Motorola is rebooting the iconic Razr flip phone as a 6.2-inch smartphone with a foldable display that gives the Lenovo-owned brand a unique selling point against Apple Inc. and Samsung Electronics Co.'s finest.
The new device reprises the Motorola Razr name, and looks like a modernized version of the original. It costs $1,499 and will be available for preorder in December in Europe and as a Verizon exclusive in the U.S., ahead of its retail arrival in January. For Lenovo Group Ltd., which has a tiny fraction of the global smartphone market, it's an effort to build brand awareness in the U.S. via a halo device.
Launched in late 2004, the first Razr became a cultural icon in the U.S., sold 130 million units and was the face of the phone industry before Apple launched the iPhone in 2007. Motorola's new model has a shot at some fame as well, as it's set to become the first true foldable phone on the market — every other device so far could more properly be described as a foldable tablet — and company executives have told Bloomberg they are confident that their design won't succumb to the durability issues that pushed back Samsung's Galaxy Fold launch.