The Motorola Razr is back bringing that 2004 nostalgia flip phone experience but this time with foldable screen and running Android. Will several foldable smartphone form factors starting with the Galaxy fold to Huawei’s Mate X Motorola’s much-rumored modern spin on the iconic flip phone is finally here. The 2019 Razr keeps the same general form factor but replaces the T9 keypad and small LCD with a 6.2-inch foldable plastic OLED panel and Android 9 Pie. It’ll cost UGX 5.5m $1,499 (before tax) when it arrives in January 2020.
The Motorola Razr turns a conventional-sized smartphone into something much smaller and more pocketable. This is a true heir to the original flip phone, with a design that’s heavily inspired by its 2004 predecessor, right down to the big curved chin on the bottom (which now also hosts a more modern fingerprint sensor and a USB-C charging port).
The Motorola Razr Spec Sheet
- 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 Highlight of the Motorola Razr 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.
After Samsung’s fold debacle when it comes to screen durability, there has been skepticism if this won’t happen to the Motorola Razr. 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.” On the downside, the company went with a much less modern processor and we feel that Motorola is compromising a lot in this and 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 also another disappointing decision. Motorola just couldn’t fit a bigger or better camera module while keeping the design it had.
At UGX 5.5m $1,499 (before tax) the Motorola Razr is an expensive phone and initial rollout will start next year in the US but no word on the unlocked version that can be used worldwide.
