultra retail box will have one inside, forever.
With that being said, here’s a rundown of the Moto Razr 50 Ultra box contents:
- Moto Razr 50 Ultra
- Eco-friendly recycled case
- 68W PD charger
- USB Type-C to Type-C cable
- Moto Buds+
- SIM ejector tool
- Paperwork
Design and Build
I have with me the Spring Green variant of the Razr 50 Ultra, and it looks pretty dazzling on the first look. Upon closer inspection, I appreciated how nicely the two parts of the phone embraced each other, leaving no visible gaps whatsoever. It’s one tight hug, honestly. However, it’s flipping the phone open that made me melt away.
Once you insert your thumb and open the flip a bit, you can flick it open with one hand. The satisfaction is unmatched and made me miss the good old OG Razr days. I usually try to be extra careful when handling foldables, but the fact that you can do this without the top panel flying away into the void is impressive.
It’s scary nevertheless and if you are paying a lakh for a phone, it will take you some time to cozy up to the idea and eventually reach execution. But, the Razr 50 Ultra is durable, no doubt, and it feels solid in hand. The frame is also made out of aluminum with a steel hinge cover. So, there’s a certain premium heft to it, which I liked.
Although this is a slim phone, it isn’t as sleek as the Vivo X Fold 3 Pro that I recently used. However, it is obviously a lot more lightweight being a flip phone, and way more easier to carry around.
The vegan leather at the back enhances the premium feel of the device and provides some much-needed extra grip at the same time. The leather is also of good quality and while I used the phone without the box in the case, I barely saw any smudges or damage to it.
Mind you, my bag is quite the hell for such devices as it stores quite a few prickly gadgets and objects. And, the outer display’s Gorilla Glass Victus protection kept all sorts of scratches at bay too, which is great.
The power button and volume rockers are placed on the right side of the frame. And, it feels a bit claustrophobic here, and I wish there was a bit more spacing. Otherwise, the buttons being placed on either side of the frame would have been tasty.
That’s about it for the design, and now, it’s time to talk about the display!
Display and Speakers
The Moto Razr 50 Ultra’s 4-inch outer display is certainly the star of this flip show. This is one stunning display and the biggest I have come across on a flip phone so far. There are very few bezels around, letting the cover screen take up most of the area, making it look all the more classy.
This is a 10-bit LTPO pOLED panel backed by a 165Hz refresh rate and a peak brightness of 2400 nits. We could hit around 1450 nits on it using the Lux Meter at the office. It is plenty bright though both indoors and outdoors, and visibility was never a problem.
You also get to see 100% DCI-P3 on the outer display, and the colors were vibrant enough, whether I was browsing through photos or videos in the gallery or watching YouTube videos for fun on the small display. There’s also Gorilla Glass Victus protection on top of the cover screen.
So, it was time to un-flip this phone up. Inside, there is a 10-bit 6.9-inch LTPO pOLED display, which is also backed by 165Hz. The peak brightness is a bit more at 3000 nits, and we could hit around 1700 nits on it.
The 85.33% screen-to-body ratio gives you a lot of viewing room too. Most importantly, there is very little crease in the inner display, which is noticeable only from certain angles or when light falls directly on it. Normally, when viewing the screen directly, I barely noticed this crease.
That, coupled with 120% DCI-P3 and HDR 10+ support makes this a great display to view content in. I had a gala time with it and the display’s color accuracy is stellar. Blacks look very rich too, with dark scenes coming to life. Watching a bit of The Boys on this turned out to be quite the visual treat.
Also, I liked how the display is operable even with wet fingers, thanks to what Moto is calling Smart Water Touch tech. However, the inner display uses a plastic film on top like all the other foldable and hence, uses no glass protection.
The dual Dolby Atmos-backed stereo speakers are also nice enough for you to not use your earphones when watching something. However, for a pure music listening experience, they won’t do your ears justice. The output, although loud enough, is flat with very little bass.
While the highs and lows are well-accentuated, the mids sound a bit off. The audio distribution through the two grilles is also off, with the bottom-firing speaker always sounding louder.
Performance
The Moto Razr 50 Ultra is powered by the 4nm Qualcomm Snapdragon 8s Gen 3. Considering the price, the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 would have been a more rational decision, Moto. While the 8s Gen 3 is powerful, it’s still not the best, and that’s my problem with it.
Anyway, moving on, the processor is backed by 12GB of LPDDR5X RAM and 512GB of UFS 4.0 storage. So, multitasking is a charm and as always, I had around 20 apps running in the background, and the phone handled it like a breeze.
RAM management is also good enough, and most of the apps didn’t restart when I revisited them after a while. My daily usage was pretty seamless, minus a couple of bugs that I encountered, which I’ll talk about later in the software experience section.
I also squeezed some gaming in and tried titles like Genshin Impact, CoD Mobile, Warzone Mobile, and BGMI. Here’s a rundown of the kind of settings and FPS you get out of them on this phone:
Games Settings CoD Mobile Max Graphics: Very High + Max (60FPS)
Max Framerate: Medium + Ultra (120FPS in Multiplayer, 90FPS in Battle Royale)BGMI Max Graphics: Ultra HDR + Ultra
Max Framerate: Smooth + Extreme (60FPS)Warzone Mobile Medium + Uncapped + High (55-60FPS) Genshin Impact Highest + 60FPS
The gaming experience is good enough, but I really do want 8s Gen 3 phones to get 90FPS support in BGMI already. Keeping that aside, gaming is pretty solid on the device and it didn’t get uncomfortably hot after an hour or so of gaming.
