Even though it was among the first smartphone brands to launch a phone with a clamshell-style foldable display, Motorola has fallen behind its peers in the race to foldable glory. The company chose not to launch a successor to the Motorola Razr 5G, which was the last foldable phone it released, in September 2020. Reports, however, indicate that a rejuvenated Motorola may finally make a comeback to the world of foldable phones with its third-generation Razr.
Folks at Android Authority managed to dig out a Weibo post by senior Lenovo executive Chen Jin where he confirms that work is underway on the Moto Razr 3 (let’s just call it that for now). Chen confirms that the Razr 3 will be a significant upgrade over the existing Motorola Razr 5G and that it will be more powerful than its predecessors. So far, it’s been a pretty low bar.
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This, perhaps, is an indication that unlike the previous-gen Razr foldables — which featured a midrange Snapdragon 7 series system on a chip (SoC) — the Moto Razr 3 may finally get a top-end Snapdragon 8 series chip from Qualcomm.
Jin, general manager of the Lenovo Mobile Business Group in China, did not say when to expect this new phone. However, given that Motorola is already lagging behind the competition, there is a good chance that we won’t need to wait till 2023 for the Motorola Razr 3 to arrive. Like the recently announced Moto Edge X 30, the Razr 3 will first go on sale in China, Jin confirmed.
Motorola is likely to be extra cautious with the Razr 3 because its previous two foldable devices — while innovative — suffered from major drawbacks, including a subpar camera, multiple software issues, and terrible battery life. Given that Samsung has done a great job with its Galaxy Z Flip 3 and that it may release an even better Galaxy Z Flip 4 by the time the Motorola Razr 3 arrives, Motorola really needs to get this one right.