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The Motorola Razr Could Return as a $1,500 Foldable Smartphone (techcrunch.com) 100

Posted by msmash from the up-next dept.
The iconic Motorola RAZR might be making a comeback as a $1,500 foldable screen smartphone, and it could launch as early as February, according to a new report from The Wall Street Journal. From a report: The price point puts the handset north of even Apple and Samsung's flagships, at $1,500. Of course, there isn't really a standardized price point for the emerging foldables category yet. The Royole FlexPai starts at around $1,300 -- not cheap, especially for a product from a relative unknown. And Samsung, the next on the list to embrace the foldable, has never been afraid to hit a premium price point. Ultimately, $1,500 could well be standard for these sorts of products. Whether or not consumers are willing to pay that, however, is another question entirely.
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The Motorola Razr Could Return as a $1,500 Foldable Smartphone More

The Motorola Razr Could Return as a $1,500 Foldable Smartphone

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  • If I could get an old razr with a slightly larger screen that will do music, podcasts, and cat pictures, I would be good to go.

    • Ah the I love Retro, however I want all the modern features post.

      The Razr was a top of the line consumer phone at the time. Not because of its features, but because how thin it was. During its time we had smart phones such as the blackberry and other that were darn close to blackberries running Windows CE and Windows x Mobile. Which gave a lot of features. However they were larger and bulky, and expensive. So the Razr was popular.

      Now I am tired of the rectangle glass screen design for a phone. But I don'

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by lgw ( 121541 )

        Now I am tired of the rectangle glass screen design for a phone. But I don't see the Razr as being an upgrade, because as you are pointing out, you will need the modern features on the phone, we can't go back to just having a number pad.

        I'd love a number pad and a half-sized screen, but I doubt that's what they're making. At the price point it will be a foldable OLED, that is the usual glass rectangle when opened all the way. More's the pity.

      • A modern razr could possibly be a touch screen the entire size of the case, no physical number pad, more screen.
        Hopefully folding, lower part all screen, upper part speaker and non-screen electronics. A joyful return to having the main screen protected so you can safely put it into your pocket with something else.
        It would also likely be open to 3rd party apps so it would be more functional.

        I think a modernization could do a great job of blending the old proven design and modern functionality.

        Persona

    • If I could get an old razr with a slightly larger screen that will do music, podcasts, and cat pictures, I would be good to go.

      A new RAZR should be a dual-screen flip phone. Only, what OS would it run? Android with hackiness for the second screen, or something else inherently hacky?

    • They used to make one!
      Back in 2004
      https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000... [amazon.com]

    • It looks like Samsung makes one!
      https://www.samsung.com/hk_en/... [samsung.com]

  • What marketing person came up with that? Royole FlexPai? Terrible.

  • NO! (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Zorro ( 15797 ) on Wednesday January 16, 2019 @11:15AM (#57972430)

    NO cellphone is worth $1500!

    Does it include Star Trek Beaming or Time Travel? No? Then it isn't worth its weight in gold!

    • Re: (Score:3)

      by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

      There is a narrow window where a small but significant number of idiots will pay silly prices to have the first flexible phone.

      • I bought one.

      • Re:NO! (Score:5, Funny)

        by Nidi62 ( 1525137 ) on Wednesday January 16, 2019 @11:32AM (#57972522)

        There is a narrow window where a small but significant number of idiots will pay silly prices to have the first flexible phone.

        Too bad they are already late to the party. Apple came out with a flexible phone in 2014.

        • Re:NO! (Score:4, Interesting)

          by jellomizer ( 103300 ) on Wednesday January 16, 2019 @11:43AM (#57972598)

          That was a great feature, the phone was designed to mold itself to the owners butt, making it more comfortable to carry over time.

          However I never got why people put their phone in their back pocket. It is like hold on a moment while I pull something from my butt and put it next to my face.

          • Re:NO! (Score:4, Interesting)

            by burningcpu ( 1234256 ) on Wednesday January 16, 2019 @01:57PM (#57973318)
            I used to keep my cell phone in the only sane location I could think of, the front left pocket of my jeans. However, as the width of these phones has increased, this location became less tenable.

            I've adopted the butt phone placement and broken a phone screen because of it. But I don't think I can go back, until we start having smaller screens again, or a technological feat that obviates this need.
            • Cargo trousers. I don't want to carry anything around the parts of my clothing that also need to flex for mobility.
          • Keys and wallet are up front. Don't always wear a jacket, or a shirt with a pocket. Leaves you without a lot of options, and anyway, it's not like I'm tucking it in the waistband of my underwear. The trousers are clean.

          • Re: (Score:2)

            by mspohr ( 589790 )

            That's why shirts have pockets.

          • One alternative is 'hold on while I put something that has been near my crotch next to my face'.

            Somehow it does not seem like a good concept, now.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

          The first gen stuff wasn't all that good though. When they came out with the flexible tablets in 2018, pre-bent at the factory to save you the bother, that's when the tech really got good.

      • A fool and their money, something something

    • Re: (Score:3)

      by TWX ( 665546 )

      Honestly if a smartphone could serve as a laptop replacement for the kind of work that I would use it for, it might well be worth that $1500. That kind of work involves datacenter and telecommunications closet equipment service, like consoling in to systems.

      I have experimented with using a borderline-phablet smartphone, a bluetooth keyboard and mouse, and a USB-OTG cable to let me use an FTDI serial console cable. It works OK, but is limited by the way that Android handles mouse functions, and some other

      • It's $80, but the Apple keyboards are somewhat portable and a lot more durable than most. Depends how small you really want it.

