The Motorola Razr 50 Ultra: A Clamshell Foldable That’s Finally Ready for Prime Time
Motorola is back with its yearly update for the Razr series, and the new Razr 50 Ultra is not out to revolutionize the clamshell foldable market. Instead, it focuses on refining the foldable formula with several key improvements. While last year’s Razr 40 Ultra impressed with its radical and bold cover display design, it fell short in terms of camera performance and suffered from heating issues. This year, the Razr 50 Ultra looks familiar but boasts a wealth of hardware upgrades that make a tangible difference. After spending over a week with the device, it’s safe to say that Motorola has delivered a clamshell foldable worthy of your consideration. Read on to discover why the Razr 50 Ultra could be your first foray into the world of foldable phones.
Motorola Razr 50 Ultra Review Design: You win some, you lose some
The Razr 50 Ultra’s design bears a strong resemblance to its predecessor, the Razr 40 Ultra. However, there are subtle changes that may not be immediately obvious. When closed, the clamshell foldable is now a couple of millimeters thinner, resulting in a cross-section (when folded) that’s comparable in thickness to most smartwatches. This is largely attributed to the new hinge, which, besides promising enhanced reliability with fewer moving parts, is also more compact.
According to Motorola, the new hinge not only provides a smoother opening and closing experience but also offers better protection against dust. The Razr 50 Ultra boasts an IPX8 rating this time, aligning with the older Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 5, but falling behind the new Galaxy Z Flip 6’s IP48 rating, which provides protection against both dust and water. Ironically, the Razr 40 Ultra offered an IP52 rating.
The new hinge lets the Motorola Razr 50 Ultra lie perfectly flat when open
The new hinge refines the capabilities of the previous model. While Samsung’s Galaxy Z Flip emphasizes extreme hovering angles, it still necessitates two hands for opening. Oppo’s Find N3 Flip, in contrast, boasts a smooth and easy-to-open hinge with a narrower sweet spot (45-120 degrees) for hovering. Motorola’s Razr has always focused on flipping the top half open. Its smaller hovering range (beyond which the phone folds shut or opens flat) makes it one of the easiest foldables to open and close with one hand.
Despite its smaller hovering range, the Razr 50 Ultra can securely hold up one-half of the display at a V-shaped angle. Motorola has taken advantage of this with some intelligent software-based features.
There’s a Sleep display feature which activates the cover display’s AOD functionality. This mode engages when the top half (containing the cameras and the cover display) is angled at a slant (around 70 degrees) in the Stand position. It showcases a standard white over black AOD screen with all essential details. You can wake it up (to the lockscreen) by tapping the display or simply bringing your hand closer to it while in this mode.
The new leather rear panel, apart from feeling great, also offers plenty of grip
The second feature, Desk display, leverages the cover screen’s low refresh rate (LTPO). It operates in both Tent or Stand positions and displays preselected photos from your gallery or custom images from Motorola (like Hello Moo or Hello Moto). Images can also be accompanied by custom text, transforming the cover display into a digital photo frame that consumes minimal power (1-2 percent an hour) while in use. It can remain on continuously provided it’s set to Tent or Stand positions.
The rear panel now receives the vegan leather treatment across all finishes. These finishes differ slightly due to their splicing methods. The Spring Green unit we reviewed exhibited fine vertical grooves, providing excellent grip. In fact, the grip is so pronounced that we initially thought it supported the new Qi 2 standards (which it doesn’t).
Desk display turns the Motorola Razr 50 Ultra’s large cover display into a mini photo frame
A true always-on-display mode (like on an iPhone 14/15 Pro) for the Razr’s cover display would be a highly welcome addition. Since it essentially covers the front half of the clamshell, it could potentially double as a color-changing, customizable front panel capable of displaying matching print designs and more. But for now, this remains a feature for future consideration.
Motorola Razr 50 Ultra Review Displays: A notch above the rest
While I was impressed by the Razr 40 Ultra’s cover display, the Razr 50 Ultra’s larger 4.0-inch panel features improved cutouts for the two floating cameras and the LED flash unit, giving it a more polished appearance. The cover display, with a peak brightness of 3,000nits, is exceptionally bright outdoors and is also HDR10+ certified, making it suitable for scrolling through photos, capturing photos, and even watching compatible content on the cover display in tent mode – something I surprisingly found myself doing.
