Technologies

Motorola’s $1,300 Razr Ultra Adds Luxury to the 2025 Foldable Phone Line

The new three-tier Razr series comes with Motorola’s biggest AI push yet. One of the flip phones even has a wooden back like the old Moto X from a decade ago.

Motorola’s hoping that good things can come in threes for its newly announced Razr 2025 line. Specifically, there are three Razr models, with a $1,300 Ultra edition debuting alongside updated versions of the base $700 Razr and the $1,000 Razr Plus.

I spent a little time with the new Motorola Razr phones, and it was hard to notice their differences side by side. The design tweaks and spec changes between the three are slight. I found it easy to mix up the Plus and Ultra models when they’re folded shut, as they both have a 4-inch cover screen. The base Razr uses a 3.6-inch cover display adorned with a colorful bezel. Unfolded, all three phones look tall because each has an interior screen with a narrow aspect ratio compared to a regular smartphone. The Ultra folds out to an expansive 7-inch display, while the Razr and Razr Plus have slightly smaller 6.9-inch screens.

Motorola’s also using the new Razr line to showcase Moto AI and fashionable materials like Alcantara fabric. The new lineup marks Motorola’s largest push into AI — cleverly named Moto AI. Motorola has partnerships with Perplexity, Meta’s Llama AI, Microsoft Copilot and Google Gemini.

It’s quite an aggressive push to expand both Motorola’s Razr line and its AI ambitions, but it makes a lot of sense since Apple, Google and Samsung have also expanded their AI plans while releasing flagship phones at different prices. During a press preview event, Motorola noted that 25% of its Razr customers upgraded from an iPhone. Having a third higher-end Razr option should appeal stronger to customers abandoning the iPhone Pro Max. The Razr Ultra could also tempt someone considering the $1,300 Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra. While AI features still aren’t the main appeal for customers, the expanded suite of Moto AI tools makes this year’s Razrs more competitive against Apple and Samsung’s AI offerings.

However, the 2025 Motorola Razr line has a noticeable disadvantage against competing foldable phones: they will receive only three years of major software upgrades and four years of security updates. Compared with Google and Samsung’s seven-year commitment to both, it’s about half as long. But with that expectation set, there are a lot of unique design elements to the new Razr line that make it stand out from other phone makers. And that’s worth keeping in mind too.

Motorola’s new Razr line will go on preorder May 7 ahead of a May 15 release date.

Motorola Razr Ultra

The Motorola Razr Ultra is the newest and most powerful member of the family. It has the same Snapdragon 8 Elite chip found in other flagship phones like the OnePlus 13 and Xiaomi 15 Ultra. It also has a wood back option — known as Pantone Mountain Trail. The Razr Ultra is the first Motorola phone to get a wooden back since the Moto X line from a decade ago.

My favorite model, though, is the Pantone Scarab, which is made from velvety black Alcantara fabric — think faux suede or micro suede. The Ultra also comes in magenta-like Pantone Cabaret and Pantone Rio Red.

The phone supports 68-watt wired charging, which is faster than most other flagships, and 30-watt wireless charging. The Ultra also has three 50-megapixel cameras, with a wide and ultrawide lenses on the back and the selfie camera on the interior display.

That 7-inch interior display looks tall and could be a two-handed device for many people when unfolded. The Ultra model I tested did not have an internet connection, but I could easily see how the wider space would be useful for gaming and movie-watching.

On the other hand, the 4-inch cover display feels just right for quick texts and photography. I almost want this smaller display to be a hair taller, as its wider ratio makes it more challenging for viewing content. Both displays have an adaptive refresh rate of up to 165Hz, which makes animations, gameplay play and scrolling social feeds look ridiculously smooth.

The Ultra also has 16GB of memory and comes with either 512GB or 1TB of storage.

Motorola Razr Plus (2025)

Motorola’s Razr Plus gets a smaller revamp compared with last year’s model, and it has many of the same specs from the 2024 version (which earned it a CNET Editor’s Choice award). It has the same Snapdragon 8S Gen 3 processor, 6.9-inch interior screen, 12GB of memory and 256GB of storage. Cameras are also similar. There’s a 50-megapixel wide camera and a 50-megapixel telephoto on the cover display and a 32-megapixel selfie camera on the interior screen.