        • Yeah, but Apple keyboards are missing a whole lot of keys. You need to press function modifier keys even for basic stuff like PgUp, PgDown, DEL, etc.

          Nobody in their right mind could use (eg.) a macbook for programming.

          • Re: (Score:2)

            by TWX ( 665546 )

            That's one of the few things that annoys me about my personal Dell XPS 13, the lack of dedicated home/end/pgup/pgdn keys.

            At work I'm still using a fairly old Thinkpad Yoga 12.5" because it still has dedicated hardware keys and because it's got enough border around the screen that it's relatively durable in equipment spaces. I'd have rather they bought me a Panasonic Toughbook or equivalent (it also would've had a physical 9-pin serial port for consoling) but they didn't want to do that.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by TWX ( 665546 )

          Apple keyboard is far too large.

          This was the last one I tried:

          iclever [amazon.com]

          It fit in my pocket, but the way the backside covers over the hinging areas were designed they just broke off after being dropped, with the plastic snapping.

      • A Bluetooth to RS-232 adapter works well, but if you're already using a BT keyboard, you may be out of luck if you can't connect to both at the same time.
        Example:
        http://www.blutronium.com/ [blutronium.com]

    • NO cellphone is worth $1500!

      Ironically no one sells a cellphone anymore. Who the hell uses a cellphone anyway. I prefer to talk into a pocket computer.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by dohzer ( 867770 )

      You're right! Just make it $2000 instead.

  • For a phone? (Score:2, Interesting)

    by Anonymous Coward

    Ultimately, $1,500 could well be standard for these sorts of products. Whether or not consumers are willing to pay that, however, is another question entirely.

    Jesus, that is getting into the price point where you could buy one hell of a desktop machine.

    People and their damn phones. No way I'd spend anywhere near that on a phone. Then again, I don't understand why people are so obsessed with their phones as I don't use a smartphone.

    I can't tell you how often I see a family of 4 in a restaurant, and absolut

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by TWX ( 665546 )

      Don't think of it as a smartphone, think of it as replacing that desktop computer and adding more functionality to boot.

      • You can think like that, but only if you use productivity tools and nothing requiring any real computing power. A dock with a bigger CPU and more RAM might be in the future for continuity, but right now, there's little contest between a real desktop and a phone for real work.

  • ”Whether or not consumers are willing to pay that, however, is another question entirely.”

    A foldable phone might be handy... but not THAT handy.

  • Motorola Phone Pricing drops fast (Score:3)

    by leonbev ( 111395 ) on Wednesday January 16, 2019 @11:27AM (#57972492) Journal

    If the pricing works like any of the older Motorola phones, the phone will only cost $1,500 for about three months and the price will quickly drop after that.

    Within a year, the phone will be "free" if you sign up for a 2 year contract extension.

    • That was before Apple showed everyone the "way.". If it's still your newest model, you can get away with charging the same price for years until the day the next model comes out. And instead of fire sale to clear out inventory, the old model mostly disappears from the market.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by leonbev ( 111395 )

        I haven't been able to see any company but Apple pull off that stunt, and even then Apple has only been able to hold the original MSRP for about a year on their new phones before dropping them at their stores to make room for the new model.

        Besides, the phone carriers start discounting Apple phones as well once the initial launch hype wears off. It might take six months, but even the shiny new iPhone Max models get a price cut when bundled with a contract.

        • Yeah, I was definitely drawing more on their Mac Pro, Mac Mini, and MacBook Pro for that comment. Even their iPads have had a few models like that.

  • The thing about the Razr was (Score:3)

    by rsilvergun ( 571051 ) on Wednesday January 16, 2019 @11:51AM (#57972636)
    When you pulled one out everyone saw you had one. It was the iPhone of it's day. A bit of expensive kit to show people how much money you had to throw around. I'm not sure they can recapture that. Apple tried with the X line and failed.

    • I agree that the X isn't what Apple hoped. I wonder if the problem isn't the price, however, but the fact that people can't easily tell it's an X; thus no dopamine hits from spectators nearby going "hey, is that the new X? Oooohhh." Assuming the owner puts it in a case, it doesn't look substantially different from every other black rectangle you see just about everywhere. There's a reason Luis Vuitton plasters their logo all over everything. There is a segment of people who will pay extra for attention

  • I have a Razr in a drawer at home I'll only charge $15 for if you want one.

  • Considering there are more than 1000 laptops in the $1250-$1500 price bracket alone on NewEgg, not to mention thousands more cheaper than $1250, I fail to see the utility of a laptop-priced clamshell device (so innovative) that doesn't have a keyboard and has a dinky screen. How many people can there possibly be with that much stupid money to spend on a non-Apple product?

  • It will be entertaining to see how quickly this new company goes under.

    They seem to be under the same delusion that TV manufacturers had with 4K, in that they think just having the technology is enough to have a successful product.

    Technology for technology's sake is not good enough. There has to be a great enough value proposition to make the product worth buying. And I can't think of anything that would be valuable enough for me to justify spending $1500USD on a phone, regardless of how fancy the display

  • Comment removed based on user account deletion

  • Apparently no one has told them how well Apple is selling iPhones at the ~$1k level.

    If you have any Motorola stock, I would probably get rid of it now.

  • Set it on Vibrate... start saving.

  • On bigger computers, we learned that you need to avoid proprietary dependencies so you don't get utterly fucked. Then everyone got a proprietary handheld PC, where they are perpetually fucked.

    On bigger computers, we noticed the prices just kept falling. Then everyone started buying handheld PCs, where the prices go .. up?!

    It's like phones are desktops for retards.

  • ...It's amazing how little I have ever cared or wanted to be able to fold my phone.
  • ... never sell a single phone!

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