The new larger cover display with its floating cameras is a treat to look at
The color reproduction of the main display is excellent, particularly when set to the Natural color mode. This vibrant display also boasts a tall and wide 22:9 aspect ratio which is ideal for videos. However, this does lead to some letter-boxing on the sides when streaming content in the standard 16:9 format. Thankfully, it works flawlessly when watching movies with their wider cinema formats. The maximum 300Hz touch sampling rate (220Hz normal) is exclusively available while gaming but proves to be a boon for high-end FPS gaming enthusiasts.
Motorola Razr 50 Ultra Review Software: A fine balance
The software experience with Motorola’s recent Hello UI is quite good, striking a balance between not feeling overwhelming for the user and not hindering the hardware. There are a few preinstalled third-party apps (which can be uninstalled), and Motorola has also begun including several of its own apps that cannot be uninstalled, although most of them are useful (Family Space, etc.). While it lacks the near-stock feel of older Motorola phones, it offers a wealth of personalization options with themes, fonts, AI wallpapers, and more.
Motorola lets you invert the orientation of the cover display depending on your app’s layout when in full-screen mode
As with every clamshell foldable on the market, Motorola remains at the forefront (now that Samsung’s new Galaxy Z Flip 6 is out) when it comes to cover display capabilities. The larger size of the cover display makes it remarkably useful, and I often found myself initiating and completing tasks entirely on the cover display itself. Motorola goes all out by supporting Google’s Gemini AI on the cover display, and it’s as functional as advertised. After receiving your results, you can also copy and paste them between apps on the cover display, thanks to the presence of a full-width keyboard. And since you can seamlessly access any app on the cover display (in full screen, no less), the Razr’s cover display is just as functional as the one inside.
Motorola Razr 50 Ultra Review Performance: A bit of a hothead
In terms of raw performance, the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 5 we tested last year still reigns supreme. Despite its peculiar name, the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8s Gen 3 processor isn’t as powerful as the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3. This places it on par with last year’s Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 5 (we expect the Z Flip 6 to outperform), which features a Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 for Galaxy SoC, as evident in the benchmark scores below.
| Benchmark | Razr 50 Ultra | Oppo Find N3 Flip | Galaxy Z Flip 5 |
|---|---|---|---|
| AnTuTu v10 | 1,283,736 | 1,027,655 | 1,287,359 |
| PCMark Work 3.0 | 18,011 | 9,824 | 15,150 |
| Geekbench 6 Single | 1,926 | 1,116 | 1,998 |
| Geekbench 6 Multi | 4,950 | 3,325 | 5,176 |
| GFXB T-rex | 120 | 60 | 120 |
| GFXB Manhattan 3.1 | 120 | 60 | 111 |
| GFXB Car Chase | 87 | 60 | 94 |
| 3DM Slingshot Extreme OpenGL | Maxed Out | Maxed Out | Maxed Out |
| 3DM Slingshot | Maxed Out | Maxed Out | Maxed Out |
| 3DM Wild Life | Maxed Out | Maxed Out | Maxed Out |
| 3DM Wild Life Unlimited | 12,050 | 12,769 | 12,923 |
In terms of everyday usability, I didn’t encounter any significant issues or notable bugs. Everything operated smoothly and flawlessly, as one would expect from a Motorola device, despite the brand’s tendency to introduce more native apps over time. The transition of apps between the cover display and the main display and back is still seamless, a feat that other manufacturers have yet to replicate successfully.
One area that continues to stand out is heating. While the phone doesn’t get excessively hot during demanding gaming sessions and doesn’t heat up during regular use, I noticed a noticeable increase in temperature when using the camera. Although I couldn’t feel the heat on my fingers when holding the device, it was perceptible on the inner folding display. This thermal change is also evident in the camera interface, which starts to lag after about 5-10 minutes of mixed usage. This is particularly noticeable during video recording, where the animation of the recording button itself slows down.
The Razr 50 Ultra’s main display is a lot tougher than the previous one and has a nearly invisible crease
For avid gamers, I particularly enjoy the simple cover display games that offer good haptic feedback and utilize the floating cameras effectively. Serious gamers can rest assured that the phone can handle games like Call of Duty: Mobile at Medium graphics and Ultra frame rate with no issues. It also performs well with High graphics and Max frame rate. The UTG screen protection seems robust enough to withstand scratches during gaming sessions.
Motorola Razr 50 Ultra Review Cameras: New cameras, old problems
Motorola has abandoned the conventional ultra-wide-angle camera in favor of a telephoto camera this year. This appears to be a wise decision, as the primary camera (wide-angle) usually suffices for most standard shooting scenarios, leaving room for a high-quality telephoto shooter with 2x optical zoom.
