It has been roughly a 12 months since Motorola launched the Razr 2025 sequence and its flagship Razr Extremely 2025. It is simply Motorola’s finest and hottest flagship cellphone so far, sporting a refined design and specs that may make even the Galaxy S25 Extremely jealous. Nonetheless, with a brand new Razr Extremely mannequin seemingly on the horizon, I am wanting again at my expertise with the Razr Extremely 2025 and my largest takeaways for the reason that cellphone launched final April.
Despite the fact that I’ve reviewed loads of telephones for the reason that Razr Extremely 2025 launched, I’ve used it as my foremost system, all the time switching again between critiques or a minimum of carrying it round as a secondary system. That is as a result of, regardless of having used many spectacular telephones recently, I’ve turn out to be a flip cellphone kinda man, and that is all because of Motorola.
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The Razr expertise
Regardless of loving earlier Razr fashions, the Extremely 2025 is the primary Razr flagship I’ve used that I did not really feel I wanted to hold a secondary cellphone with me to get by. An enormous cause for that’s the digicam system; Motorola actually improved it on the Extremely 2025, particularly in comparison with the underwhelming Razr Plus 2023. And in contrast to the Razr Plus 2024, which shipped with a secondary telephoto digicam, the Razr Extremely swapped it for an ultrawide digicam, which is way more helpful, in my view, particularly when the 2x optical high quality zoom is adequate.
Whereas it might not compete with flagships from Chinese language OEMs like Vivo and Oppo, it will get the job achieved, and I’ve no complaints.
However past the cameras, the general Razr expertise has been superb, and this really looks like Motorola was aiming to offer an “Extremely” expertise. The Snapdragon 8 Elite chip paired with 16GB of RAM makes the cellphone really feel extremely snappy, and it handles heavy gaming surprisingly nicely.
The 1224p Tremendous HD OLED show appears to be like and feels nice, even after a 12 months of use. The Razr Plus 2023 hinge began failing after a 12 months, and I seen small cracks within the built-in Razr Plus 2024 display screen protector. The Razr Extremely 2025 show nonetheless appears to be like just like the day I received it, whereas the vegan leather-based and wooden supplies on the again of the cellphone (relying on the mannequin you purchase) give it a recent look, although I’ve seen some peeling of the “leather-based.”
Android 16… lastly!
A part of the Razr expertise is the software program, a class through which Motorola would not fairly excel. Do not get me fallacious, Hi there UX is… advantageous, and there is a lot to love, such because the separate fast settings menu and notification shade (which is non-compulsory), Motorola’s use of Google apps and providers like Google Photographs, and the helpful gestures like chopping or twisting twice to allow the flashlight or activate the digicam, respectively.
That stated, the general software program expertise is quite uninteresting. The fundamentals are right here, however Motorola would not exit of its option to stand out with issues like flashy animations, and after utilizing current Samsung telephones just like the Galaxy S26 Plus, it all the time jogs my memory of how a lot I choose Samsung’s One UI for its consistency, help, and feeling of pleasure each time I take advantage of it.
I actually hoped Android 16 would change issues, particularly after Google launched Materials 3 Expressive on Pixel telephones. Nonetheless, regardless of the replace arriving on the Razr Extremely 2025 extra shortly than on earlier fashions (thanks, Motorola), it got here and went with seemingly few adjustments.
The software program admittedly feels smoother and extra responsive, and Motorola added options like Modes and Notification Cooldown. In any other case, the replace would not really feel a lot completely different from Android 15, and the safety patch remains to be caught on December 2025 for some cause, which highlights Motorola’s pretty inconsistent bi-monthly replace schedule.
Motorola additionally would not get the most recent Android options as shortly as Samsung. For instance, the most recent Fast Share replace, which provides help for AirDrop, rolled out first on the most recent Pixel telephones and Galaxy S26 sequence, whereas different Android units have to attend. It is frankly annoying that Motorola continues to play second fiddle to Samsung, regardless of its current features available in the market.
Moto AI: Strong however underwhelming
Motorola’s software program is a little bit of a combined bag, however the AI state of affairs is not significantly better. Moto AI is the corporate’s try at having its personal AI suite, à la Samsung, and whereas there are some good concepts, the execution feels considerably missing.
