Razr 60 Ultra: Motorola's foldable finds sweet spot between style, utility

Business Standard

28-05-2025

Motorola's Razr series has long stood out in the foldable space for blending style with practicality – and with the Razr 60 Ultra, the company is pushing that formula further. The latest clamshell foldable brings a unique mix of craftsmanship and functionality, featuring new finishes like FSC-certified wood and upgraded internals, including a flagship Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen Elite. But beyond its head-turning looks and bold specs, does it deliver the kind of everyday experience that justifies its premium price tag? I have been using the Razr 60 Ultra as my primary phone – here is how it holds up.
Razr 60 Ultra: Design
The Motorola Razr 60 Ultra feels less like a phone and more like a lifestyle product, with its unique and premium aesthetic setting it apart in the foldable segment. Options like the Alcantara finish and FSC-certified wood back are virtually unheard of in the foldable smartphone space, adding a refreshing design-first approach. I tested the wood finish variant, and the in-hand feel is just as distinctive as it looks. It even attracted attention in public, with people often stopping to ask, "What phone is that?"
Despite its compact form factor, the Razr 60 Ultra feels remarkably sturdy, thanks to its balanced weight distribution and refined construction. While it's not the slimmest foldable around, the curved edges and rounded frame contribute to a comfortable grip, and the wood back panel does a good job of resisting dust and smudges.
Display and audio
The first thing that grabs your attention on the Motorola Razr 60 Ultra is its massive 4-inch cover screen, which ranks among the largest in mainstream flip-style foldable smartphones. It's not just big; it's highly capable, featuring a 10-bit Flexible AMOLED panel with HDR10+ support and LTPO technology that allows the refresh rate to dynamically scale up to 165Hz in specific scenarios.
This cover display is enhanced by a gesture-driven user interface that mirrors Android's core structure but replaces the traditional app drawer with scrollable panels. These offer quick access to apps, widgets, and key system functions. It's also highly customisable, letting users tweak themes, fonts, and layouts for a more personal experience.
Most Android apps are accessible directly from the cover screen, although not all are fully optimised for its unconventional aspect ratio. You can access Google Gemini AI here, but the Gemini Live interface's camera and screen sharing capabilities are currently not supported on the outer screen.
Unfold the device and you're greeted with a 6.9-inch AMOLED display that also supports up to 165Hz refresh rate. This main screen is bright, vibrant, and smooth, and Motorola has done an excellent job minimising the crease visibility – it's barely noticeable during everyday use, though still faintly visible under angled lighting.
For media consumption, the phone supports Widevine L1 certification for HD playback on most streaming platforms. While HDR10+ and Dolby Vision are technically supported, Netflix does not currently offer HDR playback on the device. However, YouTube HDR content works as expected. Due to the phone's unusual 22:9 aspect ratio, some videos may display with black bars or require cropping to fill the screen.
As for audio, the stereo speaker setup offers adequate volume for indoor listening, but the overall sound profile is flat, especially when playing music. While video watching is manageable in quiet settings, the experience improves significantly when audio is routed through external speakers or headphones. Another weak spot is the ear speaker during calls, which lacks punch—making it a bit hard to hear in noisy environments.
Camera
The Motorola Razr 60 Ultra features a triple-camera setup, comprising two sensors on the cover and one inside. The rear system includes a 50MP main camera with optical image stabilisation (OIS) and a 50MP ultra-wide-angle lens. The third camera—a 50MP front-facing sensor—is housed in a punch-hole cutout on the inner foldable display.
Camera performance is snappy, with quick focusing and shutter response. Images lean toward the oversaturated side, but the result is a set of vibrant and punchy visuals. Colour consistency between the primary and ultra-wide sensors is commendable, and in low-light conditions, the Razr 60 Ultra performs well—maintaining good light reproduction and minimising noise. That said, autofocus can be slower in dim environments.
Motorola has replaced the 2x telephoto lens from the previous model with the new 50MP ultra-wide camera, enhancing the phone's ability to capture landscapes, cityscapes, and group shots. The trade-off, however, is noticeable—close-up portrait shots now lack the detail and compression previously offered by the telephoto. Still, edge detection and depth rendering in portrait mode remain more than adequate.