With that out of the way, it’s time to focus on some optics!
Cameras
As for the cameras, the Moto Razr 50 Ultra’s 50MP Samsung ISOCELL GN8 primary sensor with OIS captures nice shots. The shadows and highlights are well maintained, thereby delivering some nice dynamic range in shots during the day. There are decent details in the photos, although not the best.
At night, shots get slightly noisy and details are smudged out a bit. Human subjects are captured well both during the day and night though. The portrait mode is good enough, with nice edge detection and decent enough depth mapping. However, at times, the depth mapping is inconsistent, especially without using the 50MP ISOCELL JN5 telephoto sensor’s 2x capabilities.
Talking about the telephoto sensor, it captures good photos too. However, there is some color discrepancy between the primary and telephoto sensors, with the primary capturing warmer photos.
The 32MP OmniVision OV32B selfie shooter is great and captures details very well. But, you may notice some slight sharpening at times, which I don’t like too much.
When it comes to videos, the selfie shooter and rear sensors can shoot at up to 4K 60FPS, which is amazing. Videos turn up very stable with no focus-hunting issues whatsoever. However, you can’t switch between the two rear sensors in 4K 60FPS, but you can do so at 4K 30FPS.
Software Experience
Not too long ago, I went hands-on with Motorola’s new Hello UI and it turned out to be a much-needed layer of fresh skin. The Moto Razr 50 Ultra is very well-optimized with the new Android 14-based Hello UI and you barely get to see lags or stutters.
However, there are some small bugs here and there. In one instance, the home screen gesture icon at the bottom started floating in the middle of the screen and a quick flip-unflip fixed that. Then, the cover screen can glitch out at times, but nothing too serious.
You see some bloatware though like Facebook, LinkedIn, Spotify, and Adobe Scan. You can uninstall them though. I was happy to see that Moto had gotten rid of its ad-ridden Weather app. Also, features like Smart Connect, Family Spaces, Moto UnPlugged, and lock screen customizations work very well, presenting zero issues.
Additionally, there are some Moto AI features here, like AI screenshot blurring, Magic Canvas, AI wallpapers, and the like. AI screenshot blurring is cool and works with quite a few apps like Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, YouTube, etc.
The device also comes with three months of complimentary Gemini Advanced subscription alongside 2TB of Google Cloud storage.
Overall, the software experience was mostly very fluid on the device during the limited time that I had with it. I like how the cover screen was also very well optimized, presenting a mini version of Hello UI, which is very satisfying to use along with the 165Hz refresh rate.
Upon swiping through the cover screen’s UI, you will get to see all the panels right here with dedicated ones for apps like Spotify, which is cool. On top of that, you can open any app on the cover screen, including games, which is silly fun!
Also, Motorola is offering 3 years of major OS updates and 4 years of security patches.
Battery Life and Charging
The Moto Razr 50 Ultra packs a 4000mAh battery, which is big enough for flip phones. The biggest we have seen so far is on the Oppo Find N3 Flip, which packs a 4300mAh unit.
Anyway, with medium usage of watching YouTube videos, Instagram reels, installing apps, and playing some games, I got around 4.5-5 hours of screen-on-time. This is good enough for a flip phone.
By the time I was done, I had around 20% battery left. Using the in-the-box 68W charger, I could top off the battery in around an hour, which is good too. However, strangely, the Moto Razr 50 Ultra supports 45W fast charging despite the 68W charging brick in the box.
Should You Buy Moto Razr 50 Ultra?
The Moto Razr 50 Ultra is easily the best flip phone experience you can pay for right now. The stunning and big 165Hz-backed cover screen and the equally impressive inner panel, the durable design, alongside a decent enough battery plus charging combo leaves barely any room for complaints. Most importantly, you get a matching Moto Buds+ right in the retail box, which costs about Rs. 10,000 alone. But….
If you’re looking for 8s Gen 3 phones only, there’s the Realme GT 6, Xiaomi 14 Civi, and POCO F6 that cost less than half of the Razr 50 Ultra’s Rs 99,999 asking price. Even Moto’s own Edge 50 Ultra comes with Snapdragon 8s Gen 3.
Most importantly, its biggest competitor will be the upcoming Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 6. And, going by Samsung’s track record, they will most likely be using the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 on it. While Z Flip 6 probably won’t have as big or impressive a cover screen as this, One UI makes Z Flip 6 a force to be reckoned with in the flippable segment.
Motorola still has some big issues with software updates. Its last year’s flagship Motorola Razr 40 Ultra still hasn’t received Android 14. That makes me doubt if the new Razr 50 Ultra will even get decent software support. And, if you are paying that much for a phone, you want it to be future-proof. That’s exactly why, although Hello UI is very clean and a refreshing experience, Moto’s software updates hold it back.
So, while the Moto Razr 50 Ultra is the best flip phone that you can buy right now. Enter the Galaxy Z Flip 6, and we will probably have a new king. If you badly want the device, my suggestion would be to wait a few months as Moto does give its phones price cuts. If you ask me, Rs 89,999 would have been the sweet spot for this. At that price, the device certainly makes a lot more sense.
Anshuman Jain
Sagnik Das Gupta
