POCO M6 Pro 5G Review: Democratises 5G for the masses, but with tons of bloatware

The POCO M6 Pro 5G delivers on what it promises – an affordable 5G phone experience with reliable performance and solid battery life. It democratises the technology for the masses, and being the most affordable 5G smartphone in the market, it doesn’t cut too many corners – making it a decent, well-rounded experience. You’ve got a massive battery, a large 90 Hz display, and an eye-catching design. The misses in the camera and charging departments can be forgiven for the overall package the POCO M6 Pro 5G provides. 

The POCO M6 Pro 5G has the title of being the cheapest 5G smartphone in India. Priced at ₹10,999, the POCO M6 Pro narrowly beats out the Redmi 12 5G (review) – which launched recently – to claim this title. Coincidentally (or not), the phone is a replica of the Redmi 12 5G, with the same specifications across the board – barring storage variants and some design elements. One could even call it a rebranded Redmi 12 5G? Rebranded or not, the POCO M6 Pro 5G is already making waves in the Indian market, having sold out its stock merely 15 minutes after the sale went live. Packed with the Snapdragon 4 Gen 2 SoC, a 90 Hz display, and a 5,000 mAh battery, this inexpensive phone seems to be an appealing purchase on paper. But it is actually worth your money? It is the cheapest 5G phone in the market though, which already builds its case – since POCO is democratising 5G technology for the masses. In fact, you can even buy it for just ₹9,999 with a bank offer on select cards. However, let’s find out if you should consider spending your hard-earned bucks on this or not in my detailed review.

POCO M6 Pro 5G Review: Build and design

Sporting a sleek and lightweight design, the POCO M6 Pro 5G is quite an attractive phone for its price. The phone is 8.17 mm thick and weighs only 199 g, but the edges are slightly sharp, so it can get somewhat uncomfortable to hold over long periods. POCO has provided a glass back at this price point, which is extremely rare. It gives the device a premium look and feel – which I really appreciate under ₹10K.

The glass back and the display is Gorilla Glass protected as well. However, the glossy glass back does accumulate a lot of fingerprints and smudge marks. POCO has added a dual-tone design where the camera module has a more frosted glass look while the bottom part is just plain glossy. It is a nice separation and catches the eye immediately. There’s no raised camera module though, so the camera lenses jut out considerably which makes it rock on a flat surface.

The frame is polycarbonate but it sports a subtle metallic sheen – looks real nice for the price. The power and volume buttons feel a bit cheap, they’re just slightly janky. You get a 3.5 mm audio jack and a microSD card slot on this phone but stereo speakers are missing. As for the front, there’s a punch-hole cut out for the selfie camera and considerably thick bezels; especially the chin bezel. Redmi has also added IP53 dust and water resistance which is a nice touch.

POCO M6 Pro 5G Review: Display

Packing a large 6.79-inch IPS LCD display with Full HD+ resolution and 90 Hz refresh rate, the POCO M6 Pro 5G is a good device for content consumption. Everything from YouTube to Netflix to Amazon Prime looked good on this phone. The phone comes with Widevine L1 certification, so you can view HD videos on OTT platforms. The display – at 396 PPI – looks sharp enough for the price, and the colours are nice and vibrant as well even though it may not be the most colour-accurate panel.

The display reached a peak brightness of 410 nits in our tests. Now, while this is decent enough for indoor and outdoor usage in most instances, you may face occasional difficulties viewing the screen under bright sunlight, especially like what we get here in sweltering Mumbai. 

The phone’s 90 Hz refresh rate means that scrolling feels quite smooth. Although not as path-breaking as 120 Hz, this does add a bit of fluidity to the motions compared to a 60 Hz display that is usually standard under ₹10K. The phone doesn’t switch to 90 Hz when scrolling through YouTube or Netflix though. The phone also has 240 Hz touch sampling rate, so the touch responsiveness in games is quite decent. 

POCO M6 Pro 5G Review: Performance

The POCO M6 Pro 5G is powered by the latest Snapdragon 4 Gen 2 SoC fabricated on a 4 nm process. The SoC has proved to be quite powerful in the budget segment and we’ve previously tested it on the Redmi 12 5G as well. The POCO M6 Pro sports up to 6 GB LPDDR4X RAM and up to 128 GB UFS 2.2 storage, which is expandable up to 1 TB. It runs Android 13 with MIUI 14 on top.

