Motorola’s Razr 50 Ultra peaked in terms of design and functionality in my review last year. It fixed a lot of issues which plagued Razr phones for the past few years. However, there were a few areas that needed some attention. This included the heating issue when using the video recording feature, a processor which wasn’t exactly flagship grade (given its ‘Ultra’ branding) and a battery, which only lasted a day of use.

With its Razr 60 Ultra, Motorola’s engineers weren’t just laser-focused on the shortcomings of the previous model, but also worked on adding new hardware and AI features. Do these features work as expected and raise the bar for the coveted clamshell foldable? Or do they add new chinks in its shiny armour? I’ve been using this phone for a couple of weeks, and here’s what I think.

Motorola Razr 60 Ultra Design: Same but different

• Dimensions (folded) – 88.1 x 74 x 15.7mm

• Dimensions (unfolded) – 171.5 x 74 x 7.2mm

• Weight – 199g

• Durability – IP48

As mentioned earlier, the Motorola Razr 60 Ultra’s design is nearly identical to that of the Razr 50 Ultra it replaces. The minor changes that one can instantly point out are that the aluminium frame now has a matte finish, compared to the glossy finish on the previous model. While I like the matte look, it also makes this foldable very slippery, so it’s wise to snap on the included case for some additional grip.

Despite the slightly bigger main display, the overall size of the phone remains the same, even though it weighs an additional 10 grams because of its higher battery capacity

This year, all of the new finishes have Pantone colours. But there are a variety of textured backs to choose from. There’s a Pantone Mountain Trail finish (Rs. 89,999) with a wooden rear panel, which reminds me of the old Moto X and its bamboo back. Then there’s the more traditional Rio Red (Rs. 99,999) that has the usual faux-leather (silicon polymer) finish. Last is the Pantone Scarab (Rs. 89,999), which is the unit we received for review. It has an iridescent dark green frame accompanied by an alcantara back, and is the most interesting and premium finish available this year. While it surely feels like it should, it also does not feel delicate, and so I did not hesitate to place it on slightly rough surfaces. Several weeks later, I saw no signs of wear and tear, which is good given its delicate appearance.

This isn’t Motorola’s first smartphone with a dedicated AI key

Something new on the Razr this year is the AI key, a feature that other smartphone brands have also started including. This is Motorola’s way of showing that it is serious about AI. Pressing it instantly fires up the floating Moto AI interface, which takes up the bottom part of the tall display. This isn’t Motorola’s first smartphone with a dedicated AI key. That credit goes to the recently released Edge 60 Pro, which debuted the new Moto AI and is a mid-range smartphone.

Motorola has also bumped up the Razr’s IP rating this year so that it can combat both dust and water

One of the things that matters in the case of a clamshell foldable is the hinge. It feels more rigid and nearly impossible to open with one hand, and the phone’s slippery body makes this hand manoeuvre rather risky. The hinge has a wide sweet spot, where it will neither fold shut nor open flat. This holds it up in tent or stand mode, allowing for features like Desk Display or Sleep Display.

Motorola Razr 60 Ultra Display: Best in class

• Cover display – 4.0-inch, 1,272 × 1,080 pixels, 165Hz, 417 PPI
• Main display – 7-inch, 1,224 x 2,912 pixels, 165Hz, 464 PPI
• Display type – pOLED (LTPO)

Motorola’s cover display design peaked last year with the two floating cameras (with minimal borders). It threw in the kitchen sink, delivering everything one could possibly imagine into a cover display… and some more. The result was a fantastic and fluid software experience, which was second to none. With the Razr 60 Ultra, the cover display remains identical to the previous model, and so Motorola decided to play around with the main folding display instead.

One annoying detail about both displays is that they are fingerprint and dust magnets, and so, I had to keep wiping them clean from time to time

This year, we have a slightly larger 7.0-inch panel, which isn’t a big upgrade over the previous 6.9-inch display. However, the slightly larger panel brings more pixels, upping its pixel density by a small margin.

During the testing period, I noticed that both displays produce natural-looking colours when set to the Natural colour mode. Sharpness is also on point. Motorola claims that its main display now offers a peak brightness of 4,500 nits, while its cover display now manages 3,000 nits, both of which are improvements over the Razr 60 Ultra.

Using the main display under direct sunlight, I noticed a slight haze, which is due to the non-removable screen protector

The screen protector does not hamper readability too much, but the contrast could have been better outdoors. By contrast, the cover display gets really bright in all conditions and remains perfectly legible outdoors. Indoors, I noticed no issues with both displays, and they get bright enough to serve up some vibrant HDR10+ and Dolby Vision content as well.

