Pros & Cons
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- Bright displays
- Category-leading battery life
- Powerful performance
- Fun folding form factor
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- Middling cameras
- Mediocre AI
Motorola Razr Ultra (2025) Specs
| Battery Life (As Tested) | 22 hours, 3 minutes |
| Camera Resolution (Rear; Front-Facing) | 50MP, 50MP; 50MP |
| CPU | Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite Mobile Platform |
| Dimensions | 6.75 by 2.91 by 0.28 inches open, 3.47 by 2.91 by 0.62 inches closed |
| Operating System | Android 15 |
| Screen Resolution | 2,992 by 1,224 pixels |
| Screen Size | 7 |
The Motorola Razr Ultra (starting at $1,299.99) seamlessly blends the appealing, pocketable design of an old-school flip phone with the performance of today's top smartphones. We really like its excellent inner and outer screens, class-leading battery life, impressive performance, and solid connectivity options. That said, we wish its cameras were sharper, its AI a little more inspired, and that Motorola would provide a longer support window. It's a good alternative to the $1,099.99 Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 6, though both fall just shy of earning our Editors' Choice award for foldable phones.
Design: Flipping Fun
The Motorola Razr Ultra, new to the Razr lineup for 2025, looks almost identical to last year’s Razr+, though it's slightly more phone across the board. It measures 3.47 by 2.91 by 0.62 inches (HWD) when closed in its clamshell shape and 6.75 by 2.91 by 0.28 inches when opened completely. This makes it taller and thicker than the Razr+ (3.47 by 2.91 by 0.60 inches closed, 6.75 by 2.91 by 0.28 inches open). The new foldable weighs 7.02 ounces, which is slightly heavier than last year’s phone (6.67 ounces). The larger dimensions and boosted weight are a result of the slightly taller main screen size.
The 2025 Razr ($699.99), the Ultra’s smaller, cheaper sibling, is slightly shorter and thicker (3.47 by 2.91 by 0.62 inches closed, 6.74 by 2.91 by 0.29 inches open; 6.63 ounces), while the 2025 Razr+ is about the same size but lighter by 0.30 ounces. By comparison, the Galaxy Z Flip 6 is smaller and lighter than all the Razr phones (3.35 by 2.83 by 0.59 inches closed, 6.50 by 2.83 by 0.27 inches open; 6.60 ounces).
(Credit: Sarah Lord)The Razr Ultra features an aluminum frame, a titanium-reinforced hinge, rounded corners, and a textured back. It comes in four colors: Cabaret (pink), Mountain Trail (wood veneer), Rio Red, or Scarab (black Alcantara). I tested the Rio Red version.
(Credit: Sarah Lord)The aluminum frame matches the color of the phone's rear panel, giving the device an elegant and coherent appearance. There’s a new AI button on the left side of the phone that initiates various actions. You can select your button preferences in the Settings menu; the button is limited to AI functions and cannot be programmed to do anything else. The right side of the phone contains the power and the volume up and volume down buttons. All of the buttons have a premium feel and make a satisfying sound when pressed. There’s a speaker grille, a USB-C port, and a SIM card slot on the bottom of the phone.
The back of the phone is split in two along the hinge: One half is a red vegan leather with the Motorola logo embossed in the middle, while the other half contains the front display. The display is dark when the phone is open, resulting in a black-and-red color scheme. I think it would look nicer if the secondary display automatically matched the color of the vegan leather when fully opened, but it would likely have a negative effect on battery life. Two round camera lenses and a small flash protrude from the front display. The screen flows around them, making them elegant and unobtrusive.
(Credit: Sarah Lord)The vegan leather back does a good job of protecting against fingerprints and dust, but the front screen is a smudge magnet. Luckily, the outer display is protected by Corning Gorilla Glass Ceramic, which is resistant to scratches, if not fingerprints.
All the 2025 Razr phones, including the Ultra, have an IP48 rating to protect against dust and water. This means the hinge can handle smaller dust and dirt particles than previous models, and the phone can survive full submersion in water. The Z Flip 6 also has an IP48 rating.
