Motorola Razr Ultra 2026 Review: $200 Pricier, Worth the Bump?

The Motorola Razr Ultra 2026 arrives at $1,499.99, a $200 jump over the $1,299.99 Razr Ultra 2025, and Tom’s Guide has already called it one of the most controversial foldables of the year. The new clamshell runs on the same Snapdragon 8 Elite chipset that powered last year’s model and yet earns the longest-lasting battery Tom’s Guide has measured on any foldable. Motorola is selling the new phone on a bigger silicon-carbon cell, a brighter main display, and a bundle of free accessories designed to take the sting out of the higher price.

The math gets harder the moment shoppers see what the previous generation now costs. Motorola is clearing out the Razr Ultra 2025 at $799.99 with a free 1TB storage upgrade, per the razr family lineup showing the current $799 deal. That’s about half the new model’s price between two phones that share most of their core hardware. The gap forces a direct question about what the extra money actually buys.

The $1,499 Question Motorola Can’t Dodge

Motorola priced the Razr Ultra 2026 at $1,499.99, up from $1,299.99 on the Razr Ultra 2025. The $200 increase is one of the steepest year-over-year jumps in the modern flip phone market and arrived without a flagship chipset to justify it.

Senior phones editor John Velasco, writing for Tom’s Guide, called the move “way off the mark” and added that a $50 increase would have been “manageable” while the $200 jump is “downright outlandish for a phone spec’d almost identically to its predecessor.” The Razr Ultra 2026 and the Razr Ultra 2025 share the same 7-inch AMOLED main display at 2992 x 1224 with the same 165Hz refresh rate. Both phones run the same Snapdragon 8 Elite, ship with 16GB of RAM and 512GB of storage, and carry the same dual 50MP rear cameras plus a 50MP front camera. The IP48 dust and water rating carries over too, and the overall weight holds at 7.02 ounces in both generations.

The list of identical components is longer than the list of upgrades, and the gap inside Motorola’s own lineup is hard to ignore. For $400 more than the $1,499.99 Razr Ultra 2026, the Razr Fold steps up to the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 chip and adds a dedicated 3x optical telephoto lens. That makes the Ultra’s middle-of-the-pack positioning uncomfortable on Motorola’s own shelf.

A Foldable Battery That Finally Goes the Distance

The Razr Ultra 2026 carries a 5,000 mAh silicon-carbon battery, 300 mAh more than the 4,700 mAh cell in the Razr Ultra 2025. Tom’s Guide’s battery drain test landed at 16 hours and 20 minutes on average, the longest result the publication has measured on any foldable.

That figure beats both Motorola’s Razr Plus 2026 and Razr 2026 by roughly two hours each, per the same test. The Galaxy Z Flip 7, the Razr Ultra 2026’s closest clamshell rival, ran 12 hours and 24 minutes on the same drain test. Charging gets a small bump too. The Razr Ultra 2026 supports 68W wired charging, up from 60W on its predecessor, and hit 42% in 15 minutes and 74% in 30 minutes in Tom’s Guide’s test. Wireless charging stays at 30W.

Silicon-carbon is the structural reason the bigger battery fits in the same chassis. Per the official Razr Ultra 2026 spec sheet on Motorola’s site, the chemistry is denser than traditional lithium-ion, which let Motorola hold the weight at 7.02 ounces. That keeps the Razr Ultra 2026 feeling like a flip phone rather than a tablet that folds.

In real-world use, the longer endurance shows up in the margins flip-phone buyers care about. Tom’s Guide reports the battery comfortably covers a full workday with charge to spare, even after streaming video and toggling between the cover screen and the main display. Foldables have historically trailed traditional flagships here, and the Razr Ultra 2026 now closes that gap on a single charge. The relevant comparison is no longer just other flip phones; it’s the slab flagships shoppers might otherwise choose.

Battery and charging results per Tom’s Guide’s drain test.