The chatbot itself is respectable and allows you to connect with Microsoft Copilot and Perplexity, however even with entry to a number of AI fashions, the general expertise nonetheless pales compared to Gemini. To not point out, Motorola’s Giant Motion Mannequin, which lets the AI full duties like ordering an Uber in your behalf, is but to be seen, whereas Google is already enabling this characteristic in Gemini.
Most Moto AI options both really feel like glorified variations of present apps (Pay Consideration is simply an AI recorder) or simply aren’t that helpful of their present kind. Keep in mind This retains reminiscences of pictures, notes, or screenshots and analyzes them so you may recall them later. Nonetheless, it’s a must to set off the characteristic for it to be helpful; it is not built-in into the digicam or screenshot perform, which looks like a waste.
Catch Me Up is, happily, extra helpful, as you may have an AI abstract of your notifications with the press of a button.
One space it appears Motorola hasn’t fairly found out is integration. Whereas Samsung can naturally combine options into its UI, such because the Gallery app, Motorola is left stuffing most of them into the Moto AI app, together with Picture Studio.
Motorola wants to determine higher combine its AI throughout the UI, as a result of because it stands now, you are higher off sticking with Gemini and Google’s different AI options, like Circle to Search. It also needs to observe Samsung’s instance by sidelining Bixby and letting the Moto AI chatbot take a again seat in favor of Gemini. Now, if solely Motorola would allow us to remap its AI Key to work with Gemini…
The accent downside
The Razr Extremely 2025 is a critically nice cellphone, however one main downside I maintain working into with Motorola’s smartphones is the dearth of accent choices. It is extremely tough to discover a good Razr Extremely 2025 case (or display screen protector, for that matter) from any of the highest case makers. Go to Spigen, Thinborn, Otterbox, Casetify, and so forth., and hardly any of them have a devoted part for Motorola, and the few that do provide solely a handful of choices for older telephones.
Something I’ve discovered on-line has been from firms I’ve by no means heard of, and I usually must scroll by a ton of critiques to search out others who purchased instances for this mannequin. That is to not say that these are all dangerous, and I’ve discovered one or two that I sort of like, however the choices are few and much between. Positive, you may get an official case from Motorola’s webstore, however even these are missing, and Motorola might actually take a web page from Samsung right here.
The dearth of a Thinborn case is particularly unlucky, as a result of I like their ultra-thin Aramid Fiber instances, and they’d be excellent for a cellphone just like the Razr Extremely, which turns into twice as thick when it is folded. Most different instances are quite thick, which makes the cellphone really feel a bit unwieldy, and having a skinny case would make me really feel higher about placing one on within the first place.
That cowl display screen, although!
I am not exaggerating once I say that I take advantage of the Razr Extremely 2025’s cowl display screen about 80% of the time. It is simply that good. Apps can be found out of the field, they transition seamlessly between the primary show and the duvet display screen, and so they scale fairly nicely, for probably the most half. In contrast to the Galaxy Z Flip units, the duvet display screen helps multitasking, and notifications are dealt with significantly better.
There are additionally loads of methods to take higher benefit of the cameras with the duvet display screen.
The one causes I do not use the duvet display screen are to play video games, modify settings, or use Google Photographs (which is considerably restricted on right here). I will additionally use the primary show for extra vital emails or for apps that require the bigger show (watching movies on the duvet display screen is doable, however the primary show is best fitted to this).
Admittedly, the Android 16 replace appeared to introduce some wonkiness to the duvet display screen, with odd UI glitches, notably with textual content fields. Nonetheless, the expertise is basically the identical and stays my favourite means to make use of the Razr.
I’ve additionally begun utilizing the Clicks Keyboard, which doubles as a quite good case (lastly) and a full Blackberry-style keyboard. That means, you do not have to fret concerning the on-screen keyboard taking on valuable cowl display screen actual property, whereas additionally defending your cellphone. Typing on a bodily smartphone keyboard could take some getting used to, however in case you have a Razr, that is in all probability one of the simplest ways to make use of the cellphone!
