A flagship model that highlights AI features.

Entering 2024, it seems that without "AI," various products are hesitant to make their debut.

Laptops/Desktops become AI PCs with AI features; Smart TVs transform into AI TVs with AI capabilities; various electric vehicles, home appliances, VR/AR devices, watches/headphones, and other wearable devices, in short, anything that can be associated with AI, simply add the prefix "AI" and it's a sure bet.

As for brand-new flagship smartphones? Of course, they also need some AI enhancement.

As a flagship product under Motorola, the moto X series models have successfully gained a loyal audience in the fiercely competitive domestic mobile phone market in recent years due to their cost-effective pricing and comprehensive product configurations.

(Image source: Motorola)

On May 26th, at the Lenovo AI PC & AI Mobile Phone Launch Experience Event, Motorola officially unveiled the new flagship smartphone, the moto X50 Ultra. In addition to continuing to enhance its cost-effectiveness and high configuration, Motorola also emphasized that this would be an "AI phone," making it the first AI phone within the Lenovo/Motorola ecosystem.

With AI capabilities and equipped with Motorola's most powerful imaging system to date, the moto X50 Ultra boasts that even photography novices can capture high-end photos without extensive settings. Let me take you on a journey to explore its actual experience.

Design: Solid Grip, Low-key and Refined

Before unpacking, I want to share a story.

Almost 10 years ago, I was a sophomore in high school. At that time, I didn't have my own phone and could only quench my thirst for knowledge by looking at pictures and introductions in digital magazines, thus completing the first wave of knowledge accumulation.

To this day, I still remember the cover of that magazine, which featured a moto X. This phone surprisingly used a wooden back panel, bringing the elegance of nature into the technological field, leaving a profound impression on me at the time.

(Image source: Motorola)

Why did I say this before unpacking?

Because, in a sense, the moto X50 Ultra released ten years later is the successor to that sentiment from a decade ago.

To continue this sentiment, my Motorola-loving colleague specially bought a moto X50 Ultra in "cedar wood." It must be said that using a wooden back cover gives the moto X50 Ultra a significant advantage in terms of touch compared to the mainstream AG glass currently used. Moreover, each phone has a unique wood grain, making it visually innovative, replacing the hardness and coldness of technology with a natural, soft, and fresh feel.

(Image source: Leitech)

This color scheme, even today, ten years later, is still as stunning as it was a decade ago.

Motorola fans' sentiment, this wave is spot on.

Of course, in addition to the cedar wood color, the moto X50 Ultra also comes in two other leather colors - "Yuan Dai Mo" and "Rou He Tao Limited Edition."

The moto X50 Ultra we received is in the "Yuan Dai Mo" color, with an organic leather material. The deep black conceals a hint of dark green, giving it a business-like appearance. With a thickness of 8.59mm and a body weight of less than 200g, it also brings a distinctively lightweight feel compared to other top-tier flagships.

(Image source: Leitech)

How shall I put it? Although the low-key and business-like atmosphere of Yuan Dai Mo is also quite good, if given a choice, I think most people's first choice would be cedar wood?

At the camera module, Motorola uses a glass lens cover, with a smooth transition from the leather body through a beveled cut.

The lens module is arranged in an inverted triangle, with the 50MP main camera at the top left, the 50MP ultra-wide angle at the top right, the 64MP 3x periscope telephoto at the bottom left, and two monochrome LED fill lights and a rear light sensor integrated at the bottom right. The overall appearance is quite harmonious, giving a sense of "impossible curves."

(Image source: Leitech)

Flipping to the front, the moto X50 Ultra is equipped with a 1.5K 144Hz 6.7-inch OLED screen.

With DCI-P3 high color gamut and HDR 10+ display, it has Pantone color and skin tone dual certifications, supports global DC dimming, and has a peak brightness of 2800nits. Text display is clear and not blurry, and color reproduction is closer to reality, though it may not be as appealing as the common vibrant colors.

(Image source: Leitech)

Worth mentioning is that Motorola has designed some easter eggs for this new phone. For example, its packaging includes a fragrance, developed in collaboration with the globally renowned fragrance brand Firmenich, blending amber, wood, and musk scents, leaving a lingering aroma even after a week of standing.

Ah, this is indeed a "truly fragrant" phone.

Imaging: Hundredfold Periscope, Ascending to New Heights

As Motorola's most luxurious imaging module to date, the moto X50 Ultra is equipped with three high-pixel lenses.

The main camera uses a 1/1.3-inch OV50H sensor, with 50 million pixels, f/1.6 aperture, supporting all-directional PDAF and OIS optical image stabilization. This year's Xiaomi 14, 14 Pro, and Honor Magic6 series are all using this main camera, making it a very standard flagship model.

(Image source: Leitech)

Thanks to the quality of the OV50H, the moto X50 Ultra performs well in daytime imaging, with excellent dynamic range and noise control. The landscape photos it captures are natural and realistic, making it very suitable for photography enthusiasts.

