Motorola Razr Ultra review: Ultra experience, ultra pricey

This year, Motorola announced the Razr, the Razr+, and the Razr Ultra, three new foldables. While Motorola isn’t new to the foldable game, this is the first time they’ve pushed out three foldables with varying differences. I went hands-on with the three Razr devices back in April, and I didn’t really think that the Razr+ was worth it; however, it turns out the Razr+ isn’t coming to Canada, so I guess someone else didn’t think so either.

Because the Razr Ultra is the new guy on the scene, I spent the most time with this handset. I liked the 7-inch display on the inside and the 4-inch panel on the outside. While this is the first time we’ve seen an ‘Ultra-branded’ phone from the company, this handset isn’t incredibly different from last year’s Razr,+ but brings new features and updated specifications. These updates include a Snapdragon 8 Elite, a 50-megapixel ultra-wide sensor, and a stronger hinge.

Last year, I said this about the Razr+: “The Razr+ is well-built, even better than its predecessor. The handset feels solid, and while I thought the Razr+ 2023 had a strong build last year, I can immediately feel the difference.” I can say precisely the same thing about the Razr Ultra.

Motorola says the Razr Ultra has a titanium-reinforced hinge and is 4x stronger than surgical-grade stainless steel. The phone feels incredibly durable, and the hinge is indeed stronger. You can just look at it and compare it to last year’s; it’s evidently different from the previous year. I like that the hinge feels far more sturdy, and when unfolded, the crease is barely noticeable when looking straight on. However, you can still see it from different angles.

Razr Ultra has three finishes: soft-touch Alcantara, FSC-certified wood, and durable leather. Honestly, I care a little less about these finishes; I’ve been using the Pantone Scarab, a dark green colour. The soft-touch Alcantara is odd for a phone, and sometimes, I wish I had a tiny vacuum to deal with the bit of lint that gets caught.

Also, I wish Motorola had better product colour names. How would someone know that ‘Scarab’ is a dark green colour? The actual beetle comes in various colours, like some of these beetles are purple. It also comes in Rio Red, Cabaret and Mountain Trail – Mountain Trail! Come on, Motorola, that’s not a colour! Mountain Trail is the FSC-certified wood finish, but mountains have trees, dirt, rocks, and other stuff—just horrible colour naming conventions, not a fan.

When unfolded, the Razr Ultra offers a 7-inch HDR10+ display with a 1224 x 2912-pixel resolution and a 165Hz refresh rate. The screen is, but the phone still has an odd aspect ratio, so when I’m playing Marvel Snap, the sides of the game are a bit cut off. Videos and images look fine, and the colours are also nice, but the aspect ratio is odd, though, for certain content.

On the outside, the phone has a 4-inch display with a 1272 x 1080-pixel resolution. I’ve been mostly using the exterior screen to look at the time, quickly answer notifications, use ‘Catch Me Up’ , and Look and Talk ( more on those last two features below). Occasionally, I would watch content on the front screen, but that was only once or twice when cooking.

The Razr Ultra’s design is superior to the Razr+ from 2024, but definitely not worth running to the store for if you want an upgrade.

On the inside, the Razr Ultra sports the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite, 16GB of RAM, and up to 1TB of storage. I benchmarked the handset with a single-core score of 1,737 and a multi-core score of 6,703. Surprisingly, these scores are a little low for a Snapdragon 8 Elite device. Compare these scores with the Zenfone 12 Ultra, which has a single-core score of 3,136 and a multi-core score of 10,036; the Razr Ultra is pretty inferior. Benchmarks don’t necessarily equal real-life experiences, but these scores are surprising.

I’ve been able to do day-to-day activities on the device, like watching YouTube videos, playing Marvel Snap, scrolling through social media, and more. I’ve also played some Dandara, a retro pixel-style metroidvania, but gaming-wise, I didn’t really try a lot with the phone. The aspect ratio doesn’t lead me to wanting to play games. Even though the game is a bit cut off at its sides, I have played a lot of Marvel Snap.

The Razr Ultra has a 4,700mAh battery and lasts an entire day. This is the biggest battery in a flip-style foldable in the Canadian market. I’m impressed by the battery; it is definitely better than any of the flip-style foldables I’ve used. It also has 65W wired charging, so I’ve been getting the handset to charge quite quickly. In terms of survivability, the Razr Ultra has been a great experience, making it to 70 per cent after seven and a half hours, and 20 per cent after 14 hours.

Motorola has jammed a lot of AI into this handset and put it under the Moto AI category. Motorola introduced Moto AI last year and then pushed it into an open beta program at the end of November. Now it’s officially out on the 2025 Moto Razr series, so I’ve been trying out some of the features.

‘Catch me up’ keeps users updated by summarizing their most important messages. It’s been fine seeing all my notifications listed out, but I don’t think it’s necessary. I haven’t found that it has dramatically improved my experience. The Remember This feature works fine; it’s a feature that can remember things based on pictures you take, what’s on your screen, or you can write down something for it to remember. For instance, I remember conversing with my friends, and we nailed down a place for dinner. When you look at the memory, it highlights the event plan, which is great, but a couple of things should be fixed in the future. For one, it should put my dinner plans in my calendar or set up a reminder. And your list of memories isn’t easy to find. You can use Moto AI to pull up your memories, or you can open the Moto AI app, go into its settings menu then click memory, but that seems like a pain in the ass, and there should be some sort of shortcut.

The best Razr Ultra AI feature is ‘Look and Talk.’ When your handset is in tent or stand modes and you look at its external display, Moto AI will activate, allowing you to ask it questions or perform actions like Catch Me Up. This is probably the best feature available on the Razr Ultra, and I hope all foldables adopt it. Google and Samsung, take note and use this for phones.

However, it’s worth noting that Look and Talk didn’t always work. Motorola asks that you take off your glasses when setting up face unlock, so when I looked at the device, Look and Talk didn’t always register until I took off my glasses. Further, whatever room you’re in must also be bright enough to register your face.

The Razr Ultra has three 50-megapixel cameras: two rear-facing cameras, a wide-angle, an ultra-wide, and a selfie camera. The phone took pretty solid photos; colours popped, and there was a good sense of dynamic range. I liked that the two cameras were consistent, whether I was using the ultrawide or the wide-angle. Other than the angle, I couldn’t tell the difference between the two shooters.

Sometimes, pictures of the sky can be overexposed. While selfie quality is superb since you can use the rear-facing camera to take photos, I noted that my skin was a bit lighter than it should be. This issue occurs with some phone brands like Huawei or TCL, but it’s annoying that it also happens with Motorola. It’s not the most noticeable, and it could be due to the phone slightly overexposing most pictures.

I liked the Razr Ultra. It’s a solid device and definitely an improvement over its predecessor. The phone would be great for selfie lovers and people who value flip-style foldable phones.

However, $1,899.99 is pretty steep for this handset; I don’t know if I could recommend it at that price. You won’t be disappointed with the unit, but it seems pretty expensive. Motorola is pretty good, having solid deals on its phones, so if you want the Razr Ultra and don’t want to spend too much money, I’d wait for Black Friday or Boxing Day.