2019 Motorola Razr: Release Date, Price, and Specs for the Clamshell Icon

The original folding phone, the Motorola Razr, is poised to return in a rebooted style as soon as summer 2019.

Dan Dery, Motorola’s VP of Global Product, told Endgadget this week that Motorola has long held foldable phone ambitions, and that the public will soon catch a glimpse of what’s its been developing.

“We started to work on foldable a long time ago and we have been doing a lot of iteration,” he said. “[Motorola has] no intention of coming later than everybody else in the market.”

Dery didn’t explicitly mention a Razr comeback, but there’s been ample evidence that suggests that Motorola plotting the return of the iconic clamshell phone.

Will the possible second-coming of the Razr be nothing more than a publicity stunt, or a return to ubiquity for the design? Here’s everything we know about the potential return of the Motorola Razr.

Motorola Razr: When Will It Be Revealed?

Motorola’s foldable phone could make its debut as early as summer 2019. Dery stated that Motorola plans on keeping up with the Samsung Fold and Huawei Mate X, which have a folding screen.

Motorola Razr: How Much Will It Cost?

A previous leaks have also suggested that the foldable Razr might also carry an eye-watering price tag. The Wall Street Journal reported on January 16 that Motorola’s parent company, Lenovo Group, has partnered with Verizon to bring the phone to market at around $1,500.

The Razr’s revival will be extremely limited, with plans to manufacture about 200,000 of the flexible-display devices. This conservative release could be a way for Motorola to test the foldable phone waters. Multiple analysts have predicted that sales of bendable devices will be low because of how expensive they are.

Brokerage Hana Investment & Securities told Reuters that it expects the 2 million Galaxy Fold units to sell over 2019, which would be less than one percent of the 291 million smartphones Samsung sold in 2018. Motorola will likely factor in these market predictions before its starts manufacturing millions of Razrs.

Motorola Razr: What Will It Look Like?

A design patent for the alleged Razr was published by the World Intellectual Property Organization in May 2018 and began floating around online soon after. The blueprints included depict a slender, clamshell smartphone like the Razr of yesteryear but it’s a whole other animal when it’s flipped open.

Inside it’ll house a single, long display that can be folded in half to comfortably fit in your jeans. Smartphone enthusiasts online surmised that the outside of the Razr could also have a display to view notifications when it’s flipped shut.

There have multiple unofficial renders made of the device made, which have highlighted where the Razr could shine and where it could fall flat.

Motorola Razr: Design Pros

Nostalgia fans will go nuts over the foldable Razr if any of these renders are accurate. News outlet Yanko Design created renders based on the Motorola patent that were absolutely eye-popping.

The most compelling part of the render is the stunning display, which offers a 19:8 aspect ratio that spans the entire length of the device when it’s opened up, along with its bottom chin and small top notch. When closed, it becomes roughly the size of a Post-It note with a small, square display that seems mostly designed for displaying notifications when the phone’s not in use.

Motorola Razr: Design Cons

The early glimpses we’ve caught of the Razr have revealed a device that isn’t as versatile as the Galaxy Fold or Mate X. They’ smartphone-tablet hybrids that users can expand when the user wants to watch a video or close up to make a call. It’s not yet clear whether the new Razr will be able to seamlessly transition between the two orientations,

Its renders also depict a single camera lens found directly beneath the notification display, but there were no signs of a front-facing camera. The 2004 Razr didn’t include a selfie camera either, but a front lens has since become a baseline mobile phone feature. Not being able to easily take selfies with the phones feels like it could be a deal-breaker in the Instagram age, especially considering the eye-watering price tag it’s expected to launch with.

Motorola Razr: Will It Support 5G?

There hasn’t been any official world about whether or not Motorola’s foldable phone will be 5G-enabled. But there’s an early hint that suggests that it could support the fifth-generation of mobile data technology.

The fact that Lenovo Group is reportedly partnering with Verizon to bring the phone to market could suggest it will tout 5G capabilities. Motorola released the 5G-supporting Moto Z3 in mid-2018 available exclusively through Verizon. It might try to do the same with its foldable phone.

Verizon has also been busy working on establishing the infrastructure needed to bring the fifth generation of wireless broadband tech to 30 cities across the United States. It’s most recently partnered with Samsung for its upcoming Galaxy S10 5G.

Motorola’s potential Razr could try to capitalize on people’s fond memories of flip phones by giving them access to next-generation features. Expect to hear more about the potential comeback of the legendary flip phone in the following months.