In terms of durability, the display held up well during the review period and intense gaming sessions. The screen protector did a fine job, and I noticed no scratches or dents by the end of the review. You can still spot the depression of the folded area when the display is off or when viewing it outdoors. But I could barely feel it when interacting with the phone.

Motorola Razr 60 Ultra Software: A tale of two AIs

• Android version – 15
• Software – Hello UI
• Software commitment – 3-year OS + 4-year SMR

New does not necessarily mean good or better. The addition of the new AI key on the left side of the phone creates some added confusion, especially when you are torn between which AI model you should use and when.

Moto AI still needs a lot of work to become the primary AI model of choice

Moto AI, which is accessible by pressing down the special AI key on the left side, lets you use more deeply integrated features like Update me (reads out a voice summary of all your current notifications), Remember this (screenshot, click or voice notes for recall) and Take notes (voice recordings with transcripts). While these tools do what is expected from them (have tested these out earlier), Moto AI search (the bar at the bottom of the pop-up) is a bit too slow to answer requests and often unreliable. So, for something as simple as setting an alarm, I often reverted to Google’s Gemini, which was not only faster but also capable of accomplishing most tasks and queries. However, I had to remember to press the power button on the right side.

What’s really annoying about Moto AI is that I have to keep pressing a button to record a request and even to respond to a request. So, the process of asking a query and waiting for a response is just not worth it. At times, I also noticed that ‘Update me’ would randomly disappear from the Moto AI tools list.

Aside from the AI tools, I did notice Motorola adding Adobe Scan, Facebook, LinkedIn and Amazon Music apps, which is a bit odd to see on a flagship phone, but I have also seen Samsung do the same, so I’m not surprised. Thankfully, all of these third-party apps could be uninstalled.

The cover display Hello UI experience can run apps in full-screen or with the camera cut out

While Samsung’s Galaxy Z Flip 7 currently offers the biggest display in the segment, Motorola’s still remains the most useful one. This is because Samsung’s cover display, as expansive as it is (4.1 inches), still cannot run too many apps on it and neither can you operate the whole smartphone without resorting to the main display. This is still possible on the Motorola Razr 60 Ultra. I could use a majority of apps on the cover display either in full-screen or with the camera cut out, but faced no problems, no matter which screen orientation I resorted to.

Motorola Razr 60 Ultra Performance: More performance, more problems

• Processor – Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite, 4.3GHz, 3nm
• RAM – 16GB (LPDDR5X)
• Storage – 512GB (UFS 4.0)

The Razr 60 Ultra’s software performance, as expected, is quite fluid and lag-free. You won’t notice any stutters anywhere, and this also includes the cover display, which can also function as the primary screen. While things may seem perfectly in place for a flagship clamshell foldable, Motorola is actually playing catch, given that it used a Qualcomm Snapdragon 8s Gen 3 SoC last year, while Samsung went with a flagship processor. Fortunately for Motorola, both manufacturers have switched places this year as well, with Moto offering a top-end processor but Samsung going with its own Exynos 2500 SoC (in the Galaxy Z Flip 7), which is not in the same league as the Elite.

When it comes to synthetic benchmarks, the Motorola Razer performs as expected, as can be seen in the table below.

As for real-world performance, the Razr was able to deliver in fast-paced games like Call of Duty Mobile. The phone did warm up a bit, but did not get hot, both when using the default graphics settings (Very High + Max) and the one favouring framerate (Medium + Ultra) after 30 minutes of continuous gameplay. Accompanying the fast frame rates was the equally impressive touch sampling rate, which kept up with all the crazy finger swipes.

Based on past reviews, we are aware that the Snapdragon 8 Elite does tend to heat up and requires a cooling mechanism to perform optimally. Samsung’s Galaxy S25 Edge somehow failed to manage it well even with a VC cooler in place. In the case of the Razr 60 Ultra, things were a bit different. While heating was not an issue with normal app usage and while playing games (because of throttling), I noticed a heating problem when using the camera app, particularly when capturing 4K video, a task which requires sustained performance.

The Motorola Razr 60 Ultra still offers the best cover display software experience in 2025

It’s unclear whether the Razr has a cooling mechanism in place (graphite sheets or vapour chamber cooling), but if it does, it’s definitely not doing its job. Unlike the Galaxy S25 Edge, which got too hot to touch, the Razr seemed better at masking heat, because it was concentrated in certain spots (mainly the cover display). Recording several 4K videos in quick succession and getting the phone quite hot, I then quickly minimised the camera app. I noticed Hello UI chugging along just fine, and the phone did not display any notifications about overheating either. Mind you, this is still a clamshell foldable, with a rather small footprint, so I wasn’t surprised.

