Motorola Razr 50 Ultra hands-on review: the 2024 flip phone to beat?

Introduction

It took a few attempts, but Motorola has finally settled on what it feels is the winning foldable smartphone formula. The Razr 50 Ultra (sold as the Razr+ 2024 in the US) isn’t a radical overhaul like previous generations – I see it more as a refinement of the outgoing model, which was already a very capable clamshell.

All-new camera hardware and improved weatherproofing will appeal to fans of the outgoing Razr 40 Ultra, while Google-backed AI and the largest outer display you’ll find on any flip phone take the fight to the flip phone establishment. And at £999 SIM-free it even undercuts the Galaxy Z Flip 5. With Samsung expected to play its hand in a matter of weeks, has Motorola rocked up to the table early with a royal flush?

After 24 hours with one in my pocket, here are my early impressions.

Design & build: mean in green

Previous Razrs were desirable devices, but I reckon the Razr 50 Ultra has supermodel good looks. Especially in the distinctive Spring Green colour of my review unit. I’ll admit to not being the biggest fan of Peach Fuzz and Viva Magenta, Moto’s last few hero colours – but this generation has more gender neutral options, including Midnight Blue. The pink pair make return here, though, in case you were a fan.

A polished metal frame looks suitably high-end, and the vegan leather rear panel is wonderfully grippy. Folded shut, this is a perfectly pocket friendly phone, weighing almost the same as last year’s effort and matching its slender proportions. The hinge is also easier to open one handed now, even if the range of degrees it can stay open for feels about the same as before.

The outer screen, which almost fills the entire front of the phone, demands the most attention. It’s larger than any other flip phone I’ve tried, and Motorola’s user-friendly software means you get to choose which apps to use on it – not just ones the firm has signed off on, like some rival flip phones.

Motorola has also stepped up its water resistance game this year, with an IPX8 rating that puts the Razr 50 Ultra on par with the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 5. In every other design aspect, I put the Motorola ahead of the Samsung.

Screen & sound: oh so usable

At a palm-filling 4in and with a tack-sharp OLED panel, the Razr 50 Ultra’s outer screen is so good you can almost forego flipping it open entirely. Moto has ditched the thicker top bezel, and shrunk the surrounding frame to make room for it, but kept the distinctive twin punch hole cutouts for those twin camera lenses.

Apps have more room to breathe than last year, even without enabling the full screen setting (which fills the entire panel, obscuring anything beneath the camera cutouts). Typing is easier too. I could tap out sentences at full speed with no typos – something I couldn’t say about the outgoing phone. You’re still forced to pick between onscreen buttons and gesture navigation across both screens, rather than individually, but the latter is a lot easier on account of the larger form factor.

A high refresh rate guaranteed smooth motion while swiping between screens and taps were just as responsive as the inner display. Colours were wonderfully vibrant and punchy, and it got bright enough I could see it clearly outdoors on an especially sunny day – Moto claims a 2400 nits peak, which is up there with many mainstream non-folding phones.

The Razr 50 Ultra continues to impress once you flip it open, particularly for anyone who hates screen creases. I can still feel the subtle hinge when swiping across the screen, but it’s hard to spot at the sort of angles I typically use my phone at. Motorola remains the pick of the bunch for flip-style foldables.

Unlike a lot of folding screens I’ve used, the plastic film covering the pOLED panel doesn’t create a whole lot of friction for your fingers. It’s still very reflective, but has so far avoided picking up lots of fingerprint smudges. A better than Full HD resolution and 165Hz refresh rate deliver a sharp and smooth image, and colours are as impactful as I’d expect from OLED tech. Brightness is the one area this phone can’t compete with the best non-folding handsets, with a claimed 3000 nits peak – but that’s still perfectly punchy for outdoor use. It’s tall, at 6.9in – the same as last year – so reaching the top part of the phone when unfurled can still be a bit tricker for smaller hands.

I’ve yet to properly put the speakers through their paces; it has a fairly typical down-firing main driver and earpiece speaker combo. I’m expecting a similar performance as last year, which was decent enough for a flip-style foldable.

Cameras: count me in

Flip phones have never been the last word in phone photography, but the Razr 50 Ultra is off to a good start. It has two 50MP exterior snappers: one wide angle and one telephoto. That’s a big leap in pixel count compared to the outgoing model – but did mean ditching the ultrawide lens.

I don’t see that as a big deal, given how rarely I use ultrawide lenses on my phones – or the macro close-up modes many of them now include. I did, however, wonder whether 2x would be enough magnification.

