Motorola’s latest high-end flip-phone is competitively priced. At £1,000 inc VAT it costs the same as an iPhone 15 Pro, and more importantly £50 less than its direct rival, Samsung’s Galaxy Z Flip6. So the question is: has anything been sacrificed?

It’s certainly not style. In fact, I’d argue that the Razr 50 Ultra is the coolest phone you can buy. It comes in four colors that are as striking as the names Motorola gives them, namely Spring Green, Midnight Blue, Peach Fuzz and a Hot Pink that’s a throwback to 2005’s pink Razr V3. Everything about the design is thoughtful and slick, from the soft, suede-effect “vegan leather” (i.e., plastic) back that shows off the paint job nicely, to the humongous cover display – but more about that later.

It feels great in the hand, too. I found the size and weight very comfortable, whether the phone was opened or closed, and the folding mechanism snaps open and shut so satisfyingly that it becomes addictive. An IPX8 rating means it can take a dunk underwater without issue.

The specs are not to be sniffed at, either. The UK model has 12GB of RAM as standard, plus a roomy 512GB of built-in storage, and is powered by Qualcomm’s shiny new Snapdragon 8s Gen 3 chipset. It’s a very tempting package with – as we’ll see – only a handful of shortcomings.

Displays outside and in

The most immediately striking thing about the Razr 50 Ultra’s design is its full-face cover display. It’s conspicuously bigger than the outer screen on last year’s Razr 40, and than the display on the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip6. As well as offering a decent amount of space for apps, it’s so sharp and bright – it’s rated at a maximum of 2,400cd/m² – that it’s a joy to use in its own right.

The only catch with the outer display is the two holes punched out for the camera lenses, plus a third smaller one for the flash. I like the way the screen flows around the cameras, but it can cause practical obstacles – for example, some of the buttons on the Roku TV remote app were inaccessible. You can resize apps to fit better, but it’s a chore; this isn’t something that afflicts Samsung’s Galaxy Z Flip6.

The foldable inner display is even brighter than the outer one, at 3,000cd/m². It looks just as good, and it opens out impressively flat: I couldn’t even see the crease unless I held the phone at an angle, and I could barely feel it when I ran my finger across the screen.

Software sins

The Razr 50 Ultra runs Motorola’s version of Android, but compared to other manufacturers the company has a light touch with customizations. The whole experience looks and feels a lot like using a Google Pixel, although Motorola only promises three major OS updates, versus five from Google and Samsung.

Motorola does, however, make a number of interesting additions to the Android interface, notably its gesture shortcuts. For example, I love the way you can open the camera app by twisting your wrist a couple of times. This works even when the phone is closed, which means you can grab a selfie by simply applying a quick double twist of your wrist, then holding the phone up in front of you. I also like the way you can “chop” the phone twice in the air to toggle the front light on and off.

Sadly, not everything about Motorola’s Android platform makes such a good impression. The Razr 50 Ultra software includes an AI wallpaper generator, which can in theory generate any background you describe – giving you a much freer hand than you’ll get with Google or Samsung phones.

Unfortunately, the results clearly suffer from the sort of AI bias I thought we’d left behind years ago. If you ask for people you’re certain to get white people, while “friends at the beach” produced images of girls in bikinis, and “a strong person” got me a shirtless muscleman. Such stereotyping leaves a sour taste in the mouth – and you can’t just keep trying until you get results you’re happy with, as there’s a limit to how many wallpapers you can render in a month. There’s not even an option to buy more images; you must wait until the following month to have another go.

Camera tricks

The Motorola Razr 50 Ultra is fun to shoot with in almost every situation. As I’ve mentioned, you can grab selfies without needing to unfold the phone, by just twisting your wrist (or tapping the Camera app). Open the phone up for portraits and the cover display gives the subject a handy view of what the camera’s seeing; it’s great to watch friends smile when they see themselves on the cover screen.

