Motorola’s foldable smartphone reportedly coming before year’s end

Motorola’s foldable smartphone reportedly coming before year’s end

Telco giant plans to give its highly-popular Razr model a retro flair.

The Razr could make a comeback soon. (AFP Relaxnews pic)
NEW YORK:
Motorola failed to launch a folding smartphone – device expected to be reminiscent of its highly-popular Razr of the early 2000s – this summer as rumours had suggested earlier this year.

This past weekend however, a source familiar with Motorola’s plans told CNET that the company will likely announce its first phone with a folding display by the end of 2019.

Though the date at which it is expected to go on sale has yet to be disclosed by the company or any media sources, Motorola will purportedly be showing off the device that will put them in the folding display smartphone race with Samsung and Huawei this year.

Late last week, the Galaxy Fold officially went on sale in the US while Huawei continues to delay the launch of its Mate X, which was first shown off at Mobile World Congress in February.

While smaller handset manufacturers have launched their own renditions of the modern folding smartphone, Samsung’s version will be the one to beat on the market, and Motorola plans to do that by giving its version a retro flair.

In April, Slashleaks published an image taken (and later removed) from the Chinese social media platform Weibo of what appears to be a promotional image of an open Razr with a display spanning from the top clam shell to the bottom one, effectively replacing the number pad.

This image supported a report by the Wall Street Journal in January stating that Motorola had plans to revive the iconic model that took the early 2000s by storm but with a 2019 twist.

Though Motorola has not yet commented on the reveal of such a device, the launch could potentially be in the works.

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