Starting off with benchmarks, the POCO M6 Pro 5G threw up impressive results in AnTuTu – beating out the Helio G88 processor on the Realme Narzo N55 and its own predecessor, the Snapdragon 4 Gen 1 on the Redmi Note 12. We saw a significant lead in GeekBench as well. However, the phone scored lower than the Redmi Note 12 in PCMark Work. 

In GPU benchmarks, the phone scored 662 in 3D Mark Wild Life, which sadly didn’t match up to the Helio G88’s performance. The pattern repeated in GFXBench’s Aztec Ruins and Car Chase tests. So, the POCO M6 Pro with its Snapdragon 4 Gen 2 is a great phone for productivity and daily tasks but is not up to par with competition when it comes to gaming.

I played Call of Duty: Mobile and BGMI on this phone, and on Low graphics, I saw little to no frame drops. It is only when I pushed the graphics up to medium that I began to see some frame skips. So, I would say you can definitely game on this phone, but keep your expectations in check – it is not meant to be a monster gaming device. Basic tasks such as SMS, social media, calls, and web browsing are handled with ease and even Sheets and Docs work smoothly.

Moving on to software, MIUI is brimming with customisations, but it is also brimming with bloatware. There are several preinstalled games, a bunch of preinstalled social media apps like LinkedIn, Moj, and Snapchat, and many Xiaomi apps. It is an overwhelmingly crowded experience, so be warned, if you like a clean interface, look elsewhere.

POCO M6 Pro 5G Review: Cameras

Like the Redmi 12 5G, the POCO M6 Pro sports a dual rear camera setup. You get a 50 MP primary camera with an f/1.8 aperture and a 2 MP depth sensor.

Images from the primary lens have good detail but the dynamic range could be better. The highlights are almost always overblown but the shadows have decent detail. Despite these nitpicks, this is one of the better smartphone cameras on the market at this price range. Here are some camera samples, but note that they've been compressed for the web:

Portrait images have good bokeh – maybe a touch too aggressive – but you can adjust the levels are clicking the picture. Edge detection is mediocre, the cutout isn’t always very accurate. Selfies look decent from the 8 MP camera, the skin tone is surprisingly natural but the detail is quite soft.

There’s support for 1080p at 30 fps video from the front and rear cameras, and the video footage is nothing spectacular. It works in daylight, but low-light results are grainy and noisy.

POCO M6 Pro 5G Review: Battery life

Equipped with a 5,000 mAh battery, the POCO M6 Pro has impressive battery life. I consistently saw the phone lasting for 1-2 days with ease. The phone has a screen-on time of about 6-7 hours. In my tests, it lost about 8 per cent battery when running Google Maps for an hour and just 4 per cent battery when playing Call of Duty: Mobile for 15 minutes.

The 18 W charging speeds are quite slow though, by 2023 standards. The retail box comes with a 22.5 W charging brick, but the charging wattage maxes out at 18 W. The POCO M6 Pro took a good 1 hour and 57 minutes to go from empty to full battery, which is excruciatingly slow. 

POCO M6 Pro 5G Review: Verdict

The POCO M6 Pro 5G delivers on what it promises – an affordable 5G phone experience with reliable performance and solid battery life. It democratises the technology for the masses, and being the most affordable 5G smartphone in the market, it doesn’t cut too many corners – making it a decent, well-rounded experience. You’ve got a massive battery, a large 90 Hz display, and an eye-catching design. The misses in the camera and charging departments can be forgiven for the overall package the POCO M6 Pro 5G provides. It gets a definite thumbs-up from me for someone looking for a capable 5G smartphone that won’t break the bank!

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Samsung Galaxy Z Fold5 Review: Incremental upgrade but still the foldable to beat

The Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 5 is the best foldable of its type out there – yes, despite the minuscule incremental improvements. The foldable formula Samsung has carried through the years is getting refined and polished with every iteration, so much so that this is the absolute best and most versatile folding software experience you can get your hands on. Add to that, blazing-fast performance, impressive battery life, and good cameras – you’ve got yourselves the best foldable in 2023. However, Samsung cannot keep teetering the edge with incremental upgrades since there are too many OEMs out there that are improving by leaps and bounds every year – coming very close to snatching that ‘Best Foldable’ crown.

