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DisplayWe put the Motorola Razr 40 Ultra through our rigorous DXOMARK Audio test suite to measure its performance both at recording sound using its built-in microphones, and at playing audio back through its speakers.
In this review, we will break down how it fared in a variety of tests and several common use cases.
Overview
Key audio specifications include:
- Two speakers (Top center, bottom right)
- No Jack audio output
- Dolby Atmos technology
Scoring
Sub-scores and attributes included in the calculations of the global score.
Motorola Razr 40 Ultra
88th
56th
Playback
Pros
- Punchy sound, despite a lack of low-end extension
- Decent audio quality when watching movies
Recording
Pros
- Pleasant tonal balance
- Nice and clean recordings at high sound pressure levels
- Recorded speech intelligible in most conditions
Cons
- Very prone to wind noise
- Slight lack of brightness in upper treble with main camera app
The Motorola Razr 40 Ultra delivered a somewhat unbalanced performance in the DXOMARK Audio tests. While recording quality was very good, the device was held back by its Playback performance with the built-in speakers. Timbre results were especially poor, strongly lacking brightness as well as low-end extension. In terms of Recording, the only notable drawback was a pronounced sensitivity to wind noise.
While the Motorola should not be anyone’s first choice for audio playback in general, it delivered better sound when watching movies than when listening to music or gaming. In the recording tests, results were best with office and work apps, but also very good when recording video with the main and front camera apps.
Test summary
About DXOMARK Audio tests: For scoring and analysis in our smartphone audio reviews, DXOMARK engineers perform a variety of objective tests and undertake more than 20 hours of perceptual evaluation under controlled lab conditions.
(For more details about our Playback protocol, click here; for more details about our Recording protocol, click here.)
The following section gathers key elements of our exhaustive tests and analyses performed in DXOMARK laboratories. Detailed performance evaluations under the form of reports are available upon request. Do not hesitate to contact us.
Playback
Motorola Razr 40 Ultra
163
DXOMARK engineers test playback through the smartphone speakers, whose performance is evaluated in our labs and in real-life conditions, using default apps and settings.
The Razr 40 Ultra wasn’t among the best devices for Audio Playback, with results in the Timbre category leaving some room for improvement. Our experts observed a strong lack of treble when listening to music and gaming, but the tonal balance was better when watching movies. Midrange was quite inconsistent and bass was overall insufficient, especially at lower volumes. Dynamic performance was decent, though, with satisfying attack across all use cases. Apart from when playing games, punch was pretty good, but the device lacked bass precision.
Wideness of the projected sound scene and localizability of individual sound sources were only average but while some voices could sound slightly distant, distance rendition was overall in line with expectations. Depth rendition could have been better, though. Our testers found loudness at maximum volume to be average while the minimum volume step was tuned slightly too loud. Volume step distribution was slightly inconsistent as well. In terms of unwanted audio artifacts, our testers observed some distortion at maximum volume. The right speaker could be occluded by your fingers when holding the device but the impact on sound quality was pretty minor.
Listen to the tested smartphone’s playback performance in this comparison with some of its competitors:
Timbre
Motorola Razr 40 Ultra
158
The Timbre score represents how well a phone reproduces sound across the audible tonal range and takes into account bass, midrange, treble, tonal balance, and volume dependency. It is the most important attribute for playback.
Dynamics
Motorola Razr 40 Ultra
149
The Dynamics score measures the accuracy of changes in the energy level of sound sources, for example how precisely a bass note is reproduced or the impact sound from drums.
Spatial
Motorola Razr 40 Ultra
162
The sub-attributes for spatial tests include pinpointing a specific sound's location, its positional balance, distance, and wideness.