At the same time, our PCMark Wild Life Extreme Stress test was the only app that showed a system warning about overheating (in about 4 minutes out of 20), after which the test stopped. While this does indicate heating issues under continuous stress, it is a synthetic test meant to take the system to its limits, which is not a common use case scenario. However, this indicates that this phone is not suited for games that demand sustained performance.

Even Samsung has copied Motorola’s floating cameras on a cover display layout this year

The audio through the stereo speakers is quite loud and also very clear. Motorola gets Dolby Atmos support as well, and so it sounds very immersive. But I dislike the placement of the bottom-firing speaker, which is very easy to block when playing games or watching movies. The placement of the ambient light sensor also gets in the way while playing games, and so, it is advisable to turn off the adaptive brightness setting when doing so.

Motorola Razr 60 Ultra Cameras: As good as it gets

• Primary camera – 50-megapixel, f/1.8, OIS
• Ultrawide camera – 50-megapixel, f/2.0, AF
• Selfie camera – 50-megapixel, f/2.0, FF

Motorola Razr 60 Ultra primary camera samples (tap images to expand)

For a clamshell foldable, the Motorola Razr 60 Ultra surely holds its own when it comes to camera performance. Its primary camera delivers impressive images, which are a tad bit saturated, even after selecting the Natural style. Colours aside, noise is under control and sharpness is on point. Even in low light, photos pack in good dynamic range and are low on noise.

Motorola Razr 60 Ultra 2x camera samples (tap images to expand)

What blew me away are Motorola’s 2X digital lossless captures. In daylight, the primary camera produces some tack-sharp 2X close-ups. There’s plenty of detail when you go pixel peeping as well. The same magic applies to low-light captures, provided there is a source of light in the vicinity. Dim settings are where image quality starts to deteriorate.

Low-light portrait selfie captured using the primary camera using the cover display (tap image to expand)

Portrait selfies using the primary camera and the cover display (shown above) show impressive detail with good edge detection even in low light. The 50-megapixel selfie camera also produces equally good selfies in daylight, but photos appear a bit flat in low light as the camera lacks autofocus.

Motorola Razr 60 Ultra, ultrawide camera samples (tap images to expand)

The 50-megapixel ultrawide angle camera isn’t exactly flagship grade, but still gets the job done nicely, capturing plenty of detail and near-accurate colours in daylight. In low light, image quality gets a bit too soft, but because of the aggressive noise control and no optical image stabilisation.

4K video recordings pack plenty of detail with accurate colours and good stabilisation in daylight. Dolby Vision is also an option, but is best kept off because it makes the overall quality quite soft. In low light, video recordings appear a bit contrasted, there is some noticeable noise, but it gets the job done just fine for a foldable device. While the primary camera shoots good-quality video, there’s noticeable softness in the footage captured by the ultrawide camera in low light.

Motorola Razr 60 Ultra Battery: Impressive

• Battery capacity – 4,700mAh
• Wired charging – 68W
• Wireless charging – 30W (5W reverse)
• Charger in the box – Yes

Motorola has definitely upped its game when it comes to battery life. The clamshell foldable surprised us, both with daily usage and in our battery life tests. With heavy usage of constantly being connected to 5G networks and continuous app usage, calls and more, the phone easily managed a day with 20 percent left before plugging it in. If you are not a heavy user, you can get up to a day and a half of usage with no problems.

This slim and compact foldable design surprisingly manages to pack a 4,700mAh battery and support 68W charging

In our video loop battery test, which plays a video in a loop till the battery runs out, the Motorola Razr 60 Ultra managed a solid 22 hours and 50 minutes, compared to the 20 hours and 28 minutes of the Galaxy S25 Edge, which managed just 16 hours and 25 minutes. We also ran PCMark’s Battery Life test, which runs a number of tasks in a loop till the phone’s charge drops to 20 percent. In this test, the Razr fared well, managing a solid 15 hours and 3 minutes compared to the Galaxy S25 Edge’s 12 hours and 17 minutes.

Motorola Razr 60 Ultra Verdict

No! The Motorola Razr 60 Ultra isn’t the perfect foldable, but it does come very close to that claim. The phone’s only shortcoming is that it heats up if you spend a lot of time shooting video outdoors. At the same time, I don’t see gamers purchasing a Razr 60 Ultra as regular bar-shaped devices are better-suited for this purpose.

For the clamshell foldable target audience, this is indeed as good as it gets, as Motorola has shoved in a top-end processor and managed to deliver a very capable set of cameras along with above-average battery life, which is also the reason to upgrade to this new model.

Heating issues aside, the Razr somehow makes a solid case for itself when it comes to competing with thin and premium smartphones like Samsung’s Galaxy S25 Edge. It’s smaller, comes with enough dust and water resistance this year and has cameras that somehow manage better image quality than the bar-shaped slim phone.