Foldable and flip phones specifically are making a major come back. It does feel like in a way we are back to the future really. As someone who used to own a few flip phones back when batteries would last days and even a week, including a Motorola RAZR which I absolutely love, the RAZR to me has always held a special place in my tech heart.
So with Motorola bringing the newest version of its RAZR line up with the Motorola RAZR 50 Ultra, I wanted to see what the company has brought and improved from last years version I also reviewed and see what improvements and features are now packing in the latest iteration.
So can the Motorola razr 50 Ultra last an Ausdroid review, let’s have a look shall we.
What’s inside the box?
Inside the box, you get the device, the usual paperwork, two plastic covers which come with some sort of sticky tape on them to help them keep them on the device, a 1 meter USB-C to USB-C charging cord and a 68W turbo charger wall brick.
The design
The first thing you will notice once you open the box is the packaging and the 6.9-inch FHD+ pOLED display, with the packaging making it clear that in case those who have never had a flip or foldable phone before, that Motorola has advised users that you should never remove the screen protector for the inside flip screen. Doing so and you will get multiple prompts about it when setting up the device, will mean you can void your warranty. So please keep the screen protectors on the displays.
On the front display in the direct middle center of the top of the internal display is the 32MP selfie camera which I will go into details later down in the review.
Turning the phone on I have to say the display is bright, clear and crisp. Where the hinge is you will notice at the sides are slightly raised because of the design of the hinge to ensure the phone call fully closes flat but that at the sides only and doesn’t detract from this display or using it.
Furthermore it does seem the sides, top and bottom around the internal display are slightly higher than the display and I suspect that is a designed feature to ensure the device can close flat. Again just an observation and doesn’t distract from using the device.
Closing the inside display and looking at the front you will notice the huge 4.0-inch external pOLED display which Motorola have stated is the largest display on a flip phone currently.
Of course the other thing you will notice are the two 50MP main sensor camera lens and the 50MP telephone lens on the front display located on the bottom right hand side, with a single LED flashlight just to the left of these lenses. The only issue I found with using the front display is constantly hitting and putting fingerprint marks on the front lenses when I was using it as the front screen can be used to check multiple things such as pictures, take photos, make calls, check texts, calendar, weather and so much more but I would always or at least most of the time keep hitting these lenses leaving smudge marks on them.
There are small bezels around the front display but again it doesn’t stop you from enjoying using the front display which is a nice touch.
Flipping the device over you will notice that the back is made from vegan leather in which I was given the spring green colour which I have to say does look quite well, but I am more of a fan of anything Blue colour personally.
The sides of the RAZR 50 Ultra are made of aluminium chassis and the right hand side top half houses the volume rocker (up and down) along with the combined fingerprint/standby/power button just below the volume rockers.
The top side of the RAZR 50 Ultra houses one of the three microphones which is located towards left hand side. On the left hand top half of the device is where you will find SIM card slot, although you can also use an e-sim if you can use this with your provider so it might be worth checking.
The bottom side half of the RAZR 50 Ultra has the two other microphone located on the left hand bottom side, with the USB-C charging port in the middle and on the right of this is the external speaker grill.
Overall I do like the design of the Motorola RAZR Ultra and I have to say the hinge is not as still as compared to last years Razr’s which felt awfully stiff but overall I do like the design of the RAZR 50 ultra overall.
Lights, Camera Action!
the Razr 50 Ultra comes with a dual rear camera set up made up of a 50MP main sensor lens and a 50MP telephoto lens that has both moto ai camera capabilities and Google Photos AI-powered editing features.
With the cameras and software, the motorola razr 50 ultra offers a number of AI-powered camera capabilities including:
- Photo Enhancement Engine: simultaneously applies settings from multiple shooting modes into one to deliver stunning photos every time. The engine finetunes the image for optimal detail, clarity, highlights, shadows, colour, and bokeh effects
- Adaptive Stabilisation: determines the speed of movement while filming and dynamically adjusts the stabilisation level for the best results, ideally to capture videos while running or riding a bike
- Action Shot: automatically increases and adjusts shutter speed and illumination based on different lighting conditions, perfect for sporting and jump in the air moments.