Surely cropping into a main sensor with so many pixels would give near-lossless 2x results in all but the darkest of lighting – freeing up the telephoto for a stronger 3x or higher zoom? Then I remembered how flattering a 50mm focal length can be for portraits. A bit of sensor cropping and this phone can also manage 85mm portrait snaps, complete with convincing looking bokeh depth blur.

An image quality verdict will have to wait, as I’ve yet to test this phone at night or compare with its closest rivals. Brightly lit daytime scenes are bursting with colour, dramatic-looking HDR and high contrast; Motorola’s sometimes heavy-handed sharpening looks to have been kept in check too, at least on first inspection.

There’s a 32MP camera punched into the inner screen, but with the cover display acting as a viewfinder, you’ll want to do all your selfie snaps using the outer pair of lenses.

Software experience: flip-friendly

I love Motorola’s light touch approach to Android; there are plenty of handy gestures and features hidden away in a dedicated customisation app, but more dramatic changes like floating sidebars and always on screens are switched off out of the box. It’s a pared back experience with wider appeal than some rivals’ heavily modified skins.

The biggest differences are, naturally, all to do with the cover screen. You can place widgets, turn off certain pages (like phone contacts or the surprisingly extensive list of games designed to fill the screen’s square aspect ratio) and choose which apps can be accessed without opening the phone. The media player graphics that mimic a cassette tape whenever you’re streaming music are just perfect.

There are more Motorola apps than in previous years, but they’re all largely useful inclusions. Family space lets you lock down app access when handing your phone to a youngster; Smart Connect lets you control the phone from a PC and share content wirelessly; Moto Unplugged cuts down on distractions by limiting you to just a few essential apps.

It relies on Google’s default apps everywhere else, including Gemini instead of the older Google Assistant. This is the first phone to ship with Google’s AI-powered helper out of the box, and Moto has thrown in a few months’ access to the advanced tier for Razr 50 Ultra customers.

handful of familiar UI customisations. From gestures to launch the camera or turn on the torch, through to a highly configurable always-on display, Moto continues to balance a streamlined experience with feature flourishes

Performance & battery life: fab for a foldable?

The Razr 50 Ultra continues Moto’s habit of fitting its foldables with chipsets that aren’t quite top-tier – but still have more than enough oomph to still be considered a flagship. There’s a Snapdragon 8S Gen 3 running the show here, paired with 12GB of RAM and either 256 or 512GB of on-board storage.

With no benchmarks or games installed, I could only judge performance on how well the phone ran Android 14, scrolled through web pages, and handled basic multitasking. A full report will come later, but everything looks good at first glance; there was no stuttering or slowdown when running two apps in split view, UI elements popped up instantly, and the on-device generative wallpaper editor only needed a few seconds to create backgrounds based on photos I took using the rear camera.

You pay a premium for foldable display tech, but Moto hasn’t had to dial things back anywhere else to hit the Razr 50 Ultra’s asking price. Based on rival phones with the same silicon, gaming shouldn’t be a hardship either – though cooling and thermal throttling might be something to watch out for given the compact dimensions.

A week of regular use will reveal how well the Razr 50 Ultra’s 4000mAh battery holds up between charges. That’s 200mAh more than you got in the Razr 40 Ultra, and the chipset should be more efficient to boot, so I’m betting 24 hours should be easily achievable. That’s largely down to the cover screen saving me from opening the phone for a considerable number of apps I use on the regular.

Motorola still includes a rapid charging power brick in the box, which can refuel the phone at its maximum 45W and even supply more demanding hardware with 68W. Wireless charging also makes the cut.

Motorola Razr 50 Ultra initial verdict

It’s early days, but the Razr 50 Ultra seems to have doubled down on everything that made the previous generation such a great flip phone. The cover screen is even larger and more usable, water resistance is now class-leading, and the new camera hardware seems capable enough at first glance.

Battery life is an unknown, and I’ll need to test those cameras in low light to see how well they compare to the current crop of clamshells. The approaching Galaxy Z Flip 6 looms large, too – but unless Samsung has changed its approach to running apps on the outer screen, I have a feeling this will be the more usable phone of the two.

Motorola Razr 50 Ultra technical specifications

Screen	6.9in, 2640×1080 pOLED w/ 165Hz inner 3.6in, 1272×1080 OLED w/ 165Hz outer
CPU	Qualcomm Snapdragon 8s Gen 3
Memory	12GB RAM
Cameras	50MP, f/1.7 w/ OIS 50MP, f/2.0 w/ 2x optical zoom 32MP, f/2.4 front
Storage	256GB on-board
Operating system	Android 14
Battery	4000mAh w/ 45W wired, 15W wireless charging
Dimensions	74x171x7mm (open) 74x88x15mm (closed) 189g