(Credit: Sarah Lord)For biometrics, there’s a fingerprint sensor embedded in the power button and facial recognition for unlocking the phone. Both work well, though I felt that facial recognition is faster.
Display: Bigger and Brighter Times Two
The Razr Ultra's outer display is a 4.0-inch pOLED LTPS panel with a resolution of 1,272 by 1,080 pixels for a density of 417 pixels per inch (ppi). The outer display has a 165Hz refresh rate and a 120Hz touch response rate. It reaches a peak brightness of 3,000 nits, which is an improvement over the 2,400 nits of last year’s Razr+. The 2025 Razr+ has the same screen size, resolution, and refresh rate as the Ultra, but is less bright with a peak of 2,400 nits. The 2025 Razr has a 3.6-inch external display with a pixel density of 413ppi and a refresh rate of 90Hz. For comparison, the Galaxy Z Flip 6 has a 3.4-inch external display with a resolution of 720 by 748 pixels, a 90Hz refresh rate, and a peak brightness of 1,600 nits.
(Credit: Sarah Lord)The Ultra’s main display measures 7.0 inches and has a resolution of 2,992 by 1,224 pixels for a density of 464ppi. The LTPO panel sports a refresh rate of 165Hz, with an increased touch response rate of 300Hz. The display tops out at an impressive 4,500 nits. Both the 2025 Razr and Razr+ feature 6.9-inch screens with 2,640 by 1,080 pixels at 413ppi. The Razr+ has a refresh rate of 165Hz, while the Razr’s refresh rate tops out at 120Hz. They both have a touch response rate of 220Hz and a peak brightness of 3,000 nits. The Z Flip 6 doesn’t get as bright as the new Razr phones. Its 6.7-inch main screen has a resolution of 2,640 by 1,080 pixels with a 120Hz refresh rate and a peak brightness of 2,600 nits.
The Razr comes with a preinstalled screen protector that the phone repeatedly warns you not to remove. I could only see evidence of it upon close inspection of the screen's corners. There are no bubbles, and it fits seamlessly into the display. I wouldn’t have noticed it at all, except for the numerous pop-ups that reminded me not to take it off. A round cutout at the top of the display houses the selfie camera.
The Razr Ultra's high brightness is noticeable. I had no problems viewing the screen under direct sunlight, even on a sunny spring day.
(Credit: Sarah Lord)I'm impressed by the minimized center crease. I couldn’t notice it at all when the phone was in use, and could barely make it out when the screen was dark. Motorola has done a good job of improving this design, and while the crease is still there, it feels like we can finally imagine a day when it will be gone completely.
Performance: Power and Heat
The Razr Ultra is equipped with one of the most powerful mobile chips available, the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite. The phone's $1,299.99 base price includes 16GB of RAM and 512GB of storage. However, it lacks a memory card slot, so those who need more space should opt for the 1TB model for $1,499.99.
In comparison, the $999.99 Razr+ carries over the 2024 model's Qualcomm Snapdragon 8s Gen 3 with 12GB of RAM and 256GB of storage. The $699.99 Razr runs on the less powerful MediaTek Dimensity 7400 chip and has 8GB of RAM and 256GB of storage. Meanwhile, the $1,099.99 Galaxy Z Flip 6 comes with a Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 chip with 12GB of RAM and either 256GB or 512GB ($1,219.99) of storage.
The Razr Ultra is fast. I had no problem managing everyday tasks on the phone, even with multiple apps open at once. I navigated the device with ease.
You can run all the apps on the internal display and move most of them over to the external screen to keep using them when you flip the phone shut. This happens seamlessly once you give every app permission to access the external screen. I never saw a slowdown or lag between apps running on the front or main display, and they transitioned from one to the other seamlessly.
(Credit: Geekbench/GFXBench/PCMag)Benchmark tests confirm the Razr Ultra's power. On Geekbench 6, which measures CPU performance, the Razr Ultra scored 2,913 on the single-core test and 8,727 on the multi-core test. Last year's Razr+ (1,892 and 4,648) and the Z Flip 6 (2,133 and 6,134) did significantly worse.
