Motorola reveals the surprising Razr 2 5G announcement date
First-gen foldable Razr smartphone
Foldable designs undoubtedly still have a long way to go before they can become the norm in a smartphone industry dominated by similar-looking rectangular slabs, but you can tell the fledgling market segment has a bright future ahead of it after Microsoft joined the likes of Samsung, Huawei, and Motorola in selling a versatile and decidedly unconventional handset.
Of course, not all foldable devices are created equal, and while the reborn Razr certainly had the nostalgia factor going for it, its deeply flawed design, modest specifications, and excessive pricing essentially made the direct Galaxy Z Flip rival DOA.
To its credit, Motorola never even considered throwing in the towel after the commercial and critical failure of the first-gen foldable Razr smartphone, rolling up its sleeves instead to find the best ways to make a sequel work. While we have no idea if the company will succeed in its difficult task to provide stiff and reliable competition for Samsung’s 5G-enabled Galaxy Z Flip variant, it might not be very long before we’ll find out just how much better the Razr 2 5G is compared to its forerunner.
Get ready to “flip the smartphone experience once again”
While Motorola is a company that almost always has a bunch of different devices in the pipeline, the tagline of its upcoming September 9 event is more than enough to confirm the identity of the announcement ceremony’s protagonist.
The second-gen foldable Razr smartphone is thus scheduled to see daylight less than a year after the formal announcement of its predecessor, which actually lines up perfectly with a number of rumors dating as far back as May.
After all, the OG Razr started selling roughly three months on the heels of its original announcement, although a repeat of that may have catastrophic consequences for the Razr 2’s box office prospects. Especially after Samsung managed to unveil the Galaxy Z Flip 5G in late July and kick off its US shipments in early August.
What to expect from the Motorola Razr 2 5G
First of all, you should obviously not expect a conventional launch event. Instead, everything will take place online on September 9, as is the norm these days for everyone from Apple to Samsung.
In terms of the handset itself, it almost goes without saying that we’re not expecting the design to change that much. After all, there’s only so much you can do with the iconic Razr look before you stray too far from its roots and turn the product into something else entirely.
Leaked Razr 2 5G renders
That being said, a recent rumor called for a pretty significant change in the screen size department, although it’s not entirely clear if that’s on the cards now that the September launch is officially confirmed. If the Razr 2 5G does end up sporting a 6.85-inch or so primary display, previous rumors about an underwhelming 2,800mAh or so battery are naturally unlikely to pan out.
The same probably doesn’t go for the upper mid-range Snapdragon 765 processor, 8 gigs of RAM, 256 gigs of internal storage space, single 48MP rear-facing camera, and 20MP selfie shooter, all of which are likely to materialize whether the Motorola Razr 2 5G retains the 6.2-inch screen of its 4G LTE-only predecessor or it goes all the way up to a Galaxy Z Flip 5G-dwarfing 6.85-inch panel.
Meanwhile, we’re fairly certain the already large 2.7-inch external display will go unchanged, with Android 10 undoubtedly set to run the software show out the box and a price tag unlikely to undercut the Snapdragon 865 Plus-powered Galaxy Z Flip 5G. Don’t get us wrong, we want to believe Motorola will make the sensible decision this time around, but if the original Razr 4G started at $1,500, we have no realistic reason to expect its 5G-capable sequel to cost less.