Motorola Razr 40, Razr 40 Ultra First Impressions: Upping the Ante?

The Motorola Razr 40 series is here to spice up the foldable smartphone market in India, which is currently dominated by Samsung. The Lenovo-owned smartphone company has launched two new foldables, the Motorola Razr 40 and Motorola Razr 40 Ultra. The Razr 40 Ultra packs top-of-the-line hardware, some segment-leading features, and is priced competitively at Rs. 89,999. The Razr 40 on the other hand is an affordable version of the Ultra and comes with an equally aggressive price of Rs. 59,999. At the India launch event, we got to spend some time with the new foldable phones, and here are our first impressions.

Starting with the Motorola Razr 40 Ultra, the device certainly makes a statement with its massive cover display that we have never seen before on a clamshell-style foldable phone. Ironically, the cover display is more of a talking point, in my opinion, than the foldable display itself.

The outer screen on the Razr 40 Ultra is a 3.6-inch 144Hz pOLED display which can be used to perform almost any routine tasks that you would do on the larger inner display. Fun fact, the Razr 40 Ultra's cover display is bigger than the first iPhone which came out back in 2007 (different aspect ratio of course).

Motorola Razr 40 Ultra has the biggest cover display on any clamshell-style foldable phone yet

The Razr 40 Ultra gets a 12-megapixel primary camera with an f/1.5 aperture and support for optical image stabilisation (OIS). It also has a 13-megapixel ultra-wide camera with an f/2.2 aperture and a 108-degree field of view.

On the inside, there is a tall 6.9-inch 165Hz pOLED foldable display with a tiny hole-punch cutout at the top-centre for the 32-megapixel camera. While we are yet to test the cameras in detail, I think for selfies, the outer cameras coupled with the massive cover display as a viewfinder could well be a better choice, compared to the inner camera.

Both Motorola Razr 40 series phones have 6.9-inch foldable display

The Razr 40 Ultra has a Qualcomm Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 SoC and has been launched in India with 12GB of RAM along with 256GB of UFS 3.1 storage. The phone also packs a sizeable 3,800mAh battery with 30W wired fast charging and a modest 5W wireless charging support.

All this hardware is packed in a body which consists of a metal frame and a vegan leather back panel. The phone also gets an IP52 certification for water and dust resistance.

Coming to the more affordable Motorola Razr 40, it too has the same foldable display as its premium sibling but with a refresh rate of 144Hz. It also gets a smaller 1.5-inch AMOLED cover screen with a 194x368-pixel resolution, which seems good enough to check basic notifications and the time.

Motorola Razr 40 has a tiny 1.5-inch outer display

The phone has a vegan leather back and a metal frame. It also features a dual-camera setup with a 64-megapixel primary camera and a 13-megapixel ultra-wide camera. There is a 32-megapixel front camera inside the cutout of the foldable display. The Razr 40 features a Qualcomm Snapdragon 7 Gen 1 SoC and a 4,200mAh battery. The device supports 30W fast charging.

Both Motorola foldable phones run on the latest Android 13-based MyUX out of the box. Should you consider buying the Razr 40 or its sibling, the Razr 40 Ultra? Stay tuned for our reviews of both smartphones, which will be up very soon on Gadgets 360.