Motorola razr 50 ultra (Spring Green, 12GB RAM, 512GB Storage)

Imagine this. You are an 11 year old impressionable kid, whose favourite uncle gets a shiny Moto Razr in 2005. You’ve seen the ads. Its sleek. It has two screens. And when a character in a movie you’re watching emphatically slams their phone shut, it’s one of the coolest things you have ever seen. So much so you do buy a lot of Motorola phones as you grow up. And why wont you? They come with the best software experience, great hardware, and an overall great experience.

Cut to 2024. Someone you love a lot, shows you their moto razr 40 ultra, & tells you about how incredible the new Razr is and how they’re gonna “hard bundle” their Bose tuned buds with it. You’re infatuated with them sure but you also love tech. You already have an iPhone 15 Plus and an S24 Ultra, and also a Moto G 84 on the side (it has a headphone jack and an SD card slot, moreover that chop-chop torch gesture is just incredible). But will that stop you from buying it? Of course not, especially if you’re either irresponsible with your money, or have lots to spare (I am definitely one of those things).

Word of advice, putting 4 phones on the table as you sit down anywhere brings a lot of weird questions. No I don’t run a betting syndicate. No I am not a criminal (dil bhi nahi churata mai yaar lol). I am just a tech enthusiast with a knack for instant gratification. Maybe this phone will fill that emptiness I feel inside me that never quite leaves. If not, theyre also launching some pixels next month.

So, do you wait for a few reviews, a few real world tests, or do you get a phone you don’t really need, because you are a stubborn man child who thinks another purchase will “fill” that hole which is there in his heart? In this age of Rahu and instant gratification, you’ll obviously do the latter.

The General Overview: Software and hardware
The Phone is really, really cool. The main purpose it serves for me is when I need to pretend to be on a phone call to avoid talking to someone, and slam it shut to highlight a point like a badly written Bollywood bad boy “God damn it mere pass iss sab ke lie time nahi hai damn it. Mujhe ek zaroori meeting mai jaana hai damn it” *Slams phone Shut*. People either stare cause they find this really cool, or they think I am crazy.
The hinge is great, I can prop this up at many angles. No complaints there. It comes with a single simcard slot and an optional additional eSim. The sim tray however has enough space for a dual sim case, they just didn’t use it like what the hell guys. SD Card hi dedete.
The outer screen is terrific. Unlike the Samsung Z flip 5 (Which I also had) and the 6 (which I will not purchase), you can run every app on the front screen out of the box. You need to select the apps you want to run there, and they run natively well. If the squarish aspect ratio doesn’t work, you can just auto rotate to get a more traditional aspect ratio automatically. (You can keep two distinct autorotate preferences on the internal and external screens). Open the phone up, and they run smoothly 9 out of 10 times. Still a couple of tweaks are needed tho.
The settings are robust and offer so many customization options that you can get lost in optimising every bit about your front and inner screens.
Other than all that, I REALLY love the small software tweaks they’ve made. The music playing animation on the cover screen really reminds you of the Windows Media player/winamp days of the old. That cute bear in tent and stand modes really brings out the fun in day to day use. The software and hardware makes me say something I haven’t used for Motorola since Google stripped them off their patents and sold them off to Lenovo: POLISHED.

Hardware is something I am always concerned about when it comes to foldables. It’s a phone that bends for crying out loud. And moto hardware hasn’t historically been the toughest: My Moto G, Moto X play, Moto g5 plus, all lost due to a broken charging port. Same weren’t the issue with my Moto One Power and Moto X4. The hardware here feels solid. The hinge is almost at par with the Z Flip 5 I exchanged this for. The phone is IP X8 rated for water protection. But we live in dusty cities, so be mindful of keeping the hinge dust free. I have made it a habit to clean it as often as possible, but again I am a nut case. The front is gorilla glass victus protected, and the back is Vegan leather (it means non-animal based leather and not leather made out of Vegans). It is REALLY good to hold without a cover, and the cover they supply with the box is a hard plastic case and not a flimsy rubber case. The entire casing is made from tough aluminium. Opening the flip one handed is really easy, however I never do that as I need to ensure I make a big deal opening this phone each time using both hands to justify my purchase to myself and the world. I love it when people look at me opening this phone. For a second, I feel that this may fill that hole in my heart . But probably a fulfilling career somewhere else may do that instead. Really love the Green colour I purchased, and they will also later release the hot pink version (for the ones who remember the one Paris Hilton Carried way back when)

The Outer screen is bright and has a 165 Hz refresh rate. It feels incredibly smooth and snappy to use. Unfold that to a NEAR glass like screen on the inside. No dead pixels so far but this has been only a week, lol. Also 165 Hz. Also really bright. Netflix does run HDR. Speakers are really loud. Buttons are clicky and the cameras have the megapixels on their side at least. Fun Fact: The magnets holding the phone shut are so strong this sticks to a magsafe charger without any issues. (I checked, doesn’t have Qi 2).

Cameras:
Moto Cameras have never been the best. And the cameras aren’t the best part of this. This is not to say that they are bad in any way. Motorola has really done some software magic where photos outside look really good. Not as good as a Samsung or an iPhone, but definitely not as bad as they used to be. Human colours could use a little work tho, as my lips are not as pink as they look here and I look like a gutka eating don (I am not a gutka eating don or even a henchman).

The low light performance across both the normal and telephoto lens are great, as they are both 50 MP this year. I really miss the ultrawide tho, as I don’t really take that many portraits. But the portraits are fine. The telephoto is only 2x, so I wonder if they could’ve just slapped an ultrawide as a regular lense can also crop 2x easily.

Battery:
Battery life is great. I punish my phones. Constant maps use, 5G on and media always playing. Should last you all day. Best part is this charges really quickly. Batteries on foldables are never the best but seriously this one surprised me.

Conclusion
Foldables still aren’t for everyone you still got to treat them more gently and you’re still making a camera sacrifice but damned if these aren’t the most fun, pocketable, and Innovative phones on Android right now. In a world of risk averse competitors reheating last year’s smartphones over and over again Motorola continues to be the breath of fresh air I need to stay excited about this category even after all these years.

Amazon has lost its integrity with many products in recent past. The phone is wonderful but nobody would want to have an opened box for any phone whatever may be the price.

I know if I ask Amazon to return and refund it’s gonna be too tough. So I have decided to use it. You can’t fight corporates !

165hz display feels great to use
Battery backup is good
Looks stylish and sturdy