The new Moto Razr is a handsome retro thing. At $1500, though, who wants a 6.2-inch foldable smartphone designed to resemble a classic flip-phone?
The hinge design of the Moto Razr is probably the most interesting thing about it. The best Samsung can currently do in the foldables space is the Galaxy Fold, which, thanks to folding the display nearly completely flat, develops a permanent crease in the display after the first fold. Motorola’s display doesn’t fold completely flat, though—there is a large void space around the display hinge, so when the phone folds in half, the display has room to move around. Since it’s not being sandwiched between two solid plates, the display collapses into a gentle curve instead of a hard crease. Imagine bending a piece of paper in half just by pinching the top and bottom together versus pressing the fold into a crease. Since the display only ever forms a loop, rather than a crease, it never gains a distracting, light-distorting crease down the middle the way the Galaxy Fold does.
There’s a fair likelihood this will establish itself as a genuine “luxury” smartphone where other efforts have failed. It’s a classic, upgraded with cutting-edge display technology, but with a clever design feature (the hinge loop) that lets it avoid the visible crease (and stink of failure) associated with other expensive foldable smartphones.