A Brighter Main Screen on Familiar Hardware

The Razr Ultra 2026’s 7-inch main display is the same AMOLED panel as last year on paper, but Tom’s Guide measured a peak brightness of 2,322 nits against the Razr Ultra 2025’s 1,835 nits. That puts the new phone’s main display nearly 500 nits ahead of its predecessor, with the same 2992 x 1224 resolution and 165Hz refresh. The Razr 2026 and Razr Plus 2026 actually post higher peak brightness readings, at 2,761 and 2,630 nits respectively, in Tom’s Guide’s measurements, though all three Motorola flip phones land in the same general neighborhood. Color coverage and Delta-E accuracy are within rounding distance across the new Razr lineup, with the Razr Ultra 2026 hitting 88.3% DCI-P3 in Natural mode and 156.5% in Vivid. The improvement is real but the panel itself is the same.

In practice, Tom’s Guide reports the brighter output makes outdoor viewing noticeably easier, particularly when watching video on the inner display. The 4-inch external AMOLED at 1272 x 1080 also carries over from the previous generation with no spec change, and the same titanium-reinforced hinge holds the IP48 rating intact. The familiar look and feel, paired with the brighter numbers, explains why Motorola framed the upgrade as a refinement rather than a redesign.

Display measurements per Tom’s Guide testing.

Last Year’s Chip in This Year’s Phone

The Razr Ultra 2026 runs on the Snapdragon 8 Elite, the same Qualcomm chip Motorola used in the Razr Ultra 2025. By the time the 2026 model arrived, the chip was two generations behind the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 that powers the Galaxy S26 Ultra and OnePlus 15. Tom’s Guide flagged the recycled silicon in its first look at the new Razr family as a setback for a $1,500 flip phone, even though Motorola pulled the same move with the Razr Plus 2025 a year earlier.

Tom’s Guide’s Geekbench 6 run put the Razr Ultra 2026 at 2,886 single-core and 8,982 multi-core, against 2,719 and 8,342 on the Razr Ultra 2025. On 3DMark Wild Life Unlimited, the new phone hit 146.33 frames per second, edging last year’s 145.32 fps and pulling well clear of the Galaxy Z Flip 7’s 114.64 fps.

Among 2026 flip phones, the Razr Ultra 2026 is still the most powerful one Tom’s Guide has benchmarked. The Razr Plus 2026 sits at 73.08 fps and the base Razr 2026 at 23.43 fps, so the Ultra’s lead over its 2026 siblings is far wider than its gap to last year’s model. In daily use, Tom’s Guide reports the phone still feels fast for everyday tasks, with no obvious stutter in apps or the camera pipeline.

Benchmark scores per Tom’s Guide testing.

The Razr Ultra 2025 Refuses to Disappear

While Motorola sells the Razr Ultra 2026 at $1,499.99, the Razr Ultra 2025 is now sitting at $799 with a free 1TB storage upgrade. That’s a 46% discount off the original $1,299.99 launch price, per Tom’s Guide, which called the deal “insane.”

The Razr Ultra 2025 shares the Snapdragon 8 Elite, 16GB of RAM, 512GB of storage, the IP48 rating, and the same 50MP camera system as the 2026 model. What the older phone lacks is the bigger battery, the brighter main display, and the bundled accessories. The 2025 also runs the same familiar Moto AI suite, including Catch Me Up, Pay Attention, and Remember This, with no major new features on the newer model either.

There’s a valuable lesson to learn here with the Motorola Razr Ultra 2026: design and utility can only carry a phone so far.

That line comes from John Velasco’s bottom-line summary in his Razr Ultra 2026 review for Tom’s Guide. Most shoppers who don’t push their phone to the battery limit won’t feel the 16:20-hour endurance gap as sharply as Tom’s Guide’s test suggests, and the brightness jump from 1,835 to 2,322 nits matters most in direct sunlight. For shoppers who can live with the older panel and battery, the Razr Ultra 2025 is the value play in the lineup, and it’s brand new in box. The Razr Ultra 2026 also ships the same software suite as its predecessor, which leaves the free accessory bundle as the only hardware reason to step up.

For shoppers who care more about silicon than battery life, the Razr Ultra 2026 has nothing the 2025 doesn’t already offer. And Motorola’s own razr family page still lists the 2025 model at $799.99, which is the price that keeps making the new one uncomfortable.