(Image source: Leitech)

At night, the first impression of the moto X50 Ultra is "clean." The bright areas are not overexposed, and the dark details are preserved, without obvious noise. The exposure and resolution performance is surprisingly good, resembling the popular "leave the feeling of the night" sample photos in recent years, though the colors may appear a bit pale.

Next is the telephoto lens. This time, Motorola chose the well-known OV64B as the periscope telephoto lens, supporting up to 3x optical zoom. Besides some extreme positioning imaging flagships, many flagships are also using this sensor for telephoto photography.

(10x sample)

(30x sample)

I took simple 1X, 10X, and 30X samples for comparison. It can be seen that around the 30X range, this camera still has decent playability, but the 100X sample will show obvious AI-enhanced sharpening traces, making it evident that AI technology is at work.

The ultra-wide-angle lens is also 50 million pixels with a 122° field of view.

(Image source: Leitech)

This lens is excellent for capturing open scenes or tall buildings, easily encompassing large-scale photos. Travel enthusiasts will undoubtedly appreciate the ultra-wide-angle lens.

Performance: Flagship Benchmark, Empowered by AI

To put it simply, the moto X50 Ultra can be considered one of the first "true" flagship products to be equipped with the Snapdragon 8s Gen3 chip based on TSMC's 4nm process technology.

The CPU adopts a "1+4+3" design similar to the Snapdragon 8 Gen2, upgrading the Cortex-X3 to the more energy-efficient Cortex-X4. The A715 and A710, which compromise for 32-bit applications, are also upgraded to Cortex-A720, and even the energy-efficient cores have been upgraded. The GPU is based on the Adreno 730, with hardware ray tracing and overclocking to 1100Mhz, becoming the Adreno 735.

AnTuTu's comprehensive benchmark score exceeds 1.53 million, and GeekBench 6 scores 2006 for single-core and 5200 for multi-core, indicating decent performance.

(Image source: Leitech)

With this performance, handling light games like "League of Legends: Wild Rift" and "Honor of Kings" is more than sufficient. Even for large-scale games like "Genshin Impact" and "Honkai: Star Rail," it can deliver a flagship-worthy gaming experience.

However, Motorola did not focus on performance as its main selling point this time but placed "interconnection" and "AI" in a more important position.

Let's talk about "interconnection" first. The moto X50 Ultra is equipped with a super interconnectivity application.

This app allows the phone to interconnect with any PC that has downloaded the app, enabling the PC to utilize phone functions such as multi-app operation, easy phone mirroring, cross-screen keyboard and mouse control, and text transmission. This is considered the most open interconnectivity application on the market, with excellent delay control, which I really like.

(Image source: Leitech)

Now let's talk about "AI." As Motorola's first AI phone, the moto X50 Ultra comes with Lenovo Xiao Tian's personal AI assistant, along with a series of AI functions such as Smart Screen Recognition, AI Artist, AI Travel Assistant, and Smart Scenarios.

(Image source: Leitech)

From my actual experience, Lenovo Xiao Tian has completely replaced Motorola's previous personal assistant. The AI voice synthesis-enabled conversations indeed eliminate some of the mechanical feel and possess fast response capabilities and precise semantic understanding, but it still needs improvement when dealing with time-sensitive information or more complex issues.

Now let's talk about something more fun, like the "AI Artist" function. Unlike other similar functions that strictly limit keywords, Motorola not only allows you to input keywords but also customize image sizes and supports multiple artistic styles, such as anime, cyberpunk, and traditional Chinese style, providing a richer experience.

(Image source: Leitech)

However, from the actual generated images, this function occasionally produces images that don't match the subject matter and requires dedicated resources for redemption. The new phone comes with 15,000 energy points, and each image consumes 300 energy points. It's not clear how to replenish them at the moment.

Finally, there's the "Smart Screen Recognition" function. The moto X50 Ultra can recognize text content on the screen and copy it with one click, or directly invoke this function after taking a screenshot and jump to Lenovo Xiao Tian's Q&A. If you want to search for content, you can also directly use Baidu for precise search, bringing more convenience in usage.

(Image source: Leitech)

Summary: The Most Unique AI Flagship

As usual, let's summarize the product's strengths and weaknesses.

Strengths:

1. High-quality triple camera module with impressive periscope telephoto performance;

2. The wooden back cover returns to its original intention, giving it a unique, transcendent feel;

3. Rich Lenovo Xiao Tian AI functions.

Weaknesses:

1. It does not use the Snapdragon 8 Gen3;

2. It does not use a 2K screen, though the screen quality is good.

As Motorola's first flagship model released this year, the moto X50 Ultra is undoubtedly a unique AI flagship smartphone.

(Image source: Leitech)

From a hardware perspective, this phone's overall configuration is indeed quite comprehensive, basically having everything you need.

The Snapdragon 8s Gen3 provides flagship-level performance; the 1.5K 144Hz OLED screen, while not as delicate,