The Razr IS coming back: Motorola confirms it will launch a folding touchscreen version of the iconic flip phone this year
- Motorola’s first folding phone, modeled after the Razr, will launch this summer
- The futuristic device will be a folding phone with a touchscreen, CNET reported
- It comes after a separate report said the phone would be priced at $1,500
- Motorola recently patented a folding phone that’s similar to the 2000s-era Razr
The iconic Razr flip phone is getting a futuristic facelift.
Motorola has confirmed that it plans to reboot the Razr this summer as a folding phone with a touchscreen, CNET reported, citing sources close to the situation.
Speculation has been building over the last few months that Motorola, which is owned by Chinese tech giant Lenovo, will launch a redesigned Razr phone.
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Motorola has confirmed that it plans to reboot the Razr this summer as a folding phone with a touchscreen, CNET reported. Pictured are sketches of a folding device from a Motorola patent
A source with knowledge of Motorola’s plans told CNET that the foldable Razr would have a different design compared to other folding phones currently on the market.
Samsung’s $1,980 Galaxy Fold, debuted earlier this month, packs a 7.3-inch display when opened and a 4.6-inch display when closed.
Meanwhile, Huawei’s $2,600 Mate X, revealed this week at the annual Mobile World Congress conference, has a screen that measures 8 inches diagonally.
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The Galaxy Fold is slated to launch April 26th and the Mate X will hit the shelves later this year.
A recent report from The Wall Street Journal claimed that the rebooted Razr device could be priced at $1,500.
Dan Dery, Motorola’s vice president of Global Product, told Engadget that a folding phone has been in the works for ‘a long time.’
The patent showed off a folding device that looks similar to the iconic flip phone (pictured), aside from a folding screen on the inside and another display on the outside of the device
Sketches of the phone show that it would keep some elements of the 2000s-era Razr, like the large chin at the bottom of the phone, as well as the hinge allowing it to flip open and closed
‘We started to work on foldables a long time ago,’ Dery explained. ‘And we have been doing a lot of iteration.
He added that the company has ‘no intention of coming later than everybody else in the market.’
Motorola recently filed a patent showing off a folding device that looks similar to the iconic flip phone, aside from a folding screen on the inside and another medium-sized display on the outside of the device.
While the Mate X and Galaxy Fold unfurl to become a larger device, Motorola’s patent shows a phone that would be folded to become more compact and portable.
Sketches of the device show that it would keep some of the familiar elements of the 2000s-era Razr, like the large chin at the bottom of the phone, as well as the hinge allowing it to flip open and closed.
Dery told Engadget that the company was pursuing this type of design so that the screen would be less likely to become damaged.
A source with knowledge of Motorola’s said the foldable Razr would have a different design compared to other folding phones currently on the market, such as Huawei’s Mate X (pictured)
The foldable Razr would also differ from Samsung’s Galaxy Fold (pictured), which launched earlier this month. The $1,980 device unfolds to become a 7.3-inch screen, the size of a tablet
‘When you know the scratching issues you would be facing, you will have something that is very rapidly not usable,’ he said.
However, Dery said the firm is also exploring a device with a single screen that folds twice, leaving a third of the display visible when not in tablet mode, according to Engadget.
That device is unlikely to be Motorola’s first folding phone, though, as the design is quite complicated, he added.
With a $1,500 price tag, it would cost more than double the original $600 Razr.
It wouldn’t mark the first time that Motorola has attempted to resurrect the Razr name.
In 2011, the company partnered with Verizon to launch the Droid Razr, a smartphone that didn’t replicate the original flip phone design, but instead featured a 4.3-inch display and claimed to be the ‘world’s thinnest smartphone’ at 7.1mm thick.
THE RISE OF THE RAZR
2004: Motorola releases the Razr V3, the first phone in the Razr line. Its ultra-thin design allowed the device to be marketed as an ultra high-end phone.
Motorola released the original Razr phone, called the V3, in 2004
2005: Motorola drops the price of the V3, causing it to sell 50 million units by 2006.
2007: Motorola releases the V3’s successor, called the Razr2. It featured a 2mm thinner body and a micro-USB charger that could also be used to connect a headset.
2008: Sales of the Razr2 began to falter as consumers moved to newer, flashier models like Apple’s iPhone, which was released a year earlier.
Its successor, the Razr3, was eventually discontinued amid declining sales.
2011: Motorola teams up with Verizon to release the Droid Razr, a 4G LTE capable smartphone that it claimed was the ‘thinnest smartphone ever.’
2019: Speculation begins to build that the company is planning to launch a foldable Razr successor, including patents that suggest a device could be coming this year.
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