Motorola invite strongly hints at November 13 unveiling of the RAZR (2019)

With the Samsung Galaxy Fold already released and the Huawei Mate X not coming to the U.S., the next big thing for fans of the new foldable smartphone niche is the Motorola RAZR (2019). The RAZR (2019) will be an Android-powered version of Motorola's extremely popular flip phone which sold over 130 million units over its four-year run covering 2004-2008. The basic form factor with the phone folding around the horizontal axis will remain the same. Unlike the Galaxy Fold and the Mate X, which fold open to transform from a smartphone into a tablet, the RAZR (2019) will reportedly open to reveal a 6.2-inch or 6.5-inch internal screen with a very tall and thin 22:9 aspect ratio. There also will be a small external screen for notifications. The idea is that the RAZR (2019) stays buried deep in your pocket until you need it.

Last month, a person said to be close to Motorola stated that the RAZR (2019) will be released before the end of the year and we would imagine that the launch would come in time to capture holiday sales. And yes, nostalgia is a powerful sales tool. The big news today, as CNET reports, is that Motorola has started disseminating invitations for an event dated November 13th; the manufacturer says that this event-to be held in downtown Los Angeles- will include the "highly anticipated unveiling of a reinvented icon." You don't need a piano to fall on your head to understand what this means. In addition, the invite says "You're going to flip." And if those clues aren't enough, the company posted a GIF showing a device folding and unfolding.

The Motorola RAZR (2019) is expected to be a Verizon exclusive priced in the neighborhood of $1,500. In another departure from the Galaxy Fold and Mate X, the RAZR (2019) will not carry flagship specs. For example, we could see the Snapdragon 710 Mobile Platform power the device. The rumor mill calls for the RAZR (2019) to sport 4GB/6GB of memory and 64GB/128GB of storage (compared to 12GB of memory and 512GB of storage on the Galaxy Fold). A 2730 mAh capacity battery is said to keep the lights on.

Motorola's first foldable smartphone is going to run into competition early next year as it appears that Samsung's next foldable device will employ the clamshell form factor that will be used on the RAZR (2019). Earlier today, we passed along some more information about the Galaxy Fold 2 including its possible April 2020 release date and rumored specs. The latter could include a 6.7-inch AMOLED screen with an external 1-inch display that will show the time/date/notification icons.

The original Motorola RAZR was arguably the company's highwater mark as far as its mobile phone unit is concerned. Some might point to the hugely successful Motorola DROID, the first phone released with Android 2.0. A Verizon exclusive, the DROID might not have sold as many units as the RAZR, but it did kick off the surge in sales of Android phones leading to the global 85% market share that the mobile OS enjoys today.

Motorola tried to play on the success of the RAZR and the DROID by launching 2011's Motorola DROID RAZR. Motorola invoked the names of the manufacturer's two most famous phones and produced an insanely thin (for the times) 7.1mm handset at the narrowest part of the device. The following year, the DROID RAZR HD was released with a larger screen carrying an HD resolution and a Snapdragon chipset (as opposed to the TI OMAP chipset that was found on its predecessor). A smaller version of the phone, the DROID RAZR M, was also launched at the same time. While Motorola would go on to use the DROID name on a couple of future models, it has not placed the RAZR name on a new phone since 2012.