Motorola Razr Ultra: A Real Flagship Foldable

Forbes

a day ago

A lot has changed in Motorola's Razr foldables line since its initial launch in 2020. The original Razr foldable didn't have 5G and was reminiscent of the Razr v3 flip phone from the early 2000s. While Motorola definitely relied on a bit of nostalgia for marketing the new Razr, it was clear that the company wanted to compete with the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip, which also launched in 2020. In the last five years, Motorola has made considerable improvements to the Razr lineup, including creating a good/better/best offering of devices to satisfy different price tiers for consumers.
Historically, Motorola has faced criticism for not using latest-generation chipsets in the premium-priced Razr. To make up for this, Motorola prioritized larger cover displays. It also introduced the Razr base model with a smaller outside display and more modest processor, along with the Razr+ model with a larger outside display and a processor one rung below Qualcomm's flagship tier.
This year, Motorola expanded the lineup to three devices by introducing the high-end Motorola Razr Ultra. This is the first Razr to incorporate Qualcomm's top-bin processor, the Snapdragon 8 Elite. Meanwhile, Samsung has expanded its own lineup to two devices with the Flip7 FE.
In my opinion, Motorola's Razr+ was already a more competitive device than the Flip6 last year, even if the processor wasn't as fast. It had a much larger display and more advanced software. With this year's Razr Ultra, Motorola has become the clear leader — upping the ante with a faster processor than the Flip7, a still slightly larger cover display and better cover-screen capabilities.
How Does The Moto Razr Ultra's Performance Compare?
The Razr Ultra has an internal-display size of 7.0 inches, slightly bigger than the 6.9-inch displays on both the Flip7 and the Razr+. Meanwhile, the Razr Ultra's cover display is 4.0 inches, nearly catching up to the Flip7's 4.1-inch display. The Snapdragon 8 Elite processor is better than both the Flip7's Samsung Exynos 2500 and the Razr+'s Snapdragon 8S Gen 3. I benchmarked the Razr Ultra against my other Snapdragon 8 Elite smartphones including foldables, and it reached the fastest level of performance I've ever seen for a foldable; on Geekbench 6, the Razr Ultra even traded blows with flagship candy-bar phones like the OnePlus 13 and the Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra on both single-core and multi-core performance. In 3Dmark Wildlife Extreme, it tied with the OnePlus 13 for the fastest Android phone I've ever tested.
Since their inception, foldables generally haven't performed as well as standard candy-bar smartphones, but the Razr Ultra bucks that trend. It features 16GB of RAM (an upgrade from the 12GB of last generation's Moto flagship Razr+) using much faster 9600 MT/s LPDDR5X memory from Micron. I believe this helps to make the difference on performance, especially considering the demands of AI apps and on-device AI. The Razr Ultra also comes standard with 512GB of storage, which once again puts pressure on Samsung.
The Razr Ultra sells for $1,299 versus the Samsung Flip7's $1,099, but there are some clear differences that I think justify the difference in cost. Samsung is running a launch promotion offering 512GB of storage for pre-orders, compared to its standard capacity of 256GB. But considering that Moto is already starting at 512GB (and bumping users to 1TB for pre-orders), Samsung's promotion doesn't really match Moto's deal. That all said, in my experience, 512GB is enough for even the biggest smartphone power user; 1TB is more of a nice-to-have, knowing that you will probably never run out of storage even if you use it for three or four years.
The Razr Ultra's battery capacity and charging are also impressive. The Razr Ultra packs an impressive 4700 mAh, which is almost on par with the S25 Ultra's 5000 mAh, while lagging behind the OnePlus 13's 6000 mAh. This makes for almost 20% more battery capacity (along with a more efficient chip) than last year's Razr+ (4000 mAh) and more than this year's Flip7, which has only 4300 mAh. Heck, the Razr Ultra's battery capacity is even larger than the Samsung Fold7 I am currently evaluating, which is only 4400 mAh, using the same Snapdragon 8 Elite chip.
Beyond Samsung, the Razr Ultra is competitive with the global smartphone market, matching Huawei's Pura X flip phone at 4700 mAh and coming close to the Xiaomi MIX Flip 2's 5100 mAh. The Razr Ultra also boasts an even faster 68-watt charging speed, besting the last generation's 45 watts as well as all other flip foldables (including Xiaomi's offering at 67 watts). The book-fold phones do offer faster charging, but Samsung's Flip7 and Fold7 each offers only 25 watts, which is also slower than the S25 Ultra's 45 watts.
Moto Razr Ultra Cameras And Design Elements
Moto probably made the fewest improvements to the Razr Ultra over its other Razr models in terms of the phone's main camera configurations. The dual rear cameras still sport 50MP sensors. I liked, however, that the company upgraded the inner-screen selfie camera to 50MP to match the other two sensors — up from 32MP in the Razr+. This makes sense when you consider how often people are likely to stand the phone up on its own and use the inside screen for taking photos and videos.