It’s that time of the year again when the most celebrated foldable smartphones’ next iterations hit the global market! The Samsung Galaxy Z Fold5 and Samsung Galaxy Z Flip5 recently launched in Seoul, South Korea to much fanfare, and I was there to witness the unveiling. While the Z Flip5 definitely got the most love in terms of new aesthetics and features, the Z Fold5 also saw some incremental improvements. Upgrades include a smaller and lighter chassis that folds flat due to a redesigned hinge, the latest processor, a brighter display, and a couple of other refinements. The foldable smartphone market, however, is not as barren as it used to be. Competition from the likes of OPPO, Huawei, Tecno, Honor, and even Google means that Samsung can no longer be complacent if they’re to win the foldable race. So, is the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold5 still the foldable to beat in 2023 and is Samsung playing it too safe? Does it justify its ₹1,54,999 and $1800 price tag in India and globally, respectively? I spent just over a week testing the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 5 and here’s what I found out.

Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 5 Review: Build and Design

At first glance, the Galaxy Z Fold5 is nearly indistinguishable from its predecessor. It is only when you hold these devices side by side, you will notice a couple of meaningful changes. The Samsung Galaxy Z Fold5 is thinner and lighter than the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 4 (review). The thickness is down to 13.4 mm (folded) as compared to 15.8 mm on the Z Fold4 and the weight is down to 253 g – that’s 10 g lighter than its predecessor. While these may seem like small numbers, they do add up, especially when you daily drive the device since you’re able to comfortably wield the phone for much longer.

Dimensions and weight aside, the Galaxy Z Fold 5 also packs a re-engineered hinge design, dubbed ‘Flex Hinge’, that allows the foldable to finally fold completely flat. The two halves of the foldable display sit flush against each other, so there’s no gap down the middle of the phone that gathers dust. This definitely feels like the most polished iteration of Samsung’s prized foldable because of how refined the design feels. It’s also much easier to carry around and more pocketable than ever before. The crease is still visible though, no tangible improvements there. There’s also a lot of wobble when the phone is kept flat on a surface because of the camera module that juts out considerably.

New 'Flex Hinge' technology in action on the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 5

The hinge is smooth, silent and opens at various angles. There’s no creaking at all, which gives it a very premium feel. The chassis of the phone uses Samsung’s Armor Aluminium that’s not as scratch and dent-resistant as stainless steel, but it does the job. The cover screen still has a really tall aspect ratio that doesn’t lend itself well to typing – especially if you have stubby fingers – so I really hope Samsung makes a significant change in the aspect ratio of the cover display next generation since cheaper phones such as the Tecno Phantom V Fold (review) have a more palatable cover screen aspect ratio.

The phone is available in several colourways – Cream, Phantom Black, and Icy Blue are generally available while the Blue and Gray models are available on Samsung’s website. I got the Icy Blue variant for review and this pastel blue shade is by far my favourite out of the lot. The phone’s cover display and rear panel are protected by Gorilla Glass Victus 2. The phone is also IPX8 water-resistant. Samsung’s high-quality engineering and build quality shine through with this one – my only gripe is the cover display that honestly should have gotten at least slightly wider by the 5th iteration of this foldable. 

Slim S Pen Case on the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 5 – comes with an S Pen stylus

Oh, and another tiny gripe – there’s still no S Pen included. The Z Fold5 does support the S Pen but it does not come in the retail box or inside the foldable’s body. There is an S Pen cover on the Samsung website for the Z Fold5 but it will cost you around ₹8K.

Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 5 Review: Display

The displays on the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold5 have the same size and aspect ratio as their predecessor – you’ve got a 6.2-inch cover display with a 23.1:9 aspect ratio and an inner 7.6-inch folding display with a 21.6:18 aspect ratio. Both displays are Dynamic AMOLED 2X panels with 120 Hz refresh rate and HDR10+ certification. The inner display has a 1812 x 2176 pixels resolution while the cover screen has a 904 x 2316 pixels resolution.

