Can Motorola overshadow Samsung on its own turf of foldable phones? That’s what we wanted to check with our review of the Motorola Razr 50 Ultra.
While foldable smartphones are often attributed to Samsung and its Galaxy Z Flip, we should not forget that the Motorola brand also offers this format. phone for several years. In 2020, the firm distinguished itself in particular by presenting its Motorola Razr 5G model. An astonishing and powerful foldable phone that was supposed to stand out against the giant Samsung.
It’s 2024 and Motorola is now offering its Motorola Razr 50 Ultra, a true technological flagship of the brand equipped with numerous high-end components to stand out against the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 6 released during the same period. But is the Motorola Razr 50 Ultra ready to take on the task? That’s what we’re going to find out in this review of Motorola’s latest foldable phone.
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A design that leaves no creases
The Motorola Razr 50 Ultra is a foldable smartphone with fairly small dimensions of 88.1 x 74 x 15.3 mm when folded. Its external screen is arranged on the entire front of the device (unlike the latest Samsung Galaxy Z Flip) which allows you to display a maximum of content. However, this screen tends to retain fingerprints very easily and it’s a bit of a shame when you know that the latter is very pleasant to use frequently. All of the buttons on the Motorola Razr 50 Ultra are on the right edge of the device and they fall very well under the thumb during handling.
The back of the Motorola Razr 50 Ultra houses a sober vegetable leather covering with the two brand logos on top. This coating gives a certain premium side to the device and is very soft to the touch in addition to preventing it from slipping on flat surfaces. All good then!
The Motorola Razr 50 Ultra’s format is very pleasant to hold on a daily basis when the phone is folded. We particularly note the curved edges which allow the hands to more easily fit the shape of the device during our uses.
When unfolded, the Motorola Razr 50 Ultra reveals a 6.9-inch screen with well-defined but symmetrical edges. The unfolded format of the smartphone is however very elongated and reaching certain sides of the screen remains difficult with one hand.
A fluid screen, but lacking visibility
The two screens of the Motorola Razr 50 Ultra are quite similar if we omit their sizes. They are, for both, an AMOLED LTPO panel with a refresh rate that can vary automatically up to 165 Hz. This rate is, let’s admit it, quite impressive on paper since the majority of high-end phones only go up to 120 Hz while more modest devices have a rate of 60 or 90 Hz. This very high frequency turns out to be quite a gimmick, however, since the perception of differences with the human eye beyond 120 Hz remains very minimal. Let’s just hope that this rate does not impact too much the autonomy of the Razr 50 Ultra that we will discuss later.
In terms of brightness, Motorola announces a peak of up to 3000 nits for its Razr 50 Ultra. Another impressive figure, but which rather disappointed us on a daily basis as the phone’s screen sometimes lacks readability, especially in direct sunlight. For once, the automatic brightness management is also quite approximate and the Razr 50 Ultra can sometimes think that you are in the dark even when you are not. This is mainly due to sensors that are a little too calibrated and can quickly detect your fingers around the phone.
Decent performance, but one might expect better
Unlike many high-end Android smartphones in recent months, the Motorola Razr 50 Ultra is not equipped with the latest chip from Qualcomm, the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3. The firm has decided to cushion the costs a little, but also not to equip itself with this chip, often considered energy-hungry, to turn to the Snapdragon 8s Gen 3 SoC. This processor remains relatively little used in France and can only be found in mobiles from brands like Motorola, XiaomiPoco or Realme.
In everyday use, the Motorola Razr 50 Ultra does the job. The animations are fluid and it is possible to chain multiple everyday applications without observing any screen freezes or even slowdowns.
For video games, the result is more mixed. Titles that are quite resource-intensive are generally launched with the graphics set to “medium” and at 30 FPS. Titles like Genshin Impact or Wuthering Waves can be pushed with their graphics at full blast, but this is felt in the fluidity which then collapses during large sequences loaded with animations. The phone also tends to heat up quite quickly after a few minutes of play if the graphics are pushed a little too much.
Good photo capabilities, but you have to like color!
The Motorola Razr 50 Ultra only has two 50MP cameras: a main lens and a 2x telephoto lens. It’s pretty rare not to have an ultra-wide angle on a phone in this price range, but why not after all.
During the day, and when the conditions are good, the photos taken by the Razr 50 Ultra are pretty good. We will still note very bright colors, sometimes saturated, which do not leave much room for fidelity. A characteristic that is often found on the firm’s smartphones, but which may please some. However, we observe some slight blurs on certain small details, but the photos remain completely usable as is.
On the zoom side, the Razr 50 Ultra is equipped with a telephoto lens that can perform an optical zoom up to x2. Beyond that, it will be a digital zoom. The shots taken at x2 are, unsurprisingly, of rather good quality. It is even possible to push up to x3 or x4 without feeling too much loss of detail. Of course, the shots lose detail as you zoom into the image and the digital noise becomes more and more noticeable until you get shots that are barely usable with the maximum zoom.
Not much to complain about when it comes to portraits. The Motorola Razr 50 Ultra does a pretty good job of spotting your subject and isolating it from the rest of your shot. By applying a Bokeh effect in the background, the smartphone manages to manage the smallest details well so as not to blur like some hair in the wind.
The foldable format of the Motorola Razr 50 Ultra also remains very useful for taking selfies. Whether you use the phone folded completely or place it on a flat surface thanks to its unique format.
At night, things are a little more complicated for the Motorola Razr 50 Ultra. The colors are still quite garish and the phone’s software processing will tend to force the light to produce a sharp image, but to the detriment of the overall quality of the shot.
Very good autonomy coupled with rapid recharging
One of the biggest problems with foldable smartphones remains their autonomy. It’s difficult to include large batteries and manage the heat of the phone in such a small format! The Motorola Razr 50 Ultra has a 4000 mAh battery, which is already a small evolution of 200 mAh compared to its predecessor. But wouldn’t this increase be only intended to manage the phone’s new processor?
Unplugged at 8am, the Motorola Razr 50 Ultra still had a little over 54% battery at the end of our day around 6pm. A very respectable score! Expect around 16 to 18 hours of use for the Razr 50 Ultra which should allow you to use the phone for a day or more depending on your usage.
On the charging side, the Motorola Razr 50 Ultra is compatible with fast charging up to 45W. This is notably 20W more than for Samsung’s latest Galaxy Z Flip 6 and it is felt. The Motorola Razr 50 Ultra is capable of filling up the battery in just under an hour and also ingests a system allowing a boosted charge for the first percentages which allows you to recharge just enough to last a few more hours.
5G connectivity on the agenda
We were able to try out the Razr 50 Ultra with both 4G and 5G communication bands. Unsurprisingly, we did not experience any issues during our calls and our conversations were perfectly audible to both us and our interlocutors.
The Razr 50 Ultra also integrates compatibility with the Bluetooth 5.4 standard as well as NFC technology to pay with the phone. On the network side, the smartphone is compatible with 7g wifi for fast and smooth connections.
Our conclusion to the Motorola Razr 50 Ultra test
Motorola has been working on its foldable smartphone copy year after year and it shows. The Razr 50 Ultra combines a very practical original format with very good arguments such as a photo rich in colors (if you like it) and rather decent performances.
While it does compete with the latest Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 6, both phones are priced the same. We would tend to recommend the Motorola on the battery life and charging side as well as the convenience of the larger external screen. However, Samsung’s phone still comes out on top in terms of photography, performance and the number of planned updates.