By: Bryan Tropeano
Flashback 15 years ago – if you were one of the cool kids with a Motorola Razr, you could get into any party, any room, anywhere. Then the iPhone debuted and following it, a long line of copycat smartphones that refused to flip open or close.
Samsung decided to tap into some of our nostalgia for flip phones by releasing their own foldable phone to mixed reviews. I guess it takes the OG master to crack it. Motorola is bringing the Razr back with a smartphone update.
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At first glance, the modern Razr looks an awful lot like the Razr of old, and that was intentional. Motorola is banking on our nostalgia to carry them through to robust sales. While the phone looks like its ancestor, it operates just like a smartphone with a full touchscreen OLED display, fingerprint scanner and USB-C port.
One other thing that might look familiar is the second small touchscreen display on the outside of the phone, mainly visible when folded. This little 2.7-inch display is called “Quick View” and this is where you’ll see notifications and controls for your music, as well as take selfies or call up Google Assistant. This replaces the need to open your phone to see who texted you or to skip forward on a song.
In an interesting marketing move, Motorola is ditching all caps “RAZR” like they used to use in the old days, and instead, are going with the lowercase “razr.” I guess because it’s smaller when folded.
While the phone looks like a homerun on design and functionality, they’re going to need to a lot to drum up enough interest to justify the whopping $1,500 price tag. Sure, other companies like Samsung and Huawei have prices north of that, but those haven’t proven to be incredibly successful. It’s hard to justify anything over $1,000, let alone a phone that doesn’t offer anything over its competitors except the ability to fold.
The new Motorola Razr is available for preorder on December 26 for Verizon customers only with the phone being shipped on January 9th. So if you’ve got rich parents, I know what you should ask for this Christmas.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Bryan Tropeano is a senior producer and a regular reporter for NewsWatch. He lives in Washington D.C. and loves all things Tech.