What the Bundled Accessories Are Actually Worth

Motorola’s offset to the $200 price increase is a pair of bundled accessories sold with retail purchases of the Razr Ultra 2026. Buyers get the Moto Buds Loop, Motorola’s open-ear earbuds, and the Moto Watch, a circular smartwatch. The phone, the earbuds, and the watch are designed to pair together, with the cover screen controlling music and the watch handling notifications.

On their own, the Moto Buds Loop retail for $249 and the Moto Watch for $149, according to Tom’s Guide’s review of the bundle. Combined, that’s $398 of accessories against a $200 price hike, so the math tilts back toward the new phone. The bundle also addresses one of the Razr Ultra 2025’s quieter complaints: there was no first-party smartwatch in the lineup, and the earbuds ecosystem was thin. With the bundle, the Razr Ultra 2026 arrives as a more complete kit out of the box, and Tom’s Guide frames it as the “saving grace” for the higher retail price.

The catch is that the bundle is a promotion, and Motorola has not said how long it will run. If the bundle ends, the Razr Ultra 2026 is back to being a $1,499 flip phone with last year’s chipset and the same camera system as its predecessor.

Who Should Buy the Razr Ultra 2026

The Razr Ultra 2026 is built for flip-phone shoppers who want the longest battery life in any current foldable and who value the brighter 2,322-nit main display for outdoor use. Content creators who frame vlogs and selfies on the 4-inch cover screen will find the form factor easier than a book-style foldable, and buyers who want the free Moto Buds Loop and Moto Watch bundle get genuine value out of the $200 premium. Motorola’s official positioning is that this is the flip phone for power users, and the silicon-carbon battery plus the titanium-reinforced hinge back that up. Shoppers focused on raw value, current-generation silicon, or telephoto photography should look elsewhere.

The Razr Ultra 2025 at $799 is the more rational pick for value-first shoppers, and shoppers who want a current-generation chipset in a foldable should look at Motorola’s own Razr Fold at $1,899.99. For cross-brand comparison, the Galaxy Z Flip7 launch spec sheet lays out the closest clamshell competitor’s full feature list. Readers weighing the broader foldable landscape can also check Oton Technology’s Flip 7 vs Flip 8 buying case and trade-offs for context.

Frequently Asked Questions

How much does the Motorola Razr Ultra 2026 cost?

The Razr Ultra 2026 starts at $1,499.99 in the United States, a $200 increase over the $1,299.99 Razr Ultra 2025. Motorola is bundling the Moto Buds Loop and Moto Watch with retail purchases for the duration of the launch promotion. Tom’s Guide’s review notes that the bundle retails separately for $398. Shoppers should plan around the promotion’s end date, which Motorola has not announced.

What is actually new in the Razr Ultra 2026 versus the Razr Ultra 2025?

The 2026 model moves to a 5,000 mAh silicon-carbon battery from 4,700 mAh, bumps wired charging from 60W to 68W, and posts higher peak brightness on the main display (2,322 nits versus 1,835 nits per Tom’s Guide). The Snapdragon 8 Elite chipset, 16GB of RAM, 512GB of storage, the 50MP camera system, the 7-inch main display, and the IP48 rating all carry over unchanged. Software is largely the same as well, with the familiar Catch Me Up, Pay Attention, and Remember This suite on board.

How does the Razr Ultra 2026 compare to the Galaxy Z Flip 7?

On Tom’s Guide’s battery drain test, the Razr Ultra 2026 ran 16 hours and 20 minutes against 12 hours and 24 minutes for the Galaxy Z Flip 7. The Razr Ultra 2026 also outscored the Z Flip 7 on Geekbench 6 multi-core and on 3DMark Wild Life Unlimited in the same test suite.

Should I buy the Razr Ultra 2025 instead of the 2026?

At $799 with a free 1TB storage upgrade, the Razr Ultra 2025 shares the same chipset, RAM, storage, camera system, and IP48 rating as the 2026 model. The trade-offs are the smaller 4,700 mAh battery, the dimmer main display, and the missing accessory bundle. For shoppers who don’t need the extra battery or brightness, the 2025 is the better value at today’s prices. The 2025 also ships with the same Moto AI software suite, which Motorola has not changed materially between generations.