The clarity and colour reproduction of both displays is top-notch. The visuals look absolutely stunning, HDR content looks punchy and vibrant, and the inner display is an absolute unit with great immersive qualities. The bezel size is the same as last year; no improvements here, and of course, the cover display’s aspect ratio is too narrow still. 

One significant improvement this time around is that the main display is now brighter at 1,750 nits of rated peak brightness. Using a lux meter, I measured a maximum brightness of 1,512 nits on Auto-Brightness Mode under direct sunlight. So, you needn’t worry about whether the display will be readable in bright daylight. The outer display has fantastic viewing angles, but the inner one’s viewing angles are mediocre due to the plastic non-removable screen protection film.

Head on, the display looks great. This is one of the best content consumption experiences you can get on a smartphone. Gaming is also a great experience, especially if you are a claw player in FPS games such as BGMI or Call of Duty: Mobile. The crease is still visible but when you’re watching content head-on, you will not notice it too much unless you really look for it. Overall, the Fold5 has some of the most gorgeous displays on foldables devices in the market; this time brighter than ever before.

Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 5 Review: Performance

The Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 5 and Z Flip 5 sport the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 for Galaxy chipset; the very same one found in the Galaxy S23 series. You’ve got 12 GB LPDDR5X RAM and up to 1 TB UFS 4.0 storage. I got the base 256 GB version for review. The SD 8 Gen 2 for Galaxy chipset is created using TSMC’s 4 nm fabrication process and to put it simply, it is an overclocked Snapdragon 8 Gen 2. The primary core comes with an increased clock speed of 3.36 GHz and the GPU sees an increase of 680 MHz to 719 MHz. This is a substantial enough uptick from last year’s Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 SoC that was used in the Z Fold4. 

Benchmarks confirm this as well. The Samsung Galaxy Z Fold5 got a whopping 1.5+ million score on AnTuTu which obliterates the Z Fold4’s 937,628 score. In fact, this is the highest AnTuTu score we’ve ever gotten on a phone we’ve tested in the Digit Test Labs! The Galaxy Z Fold5 beats out all competitors including the Motorola Razr 40 Ultra (review), Vivo X90 Pro (review), Xiaomi 13 Pro (review), iQOO 11 (review), iPhone 14 Pro Max (review), and even its own S23 series brethren. 

The story repeats itself in GeekBench and PCMark Work demonstrating the sheer power of the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 5. The iPhone 14 Pro Max only surpassed it by a tiny margin in the GeekBench Multi-Core test. I then turned towards benchmarking this capable foldable’s GPU and the results impressed me, yet again. In 3D Mark Wild Life Extreme, the Z Fold5 got the best score out of all phones we’ve tested. GFXBench also saw the Z Fold5 output some of the highest scores to date!

Benchmarks don’t always tell the full story, but in this case, they do. This is one of the smoothest experiences I’ve had on a foldable. The Fold 5 breezes through daily tasks, intensive games, and multitasking without breaking a sweat. The experience is lag-free and seamless; animations are silky smooth across the board – it’s just a wonderfully powerful experience. The only place where I saw it heat a bit was clicking photos and shooting 4K/8K video – but it never got too hot to the touch. So, if you’re a power user with demands for an abundance of speed, the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold5 is not just the fastest foldable, but one of the fastest phones altogether!

Gaming is a great experience as well; especially on the massive 7.6-inch display. I played games such as Call of Duty: Mobile, Asphalt 9 Legends, and Genshin Impact; all of which ran buttery smooth at maximum or close to maximum graphics. There were no instances of lag or frame drops in COD: Mobile and Asphalt 9, and I only felt a small lag spike in Genshin Impact after 30 minutes of continuous gaming. Fantastic stuff!

I even ran the CPU Throttling Test on the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 5 to see its performance under sustained workloads and it did pretty well. The phone throttled to 77 per cent of its peak performance after 30 minutes, which meets expectations. Overall, if performance is your concern, the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold5 will not disappoint.

Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 5 Review: Software and UI

The Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 5 comes with the latest One UI 5.1.1 which runs on top of Android 13. Samsung also promises 4 years of OS updates and 5 years of security updates, beating Google at its own game since the latest Pixel phones get only 3 years of OS updates. One UI 5.1.1 brings some small improvements to multitasking such as quick switching pop-up screens to split screen view, an improved taskbar with 4 recently used apps, Flex Mode panel support in more apps, and others.

