Following countless leaks, Motorola’s foldable Razr was officially announced last month, and unlike a vast majority of handsets from phone makers not named Apple or Samsung, it made a real splash. Consumers had been anticipating an exciting foldable device for years, and the Lenovo subsidiary delivered. Ironically, the subsequent demand for the device was more than Motorola was ready to handle, and now the Razr has been delayed.
“Motorola has decided to adjust Razr’s presale and launch timing to better meet consumer demand,” Motorola said in a statement on Friday, relayed by Bloomberg. “We are working to determine the appropriate quantity and schedule to ensure that more consumers have access to Razr at launch.”
Motorola wasn’t ready to announce a new release date, but the company doesn’t expect a “significant shift” from the initial release date. Preorders were expected to begin in December, with the launch slated for January.
If you followed the disastrous Galaxy Fold saga earlier this year, you might be suspicious that the delay is actually the result of technical issues, of which Samsung faced several. But Motorola’s sticking to its story that it simply can’t meet demand in January, and Bloomberg also cites a quote from design chief Ruben Castano regarding the frequent failure rate of foldable devices: “We feel like we’ve really developed a robust solution.”
As you can see in the video above, the design is clearly heavily inspired by the original Razr V3. As anachronistic as the design may look in 2019, nostalgia is a powerful drug, and countless 20- and 30-somethings that owned a Razr in the mid-aughts likely has some affinity for the old-school flip phone. They may not have an affinity for the $1,499 price tag, but if the demand is as high as Motorola suggests, the price may not matter.
