Moto Razr Ultra vs. Galaxy Z Flip 8 camera shootout: The winning flip phone surprised me

ZDNET’s key takeaways

• I compared the cameras on the Moto Razr Ultra and the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 8 while on vacation.
• I shot side-by-side photos in Myrtle Beach, SC with both phones.
• The photos were close, but one phone did better.

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I love flip phones because they give you the best of both worlds: a normal-sized phone when open, and an extra pocketable device when folded up. They also have large cover screens you can run apps on, keeping things light and intentional while minimizing battery use. In the U.S., two of the major phone makers build flip phones — Samsung and Motorola.

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If you’re like me, you probably value the camera (maybe even overvalue it a tad). But cameras are still important in our Insta-TikTok world, so I wanted to pit the two phone makers against each other in that category. Motorola actually makes three different flip phones, so I went with the flagship: the Moto Razr Ultra. Meanwhile, Samsung has the Galaxy Z Flip 8 as its only offering this year.

To test the cameras, I took both with me on a family vacation to Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, where each phone’s strengths and weaknesses soon became apparent. I tried taking the same photo (or close enough) with each phone to compare them side-by-side.

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Main cameras

Winner: Motorola Razr Ultra

Both phones have 50-megapixel cameras for the main shooter, and both do a pretty good job with capturing the scene in good lighting. I took these photos of a surf board along the main strip of the city with a variety of items in the window.

I think the Motorola captured colors that were truer to life than the Samsung, which used some post processing to make it look a bit punchier. Both cameras captured good texture in the bricks, too. There isn’t a clear winner here, but I think the Moto camera would look best on an Instagram post, so it can get the nod on this one.

As for movement, a woman was giving a performance with poi, a form of dance originating in New Zealand. I wanted to see how the cameras would capture all the rapid movement.

In this case, the Motorola once again captured the cleaner image. I was looking for motion blur, which happened in both photos, but Samsung’s blur is a lot more obvious. That might have something to do with the position of the balls when the photos were captured. Overall, I don’t hate either of the photos, but the nod goes to Motorola here.

Telephoto cameras

Winner: Motorola Razr Ultra

Neither phone has a telephoto camera, per se. Rather, each phone relies on cropping into the main sensor, and digitally zooming in. Both phones can go up to 10x in that regard. So, as I walked down the main strip, I saw a ferris wheel up ahead and clicked away.

In this case, the Motorola photo came out a bit cleaner than the Samsung photo, but not by a lot. Specifically, the text on the window is sharper as are the vents along the bottom of the car. Incidentally, we headed up in this ferris wheel and it’s a really great way to take in the city.

This photo is one of the most stark representations of the differences between a Motorola photo and a Samsung photo. This is a brick wall shot from about six feet away at 10x. It’s a sort of macro photo taken with the telephoto lens, and while you get a lot of texture on the Motorola side, the Samsung photo completely wiped it all away, smoothing out the edges for some reason. Definitely not a fan of what Samsung’s processing did here.

Portrait mode

Winner: Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 8

Now for perhaps the most important one: portrait mode with selfies. Both of these were taken with the main lenses. And both phones allow you to launch the camera with the phone closed while you preview the image with the cover screen (a key advantage to taking selfies with a flip phone).

For this one, I definitely have to give the edge to Samsung. It really handled the bokeh well, and didn’t murder all the stray hairs around my head like the Motorola phone did. There’s nothing wrong with Moto’s shot — the hairs are just blended into the bokeh in the background, but in some situations, that can feel a little off. Samsung preserved a lot of the hairs around my head — getting in for a haircut is my responsibility.

Ultrawide cameras

Winner: Motorola Razr Ultra

An Ultrawide camera is of course good for taking in as much of a scene as possible, and here too we get big differences between what Samsung and Motorola can do. This was shot from my balcony at the hotel, and once of these photos looks great — the other looks like it was shot in a funhouse.

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“Fisheye effect” is what it’s called when a camera can’t quite clean up what an ultrawide lens captures. This is generally the most noticeable around the edges with things that are meant to go straight up and down.

In the Samsung photo, the buildings on the left look tilted. Meanwhile the Moto Razr Ultra took what was undoubtedly a skewed image — because that’s what physics demands — and straightened everything up to produce, even if it is distorted.

Writer’s pick

Overall, I had to give the edge to the Motorola Razr Ultra with these sets of shots. The Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 8 did fine, but in general I preferred the Moto Razr Ultra’s shots more. Again, there is some subjectivity at play here, and I’m sure plenty of users appreciate (and prefer) the post-processing in Samsung’s Flip 8 photos, but from a consistent point and shoot standpoint, the Motorola supplied the better shots in my opinion. 

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Given a choice between the two, I’d got with the Motorola Razr Ultra. Not only is the camera better in these shots, but the software is overall better — though Samsung has made a lot of progress on that front. The double wrist twist to launch the camera is also a win for Motorola, and I miss it any time I use a non-Motorola phone.

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