A New Motorola Razr Foldable is Coming

An anonymous reader shares a report: The Motorola Razr was part of the first wave of foldable phones back in 2019, being the first to offer a clamshell form factor akin to the classic Razr feature phones. Motorola would follow up with the Razr 5G in late 2020, but Samsung's Galaxy Z Flip line had stolen its thunder by then. Now, Lenovo executive Chen Jin has revealed on Weibo that a third-generation Motorola Razr foldable is in the works. According to machine translation, the new foldable phone will have improved power, a tweaked interface, and a better appearance. It also seems like the phone could launch in China first.

Tech has plateaued again

[RightwingNutjob]

Web 1.0, late 90s: Cool new thing equals website.

Web 2.0, 2000s: Cool new thing equals website with comment section.

Phones, 2010s: Cool new thing equals small flat brick with a screen.

Phones, 2020s: And it blends! I mean bends!

Why not make one with two ridig screens?

[ffkom]

I have been a friend of "flip phones" as long as they existed, simply for their much pocket friendlier form factor. But I see no reason why to invest into fragile, super expensive bendable displays. I for one would be perfectly fine with a much cheaper and more robust approach, were two ordinary rigid, planar displays are folded against each other such that when unfolded, their edges are just nearby.

Heck, people accept stupid "notches" within the display for no good reason - a slim inactive stripe in the middle of the display would be way less disturbing to me.

So please, far east makers of reasonably priced phones, consider such a low-tech, high usability approach.

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[NateFromMich]

So please, far east makers of reasonably priced phones, consider such a low-tech, high usability approach.

That would be a standard, single screen phone like we have now.

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[ffkom]

No, those are either too large to be carried around conveniently or have a display that is too small for convenient typing, plus their display is more exposed to the forces of nature than it should be.

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[trinarybit]

Also hard to butt dial when the keyboard is covered.

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[AmiMoJo]

Microsoft did make one with two screens that fold closed. It had mediocre hardware and the software was just bad.

The Oppo Find N shows what a foldable could be. The latest Galaxy Fold isn't bad either. When they get cheaper and get a Google camera I'll probably get one.

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[ffkom]

Well, the Oppo Find N unfolds from the dimensions of a "way too big phone" into a tablet, and similarly does the Samsung Fold. That's not what I am looking for.

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[AmiMoJo]

What are you looking for, a phone that is smaller than an iPhone Mini when folded?

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[nospam007]

"I for one would be perfectly fine with a much cheaper and more robust approach, were two ordinary rigid, planar displays are folded against each other such that when unfolded, their edges are just nearby. "

People wanting to have a small, pocket-friendly phone, just buy an Apple watch.

Marketspeak

[fermion]

Young people would not be caught dead with a flip phone, so we call it foldable. Young people were taught the vegetarian meals were for poor people, so we call it plant based.

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[smooth wombat]

Young people would not be caught dead with a flip phone, so we call it foldable.

Not sure how reliable a source Mashable is, but according to them [mashable.com], the youngest generation, Gen Z, is eschewing "smart" phones in favor of flip phones.

A more reliable source, NPR, said more or less the same thing [pbs.org] two (almost three) years ago.

As someone who grew up in the tech era (Commodore to Windows 10), I own a flip phone. It does what I want without any distractions and I don't have to worry about not being ab

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[fermion]

But do they call them flip phones? Presumably in the same way that vinyl is taking over streaming.

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[OrangeTide]

Plant-based means something is so heavily processes it is no longer recognizable as a vegetable anymore. In comparison they make hot dogs seem all-natural.

The veggie-burger joint near me in fruit & nut hippie California still makes their patties on site the old fashioned way, with a mix of lentils, beans, vegetables, and herbs.

I don't want more fragile

[dmay34]

I mean I know why phone makers want us to buy the most fragile phones imaginable. I mean, they have been putting glass on the backs of phones for a long time now.

There are "rugged" phones out there, but they are all oddly low spec'ed. Why isn't there a top range phone with good multi-camera specs that isn't going to shatter into 1000 glass shards if I look at it wrong.

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[wakeboarder]

This is exactly why phone makers want you to have a foldable phone, phone makers want non-reparable breakable phones which increase sales. Consumers want phones that are exactly the opposite. Many 'features' phone makers market to consumers are in the phone makers interest because it benefits them not the consumer. Homemakers have to make it seem cool to have these features when they make life worse

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[AvitarX]

I'm a consumer. I have the galaxy flip on my short list.

The screen shouldn't scratch, and it will be smalling in my pocket.

I with it was a little smaller when opened too, but I find the folding pretty compelling as a consumer.

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[wakeboarder]

Good luck not ripping the phone in half or getting artifacts in the screen after a year or two

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[Kernel Kurtz]

I mean I know why phone makers want us to buy the most fragile phones imaginable. I mean, they have been putting glass on the backs of phones for a long time now.

There are "rugged" phones out there, but they are all oddly low spec'ed. Why isn't there a top range phone with good multi-camera specs that isn't going to shatter into 1000 glass shards if I look at it wrong.

Just get an Otterbox Defender or LifeProof case if you need rugged.

Back to basics?

[Gravis Zero]

How about Motorola actually work on useful features like... reintroducing removable batteries.

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[ffkom]

I remember the days when the battery of the Motorola v3688 was not only user replaceable within seconds, essentially removing the need for any sophisticated/risky "quick charging" technology (you just owned more than one battery and charged them outside of the phone), but the battery was also exactly the same model as used in other of their phone models, so you could even exchange the battery between different phones. What followed was decades of decline in usability and environmental friendliness.

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[pz]

Back when the original Razr was new, I had a series of them (lost more than one, broke one from not being careful with it, etc.). What I loved about them, other than the physical interface innately superior to nearly anything around now, was the full week of battery life. Even when the battery was running down, you could still get a couple of days out of it.

It was by a series of small cuts that the marketplace came to the point where it is now acceptable to put your phone in a charging stand every damned

Fingers-crossed

[bubblyceiling]

I hope they make a good phone this time around. The first one was very underwhelming. Marred by the screen, only eSIM & low-end specs.

Can you have one that actually folds small?

[erice]

To date, there have been tablets that folded down to phablet size. That's not that useful. Why can't we get a pfablet that folds down to something reasonably pocketable?

The opening of the device is part of the fun?

[Babel-17]

Using your hands might help impart a sense that you performed a bit of magic, or at least clever assembly, every time you work one open.

I'm reminded of Asimov's The Naked Sun, where the Earther detective traveled to a Spacer world that was highly automated, and it was explained that the solitary humans who occupied huge mansions took pride in how with a minimum of hand signals they could have their house do just about anything.

So yeah, like Clarke said, any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguisha