Motorola Razr Ultra 2025 hands-on review: Samsung should be worried

Motorola is back with its refreshed lineup of Razr flip phones for 2025, but now there are three different models — the Razr 2025, Razr Plus 2025, and the all-new Razr Ultra 2025. I got to check out the Razr Ultra 2025, and it’s convinced me that it’s going to be one of the best foldable phones to beat, even with Samsung reportedly working on an update to its own foldable flip phone for release later this summer.

The arrival of these Motorola phones — the Ultra model in particular — should put Samsung on notice. The Razr Ultra 2025 is bigger and badder in every way. In addition to all of its impressive hardware, Motorola is finally going all-in on AI after the company teased Moto AI with last year’s models.

At the same time, though, this new Ultra model effectively makes it the most expensive foldable phone Motorola has come out with at a starting price of $1,299.

Motorola Razr Ultra HANDS ON! The 2025 Foldable to Beat - YouTube

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Motorola Razr Ultra 2025 hands-on review: Specifications

Motorola Razr Ultra 2025 hands-on review: Price and release

Given all the uncertainty on prices for electronics in general, I’m really happy to know that Motorola is keeping the price of the Razr 2025 and Razr Plus 2025 unchanged at $699 and $999 respectively. While both models come with 256GB of storage, the Razr 2025 comes in more colors (Pantone Spring Bud, Pantone Gibraltar Sea, Pantone Parfait Pink, and Pantone Lightest Sky). Meanwhile you have three color options with the Razr Plus 2025: Pantone Mocha Mousse, Midnight Blue, and Hot Pink.

With the Motorola Razr Ultra 2025, however, I’m not terribly surprised that it costs much more at $1,299. Not only does it have 512GB of storage and 16GB of RAM, but it’s a superior spec’d flip phone in every way over the other two. Thankfully, you still have four colors to choose from: Pantone Rio Red, Pantone Scarab, Pantone Mountain Trail, and Pantone Cabaret.

Preorders for all three flip-style phones begin on May 7 with full availability across different wireless carriers and retailers starting on May 15.

Note that in other parts of the world like the U.K., these Razrs will be offered under the Razr 60 name — the £799 Motorola Razr 60 and the £1,099 Motorola Razr 60 Ultra, for example. (The U.K. is apparently missing out on the Plus model.) Don't let the different names fool you: these are the same phones.

We can't say how these prices are going to compare to the Galaxy Z Flip 7 that's rumored to be coming this summer, but the current version of Samsung's foldable flip phone, the Galaxy Z Flip 6, starts at $1,099.

Motorola Razr Ultra 2025 hands-on review: Design

Both the Razr 2025 and Razr Plus 2025 look much like their predecessors, offering snappy hinges that make closing them so satisfying to do. Comparing these two new arrivals, the only major difference with their designs is how the Razr 2025 clearly has a smaller outer screen.

Meanwhile, the Razr Ultra 2025 looks awfully like the Razr Plus 2025 — but a smidge thicker and heavier. I can feel the difference holding the two in my hands, but they’re still relatively thin and light in my opinion. Even though the design language is the same as before, the Razr Ultra 2025 benefits from a new titanium-reinforced hinge, stronger Corning Gorilla Glass Ceramic protecting the external display, and better IP48 rating.

Unlike other phone makers, Motorola’s color choices offer a good variety consisting of different finishes that can appeal to different people. New is the Pantone Mountain Trail, which features a smoother wooden finish.

There’s also the Pantone Scarab that employs Italian-made Alcantara to give it a more fabric texture with a stitching pattern around it. I’ll admit it looks and feels neat, but I’m a little skeptical about how it’ll hold up long term because I’ve seen the vegan leather backing of past Razr phone fade with heavy wireless charging.

Motorola Razr Ultra 2025 hands-on review: Display

The Razr Ultra 2025 packs the largest screen to date in the Razr series with a 7-inch AMOLED main display that’s rated for up to 4,500 nits. That brightness output should be interesting because the Razr Plus 2024 has the brightest screen in any foldable Tom’s Guide has tested to date. I don’t think the Ultra reach 4,500 nits in our testing, but I’m confident it’ll at least exceed the 2,158 nits achieved by the Razr Plus 2024.

For context, the Galaxy Z Flip 6 currently features a 6.7-inch main display that hit 1,942 nits in our testing.

If that’s not enough, the Ultra's display has the same 165Hz adaptive refresh rate that makes animations and scrolling look buttery smooth. I quickly loaded up a 4K HDR clip on YouTube and it looks superb with its wide viewing angles and deep colors.

On the outside of the Ultra, there’s a 4-inch pOLED external display that also has an adaptive refresh rate up to 165Hz. I’ve always come to appreciate the extra utility of this external screen on past Razrs because it runs full apps, but there are a few new extra features thrown in. A new communications widget aggregates messages across different apps in one place, and you have more widgets to choose from.

Motorola Razr Ultra 2025 hands-on review: Cameras

One of the biggest controversies surrounding last year’s Razr Plus 2024 was how it ditched the ultrawide camera in favor of a telephoto lens with 2x optical zoom. I wasn’t thrilled about that because flip-style phones make it much easier to vlog, which is why I’m happy to see Motorola switch back to the usual arrangement.

There’s a 50MP main camera paired with a 50MP ultrawide camera, while a 50MP selfie camera rounds out the package. For a flip-style foldable, I’m stoked about this setup because it’s much more equipped at handling self recordings and vlogging.

As for the Razr 2025 and Razr Plus 2025, they have similar setups as their predecessors. This comes out to be a 50MP main paired with a 13MP ultrawide with the Razr 2025, then a 50MP main and 50MP telephoto with 2x optical zoom with the Razr Plus 2025.

Also, I really like how Motorola adopts the hand gestures for photo taking so that they work with video, too — making it much more intuitive to start, pause, and stop recordings all on my own.

Of course, I’m eager to test out the performance of the Ultra's cameras under low light. And despite lacking a telephoto lens, Motorola touts that the main camera can deliver optical-like quality at 2x zoom.

Just as before, you can fold all three Razrs halfway to hold the phone in camcorder mode, along with turning on the outer screen for a preview. I can’t stress enough how these Razr foldables were made with content creators in mine.

Motorola also throws in a couple of new camera-centric features that are actually quite familiar. For starters, there’s a new Group Shot mode that snaps several frames within a second and then blends the best faces together for a picture perfect snapshot every time. Secondly, the new Action Shot mode better tailors to what you’re shooting and the light conditions to automatically adjust its shutter speed so that images come out blur-free.

And since the Razrs lean on Google Photos, you get access to the wealth of editing features I’ve come to rely on with other phones like my Pixel 9 Pro XL. These consist of Magic Eraser, Magic Editor with Reimagine, Auto Frame, and more.

Motorola Razr Ultra 2025 hands-on review: Performance

Motorola’s not messing around this time around because both the Razr Plus 2025 and Razr Ultra 2025 are powered by the Snapdragon 8 Elite, making them the most powerful Razr phones to date. Both these phones feel snappy and fast, which I think is also attributed to their 165Hz adaptive refresh rates.

But more importantly, the Snapdragon 8 Elite inside puts the Plus and Ultra into the same pedestal as the best phones, based on how that chipset has performed with other phones released this year. For example, Samsung usually equips its foldable phones with the best Qualcomm chips available — the Galaxy Z Flip 6 runs on the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 and we expect to see the Snapdragon 8 Elite inside the Galaxy Z Flip 7. If that does happen, Motorola's Plus and Ultra models should be able to go toe to toe with Samsung's foldable.

The only other difference between these two is that the Razr Plus 2025 is paired with 12GB of RAM, whereas the Razr Ultra 2025 gets more with 16GB of RAM.

Meanwhile, the Razr 2025 is packaged with a MediaTek Dimensity 7400X and 8GB of RAM. In the short time I got to check it out, the Razr 2025 feels fast and responsive, but if last year’s MediaTek chip is any indication, it’s unlikely to outmuscle the other two more premium phones.

Motorola Razr Ultra 2025 hands-on review: Software and AI

On the surface, the general look and feel of the interface on all three Razr phones is familiar. I can still use all the Moto gestures for quick actions, like double twisting the phone in my hand to launch the camera app.

Even though it doesn’t appear that anything's changed tremendously on the surface, it’s about time that Motorola dives into AI with greater effort. That’s because despite introducing Moto AI features with last year’s Motorola Razr Plus 2024, those capabilities were only available through a beta program and they never materialized in final form.

This time, however, Moto AI features (and more) are available out of the box.

Motorola showed off the changes to Moto AI, which now can be accessed through the dedicated button on the left side of the Ultra. They consist of Catch Me Up, Pay Attention, and Remember This, which are all accessed under the Moto AI app on the phone. You can access them and an image generator through this hub, with the latter being something I haven’t seen before.

Essentially, you have an image generator that can create images based on sketches you draw or create through a text prompt. They all work similar to other image generators I’ve used, like Sketch To Image with Galaxy AI.

I also got to check out Remember This, which reminds me a lot of Pixel Screenshots on the Pixel 9 series since it functions similarly to recall information you save. For example, if you get an email about a recipe you want to remember, you can use this Moto AI feature to recall it later. As a whole, I wouldn’t say that Moto AI is as comprehensive as Apple Intelligence or Galaxy AI — and it’s definitely nowhere close to the exhausting Google AI features with the Pixel 9.

The confusing part about AI on the Motorola Razr Ultra is all the brand partnerships. For example, you get three months of Gemini Advanced and Perplexity for free, which is great because of the extensive researching abilities I’ve come to use a lot — but it’s just annoying that it all goes away unless you pay for their subscriptions.

Beyond AI, the one feature I’m stoked about trying more with the Ultra is Smart Connect. The current Razr Plus 2024 offers this screen mirroring feature, but the productivity suite is getting smarter with the help of Moto AI. Not only can you basically run the phone virtually on a computer, but I really like the multi-screen feature as well.

With Moto AI, I can ask the phone to perform a task on a specific device. For example, if there was a PDF stored on the hard drive of my laptop, I can say a voice command to Moto AI to open it on my phone — which it will. This definitely is one of the more underrated features of the Razr Ultra 2025 and a

Unfortunately, Motorola's software support is laughably below standards for the best Android devices. All three phones will get three years of OS upgrades and four years of bi-monthly security updates.

Motorola Razr Ultra 2025 hands-on review: Battery

Due to the Ultra's slightly thicker size, Motorola’s able to cram an even bigger 4,700 mAh battery that I suspect will extend the model's battery life by much more with the excellent power efficiency I’ve seen from the Snapdragon 8 Elite chip.

This is a substantial upgrade over the 4,000 mAh battery in the Razr Plus 2024, which lasted 14 hours and 13 minutes in Tom’s Guide’s battery test. I expect the Ultra to at least clear 16 hours given that the Galaxy S25 Ultra lasted at least 17 hours with a larger 5,000 mAh battery.

With the other two models, Motorola actually upgrades the Razr 2025 to a 4,500 mAh battery — an improvement over the prior 4,200 mAh one. However, the Razr Plus 2025 remains at 4,000 mAh, but I think that the Snapdragon 8 Elite will elevate its performance over its predecessor.

In addition to a massive battery, Motorola turbocharged all three phones with faster charging speeds. Naturally, the Razr Ultra 2025 gets the fastest speeds with a mind boggling 68W TurboPower wired speed and 30W wireless charging.

There’s no change with the other two models, as the Razr Plus 2025 has the same 45W wired and 15W wireless charging speeds, while the Razr 2025 features 30W wired and 15W wireless charging.

Motorola Razr Ultra 2025 hands-on review: Outlook

Motorola is clearly betting big on its foldable phones this year, and the Razr Ultra 2025 is shaping up to set the bar for all other flip-style phones for the rest of the year. But despite being a powerhouse, its $1,299 cost could certainly dissuade some from picking it up — unless it really over delivers in all key areas.

Against the Razr Plus 2025, the Razr Ultra 2025 benefits from a larger battery, double the storage, more RAM, a larger and bright main display. There’s $300 separating the two Razrs, so it’ll be interesting to see how they perform after putting them to the test. And lastly, I really like how the Motorola Razr 2025 remains at the $699 as the Razr 2024 that came out last year.

Likewise, it’s great knowing that Motorola is in the AI conversation this time, which also sees enhancements to Smart Connect. For a foldable phone, the Razr Ultra 2025 is crammed with productivity that almost rivals notebook style foldables like the Pixel 9 Pro Fold and Galaxy Z Fold 6.

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