Motorola Razr 50 Ultra/Razr 50: Australian Pricing, Specifications, Availability and Early Thoughts

Motorola’s got a pair of new flip phones with the Razr 50 Ultra set to land on our shores in July… and the Razr 50 coming a little later.

Overnight, Motorola announced what are effectively its refreshes for the Motorola Razr 40 and Motorola Razr 40 Ultra in the form of the Motorola Razr 50 and Motorola Razr 50 Ultra.

Where do they come up with these innovative new names?

Hmm. Branding snark aside, there’s some interesting upgrades at play here.

How much do the Motorola Razr 50 Ultra and Razr 50 cost in Australia?

The Razr 50 Ultra will retail in Australia for $1,699 outright. As yet there’s no word on telco availability under contract, though this has been relatively rare for Motorola handsets in the recent past.

The lower spec Razr 50 will be coming to Australia “in the coming months” according to Motorola, but that means there’s no announced pricing as yet. US list pricing sits at $US700, which equates to around $1050 AUD at the time of writing.

Though if I was a gambling man, I’d suspect it might hit here at the same price point as the Motorola Razr 40 it’s replacing – which means it may cost $999. Here’s hoping…

When can I buy the Motorola Razr 50 Ultra and Razr 50 in Australia?

The Motorola Razr 50 Ultra will go on pre-order from the 2nd of July 2024, with actual availability from the 17th of July. Pre-orders will score a complimentary set of Motorola Moto Buds+, valued at $249 via redemption.

Fun fact: We’ll see it a full week before the reported on-sale date for its US equivalent (where it’s known as the Razr+), where it’s available from the 24th of July 2024.

While the Motorola Razr 50 is going on sale in some other markets, such as the UK relatively soon, all I’m told by Motorola Australia is that it will be available in Australia “in the coming months”. So… by the end of the year at the latest, but they’re not saying.

Motorola Razr 50 Ultra and Razr 50:
Alex’s Early Thoughts

For the most part, these do look like rather predictable – but quite welcome – upgrades to the Razr 40 lines. Bigger screens, faster processors and Android updates are always welcome.

I really did rather like the Motorola Razr 40 Ultra, and the Razr 40 presented pretty good value for those wanting a folding phone below $1,000 last year.

Motorola’s also making a lot of noise around having Google Gemini on board and accessible from the external display, but realistically we can expect just about every flagship phone – and probably more than a few mid-range phones – to include Gemini as standard from now on.

There are some interesting choices here, however. Compared to its prior generation, the higher tier model drops ultra-wide in favour of a telephoto camera, which I think I like (without having tested it, to be clear), but I can see some folks missing out on their panoramic shot capability. Mind you, it’s still present in the regular and presumably-cheaper-whenever-it-arrives model, if it matters to you.

On the protection front, you will get a protective case in the box, colour matched to the phone you choose, but like most folding protective cases, this appears to be a thin skeleton type case, basically a bumper to somewhat protect the sides.

Speaking of protection, it’s interesting to see both phones officially rated at IPX8; the Razr 40 Ultra and Razr 40 are IP52 rated, so Motorola’s basically taking a “copy Samsung’s homework” approach here, opting for better water resistance at the cost of rated dust ingress at all. I’m not 100% convinced that’s an upgrade based on how most folks use their phones.

Not clear what all those IP numbers mean? Here's my full guide to why your "waterproof" phone isn't quite as "waterproof" as you might think it is.

The chosen colours are pretty, though it’s worth noting there is one colour – Hot Pink – that won’t officially see release on Australian shores.

If you’re super keen on Hot Pink, you could always import, but you’d want to carefully check specifications, as the version sold in some markets comes with 8GB of RAM where the official Australian stock, as per Motorola Australia’s specifications page has 12GB of RAM.

Of course, Motorola won't have all the folding attention for long, with Samsung officially announcing that it's holding one of its "Galaxy Unpacked" events on the 10th of July, where it's expected that we'll see the Galaxy Z Flip 6 and Galaxy Z Fold 6 announced to take on Motorola's latest folding efforts.

I’ve asked Motorola Australia for a review sample, so stay tuned for a full review.

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