Motorola razr 2 could feature side sensors and an in-display fingerprint reader

For fans of the original Motorola RAZR, the date they have circled on their calendar is December 26th; that's when Motorola and Verizon will start taking pre-orders for the new Motorola razr. Both the manufacturer and the carrier are counting on nostalgia to drive sales of the Android-powered clamshell which is priced at $1,500. As we've pointed out before, you're not exactly getting flagship specs for that price as the phone is powered by the Snapdragon 710 SoC. It is equipped with 6GB of memory and 128GB of expandable storage, but the battery seems light at 2510mAh. Still, Motorola says that it will last through an entire day, and according to the manufacturer, the TurboPower charger will give you hours of power in just minutes.

The Motorola razr opens up to reveal a 6.2-inch pOLED display with a resolution of 876 x 2142 producing an aspect ratio of 21:9. There is an external 2.7-inch display with a 600 x 800 resolution that will show notifications, help you take selfies and more. Speaking of selfies, you can use the 5MP camera when the phone is closed or the 16MP camera that becomes available when the device is open. And with nano-coating from P2i, the razr is protected from spills and light rain.

We know that the razr is still a bit more than a month away from the start of its pre-order period, but according to LetsGo Digital, last week Motorola received a patent from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) titled Cumulative Sensor in a Foldable Phone. The illustrations used in the patent show a phone that folds along the horizontal axis like the upcoming razr but includes various touch sensors on the side. The patent introduced a razr-like device with four touch sensors on either side of the phone; two were above the hinge and two below it. They can be used as virtual buttons when the device is open and when it is closed.

According to the patent, 20 different functions and 20 different gestures can be used with the touch sensors on the side of the phone. 13 functions and gestures can be used when the foldable is open, seven functions and gestures can be used when the device is closed. And while the fingerprint scanner is located near the bottom of the upcoming razr's body on the chin, the next iteration of the device could include an in-display fingerprint scanner. This is based on illustrations found in the USPTO documentation although this feature was not addressed at all in the patent.

Motorola's description of the patent notes that "The foldable device can be folded along an axis between an open mode and a closed mode; a plurality of touch sensors disposed along the housing portion; a module implemented at least partially in hardware and configured to determine touch sensor physical proximity and to determine that the foldable device is in the open mode (single sensor mode) or closed mode (cumulative sensor mode). Two sensors can be combined and mapped to one or more functionalities that are different than the respective functionalities. Two touch sensors can be mapped to one or more respective gestures."

Side sensors are not new on smartphones having been introduced with Edge Sense on the HTC U11 back in 2017. The Pixel series features a similar technology called Active Edge that instantly activates Google Assistant when the two sides of the handset are squeezed together. Recently, Huawei placed two virtual buttons on the Mate 30 Pro that control the phone's volume and certain game functions. Currently, side sensors are not found on any foldable handsets, but this might change if Motorola plans on employing the technology covered by this patent on a razr sequel.

Considering that Motorola is almost guaranteed to have success with the razr, a sequel seems assured. Besides side senors, it would be nice if Motorola decided to pack the razr 2 with a larger battery, which seems a sure thing if the next razr supports 5G. Those who are not Verizon customers would like to see the razr 2 compatible with all major U.S. carriers, while most are hoping that the sequel will have a more reasonable price tag.