Motorola Razr Fold vs Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra

Motorola Razr Fold

Historically the foldable Achilles heel — but Motorola invested in hardware and software here, and DxOMark ranks it the best camera in any foldable.

• DxOMark rates the Razr Fold the #1 camera among foldables — roughly 8th overall across all phones — with a Gold Label.
• A 50MP main (f/1.6, OIS), a 50MP ultrawide (12mm, 122° FOV, f/2.0) and a third 50MP camera — all selfies can use the best 50MP main.
• This is without question the best Motorola camera I've ever used.
• Comes up just short of modern flagships like the iPhone 17 Pro, Find X9 Pro and Xiaomi 17 Ultra, with a DxOMark score of 164 points.
• Took it for a street-photography spin and came away genuinely impressed — the camera hardware was what caught attention.
• Highest-quality camera in a folding phone in the US — better than the Pixel 10 Pro Fold and Galaxy Z Fold 7, which use older sensors.

Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra

Same sensors as the S25 Ultra (200MP main 1/1.3in, 50MP ultrawide, 10MP 3x telephoto, 50MP 5x periscope, 12MP selfie) but the main and 5x get wider apertures (f/1.4 from f/1.7; f/2.9 from f/3.4). Reviewers agree the low-light gain is real and visible without leaning on AI. New software tricks: APV codec for near-lossless 1080p/4K video, Horizon Lock super-stabilization, and an expanded Photo Assist with generative editing. The unloved 10MP 3x sensor and AI-aggressive 30x+ zoom are the recurring weak points.

• 200MP main with new f/1.4 aperture lets the sensor 'collect more light, resulting in quicker exposures with less motion blur' — Verge confirms lower ISO and faster shutter speeds than the S25 Ultra in side-by-side testing
• Forbes' two-week test on low-light cat photos found 'much more vivid colors' and 'sharper details with more enhanced shadows' versus the S25 Ultra — 'the difference feels truly drastic'
• Engadget's challenging backlit Grogu shot showed the S26 Ultra outperform a Pixel 10 Pro on subject exposure — 'managed to make an already great main camera just a bit better'
• 10MP 3x telephoto is dated and the only zoom range where image quality visibly sags — Trusted Reviews calls it 'particularly dated' compared to Oppo's 200MP zoom in the Find X9 Pro

Motorola Razr Fold

Snapdragon 8 Gen 5 with 16GB RAM — fast for everyday use and surprisingly good in long sessions, but the choice of the non-Elite chip in a $1,899 phone is the headline criticism.

• Motorola stuck Qualcomm's excellent Snapdragon 8 Gen 5 (16GB RAM, 512GB) inside its first full-fold flagship.
• With a phone this expensive it is a bit disappointing Motorola couldn't go all the way with the Elite chip.
• In a 20-minute stress test the Z Fold 7's 8 Elite was ~10% better on the first loop, but the Razr Fold ran better through the 20 minutes and ended ~20% ahead on sustained performance with similar thermals.
• Recording 4K120 for a long time makes the Snapdragon CPU run quite hot, though it cools down fairly fast.
• The non-Elite chip, 243g weight and IP49 dust rating could be causes for concern, even if the experience is smooth.

Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra

Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 for Galaxy, paired with 12 or 16GB RAM and up to 1TB storage, comfortably tops every published Android benchmark and trades blows with the iPhone 17 Pro in single-core. A redesigned, larger vapor chamber keeps sustained performance up, though Wild Life stress runs still shed 30-40% of peak GPU output under load.

• Engadget records a Geekbench 6 multi-core score of 11,240 (vs 9,828 on the S25 Ultra) and GPU score of 25,403 — the fastest Android scores currently published
• Trusted Reviews measured 3DMark Wild Life Stress Test stability at 67.6% — a big jump from the S25 Ultra's 58.4% and ahead of the Honor Magic 8 Pro (55.4%)
• Ars Technica records the S26 Ultra topping all benchmark charts on paper but losing 'about 40 percent of its graphical performance' under prolonged stress
• Linus Tech Tips' stress test showed the S26 Ultra outperforming an iPhone 17 Pro by ~34% and a OnePlus 15 by ~5%, but flagged that it 'gradually gets worse over time' as thermal throttling kicks in

Motorola Razr Fold

The standout: the largest battery in the book-foldable space delivering class-leading endurance, plus 80W wired charging — three times faster than the Galaxy Z Fold 7.

• Lasting an impressive 14 hours 31 minutes, the Razr Fold is officially the best notebook-style foldable for battery life (16h10m with refresh-rate optimized).
• The Galaxy Z Fold 7 managed only 10h44m in the same test, with a 4,400mAh battery versus the Razr Fold's 6,000mAh cell.
• I found the battery basically impossible to kill in a single day, even with the Fold's hotspot supplying an entire office internet connection over 12 days.
• It charges at 80W wired — over three times as fast as the Galaxy Z Fold 7's 25W — plus 50W wireless and 5W reverse, with a 90W charger and a case included in the box.
• The 6,000mAh cell is colossal — about 20% larger than the Pixel 10 Pro Fold's — though there's also more display to power.
• If you use the camera a lot or run games, the battery does drain quite quickly and you may need an afternoon top-up.

Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra

The S26 Ultra inherits the same 5,000 mAh capacity Samsung's used since the S20 Ultra — six years unchanged — but 60W wired charging is genuinely faster and Qi 2.2 25W wireless is overdue. Reviewers split: most say battery life is 'fine' but no longer flagship in a market where OnePlus 15 ships with 7,300 mAh and Oppo Find X9 Pro packs 7,500 mAh. Charging speeds are now a competitive feature, not a weakness.

• Same 5,000 mAh battery as the S25 Ultra, S24 Ultra, S23 Ultra, S22 Ultra, S21 Ultra and S20 Ultra — 9to5Google calls this 'easily the most egregious spec Samsung hasn't changed'
• Phone Arena's real-world diary measured average 100% screen time at just 6 hours 1 minute — 'just not very impressive' next to iPhone 17 Pro Max's nearly 9 hours on the same test
• Engadget's local video rundown measured 30 hours 3 minutes — only ~30 minutes longer than the S25 Ultra; chip efficiency gains, not capacity, are doing the work
• 60W wired charging: 0-50% in 18-19 minutes, 0-75% in 30 minutes, 0-100% in 47-53 minutes across multiple independent tests
• Mrwhosetheboss' charging test confirmed 47 minutes 0-100% versus 1 hour 19 minutes for the iPhone 17 Pro Max — a 32-minute charging gap in Samsung's favor

Motorola Razr Fold

The surprise strength — Motorola's foldable software is widely called the best balance of Pixel simplicity and Samsung multitasking, undercut only by Motorola's update-timeliness history.

• Motorola nailed the software — it feels like the perfect middle ground between the Pixel and Samsung approaches to book foldables, with a laptop mode that turns the bottom half into a trackpad.
• The Razr Fold is winning me over with something not on the spec sheet — superb multitasking software.
• Given Motorola's awful track record for timely updates, you've got to be ready to live with the little launch bugs for a while.
• Motorola promises 7 years of Android version and security updates — best-in-class and a huge jump from last year's 3-year commitment.
• Counterpoint: Motorola is only committing to 3 years of Android upgrades and 5 years of security patches, so versus Samsung's 7 years it's really no contest.

Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra

One UI 8.5 ships on Android 16 with seven years of OS + security updates promised. Beyond the new transparent glass UI choices, the story is Galaxy AI — Now Brief, Now Nudge, Photo Assist, Creative Studio, summarized notifications, plus Gemini task automation (beta) for limited ride-share and food-delivery flows. Reviewers split sharply on whether the AI features are genuinely useful or 'slop', but a local-only AI processing toggle gets near-universal praise.

• Seven OS upgrades and security patches take the phone through to Android 23 in 2033 — Trusted Reviews calls it 'one of the strongest long-term Android bets around'
• Now Nudge is Samsung's Magic Cue clone for proactive contextual suggestions — Verge saw it work a couple times but Ars Technica 'haven't seen a single Nudge appear in my testing'
• Gemini task automation can open Uber/DoorDash and complete the flow up to the final confirm tap — Ars says it 'usually got there, asking me to tap the final order button after a lengthy wait'
• Photo Assist's natural-language editing is powerful but unsettling — Verge could 'remove my husband's shirt' and 'paste celebrities into selfies'; the Engadget Pikachu sticker test was outright strange

Motorola Razr Fold

At $1,899 it undercuts the Z Fold 7 and is the only premium book foldable many US buyers can actually purchase — value hinges on whether the non-Elite chip and update questions matter to you.

• At $1,899.99 / £1,799.99 it undercuts the Galaxy Z Fold 7 by about $100/£100, and the pre-order Moto Pen Ultra bundle adds real value — the sum of its parts is the best foldable on the market.
• If you're tired of Samsung-only or have no interest in the Pixel Fold, this may be the best folding phone you can get in the US right now — the Oppo Find N6 and Honor Magic V6 aren't available there.
• It could be called a disappointment, especially compared to the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold and Honor Magic V5 — it should have offered something more compelling to stand out.
• If Motorola drops the price by even two or three hundred dollars within the first few weeks, this phone suddenly becomes a much stronger contender.
• It competes fairly well with the Oppo Find N6, which is amazing to see.

Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra

At $1,300 starting (256GB), $1,499 (512GB), $1,799 (1TB), the S26 Ultra still costs more than the OnePlus 15 ($899 with double the storage), the Pixel 10 Pro XL ($1,199), and the iPhone 17 Pro Max ($1,199). Reviewers position the value case around the privacy display, the camera versatility, the seven-year update window, and the One UI ecosystem rather than raw spec-for-spec parity.

• Starting MSRP held at $1,299 — but 512GB jumped to $1,499 (from $1,419) and 1TB to $1,799 (from $1,659) versus the S25 Ultra
• OnePlus 15 at $899 includes 512GB + 16GB RAM + 7,300 mAh battery — 'you cannot beat that' value, per a side-by-side owner on r/OnePlus
• Engadget calls the $1,300 hold-the-line price 'almost a blessing' given component-cost inflation across the industry in 2026
• Trade-in offers worsened sharply after pre-order — 9to5Google describes trade values that 'fell off a cliff' and perks like doubled storage 'vanished this time around'