Motorola Razr 2019 officially announced

After leaks, rumors, and a recent FCC certification, Motorola officially announced the Razr 2019, their new foldable smartphone, tonight at an event in downtown Los Angeles. 

The Razr 2019 is reminiscent of the classic clamshell Razr phone from the mid-2000s on the outside. When opened, users are treated to a tall 6.2-inch 2142x876 plastic OLED foldable display with a 21:9 aspect ratio, similar to Sony’s Xperia 1 and Xperia 10. The display has a small notch at the top containing a 5 MP front-facing camera and a chin at the bottom that holds the fingerprint reader, 4G antenna, and the primary speaker. 

The Razr’s hinge mechanism is getting most of the attention in the press, and with good reason. The hinge allows the flexible display to curl into a small teardrop-like shape in order to prevent creases and to keep dust out. Considering the experience Lenovo (Motorola’s parent company) has with hinge design thanks to the extensive Yoga line of laptops, it’s not surprising that the Razr’s hinge looks well-designed and robust. However, real-world testing will suss out its true reliability.

The exterior of the phone’s lid houses a small 2.7 600x800 OLED touchscreen designed for quick notification checks and simple functions. Right next to this screen is a 16 MP camera with a Sony IMX 519 sensor. 

On paper, the Motorola Razr 2019 looks like an older mid-range Android handset. It runs on the Qualcomm Snapdragon 710 with 6 GB of LPDDR4 RAM. The Razr has 128 GB of non-expandable storage. The plastic back covers a 2510 mAh battery compatible with an included 15 Watt USB-C fast charger. The Razr sports Motorola’s ubiquitous “nanocoating” waterproofing, so it should be as splashproof as other Moto mid-rangers. There is no wireless charging and no headphone jack.

Oddly, there also isn’t a SIM slot; rather, network connections are handled via an eSIM. Additionally, the Razr 2019 will ship with Android 9 Pie, though Motorola has promised a swift update to Android 10. On the plus side, Motorola’s useful gestures (twist to launch the camera, chop to turn on the flashlight) are still here.

The Motorola Razr 2019 will ship in January for US $1499.99 exclusively on Verizon Wireless. The phone should be compatible with other carriers, provided they support an eSIM connection. 

What do you think of the Motorola Razr 2019? Is it worth the $1500 price tag? Let us know your thoughts below.