It isn’t these new features that alone make the Samsung foldable UI the best in the business. Rather it is the culmination of all of the features present – old and new – that have been perfected over the years. Things just work here. Multiple apps utilise the folding mechanism with Flex Mode, and it just makes sense. For instance, when slightly folded, the camera app goes from a full-screen viewfinder to a half-and-half screen where one side has the viewfinder, and the other shows your recently snapped pictures. 

The transition from the cover screen to the full screen is also perfect, with apps picking right up from where you left them on the cover screen. Folding it close will lock the phone and close the app which annoys some, but I think it is the right implementation since you would flip the phone close generally when you’re done using it.

You also get new multitasking gestures where using two fingers to swipe an app from any side will open up split-screen view and dragging the app from any corner will convert it into a pop-up window of a size of your choosing. Simple, sweet, and convenient. Do remember that these gestures are turned off by default and you would have to go into Advanced Features in Settings to turn them on. 

Also, if you’re deep in the Samsung ecosystem, Multi Control allows you to use a keyboard and mouse across your connected devices. So, you can easily use the mouse to pick up an image from your phone and drop it onto your tablet! And of course, you’ve got Samsung’s handy Dex mode around as well!

Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 5 Review: Cameras

The Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 5 packs the same camera hardware as its predecessor, which came as a disappointment to many. While the Z Fold 4 packed huge camera upgrades over its predecessor, the lack of any improvements in terms of optics is almost unacceptable at this price point in 2023. Don’t get me wrong, the cameras are well-tuned and refined over the years, but an upgrade or two in a phone with 5 cameras isn’t asking for too much from a ₹1,54,999 phone. It does come with an upgraded processor and ISP (Image Signal Processor) though, so let’s see how much of a difference it makes.

Let’s talk about the cameras. You’ve got a 50 MP primary shooter with Optical Image Stabilisation and Dual Pixel PDAF, there’s a 12 MP ultrawide camera, and a 10 MP telephoto shooter with OIS and 3x optical zoom support. The inner display has an under-display 4 MP selfie camera – and because it lies under a bunch of pixels, the results look like they’ve come straight out of a 2016-2018 selfie camera. Just avoid using it altogether for selfies. Instead, use the 10 MP selfie shooter on the cover screen, or better yet, the primary camera with the cover screen as a viewfinder.

Using the primary camera for selfies, you’re going to get some of the most crisp shots – with excellent detail retention, fantastic low-light performance, and good colour. 

Now, let’s speak about the primary camera in general. Photos taken from this camera look great in daylight – impressive dynamic range, vibrant and saturated colours (typical of Samsung devices), and great detail retention. Portraits have fantastic edge detection and good clarity as well. The 12 MP ultrawide camera loses out on some dynamic range but has minimal barrel distortion. Here are some image samples; note that they've been compressed for the web:

 

Shots from the telephoto lens also look amazing, and the colour profile mimics the primary shooter which is always a great thing to see. The pictures look very similar to the ones taken from the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 4, with a bit of extra sharpness in low-light shots.

Speaking of low-light optics, it’s a bit of a hit or miss. Detail and sharpness are good, colours look natural, but there’s quite a lot of haloing around objects and general lens flare in low light. It’s not just a one-off, I experienced this in almost every picture I took in low light. Additionally, the lens tends to capture soft shots of moving subjects in low light.

Lens flare issue from the primary camera of the Galaxy Z Fold 5 in low-light

Overall, these are some of the best cameras on a foldable today, but they’re not perfect. And if the Google Pixel Fold shows up in India, the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold5 could lag behind considerably in terms of optics.

Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 5 Review: Battery Life 

The battery capacity of the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 5 remains unchanged. You get a 4,400 mAh battery but the uptick we saw in battery life was quite substantial. This must be due to improved efficiency because of the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 chipset. The Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 5 easily lasts for a day without needing a top-up. In fact, after a day consisting of benchmarking, clicking photos, editing pictures, watching videos, and browsing social media, the phone still had a good 22 per cent battery left by 10 PM.

