Flip off: Is the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 6 worse than the Motorola Razr 50 Ultra?

While there are other options out there in the wild, the clamshell folding phone game has, over time, boiled down to a simple choice: Samsung or Motorola? While Samsung has long held its position as our favourite of the foldables, with both the Galaxy Z Flip 5 and the Galaxy Z Fold 5 earning recommendations in 2023, Motorola has made some serious strides this generation and could be ready to take the top spot.

Having now extensively tested and reviewed both the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 6 and the Motorola Razr 50 Ultra, I’ve got a good idea of which flip phone is better at what, and which offers the best overall value for money. I’ll be comparing the two handsets across their designs, display quality, performance, cameras and software experience, before delivering a final verdict of which is the best overall.

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Galaxy Z Flip 6 vs Razr 50 Ultra: Specifications

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Galaxy Z Flip 6 vs Razr 50 Ultra: Price and Design

Let’s start with how much these things are going to cost you. The cheapest of the two is the Motorola Razr 50 Ultra. There’s only one model – with 12GB of RAM and 512GB of storage – and it’s going to cost you £999, although at the time of writing it was on Amazon for £929. For the same specifications, the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 6 costs a fair bit more, at £1,149, or you can halve the storage and get the 12GB/256GB model for £1,049.

Neither handset has dramatically changed its design compared to last year’s Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 5 and Motorola Razr 40 Ultra but there are a couple of interesting tweaks to note. The Z Flip 6 is marginally thinner than its predecessor when closed, now measuring 14.9mm, and the same 6.9mm thick when unfolded, both of which are slimmer than the Razr’s measurements (15.3mm and 7.1mm, respectively).

Both phones have seen changes to their dust and water-resistance IP-rating, with the Razr 50 Ultra jumping up to the same IPX8 rating as the Z Flip 5, while the Flip 6 adds limited particle protection with its IP48 protection. The 4 only means it can deter particles over 1mm in diameter, however, so sand and dust are still threats.

The Z Flip 6 also has superior scratch resistance, with Gorilla Glass Victus 2 covering the front and rear (when folded) – although not the internal screen. The Razr 50 Ultra has Gorilla Glass Victus covering its external display while the rear is coated in vegan leather. In the hand, both handsets feel premium and comfortable to use, so this difference is going to come down to personal preference.

There’s definitely something to be said for the Galaxy Z Flip 6’s professional, flat-edged design but I find myself more drawn to the rounded sides of the Razr 50 Ultra. I like the way the polished aluminium catches the light more and the slight rounding makes it easier to slip a thumb between the two halves and flip the phone open one-handed.

Both offer a solid selection of colours, with Motorola’s vibrant palette including the Spring Green I reviewed, a striking Hot Pink, a classier Midnight Blue and the Pantone colour of the year, Peach Fuzz. Samsung, meanwhile, has a slightly muted, more pastelly range, with Blue, Yellow, Mint and Silver Shadow available widely and Black, White and Peach exclusive to Samsung.com. Personally, I’m more partial to the punchy Razr colours, but ultimately this boils down to your individual style.

Totting it all up, there are some areas in which Samsung offers more than Motorola, but none of them are significant enough to outweigh the advantage that the Razr has on value for money. With an even bigger price difference than last year, the Razr has done incredibly well to keep up as much as it has, and takes the win here.

Winner: Motorola Razr 50 Ultra

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Galaxy Z Flip 6 vs Razr 50 Ultra: Displays

Both phones’ internal displays have the same 2,640 x 1,080 resolution, although the Galaxy’s is slightly smaller, at 6.7in compared to the Razr’s 6.9in, meaning it has a higher pixel density of 426ppi. The Razr’s is 413ppi.

Both use LTPO technology, which allows the refresh rate to dynamically adjust to suit the content on screen, but the Razr has a higher peak refresh rate of 165Hz, while the Galaxy tops out at 120Hz.

As far as HDR standards support goes, it’s the Razr that wins, with both Dolby Vision content and HDR10+, where the Z Flip 6 only supports the latter. Colour accuracy is pretty similar, though, and neither is great with average Delta E colour variance scores of 1.91 for the Galaxy and 2.05 for the Razr (both on Natural colour profile versus the sRGB colour space).

The clincher, however, is with the external displays and here Motorola is leagues ahead of Samsung. Not only is the Razr 50 Ultra’s 4in cover screen the largest on any flip phone yet, its 1,272 x 1,080 resolution is much higher than the Z Flip 6’s 720 x 748 and it has a super-fast 165Hz peak refresh rate, whereas the Z Flip 6’s external display is only 60Hz.

Samsung’s widget-based approach to the cover screen certainly isn’t bad, and the Z Flip 6 has added more widgets this year, as well as the option to bundle several into one screen.

