Motorola Razr 40 Ultra review: image flagship

In recent months, we’ve reviewed all the latest smartphones of the Motorola Edge series and finally got a chance to test the Razr 40 Ultra, the company’s image-conscious “flagship” with a folding screen. This is not the first generation of such Motorola devices and, given the predicted growth in the popularity of folding phones in the coming years, the brand can be commended for such investments in the future.

Motorola Razr 40 Ultra specifications

Package contents

Similar to other moto smartphones, the Razr 40 Ultra pleased us with a package that includes a charger with a USB cable, a plastic protective case in two halves, a SIM tray eject tool, and documentation.

Design

Looking at Motorola’s first foldables (Razr 2019 and Razr 5G), you can see that at the beginning the company tried to create smartphones that resembled the legendary clamshells. However, gradually, progress and new technical solutions allowed for more emphasis on functionality.

That’s why the model has the largest external and internal screens available today, and the function keys are located on the upper right side of the case, which makes it easy to use them both in the folded and unfolded positions of the case.

Considering that in most cases folding smartphones are still perceived as something very unusual, the introduction of the Razr 40 Ultra also includes a certain wow factor, the phone attracts the attention of others.

In addition, the form factor allows you to use different materials in the design. Thus, the outer screen with a glossy finish, metal elements of the case (frame and hinge) and frosted glass “back” are organically combined with each other, and you don’t want to “put” the phone in the included protective case at all.

It’s a shame that the Razr 40 Ultra is currently available in Ukraine only in black, while the model is also available in red and blue.

For a folding phone, it’s worth noting the build quality: all the elements fit together exactly, the hinge works smoothly, and the body halves fold up without a visible gap between them.

The edges are rounded, which makes it easier to open the phone. Theoretically, it can even be done with one hand, but such manipulation is not convenient, and there is a chance of dropping and damaging the smartphone.

When folded, the thickness of the Razr 40 Ultra is 15 mm – the device is generally convenient to carry in your pockets, but I think that in the future manufacturers will try to further reduce their thickness, because “large” folding smartphones have already started their way in this direction.
It should also be noted that the phone has only basic protection against moisture (splash protection, IP52), so it should never be immersed in water.

Main screen

The smartphone’s flexible internal LTPO AMOLED display has a 6.9-inch diagonal, 22:9 aspect ratio, 2640 x 1080 resolution (413 PPI), supports refresh rates up to 165 Hz, and has a peak brightness of 1400 nits.

The screen meets the HDR10+ specification and has 120% DCI-P3 color coverage. Out of the box, it is covered with a protective film that cannot be removed, which is a common warning for all foldable smartphones.

One of the main features of foldable smartphones is the presence of a display fold. Manufacturers are constantly working to make this place as invisible as possible, and Motorola has been able to achieve some success in this.

In general, you can see the bend when the screen is turned off, or when you look at the screen at an angle, and you can feel it just a little bit with your fingers when you scroll through lists or text on the display.

At the same time, in most situations of normal use, when you look at the screen at a right angle, watch a video, when bright content is displayed, you forget about the presence of a small mark from the matrix bend. Also, compared to conventional screens, the tactile sensations from the screen are different, because you actually interact with plastic, not glass.

In terms of image quality, the flexible display is no different from classic solutions. The color reproduction is rich, the brightness margin is sufficient for reading information on a sunny day, and all the necessary settings are available, including flicker reduction.

External screen

The external screen of the Razr 40 Ultra is one of the largest among similar devices – its diagonal is 3.6 inches with a resolution of 1066 x 1056 (413 PPI). It is also made using pOLED technology, has a brightness of up to 1100 nits, a refresh rate of 144 Hz, and supports HDR10+.

Part of the display’s usable area is lost due to the fact that it wraps around the camera unit and flash, but this solution looks quite organic and technologically advanced. In the main interface for the external screen, the remaining space in the lower left is used to display the charge level, time, and notification icons.

When you launch third-party applications, the lower part of the screen continues to act as a status bar. Thus, you can launch most third-party applications, such as instant messengers, a browser, or YouTube, on the external screen.

The only question is whether such actions are advisable, because most programs are adapted for vertical screens of a much larger size, and sometimes an advertising banner or function keys can leave very little space for displaying useful information.

At the same time, there’s nothing to stop you from watching a YouTube video or (as a matter of principle and convenience) responding to a text message if you so desire.

To my taste, the external screen is quite functional, and it greatly improves the convenience of using a smartphone, because some of the everyday operations, such as viewing notifications, reading messages, and paying for purchases, can be done without opening the phone.

Plus, it has a standard set of “panels” for quick access to the calendar, Spotify, casual games, weather, news, and a list of apps you mark as able to run on the external screen.