In our 4K video loop test, the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold5 lasted a whopping 19 hours and 6 minutes. That’s almost 3 hours more than the Galaxy Z Fold4 lasted in the same test. So, expect superb battery life that should keep you coasting for long enough without picking up the charger.

A charger you’d have to likely spend extra for because you don’t get one in the retail box *sigh*. The Z Fold 5 supports 25 W wired charging, which is laboriously slow in 2023. The phone took 1 hour and 18 minutes to charge from empty to full, which doesn’t compete with flagship phones from Xiaomi, OnePlus, and Vivo. You do get 15 W wireless charging support as well, which is a good thing. Also, there’s 4.5 W reverse wireless charging which is handy to top off TWS earbuds with wireless charging support. 

Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 5 Review: Verdict

The Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 5 is the best foldable of its type out there – yes, despite the minuscule incremental improvements. The foldable formula Samsung has carried through the years is getting refined and polished with every iteration, so much so that this is the absolute best and most versatile folding software experience you can get your hands on. Add to that, blazing-fast performance, impressive battery life, and good cameras – you’ve got yourselves the best foldable in 2023. However, Samsung cannot keep teetering the edge with incremental upgrades since there are too many OEMs out there that are improving by leaps and bounds every year – coming very close to snatching that ‘Best Foldable’ crown. They cannot get away with slow charging, the hard-to-use cover screen aspect ratio, and inconsistent low-light camera performance for too long, so I do hope the next Z Fold out of the South Korean giant is something truly revolutionary.

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Moto razr 40 Ultra Review: Doing the outer display right

So the Moto Razr 40 Ultra is, hands down, one of the best flip phones out there. I absolutely love how Motorola has done the outer display and this is an implementation that actually will make people flip open their smartphones much less, resulting in better longevity. But then again, if we are talking about longevity, Motorola doesn’t give you the most amount of software updates but at least your phone will last enough to see all the updates.

So Moto Razr is a name all of us resonate with flip phones. The company Motorola has been the champion of flip phones even before the smartphone era, with the famous Moto Razr flip phone that was all the rage back in the 2000s. Now, in the more recent times, the company has tried to go back to its roots with the influx of foldable displays in the last three or four years, bringing back the iconic “Razr” name in a more futuristic shape and form.

This year, the Moto Razr series seems to be more refined than ever, riding largely on the incremental leap we have seen in flip smartphones this year with the larger outer displays that do a lot more. Among this influx of the bigger outer displays, the Moto Razr 40 Ultra has the biggest 3.6-inch AMOLED display that does pretty much everything you can do on a smartphone. But does having a huge outer display make the Moto Razr 40 Ultra the best flip phone out there? Let’s find out in this review:

MOTO RAZR 40 ULTRA: DESIGN

So design is where the Flip form factor trumps the more traditional glass slab smartphones, and every flip phone so far has been more of a style statement than a gadget so far. However, there are moving parts and that isn’t always good in terms of the design. But we will get to functionality later, first let’s just talk about how the Moto Razr 40 Ultra looks and what we like about the smartphone.

The first thing that catches your attention is the front or outer display, which is a 3.6-inch AMOLED panel with a hole-punch implementation that houses the two primary cameras, along with the LED flash. From the front, the smartphone looks very futuristic. We only see a display with the cutouts for the camera, which looks nice. At the back, we get two options - glass back for the black colour and vegan leather for the red colour. The back is plain, we don’t get much there, but the smartphone looks and feels super premium in the leather back panel. The glass back also feels very nice and premium, but I’m more of a leather back person.

Once we flip the screen open, we get a nice 6.9-inch AMOLED display with a rather tall aspect ratio, which makes the smartphone quite unusable with one hand. Here also, the front camera is placed in the middle and we get a nice curved metal frame on all sides.

