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Motorola teases return to flagship market with Snapdragon 865-backed 5G phone

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By Joshua Swingle

Published: Dec 03, 2019, 3:04 PM

Motorola teases return to flagship market with Snapdragon 865-backed 5G phone

The Motorola Moto Z4

Motorola exited the premium smartphone segment in 2018 following a disastrous Moto Z2 Force launch the previous year. But now that it’s been profitable for five consecutive quarters, the company feels like it’s time to give it another shot.

Speaking at Qualcomm's annual Snapdragon Summit in Maui, the Lenovo-owned company revealed plans to lead "the 5G era" with a range of smartphones. Some of these will be driven by the newly announced Snapdragon 765 platform while others will make use of the flagship Snapdragon 865 chipset that'll be unveiled in its entirety tomorrow.

Motorola hopes these offerings will reinvigorate its place "in the premium flagship segment," although for the time being the efforts will be led by the foldable Motorola Razr. More information about the upcoming 5G smartphones will follow in “early 2020,” meaning it could choose to officially introduce some of them at MWC 2020 in late February or perhaps at a standalone event. Regardless, it’s certainly exciting times for the company and the segment.

In recent years the flagship market has been dominated by the likes of Apple, Samsung, and Huawei as companies including LG, Sony, and HTC have declined. But the permanent return of Motorola could bring some much-needed competition to the segment, especially in the United States.