The Razr Plus gets a few new hardware enhancements that are coming to all three phones. It has a new titanium-reinforced hinge that Motorola says will help its extend its lifespan: 35% more folds than last year’s model. The Razr Plus has IP48 protection for submersion in up to 1.5 meters of water for 30 minutes. This makes the phone, along with the other 2025 Razr models, one of the only foldables that has some level of dust resistance.

The Plus is available in three colors: Pantone Mocha Mousse, Midnight Blue and Hot Pink.

Motorola Razr (2025)

Motorola’s standard Razr also got a small spec bump compared with last year’s standard Razr. It does move up to MediaTek’s Dimensity 7400X processor, which is slightly newer than the 7300 included in the 2024 model. It also keeps the 3.6-inch 90Hz cover display and the 6.9-inch 120Hz interior screen.

Cameras are also largely similar: a 50-megapixel main camera and a 13-megapixel ultrawide on the cover screen and a 32-megapixel selfie camera on the interior display.

The Razr (2025) comes in four Pantone-branded colors: Spring Bud (green), Gibraltar Sea Blue, Parfait Pink and Lightest Sky (white).

Moto AI

Moto AI debuted last year on the 2024 Razr and Razr Plus. Motorola will partner with several AI companies to significantly upgrade Moto AI in 2025. Moto AI features can be activated with a dedicated button or by looking and speaking directly at the phone.

Motorola says that Moto AI, along with integrated services like Perplexity, Copilot and Gemin, will complement each other. For instance, Perplexity can help with research-based tasks like vacation planning and will partly power Moto AI’s Next Move feature that offers suggestions based on what’s happening on your screen. Llama AI can summarize notifications for Moto’s Catch Me Up. Moto’s Pay Attention and Remember This are meant to help organize notes, audio transcriptions, contextual photos and screenshots. Other general queries can be fielded by either Copilot or Gemini.

Motorola’s own AI will also pitch in for a variety of photography enhancement features. These include Signature Style for customizing the look of your photos as well as a Group Shot feature that can merge multiple photos together to ensure one where no one is blinking.

Motorola’s earbuds get crystals and Bose

Motorola’s fashion-forward ambitions didn’t stop at just the Pantone-colored Razr line. The company also unveiled the Moto Buds Loop open-style earbuds, which include Swarovski crystals along with a Sound by Bose badge. Pricing and availability weren’t announced yet, but the earbuds look like small earrings and hook across the ear. Motorola says that the open style lets in ambient noise (which can be good for staying alert in public places). The buds have a dual-microphone system and AI for voice calls and reducing background noise.

Motorola Razr (2025) specs vs. Motorola Razr Plus (2025), Motorola Razr Ultra

	Motorola Razr (2025)	Motorola Razr Plus (2025)	Motorola Razr Ultra
Cover display size, tech, resolution, refresh rate	3.6-inch pOLED; up to 90Hz variable refresh rate	4-inch pOLED; 1,272 x 1,080 pixels; up to 165Hz variable refresh rate	4-inch pOLED; up to 165Hz variable refresh rate
Internal display size, tech, resolution, refresh rate	6.9-inch AMOLED; FHD+; up to 120Hz variable refresh rate	6.9-inch pOLED; FHD+; 2,640 x 1,080 pixels; up to 165Hz variable refresh rate	7-inch AMOLED; up to 165Hz variable refresh rate
Pixel density	Cover: 413 ppi; Internal: 413 ppi	Cover: 417 ppi; Internal: 413 ppi	Cover: 417 ppi; 464 ppi
Dimensions (inches)	Open: 2.91 x 6.74 x 0.29 inches Closed: 2.91 x 3.47 x 0.62 inches	Open: 2.91 x 6.75 x 0.28 inches Closed: 2.91 x 3.47 x 0.6 inches	Open: 2.91 x 6.75 x 0.28 inches Closed: 2.91 x 3.47 x 0.62 inches
Dimensions (millimeters)	Open: 73.99 x 171.30 x 7.25mm Closed: 73.99 x 88.08 x 15.85mm	Open: 73.99 x 171.42 x 7.09mm Closed: 73.99 x 88.09 x 15.32mm	Open: 73.99 x 171.48 x 7.19mm Closed: 73.99 x 88.12 x 15.69mm
Weight (grams, ounces)	188g (6.63 oz)	189g (6.67 oz)	199g (7 oz)
Mobile software	Android 15	Android 15	Android 15
Cameras	50-megapixel (wide), 13-megapixel (ultrawide)	50-megapixel (wide), 50-megapixel telephoto	50-megapixel (wide), 50-megapixel (ultrawide)
Internal screen camera	32-megapixel	32-megapixel	50-megapixel
Video capture	4K	4K	4K
Processor	MediaTek Dimensity 7400X	Snapdragon 8s Gen 3	Snapdragon 8 Elite
RAM/storage	8GB + 256GB	12GB + 256GB	16GB + 512GB, 1TB
Expandable storage	None	None	None
Battery	4500 mAh	4,000 mAh	4,700 mAh
Fingerprint sensor	Side	Side	Side
Connector	USB-C	USB-C	USB-C
Headphone jack	None	None	None
Special features	IP48 rating, dual stereo speakers, 30-watt wired charging, 15-watt wireless charging, 1,700 nit peak brightness on cover display, 3,000 nit peak brightness on main display, 5G.	IP48 rating, Corning Gorilla Glass Victus on front, titanium-reinforced hinge, 2,400 peak brightness on cover display; 3,000 nit peak brightness on main display, 5G, Wi-Fi 6/6E, Wi-Fi 7, 45-watt wired charging, 15-watt wireless charging, 5-watt reverse charging.	IP48 rating, 68-watt wired charging, 30-watt wireless charging, 5-watt reverse charging, dual stereo speakers, Corning Gorilla Glass Ceramic cover dispaly, 3,000 nits peak brightness on cover display, 4,500 nits peak brightness on main display, 5G.
US price starts at	$700	$1,000	$1,300

