Motorola Razr Ultra 2026 costs too much, but I really like it

This is the new Motorola Razr Ultra. It's the best flip phone I've ever tested, but you shouldn't buy one. Here's why. Let's start with the design

The new Razr Ultra is identical to this, the Razr Ultra 2025. And that's not inherently a bad thing because last year's Razr received a CNET Editor's Choice Award because we liked it so much

Now, both last year's model and the new one have identical screens, cover displays, dimensions, weight, processors, and cameras and build

Yeah, there are some nuances, but we're going to get into that a little bit later. This one cost $1,300

And this one cost $1,500. Yes, you can hear the proverbial record skip

So what do you get for that extra $200? dollars. This new Orient Blue color. Now my orientation points to it being, well, purple

And it has this gorgeous Alcantara fabric on the back. Now think high-end automobile like Porsches

and Lambos. Yes, the 2026 Razor Ultra is the best looking phone I've seen this year. And what's great

about having a fabric back is that it don't crack if you drop it. The new Ultra keeps the amazing

four-inch cover screen, which is still outstanding to use and still offers the best experience on any

flip phone in 2026 so far. Now, the internal display gets brighter now. It can go all the way

up to 5,000 nits peak brightness, which is fantastic when I'm using it in the California sunshine

let's talk about the cameras which are basically the same as last year's model but with one big

tech nerd upgrade the main wide angle camera now has a lofix sensor lateral overflow integration capacitor those words mean it can better protect the highlights in your photos so the brightest parts of your image don blow out to a solid white Instead you can see more

detail and shading. So here's a mini camera shootout between last year's Ultra and the new one

Look at these images of a capluvium above this atrium. The photos from both Ultra phones are

close, but notice how the underside of the roof is slightly brighter in the corners and how by

protecting the highlights, the colors in the 2026 Ultra's images are more saturated, like the wood

tones and the green of the tree. In these images of two palm trees from each Ultra, you can see how

protecting the highlights gives the Ultra 26's image a very saturated green look. It did not look

that green in real life, folks. Look closely at the sidewalk and street on the right side of the

images and you see how the details and colors are more pronounced in the 2026 razor. But I also

noticed something strange. If you look more closely at the tops of the trees in the 2026 razor's

image, you'll notice it. They look almost like they were cut out from the background. In fact

I noticed this in many of the photos that I took of trees against a blue sky with the new razor

Sometimes there's almost a halo cutout around the edges of the trees

This image of the Mission Basilica in San Francisco has it the worst

I mean, between the halo cutout around the edges of the trees and the increased saturation that's likely due to the highlights being protected

the results are a very artificial-looking photo. That's not to say that I haven't gotten some truly wonderful images from the new Razer Ultra, and I have

And because of its form factor, it's perfect for those candid moments like this cover screen selfie that I took with CNET's Abrar Alhidi at Google I.O

Then their videos. Look the heavy color saturation from the images is even worse here And if you going to zoom in I wouldn Digital zoom for video on the new Razer Ultra is bad Really bad

The image just falls apart. But let's talk about something more happy

The new battery. So the Razer 2026 Ultra has good battery life

thanks to its silicon carbon battery. Now this is a new type of lithium ion battery

where the negative end is made of silicon and carbon. This gives the battery more capacity, 5,000 milliamp hours compared to 4,700 on last year's model

The good news is that the new Razer Ultra lasts a day and some change on a single charge

And that's great news, but consider that the 2025 Razer Ultra also did when I reviewed it

I think the brighter main screen might be eating up some of the gains of the new battery

But there were times with light use, like on a weekend, where it made it a day and a half before needing a charge, which on a foldable phone is kind of unbelievable

Speaking of charging, the new Razer Ultra is fast. It supports a max 68-watt wired charging speed

And in CNET's 30-minute charging test, it went from empty to 52%, which is good

but last year's Ultra hit 55% and Samsung's Galaxy Z Flip 7 added 59% and that only needed

a 25-watt charger to do so. I should note that to get that top 68-watt charging speed

that your phone plug needs to support turbocharged power delivery. Now, this one that Motorola sent me

costs $60. Now, it's one thing to not include a charger in the box of a $1,500 phone

and another to charge folks an extra $60 to get one that actually lets it hit that speed

And if that hasn't made your eyes cross yet, then the Razer's wireless charging certainly will

See the Razer Ultra supports 30 wireless charging but good luck finding a charger that In fact a Motorola PR told me that the 30 figure represents the device maximum supported capability using

proprietary technology under ideal conditions. But Motorola doesn't sell one, and there aren't

third-party accessories that work with it either. It's like having a car that can go 300 miles an

hour, but you're not able to drive it. All of this comes back down to price. And with that

here are my final thoughts on the Razer Ultra 2026. $1,500. That's $200 more than last year's

Razer Ultra. Now, I thought maybe the price increase had something to do with the ongoing

RAM shortage that's caused by the demand for RAM by AI data centers. That's the reason Samsung

raised the price on its phones earlier this year. But with Motorola, that might not be the case

They told CNET pricing is always subject to change based on market conditions

Higher RAM prices could fall under the term market conditions, but $1,500 is a lot

especially an economy where daily essentials cost more. And $1,500 for a phone, even one that I think is good

And I do think that the Razer Ultra 2026 is the best flip phone that I've tested

$1,500 for it is a lot. But Motorola does have two things going for it

One, it designs pricing to be discounted. So I wouldn't be surprised to see this summer or fall that the price for the Razer Ultra to be discounted $100 or $200 or even $300

The other thing that Motorola does well is it has different price tiers for different Razer models

you can get the baseline razor for 800 you can get the razor plus for 1100 or you can step all

the way up to 1500 and get the big boy the razor ultra but that's all i've got if you like this

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