Moto RAZR 60 Ultra Review: The (almost) no-compromise flip phone

Look and feel 

There’s just the single spec variant—16GB memory + 512GB storage—in three “Pantone Curated" color variants: a Mountain Trail (wood finish), a Scarab (Alcantara finish) and Rio Red (vegan leather finish), of which I had the black Scarab variant for review. Right off the bat, it looks and feels different, with the suede-like texture on the lower half making it comfortable to grip and to hold, although it is a tad top heavy when unfolded, plus you’ll want to take a little extra care of the Alcantara finish.

Going beyond the materials, you may recall that the Razr 50 Ultra was a stunner of a smartphone, so sticking with the same overall styling isn’t a surprise, although the sturdiness has been upgraded from its predecessor. A ‘tested-for-800,000-flips’ reinforced with titanium stainless steel hinge pairs with the aluminum frame for structural rigidity, and a sealed off design now allows the phone some degree of dust ingress protection, IP48 as compared to the last year’s non-existent IPX8 rating. Using it at the beach could still be somewhat risky, but an IP48 rating is about as good as it gets for a flip phone right now. Motorola has persisted with a fingerprint-sensor on the power button on the right, skipping an in-display unlock which works no matter if the phone is flipped open or shut, and there’s a du jour AI button to trigger the AI assistant.

Thinning the bezels while keeping the overall dimensions the same has allowed Motorola to fit in a slightly larger 6.96-inch, 2912×1224-pixel pOLED display, which when opened, edging ahead of even the biggest candy-bar flagships around. The high-resolution display is crisp and unsurprisingly Pantone-certified for color accuracy, but its biggest draw is the zippier 165Hz maximum refresh rate. Granted, it’ll only ever be seen in a handful of games, but everywhere else, the 120Hz refresh rate felt perfectly smooth. 

At a peak 4500 nits brightness, it’s great for watching HDR content (not on Netflix, oddly), and the 2000 nits in high brightness mode is perfectly visible in the bright summer sun. After two weeks’ worth of unfolds, the horizontal crease is still difficult to spot even when reading pages/playing games in landscape, but there’s a hint of an undulation when you swipe your finger across. The speakers are surprisingly loud and punchy, more so for a flip phone.

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Evenly matching the inner display is the 4.0-inch Gorilla Glass Ceramic-protected outer display, with similar 165Hz maximum refresh rate and Dolby Vision/HDR10+ support, a tack-sharp 1272×1080-pixel resolution, 3000 nits peak brightness and crucially, a screen large enough to manage most tasks – checking notifications, reading emails, typing out quick responses on the on-screen keyboard, and running (mostly) any app you want on the display – without having to open up the phone. Motorola Razrs have consistently led the pack in cover screen functionality, and the Razr 60 Ultra follows down the same path, a much better approach than Samsung’s widget-first world on the Z Flip 6.

Under the hood

There’s a lot going on underneath those Pantone-approved surfaces – the latest Snapdragon 8 Elite takes the Razr 60 Ultra to proper flagship territory, although the handset can get a bit warm under load and see throttled performance in these cases. Not entirely unexpected given the constraints of a flip-style foldable, but everyday performance can’t be faulted, with apps loading instantly and zero lag while scrolling or switching between apps. 

Gaming was fun too, and while I could manage Call of Duty Mobile without dropped frames, I’d suggest a non-folding phone for serious gaming duties. Using the Razr 60 Ultra as an everyday carry doesn’t come at the expense of battery life, either. Motorola has managed to clear out enough space to fit in a 4,700mAh cell (up from 4,000mAh on the previous gen), and the result is a noticeable boost in longevity. Depending on how much of your work gets done on the outer screen, you could pull off a day and then some on moderate to heavy use, with both displays in active use. Pretty darn good for a flip-style foldable, and then there’s the 68W fast charging that reaches full charge in just over 40 minutes. And no, Motorola hasn’t scrimped on the 30W wireless charging and 5W reverse charging for your earbuds.

In a move that would surprise absolutely no one, Motorola’s gone all in on AI in its 2025 foldable, even as one has to commend the brand for its firm restraint in avoiding the temptation of software bloat. You get the regular Moto gesture shortcuts and customization options atop what feels like fairly stock software (Hello UI based on Android 15), and a few handy first party apps. The Razr series is the first to get the dedicated AI button to invoke Moto AI features, such as “Update Me", summarized notifications from messaging apps, “Take Notes" for recording, transcription and summarization of notes, “Remember This" to locate screenshots photos and notes using contextual search. What’s not in synch with its peers is its long-term software support policy, with three OS upgrades and four years of security updates falling behind the seven years of new Android versions and security patches from the likes of Google and Samsung.

Photos and more 

Last year’s Razr 50 Ultra ditched the ultrawide secondary shooter for a dedicated telephoto snapper, and this year, Motorola has brought a 50MP ultrawide back, acknowledging the fact that ultrawide perspective cannot be manufactured, but zoom action can be achieved with digital cropping on a large main sensor. The 50MP main lens, with a larger sensor and better light-gathering abilities, now crops 2x zoom for a middle-ground best of both worlds approach. 

The result? While primary sensor performance is full of details and consistent colors, dynamic range is improved and low-light images are usable with reduced noise, the downside is that close-up portraits lack detail previously offered by the dedicated telephoto. Well, at least cityscapes and group shots get that extra perspective, and you don’t have to take all those steps back to compensate. The selfie shooter is hugely upgraded, a 50MP unit that takes sharp selfies with natural skin tones and good detail in good light, and slightly softer but perfectly usable selfies in low light. I like that Motorola really leans into the form factor with the camcorder mode when you hold the phone half open, and the cartoon mode on the external screen is great to draw attention for easily distracted young subjects.

Verdict

The Motorola Razr finally feels like an Ultra phone this year, with a proper flagship chipset, a bigger battery with boosted battery life, mature software, good camera upgrades, and displays – both outer and inner – that are unsurpassed right now. It’s Motorola’s most ambitious flip phone to date, and it shows up every day without compromise, which is refreshing for a category plagued with having to make one too many compromises over regular candy-bar phones. Hands down, no other clamshell is as convenient and easy to use while closed, likely the biggest compliment a flip phone can get.

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