One thing I didn’t like about the Moto Razr 40 Ultra is that the smartphone doesn’t open completely flat. When we open the smartphone, it appears a bit bent, which is a bit of a bummer. And if you were wondering, the crease is prominent and you will notice it at first. Over time, we’ll know if this turns into an air bubble, but for now, the hinge has been designed in a way that won’t let dust in. The power button and the volume rockers are placed on the right side of the frame, with the fingerprint sensor integrated into the power button itself. The hinge is good, and Motorola has been able to close the gap between the two flaps so that is good. However, I didn’t find the hinge to be very smooth, since the opening and closing of the smartphone isn’t very smooth and there are two major stops, one around halfway, and one on final stop, where the smartphone opens completely. While I was using the Moto Razr 40 Ultra on its own, this seemed fine, but the moment I got my hands on the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 5, I understood how good this could have been. Even when closed, the Moto Razr 40 Ultra’s flaps have a bit of a play and move around just a little, so that’s not great.

Overall, this is a very futuristic design from Motorola. It looks and feels super premium in your hands, and the outer display implementation is very futuristic with the full-screen display. I’m not very impressed with the hinge and the opening and closing isn’t as smooth as I first thought, but there is no gap between the two parts of the fold, so that is good.

MOTO RAZR 40 ULTRA: DISPLAY(s)

Coming to the displays, first let’s talk about the outer display. This is the first time we are seeing this big a display on a flip smartphone. We get a very crisp 3.6-inch AMOLED display with a 144Hz refresh rate, something we don’t even see on flagships these days. This display is also bright enough to be used in all kinds of bright conditions and very nice in terms of sharpness. We weren’t able to measure the colour accuracy and the brightness on this display, but it seemed brilliant for a secondary display. Plus, you can do a lot on this display, so that is something that made me just fall in love with this outer display (more on this, later).

Coming to the main display, let’s first get the biggest concern out of the way. Yes, the crease is prominent enough that you will see and feel it very well. Outside of that, the Moto Razr 40 Ultra has a nice flexible AMOLED display with an FHD+ resolution and a gaming PC-level 165Hz refresh rate with LTPO. This is one of the highest refresh rate on any smartphone, and the result is an ultra smooth scrolling and browsing experience! Like this display feels as smooth as it gets, and I absolutely loved swiping my way through this screen, just the crease got in the way quite a lot.

The main display on the Moto Razr 40 Ultra, however, has a very tall aspect ratio, which not only makes the smartphone unusable with one hand, it also brings black borders around the display during gaming or watching videos.

 

In terms of brightness also, this display is very good, but not the best. Using a Lux Meter, I tested the maximum luminance on the Moto Razr 40 Ultra to be 773 nits, and the minimum on a plain white screen came out to be 4 nits. This is good, but we get similar or better results in some mid-rangers of today, let alone flagships.

MOTO RAZR 40 ULTRA: PERFORMANCE

Performance and software is where the Moto Razr 40 Ultra impresses me the most. Now, the smartphone isn’t bleeding edge by today’s standards. We get a generation-old Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 chipset with 8GB of RAM, which sounds a bit less for a flagship of 2023. However, the smartphone does everything as well and as smoothly as any other flagship out there. Now, the focus here isn’t performance but to offer the best flip or premium experience out there and to offer that, these specifications are more than enough.

For the sake of numbers, the smartphone put out a score of 1068229 points on AnTuTu. On Geekbench, the smartphone was able to put out a score of 1774 in the single core test and a score of 4405 in the multi core test. In other CPU benchmarks like Mobile XPRT 3 and PCMark Work, the Moto Razr 40 Ultra was right up there with its competition, and even beat the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 5, which comes with a newer Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 chip, in the PC Mark Work test.

In GPU-based benchmarks also, the Moto Razr 40 Ultra performed very well. The smartphone was able to hold its own in the gaming and performance department, and showed us very good results when it comes to pushing frames and running heavy games or tests.

Now, we do CPU and GPU tests in every review and here, we are also going to focus on the software. Because for a flip smartphone to work, or for a foldable form factor, most of the experience is made or broken by the software experience. Here, we get a very good close-to-stock Android experience with Motorola’s My UX Android skin so that is great. I am more of a stock Android person, so having no bloatware or unnecessary permissions and pop-ups work well for me. But while we are at software, I would first like to mention how well Motorola has done the outer display. The smartphone’s 3.6-inch cover display can pretty much do anything. We get several screens to scroll through all the widgets, apps, games, the dialer, and other stuff. We get special apps and widgets for Spotify and Google Maps, which function absolutely smoothly. Further, there is an app menu or an app drawer right in the outer display. Here, by default we get only a few apps on the screen, but there is an option in the settings to pretty much bring every app to this drawer. 

