Motorola RAZR 50 Ultra review: More than just a name

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I’ve been around long enough to remember the original RAZR launching. I was at T3 Magazine back then, and there was a palpable sense of lust from the coverage when the phone was first announced.

It was the first mobile that looked like it had been exquisitely designed. The way the (razor)-thin screen folded perfectly into the body was something nobody had ever done before. 

Motorola has pulled out the RAZR name a few times since then. But the announcement of the RAZR 50 Ultra is the first time I think the brand has captured that real “wow” moment in its design.

I say this as someone who unboxed the phone in front of my 12-year-old daughter. She was literally squealing with excitement. Despite only ever having used an iPhone, she was ready to trash her current iPhone for the 50 Ultra.

And it’s easy to see why.

What is the Motorola RAZR 50 Ultra offering?

The flagship of Motorola’s smartphone lineup, the RAZR 50 Ultra, boasts the biggest external display on a flip phone to date.

At four inches on the diagonal, and with a resolution of 1272 × 1080, the external display wraps around the dual external cameras and is gorgeous. 

What’s more, it actually lets you do stuff. Where previous flip phones like the Galaxy Flip5 were restricted to certain, limited widgets which limited the usability of the external screen, the RAZR 50 Ultra lets you do just about anything.

Obviously, you can browse photos and send messages, but Motorola has packed in a bunch of (silly) little games for you to play.

Plus, you can pop almost any app on the phone onto the external display. You will get a warning that the app may not work properly on the smaller screen, but it still manages to open up a massive variety of functions for the closed device.

The only downside of that is that there is often no transition from the external screen to the internal one. For laughs, I tried running a GeekBench benchmark on the external screen, but when I opened up the phone mid-way through, the app had closed and the benchmark stopped.

Occasionally, it works, though. I logged into LinkedIn on the external screen, and it prompted me to open the phone to complete the process.

Beautiful design

It’s not just the external screen that looks great, though. Every aspect of this phone looks like it was crafted with care. 

The vegan leather backing that has been common in other Moto phones is back, and even though I didn’t love the Peach Fuzz Pantone colour I was testing, I can still appreciate its style.

The phone feels more robust than previous foldables as well, with an IPX8 rating and Corning’s Gorilla Glass Victus on the external display. The central fold doesn’t even feel too bad, though it’s definitely noticeable.

What does the Motorola RAZR 50 Ultra do well?

The 50 Ultra is a gorgeous device, and its looks alone make it worth consideration.

But what I really loved about testing the RAZR was the camera performance. 

Photo quality is good, as you can see below, but the act of actually using the cameras feels right.

For a start, using the external display to take selfies just makes sense. It looks fantastic, with a bright, vibrant view of the image you’re taking. Even taking a photo of a subject allows them to see the photo, which is helps them focus on the right part of the camera too.

Taking selfies with hand gestures and smile recognition works well. There’s also Camcorder mode, which pops the phone straight into video recording when you open the phone at a 90-degree angle and hold it like an old-fashioned camcorder.

The catch with the camera is that Motorola has decided to pack in a 50MP wide and a 50MP telephoto lens, rather than the more traditional ultra-wide.

That makes it tougher to get nice selfies with landscape backgrounds, but easier to get zoomed in photos of kangaroos on a bush walk, and improves the quality of portrait images

What could the Motorola RAZR 50 Ultra improve?

I found the day-to-day performance of the RAZR 50 Ultra to be pretty solid. It ran everything I needed it to, including games like Mighty Doom, without any lag.

It responds quickly and efficiently thanks to the Snapdragon 8s Gen 3 Mobile Platform and 12 GB of RAM on board.

But the 8s Gen 3 isn’t this year’s flagship processor. That would be the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3, which is in the Galaxy Flip6 which is just around the corner.

When you look at Benchmark scores, you can see what I mean. The RAZR 50 Ultra barely scrapes above last year’s Samsung flip phone in terms of its scores.

That doesn’t mean it’s bad. In fact, I was hugely impressed by the phone’s performance while using it. But it also means its more likely to start lagging sooner than a Samsung might.

Being a phone in 2024, there’s also a bunch of AI functionality crammed in there. That includes being preloaded with Google’s Gemini. 

My two cents is that most of the AI functions being sold to you aren’t actually that useful, so I’m packing AI in this section, though I concede not everyone feels the same as me on this front.

Verdict

So far, this is my favourite phone of the year. I won’t say it’s the best phone – The Galaxy S24 Ultra still holds that mantle thanks to its incredible performance.

But I love it. It’s got the perfect balance of design and performance. It’s stylish and glamorous and intelligent all in a single package.

If you’ve been considering a flip phone, then this is probably where I would start. Like the original RAZR, it’s a wonderful piece of engineering.

Buy the Motorola RAZR 50 Ultra online

Motorola RAZR 50 Ultra

Motorola has combined elegant design, stunning displays and great cameras to create one of my favourite phones of the year.

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