Motorola Razr foldable reportedly won't pack flagship specs
Will mid-range foldables be a thing?
We might know a bit more about the potentially foldable Motorola Razr V4 phone, including its decent but not wildly impressive specs. The device will pack a Snapdragon 710 processor, very middling RAM and storage and have a sub-3,000mAh battery, a source told XDA Developers.
In other words, the Razr foldable’s performance may be mid-range when compared to the top-tier specs packed into the folding devices slated for this year, like the Samsung Fold and Huawei Mate X.
Per XDA Developers’ source, the phone will have two RAM and two storage variants (it’s unclear which configurations will be offered): either 4 or 6GB of RAM, and either 64 or 128GB of storage.
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XDA's source noted that the phone would come with a 2,730mAh battery, which is far lower than those coming in the Samsung Fold and Huawei Mate X. But it's key to remember that Motorola's foldable is expected to have a smaller screen, which won't unfold into the large tablet-sized displays as its rivals.
XDA Developers also snagged the supposed logo and placed it on a black background. Supposedly, this is how it will look:
Paving the way for a potentially cheaper folding option?
Up until now, foldable phones have been specced and priced above even top-tier flagships, and their emergence essentially introduced a new cost ceiling for mobile devices.
Sadly, this phone is no exception. According to the Wall Street Journal’s report earlier in 2019 that kicked off the foldable Razr rumor mill, Motorola’s device was expected to have a starting price of roughly $1,500 (around £1,170, AU$2,010) – which, yes, is nominally cheaper than the Fold and significantly cheaper than the Mate X, but it’s still far beyond what even conventional flagships cost.
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Yet, there is a silver lining. If these specs are to be believed, then the Razr V4 foldable could be a proof-of-concept that you don’t need the best specs on the market to get a folding phone to market. There could be a legitimate mid-range folding phone that works with a mid-tier processor and average specs.
This could drive down foldable prices from their astronomical heights, and eventually give consumers more opportunity to try the novel devices for themselves.
And they do, indeed, have cool stuff to offer: a previous XDA report suggested the Razr V4 could come with a second screen that would double as a trackpad when the phone is unfolded. It’s unclear how that would work, but the possibility is exciting.
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David is now a mobile reporter at Cnet. Formerly Mobile Editor, US for TechRadar, he covered phones, tablets, and wearables. He still thinks the iPhone 4 is the best-looking smartphone ever made. He's most interested in technology, gaming and culture – and where they overlap and change our lives. His current beat explores how our on-the-go existence is affected by new gadgets, carrier coverage expansions, and corporate strategy shifts.