A significant upgrade is seen on the front camera, where the previous 32MP sensor has been replaced by a new 50MP unit. It delivers sharp, vivid selfies with natural skin tones and good facial detail, especially in well-lit settings. In extremely low-light environments, some softness and detail loss can occur, but performance is still above average.
The Razr 60 Ultra also includes a variety of shooting modes, including a Camcorder mode that lets users fold the phone horizontally for a more comfortable grip and better video controls. Video capture is equally versatile, supporting 4K recording at 60FPS on all three cameras. There's also an 8K 30FPS recording option, although this remains exclusive to the main sensor.
Performance
The Motorola Razr 60 Ultra packs flagship-grade hardware, featuring a Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite chip, paired with up to 16GB LPDDR5X RAM and 512GB UFS 4.0 storage. On paper, these specs put it right in line with the best out there—and in day-to-day use, it delivers. The phone handles everything from quick app switching to split-screen multitasking and transitioning between displays with effortless fluidity.
Gaming performance is equally solid. Whether it's Battlegrounds Mobile India (BGMI), Genshin Impact, or FC Mobile, the Razr 60 Ultra offers smooth gameplay and stable frame rates on high settings. However, extended sessions do cause the phone to heat up noticeably, sometimes to the point of discomfort. This also accelerates battery drain, though performance remains largely unaffected despite the thermal build-up.
That said, this isn't a gaming-focused phone, and the compact foldable design limits the inclusion of features like a large vapour chamber for thermal management. Even so, the Razr 60 Ultra manages to offer a respectable gaming experience, especially for users who game occasionally rather than competitively.
Software
The Motorola Razr 60 Ultra runs Hello UI based on Android 15 out of the box. The interface remains clean and minimal, with little to no bloatware, staying true to Motorola's near-stock Android experience. However, what truly sets the software apart this time is the integration of several new AI-powered features, headlined by a dedicated 'AI Key'—a physical button placed on the left side of the phone for quick access to Motorola's proprietary AI tools.
Among the most useful features is 'Update Me,' which can summarise notifications from popular messaging apps like WhatsApp, saving you the trouble of checking each message individually. The feature can also be triggered in tent mode via the cover screen, where you can look at the phone or bring your hand close to it to activate the summary view—perfect for quick glances when your phone is resting on a table.
Other AI-powered tools include:
Take Notes – allows you to record, transcribe, and summarise notes.
Playlist Studio – automatically creates music playlists across third-party apps like Amazon Music.
Remember This – helps locate saved screenshots, notes, and photos using contextual search.
Image Studio – lets you generate images from text prompts, create custom stickers, or even build avatars from photos.
Style Sync – it lets you generate custom wallpapers using your own images as inspiration.
While these features generally work as intended, there are a few limitations. For instance, the Update Me notification summary does not support emails or certain non-messaging apps. Similarly, Playlist Studio often struggles to accurately reflect a user's listening preferences. Additionally, most of these AI tools require an active internet connection to function, limiting their usefulness in offline scenarios.
One feature that does work offline is the AI Search Bar found in the app drawer. It allows you to search for local files, settings, and apps using natural language prompts.
Battery and charging
The Motorola Razr 60 Ultra houses a 4,700mAh battery—an impressive capacity for a flip-style foldable. Despite primarily using the larger inner display during my testing, the phone consistently lasted a full day, often with enough battery left to stretch into the first half of the next day. Battery life can be further extended by relying more on the cover screen for lighter tasks.
Motorola includes a 68W charging adapter in the box. In real-world use, it charges the phone from 18 per cent to full in about 45 minutes, while a complete 0–100 per cent charge takes just under an hour.
Verdict
Priced at Rs 99,999, the Motorola Razr 60 Ultra brings meaningful upgrades over its predecessor, with improved performance, a sharper front camera, better dust resistance, and distinctive new finishes like wood and Alcantara. It retains the core strengths of the Razr 50 Ultra, including the large and highly functional cover screen, clean software experience, and refined foldable design.
Motorola's new AI-powered features, while still needing some polish, offer helpful use cases—particularly tools like at-a-glance notification summaries and contextual smart search.
All things considered, the Razr 60 Ultra stands out as one of the best flip-style foldable smartphones currently available, blending design and utility in a way few rivals manage.