The Razr Ultra proved itself to be a great gaming phone on the GFXBench Aztec Ruins test, which measures GPU performance. It ran the test at 80 frames per second (fps), besting both the 2024 Razr+ (65fps) and the Z Flip 6 (27fps).
Unfortunately, the phone has a tendency to overheat. I couldn’t complete the GFXBench test the first time I tried because the phone got too hot and quit the program. I was able to complete the test on the second attempt.
Gaming on the Ultra is fantastic, though once again, the phone gets warm. Genshin Impact played flawlessly, though the back of the phone got warm to the touch after half an hour of gameplay. It never got so hot that the app quit, however. Less graphically intense games, such as Alto’s Odyssey, played perfectly and didn’t trigger any heating issues.
Battery: The Longest-Lasting Flip
The Razr Ultra packs a 4,700mAh battery inside, an upgrade over the 4,000mAh battery in last year’s Razr+. The improved capacity makes a big difference. The phone lasted 22 hours and 3 minutes on our battery test, which involves streaming an HD video over Wi-Fi with the screen brightness turned all the way up. The 2024 Razr+ managed 14 hours and 37 minutes on the same test, while the Z Flip 6 ran for 16 hours and 20 minutes with its 4,000mAh battery.
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(Credit: Sarah Lord)The Ultra supports wired charging at 68W and wireless charging at 30W. You’ll need to provide your own charging brick, as Motorola doesn’t supply one in the box. The phone supports reverse wireless charging at 5W. The Z Flip 6 supports wired charging at 25W, wireless charging at 15W, and reverse wireless charging at 4.5W.
It took the Razr Ultra 1 hour and 27 minutes to fully recharge using a 96W adapter.
Connectivity: Fine 5G and Wonderful Wi-Fi
The Razr Ultra offers basic 5G access, including sub-6GHz and C-band, but it does not support the faster mmWave 5G service available in some areas. The Z Flip 6 does support mmWave 5G.
(Credit: Sarah Lord)I live in an area with poor cell service, but the Ultra managed to get wireless speeds of 184Mbps down and 13.5Mbps up on T-Mobile's network. When tested in the same location, my iPhone 14 Pro got 236Mbps down and 63.7Mbps up.
The Ultra comes equipped with Wi-Fi 7. When I connected it to my Wi-Fi 6 router, it recorded speeds of 353Mbps down and 11.3Mbps up. My iPhone 14 Pro grabbed speeds of 277Mbps down and 11Mbps up from the same location. I then moved the phones to the edge of my Wi-Fi network and got readings of 257Mbps down and 11.4Mbps up on the Ultra and 205Mbps down and 11.2Mbps up from the iPhone 14 Pro.
NFC is available for mobile payments, as is Bluetooth, though Motorola doesn’t specify which version. New for the Razr Ultra is support for ultra-wideband, which gives the phone an advantage when it comes to interacting with accessories such as Bluetooth trackers.
Audio: Clear Calls, But Anemic Bass
Call quality is excellent and the phone does a good job of blocking out traffic noise from a busy street. The earpiece is reasonably loud at 83.2dB, which we test by holding a decibel meter against the earpiece. The speaker was louder at 87.1dB, which we measure from six inches away. This should be loud enough for most people to hear calls via the earpiece or the speaker.
(Credit: Eric Zeman)While you can certainly use the stereo speakers, which Motorola says support Dolby Atmos, to watch movies or listen to music, it’s not ideal. The speakers get loud enough to fill a small room, but you lose clarity in the low frequencies, especially in the bass. The phone vibrates slightly during the bass sections of our test track, “Silent Shout,” by The Knife. You’re better off connecting your favorite headphones to get a full audio experience.
