Motorola Razr 50 / Razr (2024) review

Intro [Music] here we have a new foldable flip phone the Motorolla Razer 50 aka the motor roler Razer 2024 unlike most other flip phones this one has a mid-range level chipset and a lower price so could it be the right choice for you I'm will for GSM Marina and let's find out in our full [Music] Design and build quality review for reasons we don't really understand Moto gives this flip phones different names depending on the market this phone is called the Moto Razer 2024 in North America and elsewhere is the Moto Razer 50 unlike last year is the Razer 40 which had a tiny cover screen this one has a fairly large display on the outside it's nearly edge to edge even going around the dual camera setup though it does stop about a centimet short of the hinge at the top this means the Razer 50 is closer to the ultra model than its predecessor it remains a more affordable alternative to the ultra the major difference being the far less powerful chipset like the ultra model the motor raser 50 is covered with vegan leather and in the orange color way we have here it looks quite snazzy of course half of the outside is taken up by the cover screen instead the frame of the phone is made of glossy 6000 series aluminum and the Razer 50 folds flat of course with no gap between the two halves it has a hinge made of stainless steel and when folded you end up with a square and quite compact device compared to last year there's better waterproofing like the ultra now the vanilla model is rated to ipx8 against water submersion let's talk a bit more about the hinge it allows the phone to be left open at any angle within a certain range useful if you want to prop it open on a table like a laptop a camcorder mode while shooting video was also made possible thanks to the mechanism's operation the cover screen is one of the Cover Screen biggest upgrades for the Razer in place of the tiny ticker style unit of last year now there's a higher res 3.6 in display with a 90 HZ refresh rate and Grilla glass victus protection you get nearly full functionality for your quick settings notifications and even full apps not all apps work natively though only those which are supported which will show up on the app page these include Gmail Google Maps and Google photos beyond that there are other apps which can work here as well but only in widget form Google Gemini is accessible right there on the cover display too for on the-go AI functionality another useful function of the cover screen is to use it as a viewfinder in order to snap selfies with the main cameras and it is much better this year with the larger screen space and in general switching between the screens is relative ly seamless while the phone is open you Inner Screen reveal the main display it's a 6.9 in foldable ltpo OLED with a 1080p resolution and a 120 HZ refresh rate it's decently flat considering its foldable nature though you can spot a bit of a crease when you go looking for it the display is sharp with a pixel density of 413 PPI and there's support for HDR 10 plus video playback there's no Dolby Vision support like you'd get on the ultra model though also the 120 HZ refresh rate falls short of the 165 HZ of the ultra still it's plenty to smooth out swiping on screen and thanks to the ltpo tech you can dial down to 1 Herz when idling to save energy the cover screen on the other hand only goes up to 90 HZ and it can dial down to 60 when you stop interacting with it the inner display is quite bright as well we only measured up to around 550 nits with a manual slider but this can boost in auto mode up to nearly 1,300 nits which is plenty for use outdoors in the sun we also measured up to around 1,300 nits in auto mode on the cover screen for audio the Razer has a pair of Speakers quality test stereo speakers with very good loudness the sound is Lively though we will say that there isn't quite as much base here as there is on the ultra model I'm wide awake but you're nightmare I can't escape I'm seeing you everywhere PO for waking up and Side-mounted fingerprint scanner & Storage options unlocking the phone there's a side mounted fingerprint reader built into the power button and it's quite reliable and the racer 50 can come with 256 or 512 gigs of storage on board which isn't expandable to micro SD like on other recent Moto phones the Android 14 interface here is Motorola's new hello UI on top of Android 14 it's similar to stock Android but with some customizations added in these additional features are organized within the Moto app which has been restyled for hello UI here you'll find things like customization options and gestures there is support for advanced connectivity through Smart Connect which allows you to connect to a PC or an external Monitor and Moto promises 3 years of OS updates and 4 years of security patches here like I mentioned earlier this phone doesn't pack a flagship grade chipset like you'd find on most of flip devices MediaTek Dimensity 7300X instead you get a mid-range level mediatech dimensity 7300 a as expected benchmark scores were towards the bottom of the foldable pack way behind the Galaxy Z flip 6 and the Moto Razer 50 Ultra the results are more in line with something like the Moto Edge 50 Fusion still we wouldn't say the phone feels underpowered during regular use plus since the chipset isn't pushing too hard that means that the thermals are better here than on other foldables during our stress tests there was much less throttling than what we saw on the Z flip 6 for example the Razer 50 rer 2024 is powered Battery life and charging speed test by a 4200 mAh battery the same capacity as last year's model in our tests it earned an overall active use score of 11 hours and 46 minutes which is respectable for a flip foldable and in the video playback and web browsing tests this phone outclassed the competition one notable change compared to last year is that while there's again support for 33 w wired charging Moto doesn't include a charger in the Box this time around with a compatible adapter we were able to charge the phone from 0 to 59% in half an hour and a full charge took just over an hour there is support for 15 W wireless Main cameras charging here too now we have the cameras unlike the ultra model you don't have a telephoto Zoom instead there's an ultra wide angle cam so overall on the back there's the same 50 megap main cam as the ultra plus a 13 megap Ultra wide cam which has autofocus daylight photos from the main Main camera: photo quality camera are all right there is enough resolve detail but we're not fans of the processing there's excessive sharpening as well as jagged lines and artificial looking textures otherwise the dynamic range is nicely wide and the colors are vibrant yet not over the top and shots of people look relatively good with mostly accurate skin tones in outdoor settings there is a toggle in the viewfinder for two times digital Zoom the detail level isn't impressive but the shots are usable in low light the main camera produces like images with well balanced exposures highlights are well preserved and the shadow development is all right color saturation is good and the detail is generally good as well now for the Ultrawide camera: photo quality ultrawide camera it photos have a decent amount of detail but the dynamic range is limited also it struggles with wide balance often producing results which are too cold or greenish at least since it has autofocus you can use the ultra wide to take macro close-ups with something you wouldn't be able to do with the Galaxy Z flip 6 for for example in low light the ultra wise photos come out gloomy and underexposed shadows are soft the detail remains okay in areas with more light selfies can be taken with the Selfies dedicated camera within the inner screen these are decent with good-looking colors and skin tones and all right detail however you'd probably prefer to take selfies using the rear cameras with the cover screen acting as a viewfinder these selfies from the main cam have better detail more saturated colors and even some natural bokeh the Razer 50 Ultra records video Video quality at up to 4K resolution at 30 FPS with all of its cameras the main camera's video quality is good for the class with plenty of detail even though it's not the most mature processing we've seen the footage is also quite contrasty the ultra wide 4K footage is pretty soft and the high contrast approach continues here too in low light the main camera's videos are quite noisy the dynamic range is fairly limited too electronic video stabilization does well to smooth out pans but there's still some shakiness left over while walking so that was the Moto racer 50 Conclusion also known as the Moto racer 2024 like other top flip foldables this year's Razer packs a large cover screen with all sorts of functionality you also get better water resistance this year and good battery life the notable downsides here include the mid-range level chipset and the lack of a charger in the box also the camera quality quality isn't the best around just like the name the pricing of this phone varies depending on the market but if it happens to be cheaper than the competition where you live then you might take advantage of the deal if you're looking for Alternatives you can check out the Samsung Galaxy Z flip 6 or the Motorola Razer 50 Ultra if you don't mind spending a bit more cash let us know what you think and I'll see you on the next one