Technologies

You Can’t Trust Your Car’s Driving Assistance System Yet, AAA Report Finds

Both hands-on and hands-off systems required human intervention to avoid accidents in this study.

Technologies

Google’s AI Mode Is Getting New Agentic Features for Restaurant Reservations and More

AI Mode can now do most of the work to find dinner reservations for you.

Google’s AI Mode is getting new agentic capabilities and expanding to 180 new countries and territories around the world, Google announced Thursday. AI Mode allows you to ask questions directly to Google and it’ll kick off a series of searches on your behalf. From there, it will surface relevant information to your query without the need to do any of the deep research yourself. It changes the way you search for things online, and it’s getting even smarter with this latest rollout.

Powered by DeepMind’s Project Mariner, the latest additions bring us further into the agentic AI future we’ve been promised for some time, directly from a search box. Instead of just finding things for you, AI Mode can now do things for you, like finding dinner reservations, flights or concert tickets. The update also brings personalized recommendations and link-sharing capabilities for easier collaboration with friends and family.

Most of the new features are either limited to premium AI subscribers and tucked behind an experiment in Google Labs, but it might not take long before they’re a standard part of your future search experience.

Google did not immediately respond to CNET’s request for further comment.

Restaurant recommendations

Instead of searching for restaurant reservations and then clicking on a specific website to make a reservation, AI Mode surfaces everything you need to complete the action right there. Since it’s contextually aware, you can add specificities to your query that a typical Google search wouldn’t handle well.

You can add the type of cuisine, number of people, time and location to a single query, and AI Mode will get to work and display real-time restaurant reservation time slots to choose from.

Google says it’s partnered with OpenTable, Resy, Tock, Ticketmaster and several other companies to make finding and doing what you want easier, since you won’t have to put in the legwork yourself.

This feature is currently rolling out to Google AI Ultra subscribers in the US who have enabled the specific experiment in Labs.

Personalized recommendations

Another experiment that’s currently available in the US (that also needs to be enabled in Labs) is personalized recommendations. Google says it’s starting with dining-related recommendations, which implies more options will be on the way in the future.

The experiment will use your past conversations with AI Mode, places you’ve interacted with on Search and Maps to provide suggestions tailored specifically to you.

Share AI Mode links with others for collaboration

If you’re planning a vacation or a party, you can now share your research directly with others with a new link-sharing feature built into AI Mode. People who interact with the link will be sent to the last response sent by AI Mode and can continue the conversation on their own to do more exploration on the topic. The original sender of the links can manage them and delete them at any time.

For more, don’t miss everything Google announced at its Pixel 10 event.

Technologies

IPhone or Android, Here’s How to Finally Escape That Endless Group Chat

Done with a group chat? Here’s how to ghost it on any service.