Cameras: The Weakest Link
The Razr Ultra is equipped with a 50MP main camera with an aperture of f/1.8, optical image stabilization, Pantone-validated colors, and phase-detection auto focus. The ultra-wide camera also has a 50MP sensor with an aperture of f/2.0 and a field of view of 122 degrees. These are joined by a 50MP f/2.0 selfie camera. All three cameras rely on quad-binning to produce 12.6MP images by default. You can take full-res shots with the Ultra-Res mode.
(Credit: Sarah Lord)The main camera does a decent job of capturing photos. The tones in the sky are accurate, and you can make out a fair amount of detail when zoomed into the branches of the trees.
There are three zoom levels, along with a macro mode that’s indicated by a flower icon. Here’s a comparison of the same location using the zoom tools.
The individual branches on the trees are not as sharp in 0.5x as they are in 1x, and the wider shot has a distorted fish-eye effect that I find distracting.
The macro camera also had difficulty capturing detail on the edges of these flowers. Zooming in reveals them to be blurred and pixelated.
(Credit: Sarah Lord)This selfie of my dog is not as impressive as I would like. Luckily, the phone's flexibility makes it possible to use the main camera to take selfies. It’s easy to fold the phone into a standing position, flip it around, and take a selfie by tapping on the volume key.
The phone takes 8K video at 30fps, and 4K video at 60fps. It can also take 1080p video at 60fps, slow motion in 4K120 and 1080p240, and capture Dolby Vision. Videos have the same quality as the photos, with lots of noise in dimmer environments.
The cameras include a number of AI features such as Unblur (sharpens blurry photos), Magic Eraser, and Google Magic Editor, which do an excellent job of moving and erasing unwanted background objects from your photos. There’s also Action Shot, Add Me, Face Retouch, Gesture Selfie, and Group Shot. Overall, editing with AI is hit or miss. Some tools work well on certain photos and not on others, while AI features like adding lighting to a portrait don’t seem to make much of a difference.
Software: Limited Support and Uninspired AI
The Razr Ultra runs on Android 15, and Motorola promises three years of OS upgrades and four years of security support. That’s far behind Samsung’s seven years of OS and security support for the Z Flip 6. Motorola needs to follow Samsung’s lead here, but instead, we’re left with the same limited amount of support as last year’s models.
The outer display, which defines the flip phone experience, functions much the same way as the main display. You can see the time, date, weather, caller information, text messages, and other notifications, and you can also access and use almost all of your apps. The camera, messaging, Google Photos, and Moto AI apps all remain on the home screen of the outer display, along with a small button to access notifications and settings.
(Credit: Sarah Lord)Swiping down from the top brings up the quick settings menu, while swiping left shows you all the apps you currently have on the outer display. You can add additional apps and shortcuts by hitting the pencil button in the upper left side of this screen. If you continue to swipe left, you’ll find your calendar and weather, along with communications apps, such as the phone and your contacts. A Games section includes a handful of games, such as Freekick Football and Marble Mayhem, that you can play exclusively on the outer screen. You aren’t limited to playing causal games on the second screen; I played the full version of Genshin Impact entirely on the external display. All apps offer full functionality on the smaller display, and there were many times that I never needed to open the phone at all.
Motorola’s new Moto AI features aren't particularly impressive. You can choose whether it is powered by Perplexity, Meta, Google, or Microsoft; I used the default, Perplexity. I programmed Moto AI to launch when I press and hold the AI button. Double-pressing the button launches Catch Me Up, which summarizes all of your notifications. You can also set the double-press action to launch the Pay Attention feature, which uses AI to record a meeting and generate a transcript. The Catch Me Up feature works fine, as it tells me about all the texts or notifications I’ve received. But Moto AI sometimes doesn’t load when I press the button. The pop-up will appear, but the screen will be blank. When it works, it prompts me to either take a note, summarize my messages, or launch Pay Attention. Next Move, a proactive assistant that suggests actions based on what’s on your screen
(Credit: Eric Zeman)Other options include the ability to create images in Image Studio or create a playlist in Playlist Studio. Perhaps you will find use for any of these things, but I did not.