Categories: Techno

Razr50 Ultra Review: Can Motorola Freak Out Samsung ?

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We kept him warm, just to see if his back was strong enough to handle Samsung's latest folding flip smartphone.

Launched a few weeks before the Z Flip6, Motorola's Razr50 Ultra embodies the ultimate folding smartphone from the Chinese-American brand. Motorola claims to have corrected the main defects of the previous generation, which was already very convincing.

Is this Razr50 Ultra the perfect folding clamshell smartphone ? Above all, is its price of 1 200 euros justified ? Is it better than the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip6 ? Response after a few weeks of testing.

The Razr50 Ultra does not fundamentally change compared to its predecessor. Its dimensions and weight are approximately the same, the hand feel is the same and the manufacturing quality is still premium.

By playing the continuity card, Motorola loses the game of comparison with its main rival, the Galaxy Z Flip6. The model launched by Samsung has undergone a real physical transformation which gives it a more modern appearance. As attractive as it is, the Razr50 Ultra therefore logically looks like a folding smartphone of 2023.

Motorola hasn't twiddled its thumbs, however. The revised and corrected hinge is for the first time certified IPX8. The Razr50 Ultra is therefore resistant to immersion in water (30 minutes maximum at a depth of 1.50 m), but not to dust.

The main hardware change is on the front when the phone is closed. The external screen is indeed larger. With its diagonal of 4 inches, the Full HD HDR10+ pOLED panel is also intended to be more comfortable. It also has a refresh rate of 165 Hz and its maximum brightness can reach 2 400 nits in HDR peak. Motorola also allows you to use the external screen with most applications when its competitor limits it to certain home applications. Take that Samsung.

The internal folding screen is just as attractive. With a diagonal of 6.9 inches, the pOLED panel with its unique 22:9 format is certified HDR10+ and can reach a peak brightness of 3 000 nits. It's even better than Samsung's Z Flip 6. The refresh rate also reaches 165 Hz. Nothing new compared to the Razr40 Ultra apart from the brightness of the panel. Should we complain about it?? Absolutely not, the display quality being excellent.

Icing on the LED, the fold in the middle of the screen is now almost invisible. It's not much felt under the finger. Is Motorola doing better than Samsung ? Difficult to say as the engineers of both brands have managed to make us forget this once unsightly element.

Aesthetically, the Razr50 Ultra therefore looks more like a discreet update of the previous generation. A little mean to shake up the leader Samsung which, in addition, has particularly worked on the design of its latest Z Flip6.

Motorola has chosen to integrate Qualcomm's Snapdragon 8s Gen3 SoC with 12 GB of RAM and 512 GB of UFS 4.0 storage. For For those who don't know it, the 8S Gen 3 is a lighter version of the 8 Gen 3, the most advanced Qualcomm processor of the moment. We have already encountered it in the Honor 200 Pro, the smartphone king of portraits.

By opting for this chip, Motorola is being clever. This processor is able to provide enough performance to meet all needs. Its benchmark scores correspond more or less to those of the 8 Gen 2 chip which equipped the majority of premium smartphones last year.

At the same time, this processor does not heat up too much and the throttling (mechanism consisting of reducing performance to avoid overheating) does not does not exceed 20/25%. For comparison, the Galaxy Z Flip6's 8 Gen 3 chip often reaches extreme temperatures, forcing it to reduce its performance by 40%.

Concretely, you can do everything with the Razr50 Ultra, from basic uses to the most demanding. Only the graphics chip is slightly behind , which results in framerate drops on the most demanding 3D games like Call of Duty Warzone or Genshin Impact, to name a few. Nothing dramatic, gamers not being the priority target for this type of device.

The Snapdragon 8 s Gen3 chip is associated with a 4 000 mAh battery, the same capacity as that of the Galaxy Z Flip6. Logic would dictate that the Samsung model is more durable. It is not so. The Razr50 Ultra lasts an average of a day and a half while the Z Flip6 maxes out at a day. We can even hope to extend it to two days by restricting ourselves a little on greedy uses (games, photos, videos).

A very good performance which is accompanied by a very fast charging system. Compatible with TurboPower Charging 45 Watts technology, the Razr50 Ultra goes from 0 to 50% in just twenty minutes and recovers all its energy in a little over 45 minutes.

In addition, Motorola provides the compatible charger in the box. Add to this 15W induction charging and reverse charging. Flawless.

The Razr50 Ultra features Android 14 with Hello UX. Very light, this overlay is intended to fill the small gaps in Android Stock without completely transforming the interface. Motorola therefore offers a dozen small in-house applications allowing you to strengthen security (Moto Secure), to detach yourself from your phone (Moto Unplugged) or to access a PC interface by simply connecting the phone to a screen (Smart Connect). .

Hello UX also includes some optimizations specially developed for the folding format. The “tent” mode for example allows you to display an image carousel or a clock. The photo interface changes when the phone is partially folded and some very rare third-party apps also adapt to this format.