Platform and communications

The smartphone is based on last year’s flagship platform, the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1, which is complemented by 8 GB of LPDDR5 RAM and 256 GB of built-in UFS 3.1, as well as the usual set of communication modules: Bluetooth 5.3, NFC, dual-band Wi-Fi 6. The USB 2.0 Type-C interface is used for data synchronization.

It is also worth noting that the smartphone has only one slot for a physical nanoSIM card. If you need to use the services of another operator, there is an eSIM, which is a modern solution, but for some it will definitely not be the most convenient option.

As for the actual operation, it did not cause any comments. The performance margin of the platform is large and it is enough for all typical tasks, including games, everything works as you expect – without delays. Synthetic tests show noticeable throttling under load, and during testing there is also a noticeable heating of the upper half of the case, but during normal use, taking photos, etc. no such heating is observed.

Sound

Motorola Razr 40 Ultra is equipped with stereo speakers, with the earpiece speaker playing the role of the second. With a slight discount for the thickness of the case, which limits the volume, they sound quite pleasant, clear and loud.

Another thing worth noting is the location of the upper (earpiece) speaker – it is directed slightly upward, actually located at the beginning of the edge, and not near the display, so when talking in a noisy environment, for example, on the street, it can be difficult to find the optimal position of the phone relative to the ear to hear the interlocutor well. In a quiet room, this is not the case.

Software and security

Motorola Razr 40 Ultra runs on Android 13. The interface is as close to the stock one as possible, but it has quite extensive settings, support for gestures to quickly launch the camera and turn on the flashlight, as well as a set of Ready For tools that allow you to use the phone in conjunction with a PC. We talked about them in more detail in the Edge 30 neo review.

There’s also a little “bonus” called “Retro Razr” that allows you to display images of the interface and keyboard of old Motorola clamshells. It does not have any real functional load.

For unlocking, you can use the face recognition function that works with all cameras, as well as a capacitive fingerprint scanner combined with the power button.

Like all such scanners, it works perfectly, and you almost never need to enter a pin or password.

Working time and charging

Motorola Razr 40 Ultra is powered by a 3800 mAh battery. By the standards of modern smartphones and flagships, this is far from a record-breaking built-in battery capacity, but most clamshells today have generally small batteries.

In my case, the charge lasted for a day of use in the usual mode, which is about 4 hours of active screen, use of social media clients, work email and messenger, some music with Bluetooth headphones, some YouTube, and a constantly connected smartwatch. In this case, at the end of the day, about 20% of the charge remained. At the same time, the phone was always used with a high screen refresh rate. If you switch to a lower frequency, the time to do things should increase.

In general, the device does not set any records, but given its characteristics, it has an adequate operating time. It slowly discharges in the background, so if the phone is just lying around for most of the day, the charge will be “in place”.

If you have a habit of recharging your phone throughout the day, for example, from wireless charging in the car or at the workplace, you will get the impression that the Motorola Razr 40 Ultra works even longer.

But what I didn’t like, especially after testing other Motorola smartphones, was the charging speed. The bundled power supply has a power of 33 W (of which the phone “accepts” only 30 W) and a full charge takes almost 2 hours, both from the native power supply and from powerful third-party ones.

It’s clear that the manufacturer is trying to preserve the life of a small battery, and it’s difficult for a thin body to dissipate the heat generated by fast charging, but after years of using faster-charging smartphones, this decision seems like a step backward.

Cameras

The smartphone has 2 main cameras: a 12-megapixel wide-angle camera (f/1.5, 1.4 μm) with optical stabilization and a 13-megapixel ultra-wide-angle camera (108° coverage angle) with a separate macro mode.

The camera app is similar to other Motorola smartphones, except that it can display the image on an external display while you’re shooting, or just display the photo you just took, which can be useful when you’re taking pictures of other people.

The program also recognizes when you fold the phone at a 90° angle and shifts the interface and the location of the controls, and the company itself suggests using this “video camera” mode to shoot video (which is generally convenient).

As for the shooting quality, it is at a normal level. The characteristics of the modules already show that the limitations of the form factor do not allow us to use the most advanced technological solutions, install a telephoto lens, etc.

The main camera does a good job in most scenarios, even at night when there are light sources, but keep in mind that night mode takes significantly longer to shoot and process photos.

The ultra-wide-angle takes photos with less detail, despite the fact that it has a higher resolution module, and its shooting angle is not the widest, only slightly wider than the main one.

There’s also a 32-megapixel front camera (f/2.4, 0.7 microns) that takes 8-megapixel photos. It is noticeably inferior to the main modules, and given that it is very convenient to take selfies on the Razr 40 Ultra using the external screen, you are unlikely to use it for anything other than video calls or zoom.