Motorola's Iconic RAZR Reportedly Making A Comeback As Folding Smartphone
Before the rise of smartphone and especially the iPhone, the Motorola RAZR was THE smartphone that everyone wanted to have. It was stylish, it was thin (for its time) and it was an all-around good smartphone. The RAZR name has long since faded into obscurity, but a new report this morning indicates that Motorola could be bringing it back with a new smartphone.
According to the report from the Wall Street Journal, Lenovo wants Motorola to deliver a folding smartphone to counter incoming entries from the likes of Samsung, Huawei, and LG. Motorola's standing in the smartphone world has eroded quite a bit over the years, and its sales don't come anywhere close to matching the like of Samsung or Huawei. However, Lenovo is betting that a slickly designed folding smartphone could be ticket to gaining a lot of mindshare with consumers.
What's interesting, according to the report, is that Motorola's RAZR will launch as soon as this February. This is remarkable because we haven't heard or seen one single leak up until this point about the device. Of course, that date could be pushed back a bit, as the reporting suggests that the device is still undergoing final testing in preparation for its public debut.
Lenovo reportedly will only manufacturer roughly 200,000 units of the new RAZR, which is just a small drop in the bucket for a modern smartphone. For example, Apple sold 46.9 million iPhones in fiscal Q1 2018 alone. The RAZR will also have a luxury-item price tag of $1,500, which is more than even the most expensive iPhone XS Max.
Unfortunately, there were no details given on how the smartphone will fold. Will it have a landscape orientation (like a tablet) when unfurled like the Samsung Galaxy F, or will it take on a flip-phone like form-factor? There is also no indication on whether this will be a true folding single-display or if there will be two display panels that can combine into one with a thin "gap" between them.
One thing that we do know, however, is that the new RAZR will be exclusive to the Verizon Wireless network.
