I tried the Motorola Razr 70 Ultra: More than meets the eye

The new Motorola Razr 70 Ultra – called the Motorola Razr Ultra (2026) in the US – has just been announced and I got to spend some time with it. At first glance, you might be tempted to dismiss it as yet another iterative update, but there’s a little more going on here than you’ll first spot.

But I understand the temptation: the Motorola Razr 70 Ultra starts at £1,199.99 in the UK, while the Razr 60 Ultra is discounted to as low as £799.99 direct from Motorola.

With that in mind, what does the Razr 70 Ultra get that’s new and how does it better the previous device?

There are upgrades to the Razr 70 Ultra in the camera and battery departments, two areas where customers always want more. While the rest of the phone is much the same, it’s these two areas that make the biggest changes.

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Bigger battery, without the bloat

Starting with the battery, I wasn’t able to test the endurance during my hands-on time, but Motorola has increased the battery capacity to 5000mAh from 4700mAh on the Razr 60 Ultra.

This has been achieved with no increase in the phone’s weight and without it getting any thicker.

This leaves the Razr 70 Ultra with a battery that’s significantly greater in capacity than the 4300mAh of the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 7, its main rival. Motorola doubles down on this advantage, offering 68W charging and although this isn’t new, it means that topping up the phone happens in a flash.

That’s definitely a tick in the right box for the Razr 70 Ultra, which maintains the design it previously offered. While the phone looks the same, it’s the finishes where Motorola maintains a unique appeal.

The Razr 70 Ultra comes in Pantone Orient Blue with an Alcantara texture, or Pantone Cocoa, with a wood veneer (both shown below). This isn’t just a metal and glass sandwich like the rest of the market; it’s something more.

Motorola tells me that through its partnerships with brands like Alcantara and Pantone, it was trying to turn the conversation away from just the hardware specs.

A camera change that matters

While everyone loves endurance (especially without having to carry a phone that’s fatter), boosting the camera is something that matters to potential buyers – and regardless of how important design is on the Motorola Razr, the camera remains central to the experience.

In our review of the Razr 60 Ultra, we called out a specific weakness of the camera, saying that it “struggled with exposure and shadows, meaning photos were often left over- or underexposed”.

The big change in the Razr 70 Ultra is the move to a LOFIC sensor for the main camera. It’s still 50Mp with an f/1.8 aperture, but the new sensor technology is specifically designed to increase the dynamic performance. Motorola says that it boosts dynamic range by a whopping 6x.

This is backed up by a new image processing pathway, including faster shot-to-shot times and better power efficiency – something that both the new Razr 70 Ultra and regular Razr 70 benefit from.

From the time I’ve spent with the Razr 70 Ultra, I can’t make a final judgement on the camera performance, but it’s a technological move in the right direction and something we’ll fully explore in our review.

There are a couple of new features for the camera, including a clever Frame Match option which lets you line up a photo you want to take, before handing the phone to someone else so they can take a picture of you within the frame on the screen.

It’s designed to stop strangers from taking terrible photos of you – and like Google’s Add Me feature on phones like the Pixel 10, it’s simple to use.

The second addition that’s exciting is Rotate to Zoom. In camcorder mode (a feature from the Razr that was introduced in 2024), you can now zoom in and out by gently rotating the phone. It’s a subtle gesture, and as long as you keep it slow, you can zoom in and out while the video remains stable.

It’s so much better than touching the screen or trying to pinch or anything else – it’s a really clever addition to the video function.

Consolidation in design rather than a revolution in performance

If you’re looking for hardware upgrades in the new Razr 70 Ultra, then I’m basically at the end of the list: there’s a move to 5000 nits on the main display over 4500 nits previously, but that’s about it.

With that, the experience is much the same as it was before: the Snapdragon 8 Elite remains with no change from the 2025 model and the displays are otherwise the same as they were before.

I found it still perfectly fast in the brief time I had to use it and while buying older hardware on this sort of flagship folding phone, at this price, is hard to endorse, in reality, folding phones aren’t gaming phones and Snapdragon 8 Elite is more than capable.

I didn’t get long to explore the software, but much of it looks similar to existing Motorola devices, like the Motorola Signature that I recently reviewed. While much of this is close to stock Android, the introduction of Moto AI has seen this drifting towards a slightly more cluttered approach.

There’s been an increase in bloatware and app suggestions, news and adverts appearing on the lockscreen, as well as a change to the apps tray that will add in Moto AI searching where you least expect it.

But that’s not the end of the story about software and might help you make your decision: the Razr 60 Ultra only has 3 years of OS updates and 4 years of security updates, while the Razr 70 Ultra has 3 years of OS updates and 5 years of security updates.

A year of that has already passed, so if you’re planning to keep your phone longer than two years, then opting for the new model is advised – although it doesn’t stand up to Samsung’s 7-year update promise, with Motorola well behind the curve here.

Initial verdict

The Motorola Razr 70 Ultra remains an attractive folding phone with Motorola’s use of colours and materials much more exciting than rivals.

Foldable phones are already a head turner and using fun materials makes them much more of a statement – and I’m all for that – although Samsung’s rival is slimmer and that makes a difference in folding devices.

The move to a higher price means that the Moto Razr 70 Ultra is more expensive than the Galaxy Z Flip 7 (though the upcoming Galaxy Z Flip 8 might change that), moving the Ultra into tricky territory.

At first glance, it’s a better phone than the previous model with that new battery and boosted camera sensor and a couple of neat new features – but the temptation to save a chunk of cash and buy the 2025 model remains – but do consider software updates before you make your decision.

Stay tuned for a full review soon.