Despite the modest improvements on the cameras, this is still a much better configuration than Samsung's Flip7, which includes only a 50MP wide-angle camera, a 12MP ultra-wide and a 10MP selfie camera. Samsung's Fold7, by contrast, offers a triple-camera configuration with a 200MP main sensor, a 12MP wide-angle and 10MP ultra-wide.
The portrait mode on this phone rivals that of the best phones I've ever used; it looks natural and real. Until now, I have never taken as many selfies or recorded so many selfie videos with a phone holding itself up on a table. I've enjoyed taking advantage of all three 50MP cameras on the Razr Ultra, even though I do really wish it had a 3x or greater telephoto lens. Even so, I was quite pleased with the camera quality of the Razr Ultra, although I think there's room for improvement in low-light performance.
One critique that I have of the camera software is that the default setting for colors is set to 'vivid,' which produces extremely contrasty colors; it makes everyone look like they are wearing lipstick. While I'm not expecting Moto to push the 'natural' setting (which at times looks a little undersaturated), the 'radiant' setting seems to be the happy middle ground and should be the default.
Finally, the Razr Ultra uses premium materials and unique colors thanks to Moto's partnership with Pantone (which I wrote about in my overview of the Razr lineup). I personally love the use of materials like Alcantara and wood to give the Razr Ultra a unique look and feel. I also loved the distinctive colors that Moto had in the prior generation, and I'm glad that the company continues to lean into them. These premium finishes and materials complement the Razr Ultra's overall feel and features — which, I believe, help drive Motorola's success over the rest of the Android ecosystem and even Apple.
The Motorola Razr Ultra Is More Than Cutting-Edge
Motorola is not only setting the standard for flip foldable performance; it's also setting the standard for how a flip foldable should look and feel. Everything about this device feels high-end, from the multi-modal and multi-model AI capabilities blending Gemini, Perplexity and Llama to the high-performance, long-lasting battery. It's also one of the first smartphones that has been able to fully saturate my 1Gbps fiber connection over Wi-Fi 7 with Speedtest, even across the apartment on 6 gigahertz.
From an AI perspective, I am a heavy Gemini and Perplexity user, so I really liked that both were pretty prominent on this device. But I can't say that I used that much of Moto AI's capabilities like Catch Me Up (which summarizes your missed notifications and messages) or Playlist Studio (which is limited to Amazon Music). I also used Smart Connect with a Lenovo X1 Carbon and found the experience somewhat fragmented — and not more comprehensive than Windows Phone Link. Those experiences are not enticing enough for me yet, but they might be further down the road.
What I did like is that the Razr Ultra leverages Snapdragon Sound for high-quality Bluetooth audio, and that it supports Dolby Vision and Atmos for excellent video recording and playback. With such a large battery, it's nice to know you can easily enjoy video and music for a prolonged period.
What's Next For Foldables? More AI
Many people within the mobile industry believe that foldables are the future of smartphones. If you think about the smartphone as the hub for all mobile computing, then a high-performance flip foldable with a big battery, a fast processor and good connectivity seems ideal. It's fairly portable, like a flip, but also able to control your earbuds, your smartwatch, your AR glasses or whatever AI wearable you want to use.
Ultimately, Moto clearly understands that the smartphone is the centerpiece of the AI experience. While there's no doubt that plenty of AI is going to happen in the cloud, there will also be increasing demand for hybrid and on-device AI capabilities that enable better security, privacy and latency. (Not coincidentally, all of this matches Qualcomm's philosophy about the inherently hybrid nature of consumer AI.)
While I don't think Moto AI is necessarily at the point where it's significantly differentiated from other AI solutions, it's apparent that Motorola is thinking about AI differently than the rest of the Android ecosystem and looking at offering consumers choices and customization. This will without a doubt be an iterative approach, but I do know that Motorola has been exploring agents and agentic AI experiences that would allow your phone to perform complex actions on your behalf. This is something that Motorola previewed at Lenovo Tech World last year, following the lead of companies like Rabbit (with its LAM Playground). Motorola is also already looking toward customizing the Razr with its newest Brilliant Collection partnership with Swarovski, continuing down the path of fashion and design. I believe that Motorola wants to allow people to express themselves more with their phones while also providing them with cutting-edge technology in flagships like the Moto Razr Ultra.