Above all, Motorola is introducing new AI-powered features. Most are invisible to the user or are inherited from Google. We think, for example, of photo editing functions or the integration of Gemini, Google's ChatGPT.

True to its habits, Motorola therefore does not play one-upmanship and instead focuses on a light interface, optimized by small touches with a slight dose of AI. We would still have liked some practical features to compete with Galaxy AI. Motorola assures that other new features will be deployed over time. Good news.

On the other hand, the manufacturer only promises 3 years of monitoring of major updates and four years of security updates. C 'is little compared to the 7 years of Samsung or Google.

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Heavily criticized for the mediocrity of its Razr40 Ultra in terms of photography, Motorola has decided to change everything. The Razr50 Ultra is distinguished by a photo configuration lacking ultra-wide-angle. Instead, the manufacturer has chosen to accompany its wide-angle with a telephoto lens with 2x optical zoom. As a bonus, both modules integrate much more advanced sensors since they both reach 50 MP compared to 12 MP and 13 MP respectively on the Razr40 Ultra.

Does this photographic arsenal correct the main defect of the previous generation ? Yes, even if everything is not perfect. For example, the absence of an ultra wide-angle remains a major handicap in attracting the general public.

Motorola prefers to bet on a telephoto lens with 2x optical zoom, which it considers more useful on a daily basis. Fortunately, it performs very well in good light conditions up to a magnification factor of 4x. From 6x, the loss of details is more visible, especially on a computer screen. The shots remain correct for sharing on social networks. Beyond that, the photos look more like a mush of pixels than a real photograph. Our conclusions are the same in low light but from the 4x zoom.

The main sensor turns out to be much more convincing than the previous generation without reaching the level of the Z Flip6. However, it meets the needs of most users with good sharpness in good light conditions as well as good detail retention in low light.

Portrait mode is simply excellent. Apart from a few clipping errors in complex environments, the results are on par with what Samsung offers.

Finally, the Razr50 Ultra can film up to 4K at 60 fps. Above all, it has a “&nbsp” mode. ;camcorder» which is triggered automatically when you fold the phone 90° like a… camcorder.

This feature is part of all the classic gadgetry that comes with folding smartphones. In the same vein, the Razr50 Ultra can be placed on any surface to shoot vertical videos or take group photos. The external screen then acts as a return screen. Nothing revolutionary but still interesting.

Like the Galaxy Z Flip6, the Razr50 Ultra is priced at 1 200 euros. A price that we we estimate too high in 2024, for the same reasons as those put forward in our test of the Galayx Z Flip6.

In 2024, the technologies used to design folding smartphones cost less, which should be reflected in the final price. Then, as sales volumes are greater than when the first folders were born, the price should automatically drop. This is not the case. Economies of scale are not impacted on the consumer, to our great regret.

This pricing policy is all the more regrettable in the case of Motorola, which occupies a challenger position. For an equivalent proposition, the Chinese-American does not have the marketing power of its competitor. There is therefore little hope that it will worry it, particularly in physical stores where Samsung is pulling out all the stops in commercial operations.

Fortunately, Motorola offers a Razr50 “in short”, a little less technically advanced (it takes up most of last year's Razr40 Ultra) but also much less expensive . Offered at 899 euros, it promises to make the premium folding flip smartphone more accessible.Motorola has a better chance of finding a place in the market with this proposal than with a model like the Razr50 Ultra, entering into head-on competition with the Z Flip6.

The only real competitor to Samsung's Galaxy Z Flip6, the Razr50 Ultra proves convincing in many respects. Although its design could have deserved a few touches of modernity, it remains no less attractive.

From the quality of its screens to its good level of performance and its excellent autonomy (for a folding device), the Razr50 Ultra technically establishes itself as a credible alternative to Samsung's Galaxy Z Flip6. It also comes with a fast charger and is rather convincing in terms of photography, even if it does not reach the level of its rival. Its software, minimalist but effective, will appeal to fans of Android in its purest version. The AI features, which will expand over time, also promise a pleasant experience.

The only downside is its price. At 1,200 euros, the Razr50 Ultra is, in our opinion, too expensive considering the changes made compared to its predecessor. The latter saw its price plummet after a few months. We therefore advise you to wait a little before letting yourself be tempted. Or turn to the Razr50 which takes up most of the Razr40 Ultra, for a much more affordable price.

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Teilor Stone

Teilor Stone has been a reporter on the news desk since 2013. Before that she wrote about young adolescence and family dynamics for Styles and was the legal affairs correspondent for the Metro desk. Before joining Thesaxon , Teilor Stone worked as a staff writer at the Village Voice and a freelancer for Newsday, The Wall Street Journal, GQ and Mirabella. To get in touch, contact me through my teilor@nizhtimes.com 1-800-268-7116