There are a few apps that are not supported on this small display and for those apps that do run on it, compatibility is an issue since these apps are made for big screens or a normal smartphone screen. Nevertheless, just the ability to allow all apps and notifications on this display makes the Moto Razr 40 Ultra a very tempting option to buy, since this kind of software implementation is what will make people open or unfold their smartphones more. During my testing, I was even able to run benchmark tests on this 3.6-inch display and even played heavy duty games like Call of Duty Mobile and the likes. 

In GPU benchmarks, the outer display was able to put out more than the main display since of course, it is a smaller screen and there are less frames to push. Impressive stuff.

MOTO RAZR 40 ULTRA: BATTERY

Coming to the battery, here also the Moto Razr 40 Ultra doesn’t seem as impressive on paper. We get a 3,800mAh battery with support for 33W fast charging. Now, for someone in the Android flagship space, those numbers will seem miniscule as against the 5000 or 6,000mAh batteries we have seen on flagships. However, since this is a different form factor and with the tight space, the company was still able to fit a bigger battery as compared to the last generation.

The battery backup is good. The Moto Razr 40 Ultra lasted a good 742 minutes in our video loop test, which is more than 12 hours and 20 minutes. That is superb backup for only a 3,800mAh battery and on a flip smartphone. While playing Call of Duty Mobile, the smartphone only lost 6 percent of the battery. Further, one hour of GPS navigation made the smartphone lose about 8-9 percent of the Moto Razr 40 Ultra’s battery, and 30 minutes of streaming a video on YouTube on the highest-possible resolution drained only 4 percent of the battery. As we saw, the battery backup on the Moto Razr 40 Ultra is very good, despite a rather small battery on paper. The charging is also just okay. The 33W fast charger took more than an hour to charge the smartphone fully. From 0 to 100 percent, the Moto Razr 40 Ultra took just over 64 minutes, which is decent.

MOTO RAZR 40 ULTRA: CAMERA

In terms of camera, we get a dual rear camera setup on the Moto Razr 40 Ultra that includes a primary 12-megapixel shooter and a 13-megapixel ultra-wide angle lens. The camera performance out of these is very good. The camera is another example of the Moto Razr 40 Ultra not being too impressive but still taking on competitors with much more bulk. The camera performance on this smartphone is very good. I like the colour representation on photo clicked with the main sensor. There is no pixel binning here, so the images are mostly accurate and final results are consistent with what we see in the viewfinder, so that is good.

The photos are a bit towards the saturated side in terms of colour, but the details are brilliant. The dynamic range is also pretty good and I was able to take some very good scenic shots with this camera. Even in low light, the Moto Razr 40 Ultra’s camera performs well, but it’s nothing extraordinary. 

The portraits are also nice, but I didn’t find anything great. Like this smartphone does edge detection and background blur well but usually, flagships make me want to click more and more single subject images in portrait. And with the Moto Razr 40 Ultra, not once did I prefer using portrait mode over the normal photo mode.

MOTO RAZR 40 ULTRA: VERDICT

So the Moto Razr 40 Ultra is, hands down, one of the best flip phones out there. I absolutely love how Motorola has done the outer display and this is an implementation that actually will make people flip open their smartphones much less, resulting in better longevity. But then again, if we are talking about longevity, Motorola doesn’t give you the most amount of software updates but at least your phone will last enough to see all the updates.

Yes, there are rough edges here and there, like the hinge isn’t as sturdy or smooth as the newer and more expensive Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 5. I don’t like the fact that there are two major stops and that it is super difficult to open with just one hand. Furthermore, there is a bit of a play or wobble when the smartphone is closed so that fit and finish could have been better.

Overall, however, this smartphone does what you want it to do, and does it well. Yes, as a complete phone the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 5 could be better, but the outer display is the Moto Razr 40 Ultra’s main attraction. If we think of it, in the early days of touchscreen smartphones, a smartphone’s main display was this big, with now the secondary displays being bigger. And with the Moto Razr 40 Ultra, you can actually do as much as your smartphone in the early days did.

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