Lenovo’s Motorola division unveiled the 2019 Razr smartphone, marking the resurrection of a beloved series of phones that many of us remember fondly. The original Razr flip phone was a stunning device that had no rival in the industry. This was before the iPhone revolutionized the smartphone business, making phones like the dumb Razr obsolete. Yet Motorola is still looking to take advantage of the power of the Razr brand and convince you to buy the 2019 Razr Version. Motorola did try to keep the Razr name alive with several Android phones in the early days of Android, but none of them looked anything like the original, as none of them could be folded in half. The new handset is like no other Razr flip phone before it, because this one is, after all, a smartphone. And the new Razr happens to be a foldable phone like no other in the industry so far.
Samsung and Huawei both unveiled their first foldable handsets this year, but both the Galaxy Fold and the Mate X are huge handsets that turn into tablets when unfolded. The Razr, meanwhile, looks just like a 2019 all-screen phone when unfolded, featuring a 6.2-inch Flex View pOLED screen (2142 x 876 resolution) — and yes, a rather huge and bulky bottom chin just like the original.
Fold it Razr-style, and you get a rather pocketable device that weighs 205g, complete with a tiny 2.7-inch QuickVIew pOLED screen (800 x 600 resolution) on the outside that gives you quick access to notifications and the selfie camera.
The phone features a “zero-gap hinge” that lets you close the phone completely, which is something the Galaxy Fold can’t achieve. When folded the Razr is 14mm thick, while unfolded, the handset measures just 6.9mm at its thinnest side.
One other difference from the other foldables is the more affordable price. At $1,500, the Razr is $500 cheaper than the Galaxy Fold and around $1,000 less expensive than the Mate X. The phone will hit preorders on December 26th on Verizon and will be available in stores on January 9th. Still, $1,500 is a lot of money to spend on a phone that happens that isn’t a flagship device.
Unlike the Galaxy Fold and Mate X that sport top of the line specs that you’d otherwise find on other 2019 flagships, the Motorola Razr has more modest hardware.
The Snapdragon 710 mid-range chip powers the phone, and it’s bundled with 6GB of RAM, and 128GB of storage. When it comes to cameras, we have just two sensors on the handset, a primary 16-megapixel f/1.7 shooter and a 5-megapixel f/2.0 selfie camera — the main camera works as a selfie shooter when the phone is closed. A rather tiny 2,510 mAh sits inside the foldable handset, supporting up to 15W charging speeds. The phone also runs only Android 9 Pie out of the box, which is somewhat disappointing.
The phone also comes with a fingerprint reader as well as USB-C connectivity. A 3.5mm adaptor does ship in the box, alongside Razr Earbuds wired headphones.