- Long Exposure: for capturing artistic light trails or smooth waterfalls with a single tap
- Super zoom: takes photos even further by enhancing the results through an AI-based machine learning algorithm, to capture details even when far away
The camera features within the app include, Slow motion, video, phot, portrait, pro, scan, spot colour, night vision, panorama, ultra-res, dual capture, Photo Booth, tilt shift, long exposure, Timelapse, spot colour (video) and Dual capture (video).
Photos taken with the dual rear camera set up to be honest are pretty damn good, compared to the inside front facing camera to be honest.
The pictures are clear and using the external cameras instead of the front facing is far better thanks to the external display which can ensure you take the best pics quite well.
The front facing or inside camera is 32MP and is fine but I found selfie pics taken with the front facing camera to be a bit dull and not pop as much as using the rear cameras.
Software and Performance
The Motorola RAZR 50 Ultra runs Android 14 right out of the box and there was at least one software update during the review which was downloaded and installed.
The one thing I do like is Motorola Hello UX which used to be My UX which doesn’t bog down the device like some (Samsung and Oppo, I am looking at you). Hello UX, which mainly brings with it some functional tools such as chop the phone down twice to turn on the flashlight, twist the hone with your wrist twice to activate the camera, three finger screenshot, run apps via a windows PC to run on a bigger computer screen and the ability to drag and drop files between your phone and your windows computer.
What powers the RAZR 50 Ultra under the hood is a Snapdragon 8s Gen 3 Mobile Platform chipset with 12GB RAM and 512GB onboard storage that sadly cannot be expanded via MicroSD card which is sad for those who prefer this method but this is a high end device and as such these features have well and truly gone so you will need to make sure you have enough cloud storage available.
Performance wise the Motorola RAZR 50 Ultra was able to keep up and go between apps without skipping a heartbeat. You can also split the internal screen so you can use two apps at once.
The only thing I don’t like, which Motorola are offering users who purchase the Motorola RAZR for at least the first 3 months is Google’s Gemini AI, which is great at something but not as useful as say the Google Assistant for the more mundane stuff like turning on and off smart lights etc. Gemini is great for checking and reading out emails but personally I am not a fan of this, rather read them myself but each to their own.
In terms of connectivity, the Motorola Razr 50 Ultra comes with WiFi 5G, WiFi 6/6E, WiFi 7, 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac/ax/be, 2.4GHz & 5GHz & 6GHz, Wi-Fi hotspot, which the stable with my home and work Wi-Fi networks was stable and strong.
The RAZR 50 Ultra also comes with Bluetooth version 5.4 which is able to connect to my various Bluetooth earbuds and headphones really well and keep that connection strong and ongoing without any issues, along with 4G and 5G mobile connectivity.
Battery Life
The Motorola RAZR 50 Ultra comes with a 4,000 mAh non removable battery which is more than enough to get a full days usage. For example, using the device and taking off charge at about 7:30-8am and not returning home till about 7pm I still had a decent amount of battery life. This is due in part to using the external smaller display more than the bigger one half the time as the smaller display does use a lot less power and energy.
Motorola have included a 68W wall charger brick but do state that the Motorola RAZR can support turbo charging at 45W and there is also an added bonus of 15w QI wireless charging for those who do prefer wireless charging. This does mean that using the wall charger you could potentially charge your battery life up to full from about 50% in 30 mins or less.
Should you consider buying one?
Honestly there is a lot to like about the Motorola RAZR 50 Ultra. Motorola have fixed a lot of the issues that did plague the previous editions for the razr, such as the hinge stiffness, battery life, external display and camera lens and software which have made this phone an absolute beast.
Granted the only thing I would have liked to have seen is a wide angle lens but this is just a small issue over the remainder of the device.
Honestly I can easily recommend the Motorola RAZR 50 Ultra to anyone looking to get a flip phone and it does take me back to my original Motorola RAZR V3 I had way back in the day (which still holds a very special place in my tech heart). My only question comes down to what I said last year is longevity of the display as you do tend to notice the seams from the curves over time and in some cases this can become the devices Achilles heel. I am just note sure if I could switch over to a flip phone full time but so far the RAZR 50 Ultra is tempting me.
The motorola razr 50 ultra is available in Midnight Blue, Spring Green and Pantone Color of the Year 2024, Peach Fuzz and will be available through the Motorola Australia website alongside retail partners JB Hi-Fi, Harvey Norman, OfficeWorks, The Good Guys, Mobileciti and Amazon for $1,699 with presales beginning between 2 – 16 July, with full sales starting from 17th July 2024.
