Motorola Razr Foldable: a Flip Phone for Modern Age

After months of speculation, the Motorola Razr, which was a household name in the mid-00s at the height of the popularity of flip-phones, is back. It's had a 2019 reboot from Motorola and was launched on Wednesday, 13 November 2019 at an event in Los Angeles.

Razr, with its foldable 6.2-inch screen, 16-megapixel double-duty camera and $1,500 price tag -- is the best designed, most completely thought-out foldable phone to date. Streamlined. Utterly Pocketable. Nostalgic, with a sharp futuristic edge.
Motorola Razr, softly snaps shut from top to bottom, one side laying flat on top of the other, without a visible gap between the two halves of the screen. With this simple act, Motorola has solved one of the biggest design conundrums that the Galaxy Fold and other foldable phones have yet to figure out.

In setting out to create a foldable phone that doubles the screen size while keeping the body small enough to pocket, Motorola has updated its original Razr flip phone from 2004, the brand's most iconic, best-selling phone ever. This new Razr is wider, heavier and fully stocked with features fit for 2019.

The Motorola Razr comes at a crucial time when foldable phones are at a crossroads between hype and reality. A year ago, foldable phones were pegged as the next revolution in phone design, bringing to life the dream of making a large-screen device more portable.
But crippling screen problems and massive delays from the biggest player, Samsung, placed the future of foldable phones in doubt. The late arrival of  Huawei's Mate X hasn't helped either. Now it's Motorola's turn to step into the spotlight. If successful, the struggling brand -- now profitable for the first time in years -- could give foldable phones renewed hope.

Another feature that sets the Motorola apart from other models, is the fact that it folds horizontally rather than vertically, to roughly the same thickness as the original Razr at 14 millimetres.

It also transforms from a palm-sized devices into an average-sized smartphone, rather than opening from a regular phone into a tablet.

The exterior consists of stainless steel and glass, topped off with a smaller "Quick View Display" that can be used to show notifications, control music and take selfies with the front-facing camera.
Even the hallmark "chin" of the original Razr is kept, but kitted out with an additional fingerprint reader, four-speaker system and USB-C port.

Motorola has described the phone as "design-first" as evidenced by its mid-range six gigabyte RAM, 128 gigabyte storage and Snapdragon 710 chip.

Foldable screens have been dominating the smartphone world this year, with most major players sharing their take on the trend.

Beyond Samsung and Huawei's high-profile launches, Microsoft unveiled the two-screen Surface Duo – which can be opened like a book and used like a game controller – while Energizer debuted its Power Max P8100S, whose specs are "better than many people's laptops".

Specifications:
Snapdragon 710 processor
6GB RAM
128GB internal storage
6.2-inch foldable pOLED display (2142 x 876)
2.7-inch Quick View display (800 x 600)
16MP front-facing camera, f/1.7 with Night Vision mode
5MP internal camera
2510mAh battery
USB-C
eSIM
Android 9 Pie
Fingerprint reader

The core of the phone is, of course, the display. It’s a 6.2-inch 21:9 plastic OLED panel that folds in half along the horizontal axis. Unfolded, it’s not dramatically bigger than any other modern phone, and the extra height is something that the Android interface and apps adapt to far better than a tablet-size screen. The screen does have a notch on top for a speaker and camera and a curved edge on the bottom, which takes a bit of getting used to, but after a minute or two, you barely notice it.

There’s also a second, 2.7-inch glass-covered OLED display on the outside that Motorola calls the Quick View display. It can show notifications, music controls, and even a selfie camera mode to take advantage of the better main camera. Motorola is also working with Google to let apps seamlessly transition from the front display to the main one.

There are some concerns about durability for the folding display, especially after Samsung’s Galaxy Fold issues. But Motorola says that it has “full confidence in the durability of the Flex View display,” claiming that its research shows that “it will last for the average lifespan of a smartphone.” There’s a proprietary coating to make the panel “scuff resistant,” and it also has an internal nano-coating for splash resistance. (Don’t take it swimming, though.)

Motorola says that the entire display is made with a single cut, with the edges entirely enclosed by the stainless steel frame to prevent debris from getting in. The company also points to its years of experience with plastic OLED panels (going back as far as 2011), noting, “We’re not going to go out there and say, ‘consumers should be cautious of how they use the phone.’
Despite Motorola’s assurances of the Razr’s durability, the company is promising a “special world class service plan,” with 24/7 chat support and 14-hour-per-day direct access to a customer service agent as well as 24-hour turnaround for repairs.

Additionally, the one-year warranty period will offer free replacement or repairs to the phone or display for “defects incurred during normal use.” Once the warranty is over, though, replacing the foldable screen will cost $299.

On the flip side, that Razr design is so core to the experience here that Motorola is compromising a lot in other areas. The processor is a Snapdragon 710; that’s not a bad chipset, but it’s not a flagship 855 either. The company says that the decision here for the weaker processor is to optimize battery life and heat: in order to have a day-long battery and the thin design, it had to go with a slower chip. The lackluster 16-megapixel camera is a similar decision. Motorola just couldn’t fit a bigger or better camera module while keeping the design it had.

November 15, 2019