One reason people prefer group chats in Apple’s iMessage or RCS texting is the extra control and security these platforms provide. If everyone in your group is using iPhones, or if you’re on Android chatting through RCS, you’ll get features like typing indicators, high-quality media sharing, and the option to mute or leave a conversation when you need fewer notifications.

The biggest advantage is privacy. Both iMessage and RCS group chats offer end-to-end encryption, so your conversations stay secure. The only time that doesn’t apply is when a thread includes a mix of iPhone and Android users, which limits encryption support.

Knowing these differences can help you manage your chats more effectively, whether you’re keeping up with friends, planning events, or just looking for a little more control over your notifications.

And with RCS support with iOS 18, group chats that include a mix of iPhone and Android participants have more features than ever — but it’s not at the level you’ll experience when a conversation is fully on iMessage or Google Messages. «Green bubble chats» from an iPhone to an Android phone can now include typing indicators, higher-quality media and easier group chats.

However, RCS conversations between the iPhone and Android phones don’t include encryption now, but it should be added in a future update. This will hopefully give these conversations a similar level of privacy that we expect when using chat services like iMessage, WhatsApp or Signal.

Regardless of how you’re in a group chat with others, you can leave a chat. Here are the steps to leave any conversation from your phone’s texting app, regardless of whether it’s happening on iMessage, RCS or as a mixed MMS chat.

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Leaving group chats on an iPhone

You can leave group conversations on your iPhone in two ways. You can either mute a chat,which keeps you in a conversation but you no longer receive notifications about it, or you can outright leave and no longer have access to the chat.

On an iPhone, open Messages and go to the chat thread you want to leave. At the top of the screen are conversation controls, a group of icons with the participants. Tap this to open a pop-up menu. As long as your conversation has four or more participants, iOS gives you the ability to tap Leave this Conversation with red text. If your chat has three or fewer participants, though, the option is grayed out, but you can tap Hide Alerts to prevent the conversation from notifying you further. Tapping Hide Alerts also allows you to mute a conversation, letting you keep access to a chat without necessarily leaving it. These steps apply to both iMessage conversations and to those over RCS.

Hide and block MMS chats on an iPhone

Although you can’t officially leave MMS group chats, you can hide or block the conversation. It’s not as good as outright leaving a conversation (other participants will still see you as in it), but you at least have no personal evidence of the conversation continuing.

On an iPhone, visit the group chat and tap the conversation controls. Instead of seeing Leave this conversation, you will see the option to Delete and Block this conversation. If you’d rather just mute the conversation instead of deleting and blocking it, you can hit Hide Alerts to mute it.

Leave group chats on an Android phone

On an Android phone using Google Messages, visit the chat thread you want to leave. Tap the conversation’s name to bring up the Group Details menu. Within this menu is the Leave Group button. Unlike with iMessage, you can leave chats with as few as three participants.

If you want to just mute notifications, tap Notifications on the Group Details screen to bring up a window with notifications controls. This includes options to make the conversation stay Silent to prevent it from ringing your chat, and if you tap Lock Screen, a pop-up menu will give you the option to prevent notifications. Tap Don’t show notifications at all to enable.

Hide and block MMS chats on an Android phone

On an Android phone with Google Messages, follow the same steps to access options for controlling notifications. This includes visiting the MMS chat thread and then tapping either the name of the conversation or the names of the participants at the top to bring up the Group Details menu. You won’t see a Leave Group option like you did with an RCS thread, but you do get the same ability to tap Notifications to access controls for hiding the conversation. This includes the same options for turning the conversation to Silent and to select Don’t show notifications at all.

SMS vs. MMS vs. RCS

SMS stands for Short Message Service and debuted in 1992. Text messages are limited to 160 characters. MMS stands for Multimedia Messaging Service and supports sending photos, videos or other files and messages longer than 160 characters. MMS supports a group of people chatting in a single conversation thread, while SMS can text multiple people at once but is sent as individual messages to each person. RCS, which launched 15 years ago, is short for Rich Communication Services and can show typing indicators, read receipts and has end-to-end encryption.

While cross-platform chat apps like WhatsApp, Signal and Telegram have better controls for conversations, encryption and privacy, regardless of the type of phone participants are using, they don’t support SMS, MMS or RCS. That’s why the default messaging app on most phones is still widely used, even if it means that a group chat is on a less feature-filled, unsecured standard like MMS.