Volume
Motorola Razr 40 Ultra
162
The Volume score represents the overall loudness of a smartphone and how smoothly volume increases and decreases based on user input.
| Hip-Hop | Classical | |
| Motorola Razr 40 Ultra | 73.3 dBA | 67.7 dBA |
| Samsung Galaxy S23+ | 73.9 dBA | 69.2 dBA |
| Apple iPhone 14 Pro Max | 74 dBA | 71.1 dBA |
Artifacts
Motorola Razr 40 Ultra
157
The Artifacts score measures the extent to which the sound is affected by various types of distortion. The higher the score, the less the disturbances in the sound are noticeable. Distortion can occur because of sound processing in the device and because of the quality of the speakers.
It represents the distortion and noise of the device playing our test signal (0 dB Fs, Sweep Sine in an anechoic box at 40 cm) at the device's maximum volume.
Recording
Motorola Razr 40 Ultra
160
DXOMARK engineers test recording by evaluating the recorded files on reference audio equipment. Those recordings are done in our labs and in real-life conditions, using default apps and settings.
As a Recording device the Razr 40 Ultra did overall quite well in our tests. Despite some minor flaws, the tonal balance was nice. Treble lacked some high-end extension with the main camera but was still good, and when recording with the front camera it was a little brighter. Midrange was good across all test apps, resulting in natural voice rendition. The Motorola also did well when recording at high sound pressure levels, for example at concerts, where bass sounded round and clean if slightly too pronounced. The Razr also performed well in the Dynamics category, thanks to an accurate and precise envelope across all use cases, sharp attacks, even at high sound pressure levels, and a good signal-to-noise ratio.
When recording with the phone in landscape orientation, our experts found both wideness of the sound scene and localizability of individual sound elements to be great. In portrait orientation with the Selfie cam, wideness was more limited but but localizability remained precise. Distance rendition was accurate, too, resulting in voices being perceived at the correct position. In addition, recordings were very loud and mostly free of artifacts, even when recording at high sound pressure levels. Our testers only noted occasional slight clipping on sudden loud signals. This is common on most devices, though. Background rendition offered a pleasant tonal balance and was free of artifacts as well.
Here is how the Motorola Razr 40 Ultra performs in recording use cases compared to its competitors:
Timbre
Motorola Razr 40 Ultra
147
The Timbre score represents how well a phone captures sounds across the audible tonal range and takes into account bass, midrange, treble, and tonal balance. It is the most important attribute for recording.
Dynamics
Motorola Razr 40 Ultra
146
The Dynamics score measures the accuracy of changes in the energy level of sound sources, for example how precisely a voice's plosives (the p's, t's and k's, for example) are reproduced. The score also considers the Signal-to-Noise Ratio (SNR), for example how loud the main voice is compared to the background noise.
Spatial
Motorola Razr 40 Ultra
159
The sub-attributes for spatial tests include pinpointing a specific sound's location, its positional balance, distance, and wideness on the recorded audio files.
Volume
Motorola Razr 40 Ultra
170
The Volume score represents how loud audio is normalized on the recorded files and the how the device handles loud environments, such as electronic concerts, when recording.
| Meeting | Life Video | Selfie Video | Memo | |
| Motorola Razr 40 Ultra | -26.3 LUFS | -21 LUFS | -19.2 LUFS | -21.1 LUFS |
| Samsung Galaxy S23+ | -26.5 LUFS | -21.8 LUFS | -22.4 LUFS | -21.6 LUFS |
| Apple iPhone 14 Pro Max | -26 LUFS | -22.9 LUFS | -19.2 LUFS | -19.6 LUFS |
Artifacts
Motorola Razr 40 Ultra
145
The Artifacts score measures the extent to which the recorded sounds are affected by various types of distortions. The higher the score, the less the disturbances in the sound are noticeable. Distortions can occur because of sound processing in the device and the quality of the microphones, as well as user handling, such as how the phone is held.
In this audio comparison, you can listen to the way this smartphone handles wind noise relative to its competitors:
Background
Motorola Razr 40 Ultra
166
Background evaluates how natural the various sounds around a voice blend into the video recording file. For example, when recording a speech at an event, the background should not interfere with the main voice, yet it should provide some context of the surroundings.
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