However, I prefer Motorola’s approach, which allows users to select near-enough any app to be used on the external screen. Do I want to religiously watch Netflix on a 4in display? Not especially, but I love having the option and it nets Motorola the win in this section.

Winner: Motorola Razr 50 Ultra

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Galaxy Z Flip 6 vs Razr 50 Ultra: Performance

After taking the silver in the above two events, Samsung comes out swinging in the performance benchmarks. Using the same overclocked Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 chipset as the Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra, the Z Flip 6 is an incredibly powerful performer. Single-core results are much the same as the Snapdragon 8s Gen 3-powered Motorola Razr 50 Ultra, but the Galaxy pulls an impressive 24% ahead in the multi-core scores.

It’s the same case with the GPU tests. The Motorola performs admirably, and is still extremely competent at handling heavy-duty 3D games, but the Galaxy pushes frame rates over the 100 mark in both the onscreen and offscreen portions.

Rounding out the trio of performance wins, the Galaxy also proved to have the better stamina of the two. Both handsets are fitted with a 4,000mAh battery but the Z Flip 6 managed to squeeze an extra hour of battery life out of it before giving up the ghost.

The only area in which Motorola claws back a win is the charging speeds, with the Razer 50 Ultra supporting 45W wired charging, compared to the Galaxy Z Flip 6’s meagre 25W. Both also offer the same 15W wireless charging. In our testing, a 30-minute charge brought the Galaxy from empty to 55% battery life, where the Razr hit 60%. That’s not enough to shift the scales on this one, however, so Samsung takes the win on this front.

Winner: Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 6

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Galaxy Z Flip 6 vs Razr 50 Ultra: Cameras

Admittedly, you may have a different take on this portion than me, depending on whether you’d rather have a telephoto or an ultrawide camera in your pocket. I’m very much in the former camp, so Motorola swapping out the ultrawide camera for a 50MP (f/2.4) 2x telephoto lens struck a chord with me.

In testing, I found this lens was as adept at capturing the minute details in a church spire as it was at producing crisp portrait images with solid focal lines and natural skin tones. The colour grading as a whole is near-enough identical to the main camera and the massive 50MP pixel count means that digital zooms beyond 2x still look solid.

Samsung, meanwhile, has stuck with the 12MP (f/2.2) 123-degree ultrawide shooter as its backup lens, and even though I prefer a zoom, there’s no denying that this is a solid ultrawide camera. It doesn’t capture details well as the main lens does, due to the lower pixel count and more narrow aperture, but the colour grading carries over well, keeping everything looking vibrant.

There’s very little in it when it comes to the main wide cameras, so which side you pick here will likely be weighed more on the above differences. Both phones have upgraded to excellent 50MP units with nearly identical apertures (the Galaxy is f/1.8 and the Razr is f/1.7) and both deliver crisp, vibrant images with plenty of detail and excellent dynamic range. You can see more shots from both in the gallery below:

Honestly, this is the one I’m least definitive on, purely because it’s such a subjective choice. Both phones pack in some of the best cameras we’ve ever seen on a flip phone, so whichever you go with, you’re going to be very happy with the pictures. The only real deciding factor is whether you want a telephoto or an ultrawide. I prefer telephoto cameras, and the Razr 50 Ultra is the first flip phone available in the UK to include one, so Motorola is my winner on this one.

Winner: Motorola Razr 50 Ultra

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Galaxy Z Flip 6 vs Razr 50 Ultra: Software

This section was almost a tie because, neither flip phone offers much in the way of foldable-specific software tricks – aside from their external display tricks. The odd app like YouTube will split between the top and bottom halves when the screen is folded but fully supported apps are few and far between.

Samsung gets the win here, however, and for a couple of key reasons. First of all, Galaxy AI runs on the Z Flip 6 from launch, whereas Motorola’s Moto AI features are still in development.

Second, and more important, is the proposed software support from each brand. The Razr 50 Ultra is promised three OS updates and four years of security patches, but the Galaxy Z Flip 6 is getting an impressive seven years of each, putting it alongside the Galaxy S24 series and Google Pixel 8 series as having some of the best software support around. With that kind of longevity, Samsung wins this round.

Winner: Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 6

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The winner: Motorola Razr 50 Ultra

So there we have it. With three victories to two, the Motorola Razr 50 Ultra is our winner. Sure, it can be tempting to look at the performance figures and decide that the Galaxy Z Flip 6 must be the better phone but, as a package, the Razr offers much more bang for your buck.

The external display is in a class of its own, with specs that rival some phones’ main displays and a wealth of features rooted in user choice. And the new telephoto camera is a delightful addition and joins one of the best main cameras ever on a flip phone. Wrap it up in a slick design that’s more robust than last year, sprinkle on the most discreet hinge crease in the industry and sell it all for £150 less than the competition, and you’ve got 2024’s best clamshell folding phone: the Motorola Razr 50 Ultra.

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