Motorola Razr inches towards big reveal

Earlier in the year, a leaked image revealed that Motorola might be jumping in on the foldable bandwagon too, albeit with a very different approach towards design and usability.

Now, tipster Evan Blass (@evleaks) has all but confirmed its existence by releasing the renders of the product ahead of it's reported November 13th launch, and it looks like the phone is Motorola's modern homage to the original folding flip phones - especially the classic Razr V3.

The first thing you'd notice from the images is just how small the device is. Over the past few years, we've become accustomed to huge, 6.5-inch smartphones that offer a great content consumption experience, but are often cumbersome to hold and are drop-prone. Many people would much rather have a smaller phone for basic texting and calls, and the occasional YouTube video or two, while preferring larger laptop screens or televisions for movies and more.

Motorola seems to have taken note of this, offering a clamshell-designed phone with what appears to be a plastic body, that when closed, becomes ultra-compact for the best portability offered by any smartphone. While closed, there is a square display on the front panel (with a rumoured resolution of 600 x 800p) for notifications and as a selfie viewfinder for the camera placed above it, and on the rear panel is the primary camera.

The hinge appears to be mechanical, and once opened, the phone houses a reportedly 6.2-inch OLED foldable display with a notch at the top and a thick chin at the bottom for fingerprint unlocking and a home button. The OLED display may be as tall as some large smartphones, but it is much narrower, allowing for a more ergonomic and comfortable grip on the phone. Internally, XDA Developers reported that the phone might be powered by the mid-range Snapdragon 670 or the 710, with 4 and 6 gigabyte RAM options and a 2,370mAh battery.

The Moto Razr looks like a genuinely refreshing take on the concept of a foldable phone, offering a futuristic look at what a smartphone can be while banking on the nostalgia of the original flip phones. The device is expected to be announced officially at the Motorola event scheduled to be held on November 13, for which the company sent out invites promising a "highly anticipated unveiling of a reinvented icon", adding a tongue-in-cheek "You're going to flip" to it as well.

The device is rumoured to cost $1500 (around Rs 1,10,000). However, the MRP is likely to be much less given the internal hardware specifications are not on par with the current crop of flagship mobiles, but match mid-range phones.

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