You can also use the phone’s folding design to stand it up on its own, and start a countdown by raising a palm. My favorite feature is the ability to switch into “camcorder mode” by simply opening out the screen halfway and aiming the camera at the action. The Razr Plus starts recording video automatically, and you can stop with a tap anywhere on the bottom half of the screen.

As for image quality, photos and videos captured by the Razr 50 Ultra make a great first impression, with bright, rich colors – but I did hit a few issues in my testing. Focusing didn’t always hit the mark, especially with close-ups, even after I’d tapped on my desired focus point; and while I took care to use the digital level, my landscape photos sometimes came out crooked. I also felt that blurred bokeh backgrounds looked processed and artificial, without the smoothness you’d get from a full-sized camera lens. Still, the overall quality is fine for everyday casual snaps, and I’m inclined to forgive a few foibles when the act of shooting is such a joy.

Performance and battery

The Snapdragon 8s Gen 3 chipset inside the Razr 50 Ultra is a middleweight model, delivering similar levels of performance to last year’s Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 (as in the Galaxy Z Flip5) but with lower power demands.

That means it can’t keep up with the Flip6, which includes the full-fat Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 chip: it scored 4,848 in Geekbench 6’s multicore test compared to 7,022 for the Flip6. But this remains a fast phone. My apps ran perfectly smoothly and snappily; even fancy tricks such as opening the camera with gestures, or moving an app from the big internal display to the smaller cover screen, worked without delay. The phone also did a great job playing games and movies, including high-resolution multiplayer games such as Call of Duty: Mobile.

The only hiccup I encountered was with Motorola’s AI features. Leaving aside my issues with the wallpaper generator, I found AI-enhanced features such as text editing and photo editing laggy, especially compared to similar features on the Pixel 8 Pro and Galaxy S24 – and sometimes tasks would fail completely.

It’s a clunky experience, but that may be down to first-generation software. Qualcomm claims the Snapdragon 8s Gen 3 has a generous amount of on-device AI processing power, and I found Google Gemini ran smoothly on the Razr 50 Ultra’s cover display (something you can’t do on the Galaxy Z Flip6). Motorola says that new AI capabilities will be coming to the phone in future updates, so here’s hoping that overall performance will also be optimized and improved.

While the Razr 50 Ultra isn’t the fastest phone around, it’s admirably power-efficient. Its 4,000mAh battery is only 7.5% larger than the cell in the Galaxy Z Flip5, yet it achieves almost 50% more battery life. In our tests we regularly enjoyed more than 14 hours of screen time with the Razr 50 Ultra.

The phone supports fast 45W charging too, although there’s no charger included in the box, so if you want speedy top-ups you’ll need to source a suitable power supply separately. You can also recharge via a Qi2 wireless charger, although when I tried this I experienced an odd glitch where the screen woke up every few seconds while charging. Hopefully a future software update will fix this.

An open and shut case

If you’re sick of the same old smartphone designs, the Razr 50 Ultra is the perfect cure. Aside from the inherent appeal of the folding format, it’s bright and colorful inside and out, the king-sized cover display is both attractive and practical, and the hinge snaps open and shut with a terrifically pleasing action.

There are rough edges. The AI-powered image generator should never have been released with its current biases, and the other AI tools aren’t as snappy as they are on other handsets.

Frankly, though, you can ignore the AI gimmicks and still find much to like about the Razr 50 Ultra. Perhaps the best reason to hold off buying this phone is that, historically, Motorola has a habit of offering great discounts on its top-end handsets once the initial launch period has passed – and often also adds new colors to the range, in partnership with Pantone. Even at full price, though, the Razr 50 Ultra is a decent deal in a selection of great-looking finishes. It’s an easy recommendation for anyone looking to take a walk on the flip-side.

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If the Razr 50 Ultra is too pricey, Motorola also offers a regular version of its latest flip phone. At only £800 inc VAT it’s the cheapest of the current generation of foldables, yet it manages to match much of the style and appeal of the Ultra.

