This review first appeared in issue 360 of PC Pro.
If the Razr 50 Ultra is too pricey, Motorola also offers a regular version of its latest flip phone. At only £800 inc VAT it’s the cheapest of the current generation of foldables, yet it manages to match much of the style and appeal of the Ultra.
It too comes in a cool choice of colors, ranging from sober Koala Grey through tasteful Beach Sand to Spritz Orange. The vegan leather casing remains, with its contoured edges and lightweight feel, and the updated folding mechanism opens and closes with a satisfying snap.
The Razr 50 also has a generously sized cover screen, with the same two punched-out holes for the camera lenses. It doesn’t quite cover the entire front of the phone as the Ultra’s does, but it’s big enough to be both useful and attractive, with a 90Hz refresh rate and a sharp 413ppi pixel density. You can happily capture selfies with the rear cameras, use the half-unfolded phone as a desk display and even run full apps without opening up the case. It’s protected by a Gorilla Glass Victus coating, and the whole thing boasts an IPX8 water resistant design.
The 6.9in OLED inner display looks great, too. This has the same sharp density as the outer screen, a smooth 120Hz refresh rate and a maximum brightness of 3,000cd/m2, making it a joy to use even in direct sunlight. The crease is visible, but less so than on older flip phones.
One significant difference between the Razr 50 and the Ultra is that this model doesn’t have a telephoto lens, instead pairing a decent 50MP main camera with a 13MP ultrawide. I prefer this arrangement for vlogging, selfies and group photos, as the ultrawide lets you capture more of the scene, while an upgraded photo booth mode works with both the inner and outer displays. In camcorder mode the Razr 50 can capture 4K video at up to 60fps, in either vertical or horizontal positions, although there’s no HDR support.
The Razr 50 also benefits from the AI enhancements to improve photo quality and stabilize your videos, and when I compared image quality between this phone and the pricier Razr 50 Ultra I couldn’t see much difference. The colors are more subdued and dynamic range isn’t as good in the shadows, but the Razr 50 still produces fine photos. The biggest compromise is the all-digital zoom; it works pretty well, but look closely and zoomed-in images are smudgy compared to those taken with the 50 Ultra.
Another noteworthy difference between the Razr 50 and the Ultra is the processor. In place of the Ultra’s Snapdragon chip, the standard Razr uses a MediaTek Dimensity 7300X chip, which is a mid-range performer. It’s also backed up by a more modest 8GB of memory and 256GB of UFS 2.2 storage.
Even so, apps run smoothly, and in everyday use I barely noticed any difference between this phone and the Ultra. While it got a little hung up during intense battle scenes in Age of Origins, gaming is certainly achievable. Indeed, there’s an optional Turbo mode to eke out the best gaming performance possible, at the expense of battery life.
I’m pleased to see all of Motorola’s software enhancements here, too. I love the personalisation options for the outer display, and the gestures such as chopping to instantly turn on the torch. The Razr 50 also includes Google Gemini, which can be accessed directly from the external display, but it’s worth noting that this phone won’t get the full set of future Moto AI features that are supposed to be coming to the Ultra. At this point it’s difficult to say how much that matters, but it could become frustrating over the lifetime of the phone. On that point, the Razr 50 also has a comparatively short software support period, with Motorola promising only three years of major Android updates.
One thing the Razr 50 isn’t short of is battery life. In our rundown test it managed an excellent screen-on time of 14hrs 37mins – almost half an hour longer than the Ultra – and in real-world use I’ve found it generally ends the day with a remaining charge of around 35%.
For recharging, the Razr 50 supports fast 30W charging, which got me from zero to 58% in half an hour, plus 15W wireless charging for cable-free top-ups.
In all, the Razr 50 is an impressive proposition. Sure, it’s not the greatest flip phone in the world: if you want optical zoom, top-tier gaming performance and the full set of AI features you’ll need to pay the extra for the Ultra. Even so, the Razr 50 offers a laundry list of plus points, including a great outer screen, an attractive design with water resistance, decent performance, strong battery life and a pretty positive camera experience. For the price, it’s a fantastic deal.
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