Motorola's foldable Razr reboot tipped for late 2019 launch

Among the foldable smartphones slated for release this year, the Motorola Razr is one of the most intriguing. Although originally planned to have launched this northern hemisphere summer, the device seems to have slipped off the radar. CNET, however, has spoken with a source close to the Lenovo-owned subsidiary who says that the device is still slated for a 2019 launch but that it won’t make its debut until late into Q4. Although no reason was cited for the delay, it is highly likely that they travails faced by the Samsung Galaxy Fold and the Huawei Mate X probably played a role in the postponement of Motorola’s original launch plans.

Renders of the what the rebooted Razr will look like have been circulating for a while now and it looks to be an ideal application of foldable OLED display tech. The original Motorola Razr is one of the most popular smartphones made with its flip phone design going on to sell over 50 million units in the two years following its 2004 debut. It featured a 2.2-inch LCD display in the top half and a laser etched numerical keyboard in the bottom half and was popular for its slick looks and compact design.

The rumored specifications of the Razr of the 2019 reboot would replace the separate top and bottom halves of the original with a single 6.6-inch foldable OLED panel. It is said to be powered by a mid-range Qualcomm Snapdragon 710 in 4 GB/64 GB and 6 GB/128 GB variants. It’s battery is around 2,730 mAh but no details have yet surfaced about its camera specs. Android 9 Pie is the most likely operating system but Android 10 is also a possibility. Like the Galaxy Fold and Mate X, it isn’t going to be cheap, but it should undercut those devices by a few hundred dollars with an expected retail price of US$1,500.