It too comes in a cool choice of colors, ranging from sober Koala Grey through tasteful Beach Sand to Spritz Orange. The vegan leather casing remains, with its contoured edges and lightweight feel, and the updated folding mechanism opens and closes with a satisfying snap.

The Razr 50 also has a generously sized cover screen, with the same two punched-out holes for the camera lenses. It doesn’t quite cover the entire front of the phone as the Ultra’s does, but it’s big enough to be both useful and attractive, with a 90Hz refresh rate and a sharp 413ppi pixel density. You can happily capture selfies with the rear cameras, use the half-unfolded phone as a desk display and even run full apps without opening up the case. It’s protected by a Gorilla Glass Victus coating, and the whole thing boasts an IPX8 water resistant design.

The 6.9in OLED inner display looks great, too. This has the same sharp density as the outer screen, a smooth 120Hz refresh rate and a maximum brightness of 3,000cd/m², making it a joy to use even in direct sunlight. The crease is visible, but less so than on older flip phones.

One significant difference between the Razr 50 and the Ultra is that this model doesn’t have a telephoto lens, instead pairing a decent 50MP main camera with a 13MP ultrawide. I prefer this arrangement for vlogging, selfies and group photos, as the ultrawide lets you capture more of the scene, while an upgraded photo booth mode works with both the inner and outer displays. In camcorder mode the Razr 50 can capture 4K video at up to 60fps, in either vertical or horizontal positions, although there’s no HDR support.

The Razr 50 also benefits from the AI enhancements to improve photo quality and stabilize your videos, and when I compared image quality between this phone and the pricier Razr 50 Ultra I couldn’t see much difference. The colors are more subdued and dynamic range isn’t as good in the shadows, but the Razr 50 still produces fine photos. The biggest compromise is the all-digital zoom; it works pretty well, but look closely and zoomed-in images are smudgy compared to those taken with the 50 Ultra.

Another noteworthy difference between the Razr 50 and the Ultra is the processor. In place of the Ultra’s Snapdragon chip, the standard Razr uses a MediaTek Dimensity 7300X chip, which is a mid-range performer. It’s also backed up by a more modest 8GB of memory and 256GB of UFS 2.2 storage.

Even so, apps run smoothly, and in everyday use I barely noticed any difference between this phone and the Ultra. While it got a little hung up during intense battle scenes in Age of Origins, gaming is certainly achievable. Indeed, there’s an optional Turbo mode to eke out the best gaming performance possible, at the expense of battery life.

I’m pleased to see all of Motorola’s software enhancements here, too. I love the personalisation options for the outer display, and the gestures such as chopping to instantly turn on the torch. The Razr 50 also includes Google Gemini, which can be accessed directly from the external display, but it’s worth noting that this phone won’t get the full set of future Moto AI features that are supposed to be coming to the Ultra. At this point it’s difficult to say how much that matters, but it could become frustrating over the lifetime of the phone. On that point, the Razr 50 also has a comparatively short software support period, with Motorola promising only three years of major Android updates.

One thing the Razr 50 isn’t short of is battery life. In our rundown test it managed an excellent screen-on time of 14hrs 37mins – almost half an hour longer than the Ultra – and in real-world use I’ve found it generally ends the day with a remaining charge of around 35%.

For recharging, the Razr 50 supports fast 30W charging, which got me from zero to 58% in half an hour, plus 15W wireless charging for cable-free top-ups.

In all, the Razr 50 is an impressive proposition. Sure, it’s not the greatest flip phone in the world: if you want optical zoom, top-tier gaming performance and the full set of AI features you’ll need to pay the extra for the Ultra. Even so, the Razr 50 offers a laundry list of plus points, including a great outer screen, an attractive design with water resistance, decent performance, strong battery life and a pretty positive camera experience. For the price, it’s a fantastic deal.

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