I spent at least two or three years begging Motorola to bring a telecommunications sensor to its renewed Razr series. I felt that I spent long enough complaining about the zoom functions (or the lack of them) on the flip phones to the fact that a dedicated sensor was the only way ahead. Then listened to Motorola. It loaded Razr Plus (2024) With a 2x optical sensor for super zoom up to 30 times. One second I had everything I wanted. Then I realized that the grass was not greener.
Although the image quality from the Tele sensor was fine, I did not use it almost enough to justify the presence over an Ultrawide camera. After all, a skilled primary sensor can handle zoom well enough for most use cases, and Razr Plus already had it. So now that the brand new Razr Ultra returns to the proven and ultra-connection, I know that is the right conversation-here is the reason.
It is easier to zoom in than to zoom out
Ryan Haines / Android Authority
One thing I have learned from undergoing dozens of smartphones year after year is that I am a creature of habit. As much as I might love it when a phone is launched with incredible zoom capacity – even up to 100x room zoom of Galaxy S25 Ultra – I probably don’t want to use it very often. Yes, it’s nice to have the option, but the cute place of image quality is still somewhere between 1x zoom and 10x zoom, and that’s where I want to spend 95% of my time undergoing a phone.
But when Motorola added an Optical 2x Tele sensor to Razr Plus (2024), I thought it gave me everything I wanted in a Camera. I thought I was going to put the streets of Brooklyn during the launch event and then bounced around Baltimore when I got home, and caught nicely zoomed pictures that I hadn’t been able to do before. In a few situations, I was right – the zoom was quite decent for big things like buildings.
I thought I would have a Tele sensor on Razr Plus until the moment I got one.
But when I wanted the finer details of a pitching duel on the home plate of Camden Yards, I felt that even 30x super zoom left something to be wanted. Razr Plus’s zoom lens put on all the character and sharpness of an oil painting as soon as I hit 20x zoom, and I think I’ve only shared one picture taken on that length because I had to include one for my review. I have taken more than one photo, including one or two of Paris Hilton at Motorola’s launch event, but the quality never felt good enough to post.
On top of that, I longed for Ultrawide Sensor’s flexibility much faster than I expected. While a good primary sensor can usually turn in for a decent – or at least navigable – zoom, there is no way to fit more into your shot. Although I was surrounded by beautiful murals and hand -painted ads in the streets of Brooklyn, I couldn’t catch them in a single shot because I couldn’t move my feet far enough back.
Motorola had given me my cake, and now I was a brat at my own birthday party because I refused to eat it.
Razr Ultra has some more tricks up sleeve
Ryan Haines / Android Authority
Fast forward a year and it’s time for the next generation Motorola Razr devices. Based on the leaks that led to the event, I did not expect much. I expected the new couple Razrs to look like their predecessors – and I was right. On paper, Razr (2025) and Razr Plus (2025) are almost identical to the Flip phones that came before. However, Motorola had a surprise to us: the Razr ultra.
Everything about Razr Ultra is, well, ultra. It packs the most powerful chipset in Qualcomms Snapdragon 8 eliteThe largest battery on a FLIP phone of 4,700 mAh, and the fastest charging at 68W wired speeds. It is even the first flip phone to be sent with Corning Gorilla Glass Ceramic that protects the 4-inch cover screen. But for me, Motorola’s most exciting change was to turn courses on the Razr Plus cameras and return to a pairing that has been working for years.
Moto AI is perhaps the camera trick that the Razr series has needed all the time.
Only Motorola did not return to exactly the same duo as it had used before. Instead, it found a pretty sweet midfield by combining Sony’s stacked Lytia 700C sensor capable of up to 30x Super Zoom with a 50MP Ultrawide sensor with a 122-degree field of view. So if everything goes according to plan, the new primary sensor should be more than capable of covering my beloved 1x to 10x zoom area, while the high resolution ultrawide sensor covers the situations when I need a little more in my shot.
And with Motorola finally embrace Ai With open arms, Razr Ultra’s Duo will feel even more skilled than before. It is set to get new shooting mode such as group shoots, action shots and signature style, which learns to refine the color and tone of your shots over time to match your taste. I also hope that Motorola’s use of AI extends to image processing, which may – just maybe – make me trust a primary camera up to 30 times zoom.
If all is going well, maybe I will even start beating the idea of pairing an ultra -camera with a telecommunication sensor to skip 1x zoom completely.