Friday, March 29, 2024

The Motorola Razr may return as a foldable phone — for $1,500

Share

In 2007 Paris Hilton with her pink Motorola Razr V3 made the Razr the most popular phone. (Credit: MTV)

Remember the Motorola Razr V3? Motorola’s fashionable clamshell is one of the iconic phones ever released, easily on the same level as the Nokia 3310 and the original iPhone. While the original phone is now likely just a memory, it’s apparently getting a spiritual successor in the form of a foldable Motorola Razr smartphone that could arrive as early as February. The bad news? It’s set to cost $1,500.

According to the Wall Street Journal, Lenovo (the company that owns Motorola) has partnered with Verizon to sell the device in the U.S. No details on the nature of the device are known yet, outside of the fact that it will be a foldable smartphone — neatly encompassing future trends and the original Razr’s charm — and will carry Motorola Razr branding. Whether or not the phone will emulate the original phone’s long and thin form is also not known, but it seems like an obvious choice for Lenovo. With February being the speculated release date, we don’t have long to wait to find out.

While the decision to bring back the Razr brand is a shock, we’ve known a Motorola-branded foldable smartphone has at least been in the design stage since June. Last year, Motorola was awarded a patent on a folding smartphone design that featured a heated central hinge that would “heal” imperfections in the OLED screen caused by the bending. It’s entirely possible this design could form the basis of the updated Razr V3.

The inclusion of a heated central hinge could also explain the high prospective price tag. Folding phones aren’t looking cheap and the Motorola Razr folding phone will be no different in that regard. A price of around $1,500 is likely according to the Wall Street Journal’s sources, and that seems likely. Frankly, compared to the Samsung Galaxy foldable phone‘s possible $2,550 cost, the Razr seems like a bargain.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RVzE1YS9UWM?feature=oembed&w=100&h=100]

This isn’t the first time the Razr brand has been brought back into the spotlight. Lenovo used the Razr V3 to hype a folding Lenovo smartphone in 2016, and the Razr name was originally re-used on a series of decent Android smartphones. This will be the first time we’ve heard from the Razr brand in years, and we’re looking forward to seeing more. However, with Nokia having capitalized on nostalgia for its own products, would it be too much to ask for a re-release of the original Motorola Razr V3 as a dumb phone?

Editors’ Recommendations

  • Motorola’s P40 is a mishmash of Apple, Honor, Huawei, and Samsung designs
  • Smartphone makers are vomiting a torrent of new phones, and we’re sick of it
  • Your ultimate guide to Motorola’s 2018 smartphone lineup
  • Motorola One and Motorola One Power: Everything you need to know
  • Apple’s foldable iPhone: Here’s everything we know





Read more

More News