Motorola’s 2025 Razr lineup includes a fresh face: the Razr Ultra. It comes in some gorgeous new finishes, but the rest of the series gets a minor refresh aside from some new AI features. And if you want that wood grain finish? Expect to pay an Ultra price.
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TechTranscript
00:00So Motorola is kicking off hot foldable summer with a whole new model this year, the Ultra.
00:10So this is a new model that sits on top of the Plus and the regular Razer that have been around
00:16a few years now. It's got a big four inch outer screen just like the Plus. So what makes it Ultra?
00:23I'm glad you asked. It has an AI button. We'll get back to that in a little bit. But it also has a
00:29Snapdragon 8 Elite chipset, which is the top tier chipset of choice right now on Android phones.
00:35There are not one, not two, but three 50 megapixel cameras. That's including ultra wide and the selfie
00:43camera plus a new main camera. The inner screen is seven inches, which is just a little bit bigger.
00:48It's actually a little sharper and brighter than previous versions. It's 1224p versus 1080p and it
00:55goes up to 4,500 nits versus 3000. But forget all that. The important thing is it comes in a wood
01:02finish and I love it. I think it looks great and it's super fun. It's like the old Moto X. And if
01:10wood isn't your thing, there's something called Alcantara. You can get that finish. It's an Italian
01:16fabric that feels a little bit like suede. You may have seen it in a Microsoft Surface and it's also
01:23used in cars, I guess. So it all comes at a very ultra price, which is 1299. That's a lot of money,
01:30but it's the price of ultra, I guess. So the razor plus and the regular razor are back and there are a
01:39lot like last year's models. The regular razor still has a smaller 3.6 inch screen, but all three
01:46models, including the ultra has a new titanium hinge. This is supposedly four times stronger than the
01:52previous stainless steel version. It also reduces the crease when you open up the screen. It's way
01:59less noticeable and running my finger over it. I can actually barely feel it. It's kind of spooky.
02:04So all three phones have an IP48 rating. That means they're fully water resistant, just like last
02:11year's models, and you can dunk them in some water and they'll be fine. But an IP58 rating would mean it
02:18has some official dust protection and we don't have that here. There's really no foldable out there
02:24that has full dust protection. It's just really tough with the moving hinge to seal it up against
02:30all dust and particles. So not a thing we have right now. Maybe one day. Back to that AI button. Of course,
02:40there's a ton of AI on all three of these phones. The ultra has its own button. The other ones don't,
02:46but they all get access to Moto AI. And honestly, I think there are some features here that don't
02:53sound terrible. There's something called Remember This. And you can think of this in the same realm
02:58as like pixel screenshots or nothing's essential space. And it's a way to take a screenshot or a
03:05picture and save it and then be able to ask questions about it later. Could be kind of handy,
03:11honestly. We didn't get to see it in action, but there's something called Catch Me Up. Hopefully that
03:17works out better for Moto than it did on the Humane AI pin. But the idea is you ask the phone to catch
03:24you up on the notifications that have come in while you're busy doing something and it saves you some
03:29time and scrolling. There's some slightly more gimmicky stuff like an image creator, which is a lot like
03:35what we've seen on Pixel phones and iPhones, where you give it a text prompt or you can even sketch
03:41something and it'll use AI to generate some art for you. Moto AI is kind of running on top and is the
03:49user interface for all this. But there's a lot of AI partners involved below that. There's perplexity.
03:56There's Gemini, of course. You can use Copilot on this phone. Moto AI is free for now. We don't know if
04:04they're going to charge in the future for it, but you do get some free trials of perplexity and Gemini's
04:10like pro accounts with the phones. In the meantime, the Razer Plus is still $9.99 and the regular Razer
04:18is priced at $6.99. So no inflation there, I guess. Pre-orders start on May 7th and all the phones will be
04:26available on May 15th. So that was Motorola. It was kind of a minor update from a hardware
04:34perspective. Definitely some new colors and finishes. Plenty of AI, of course. Maybe a little
04:41bit of a light update, but honestly, I'm into the new finishes and splashy colors. I think it's fun
04:48and phones can be fun. Let's have fun phones again.
04:52Thanks for watching. Definitely check out theverge.com. We've got a lot of hands-on
04:57details and photos from the Motorola event. I personally took 1,000 photos of the Woodgrain
05:04Motorola Razer Ultra and you should go look at every one of them because it's beautiful.