It’s been roughly a year since Motorola launched the Razr 2025 series and its flagship Razr Ultra 2025. It’s easily Motorola’s best and most popular flagship phone thus far, sporting a refined design and specs that would make even the Galaxy S25 Ultra jealous. However, with a new Razr Ultra model likely on the horizon, I’m looking back at my experience with the Razr Ultra 2025 and my biggest takeaways since the phone launched last April.
Even though I’ve reviewed plenty of phones since the Razr Ultra 2025 launched, I’ve used it as my main device, always switching back between reviews or at least carrying it around as a secondary device. That’s because, despite having used many impressive phones lately, I’ve become a flip phone kinda guy, and that’s all thanks to Motorola.
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The Razr experience
Despite loving previous Razr models, the Ultra 2025 is the first Razr flagship I’ve used that I didn’t feel I needed to carry a secondary phone with me to get by. A big reason for that is the camera system; Motorola really improved it on the Ultra 2025, especially compared to the underwhelming Razr Plus 2023. And unlike the Razr Plus 2024, which shipped with a secondary telephoto camera, the Razr Ultra swapped it for an ultrawide camera, which is much more useful, in my opinion, especially when the 2x optical quality zoom is sufficient.
While it may not compete with flagships from Chinese OEMs like Vivo and Oppo, it gets the job done, and I have no complaints.
But beyond the cameras, the overall Razr experience has been very good, and this truly feels like Motorola was aiming to provide an “Ultra” experience. The Snapdragon 8 Elite chip paired with 16GB of RAM makes the phone feel incredibly snappy, and it handles heavy gaming surprisingly well.
The 1224p Super HD OLED display looks and feels great, even after a year of use. The Razr Plus 2023 hinge started failing after a year, and I noticed small cracks in the built-in Razr Plus 2024 screen protector. The Razr Ultra 2025 display still looks like the day I got it, while the vegan leather and wood materials on the back of the phone (depending on the model you buy) give it a fresh look, though I’ve noticed some peeling of the “leather.”
Android 16… finally!
Part of the Razr experience is the software, a category in which Motorola doesn’t quite excel. Don’t get me wrong, Hello UX is… fine, and there’s plenty to like, such as the separate quick settings menu and notification shade (which is optional), Motorola’s use of Google apps and services like Google Photos, and the useful gestures like chopping or twisting twice to enable the flashlight or turn on the camera, respectively.
That said, the overall software experience is rather dull. The basics are here, but Motorola doesn’t go out of its way to stand out with things like flashy animations, and after using recent Samsung phones like the Galaxy S26 Plus, it always reminds me of how much I prefer Samsung’s One UI for its consistency, support, and feeling of excitement whenever I use it.
I really hoped Android 16 would change things, especially after Google introduced Material 3 Expressive on Pixel phones. However, despite the update arriving on the Razr Ultra 2025 more quickly than on previous models (thanks, Motorola), it came and went with seemingly few changes.
The software admittedly feels smoother and more responsive, and Motorola added features like Modes and Notification Cooldown. Otherwise, the update doesn’t feel much different from Android 15, and the security patch is still stuck on December 2025 for some reason, which highlights Motorola’s fairly inconsistent bi-monthly update schedule.
Motorola also doesn’t get the latest Android features as quickly as Samsung. For example, the latest Quick Share update, which adds support for AirDrop, rolled out first on the latest Pixel phones and Galaxy S26 series, while other Android devices have to wait. It’s frankly annoying that Motorola continues to play second fiddle to Samsung, despite its recent gains in the market.
Moto AI: Solid but underwhelming
Motorola’s software is a bit of a mixed bag, but the AI situation isn’t much better. Moto AI is the company’s attempt at having its own AI suite, à la Samsung, and while there are some good ideas, the execution feels somewhat lacking.
The chatbot itself is decent and lets you connect to Microsoft Copilot and Perplexity, but even with access to multiple AI models, the overall experience still pales in comparison to Gemini. Not to mention, Motorola’s Large Action Model, which lets the AI complete tasks like ordering an Uber on your behalf, is yet to be seen, while Google is already enabling this feature in Gemini.
Most Moto AI features either feel like glorified versions of existing apps (Pay Attention is just an AI recorder) or just aren’t that useful in their current form. Remember This keeps memories of photos, notes, or screenshots and analyzes them so you can recall them later. However, you have to trigger the feature for it to be useful; it’s not integrated into the camera or screenshot function, which feels like a waste.
Catch Me Up is, fortunately, more useful, as you can have an AI summary of your notifications with the press of a button.
One area it seems Motorola hasn’t quite figured out is integration. While Samsung can naturally integrate features into its UI, such as the Gallery app, Motorola is left stuffing most of them into the Moto AI app, including Image Studio.
Motorola needs to figure out how to better integrate its AI across the UI, because as it stands now, you’re better off sticking with Gemini and Google’s other AI features, like Circle to Search. It should also follow Samsung’s example by sidelining Bixby and letting the Moto AI chatbot take a back seat in favor of Gemini. Now, if only Motorola would let us remap its AI Key to work with Gemini…
The accessory problem
The Razr Ultra 2025 is a seriously great phone, but one major problem I keep running into with Motorola’s smartphones is the lack of accessory options. It’s incredibly difficult to find a good Razr Ultra 2025 case (or screen protector, for that matter) from any of the top case makers. Go to Spigen, Thinborn, Otterbox, Casetify, etc., and hardly any of them have a dedicated section for Motorola, and the few that do offer only a handful of options for older phones.
Anything I’ve found online has been from companies I’ve never heard of, and I often have to scroll through a ton of reviews to find others who bought cases for this model. That’s not to say that these are all bad, and I’ve found one or two that I kind of like, but the options are few and far between. Sure, you can get an official case from Motorola’s webstore, but even those are lacking, and Motorola could really take a page from Samsung here.
The lack of a Thinborn case is especially unfortunate, because I love their ultra-thin Aramid Fiber cases, and they would be perfect for a phone like the Razr Ultra, which becomes twice as thick when it’s folded. Most other cases are rather thick, which makes the phone feel a bit unwieldy, and having a thin case would make me feel better about putting one on in the first place.
That cover screen, though!
I’m not exaggerating when I say that I use the Razr Ultra 2025’s cover screen about 80% of the time. It’s just that good. Apps are available out of the box, they transition seamlessly between the main display and the cover screen, and they scale pretty well, for the most part. Unlike the Galaxy Z Flip devices, the cover screen supports multitasking, and notifications are handled much better.
There are also plenty of ways to take better advantage of the cameras with the cover screen.
The only reasons I don’t use the cover screen are to play games, adjust settings, or use Google Photos (which is somewhat limited on here). I’ll also use the main display for more important emails or for apps that require the larger display (watching videos on the cover screen is doable, but the main display is better suited for this).
Admittedly, the Android 16 update seemed to introduce some wonkiness to the cover screen, with odd UI glitches, particularly with text fields. Still, the experience is largely the same and remains my favorite way to use the Razr.
I’ve also begun using the Clicks Keyboard, which doubles as a rather nice case (finally) and a full Blackberry-style keyboard. That way, you don’t have to worry about the on-screen keyboard taking up precious cover screen real estate, while also protecting your phone. Typing on a physical smartphone keyboard may take some getting used to, but if you have a Razr, this is probably the best way to use the phone!
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