GoKawiilis a senior reviewer with over a decade of experience writing about consumer tech. She has a special interest in mobile photography and telecom. Previously, she worked at DPReview.
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I had one ask for friends, colleagues, the lady checking me in for a meeting at a large software company’s headquarters, and everyone else who stopped to admire the phone I’ve been carrying around.
“Pet it.”
The Razr Ultra is not your average phone. I got the orient blue color option to test, which has a soft, woven back panel made of Alcantara fabric — which you’re more likely to find on the seats of a fancy car. I can’t stop petting it. I’m worried about how it’ll look after spending years in and out of dusty tote bags and my kid’s grubby hands, but after a couple of weeks of testing it hasn’t picked up any gunk or dirt that I haven’t been able to brush off.
Then there’s the above-average price. The Razr Ultra costs $1,499, which buys a well-equipped flip phone. I still think calling this phone an “Ultra” is a little too strong. You won’t get all of the trappings of a regular top-tier phone, like a telephoto camera, embedded magnets for Qi2 charging (just plain wireless charging), and full dust resistance. You pay for the privilege of the hinge and a seriously nice-looking (and -feeling) phone.
The pettable back panel isn’t even my favorite upgraded feature on the 2026 Ultra, which surprised me. It’s the battery. It has a 5,000mAh capacity, up from 4,700mAh on last year’s model. It manages to accommodate a battery with a capacity usually found on the biggest of big slab phones, even though it has to make room for a whole-ass hinge. Motorola can pull this off because it’s using silicon-carbon batteries, which provide higher capacity in the same amount of space a traditional lithium-ion battery takes up.
In practice, this meant I got comfortable committing battery crimes that I’d normally avoid with a flip phone. Using it as a hotspot while working outdoors on an 80-degree day? Forgoing a nightly recharge simply because the charger is across the room? Setting it up in tent mode and using the front screen as a Pomodoro timer? I did it all with the Razr Ultra. I never hit low power mode, and most days I didn’t even get down to 50 percent. This is very good performance from a phone with two physically small-ish batteries, and that’s a big win for the Razr.
Don’t worry, I didn’t use any of these suggested replies.
Every time I revisit the flip form factor, I remember how great it is. You know what rules? Answering texts on the cover screen, typing single-handed while holding a coffee in the other hand. I used that front screen to catch up on Slack notifications, present my boarding pass to a gate agent, and entertain my four-year-old for a few minutes with a gyroscope-guided marble maze game. Doing these things without opening up the whole phone and inviting in that chaos feels like a cheat code. Motorola’s cover screen software makes it easy to access any app you want, and it handily beats Samsung’s outer screen UI.
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