Motorola's $1,199 RAZR 50 is an Optus exclusive

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Motorola announced its RAZR 50 folding smartphone alongside the superb RAZR 50 Ultra way back in June, but we didn't know much about when it was going to launch. But now we do.

The Motorola RAZR 50 is launching today and will be exclusive to Optus.

Ugh.

Telco exclusives seem to be a lot less common these days than in the early days of the smartphone. Frankly, that's a good thing for a few reasons, not least because telco plans are typically terrible value compared to buying the phone outright and joining a cheaper MVNO.

Not only that, but imagine wanting the RAZR 50 but you live in an area with crappy Optus coverage? No thanks.

In any case, the phone itself is available in a trio of Pantone colours: Beach Sand, Spritz Orange and Koala Grey. 

The phone features a 3.6-inch pOLED external screen, which gives you full contorl of the phone without having to open it. There's also a revamped hinge design to make it easier to manage single-handedly.

Compared to the RAZR 50 Ultra – which in my opinion is one of the best phones of the year – the standard RAZR 50 uses a MediaTek Dimensity 7300X processor (vs the Ultra's Snapdragon 8s Gen 3), with 8GB RAM (vs the Ultra's 12GB) and 256GB of on board storage (vs 512GB in the Ultra).

The main 50MP primary camera is the same, but instead of a 50MP 2x optical telephoto lens, the RAZR 50 offers a 13MP 120º Ultra-wide.

There's also a slightly larger 4,200mAh battery.

Pricing and availability

According to the announcement, the Motorola RAZR 50 is set to go on sale today, exclusively through Optus. The phone will cost $1,198 outright or you can pay it off over time on an eligible Optus Plan with OptusPay.