The primary camera captures slightly saturated colors (regardless of whether AI Shot optimization is enabled in Settings) and exhibits good dynamic range with ample detail in both shadows and highlights. Autofocus is rapid during photo capture but somewhat sluggish when recording video. The results are commendable in low light, with noise effectively controlled and plenty of detail present in textures.
Motorola Razr 50 Ultra Daylight Camera Samples. Top: Primary camera, Middle: 2X Telephoto camera, Bottom: 4X digital zoom (tap images to expand)
As for the new telephoto camera, it performs admirably in daylight and indoor lighting. Photos are rich in detail as long as your subject is steady. The telephoto lens is primarily used in portrait mode, and results are detailed and sharp. It also serves for zooming into a frame, and results in daylight up to 4X (digital crop) are quite usable with sufficient detail. Shots captured in dim or low light are slightly soft and blurry, mainly due to the lack of OIS, which is present on the primary camera.
Motorola Razr 50 Ultra selfie camera samples: Top: Selfie camera, bottom: selfie from the primary camera via a cover display (tap images to expand)
Similar to last year’s model, the built-in selfie camera isn’t exceptional. Daylight selfies are passable in terms of quality and detail, but low-light selfies exhibit a different color tone and are quite soft and blurry. Luckily, this is a foldable phone, so you can utilize the 4.0-inch cover display with the primary camera to capture clear low-light selfies while the phone is folded shut, enjoying natural bokeh and reducing the need for Portrait mode even at night.
Video captured at 4K 30fps or 4K 60fps is detailed but has a slightly limited dynamic range. Stabilization while walking and panning is good, provided the phone hasn’t heated up or the weather is favorable (calm or windy). Once the device heats up, you’ll notice the ongoing video recording appearing stuttery on-screen. The phone’s hardware clearly struggles to keep pace with the camera, causing the camera’s software interface to slow down gradually.
Motorola Razr 50 Ultra low-light camera sample (primary camera)
Fortunately, the recorded footage looks better, although it still struggles with bitrate issues due to accumulated heat during shooting. In low light, 4K 30fps footage is ideal, offering good detail and stabilization. 1080p video recordings appear somewhat soft and scaled down, making it less than ideal, especially in low light.
Motorola Razr 50 Ultra Review Battery: As good as it gets
The cover display being as functional as the main display naturally translates to improved battery life. Even with the AOD (black and white) feature enabled, I found the phone could easily last an entire day with heavy usage (including camera and gaming sessions) and could be extended into the following afternoon with casual usage. In our video battery loop test, the phone achieved an impressive 20 hours and 28 minutes. The device also supports 45W wired charging (with a 68W charger included in the box), enabling it to fully charge from 0 to 100 percent in 51 minutes. It also provides 15W wireless charging when placed on its proprietary charging dock (sold separately).
Battery results are really impressive even with the always-on-display feature (AOD) switched on
Motorola Razr 50 Ultra Review Verdict
Foldable clamshell smartphones have clearly discovered their niche in the compact flagship category, which has traditionally struggled with limited options. Currently, in India, this category includes only the Samsung Galaxy S24 (Rs. 74,999) and the Google Pixel 8 (Rs. 61,999).
Previously plagued by persistent heating issues, poor battery life, and lackluster camera performance due to their slim designs, clamshell foldables have finally reached a point of refinement where they can be confidently recommended as daily drivers, surpassing even compact or even plus-sized flagships.
That being said, the Motorola Razr 50 Ultra deserves a spot on your shortlist. Unlike its predecessor, Motorola has revamped the Razr in a positive direction, and it ticks all the boxes in terms of features that buyers expect from such a device. This includes capable cameras, a compact form factor (when folded), a large display when unfolded, excellent software, solid battery life, and rapid charging. Motorola even sweetens the deal by including a premium pair of Moto Buds+ (Review) TWS earphones in the box.
Motorola has also embraced the AI trend by incorporating Google’s Gemini on the large and functional cover display. The Oppo Find N3 Flip (Review) comes close as it offers a compelling set of cameras, while Samsung’s Galaxy Z Flip 5 (Review) and the new Galaxy Z Flip 6 (First Impressions) are strong contenders in the AI realm. However, Motorola’s cover display and excellent software integration still make it the clamshell foldable to beat.
