Is Motorola's iconic Razr V3 flip phone staging a comeback?

Shawn Knight

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Staff member

Few mobile devices are as iconic as Motorola’s Razr V3. Originally released in the third quarter of 2004, the impossibly thin flip phone was an instant hit in the pre-smartphone era. Motorola ultimately sold more than 130 million units, making it one of the best-selling mobile phones of all time.

Now, it would appear as though Motorola is planning to reincarnate the popular clamshell.

Motorola, now a Lenovo-owned company, recently posted a YouTube video described as a look back to the Razr days of yesterday. The clip depicts a high school hallway featuring the stereotypical groups of kids, all sporting a Razr flip phone. The video ends with the Motorola logo and a date: June 9, 2016.

The date points to Lenovo Tech World, the company’s own tech conference that’ll take place in San Francisco.

Just to clarify, the video doesn’t actually confirm that we’ll see a new Razr clamshell next month so everything at this point is pure speculation. That said, the general consensus around the web is that Lenovo may have updated the Razr to run Android on modern hardware. The clamshell form factor as-is would limit the amount of screen real estate and the physical buttons would also be out of place in today’s tech landscape.

Regarding the latter, it’s possible that the new Razr may ditch the keypad for a second screen. Either way, we should know for sure in just a few short weeks.

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Had a flip phone for years and really liked it. I think if they could upgrade it with the better graphics and some app capability there are a lot of people that would like to have one again ..... I know I would.
 
I still have a v3i. It works but the battery is on its last legs. I used to use it as a modem for my laptop back in the day when there weren't too many wifi hot spot's around.
 
I know many people who still prefer flip phones and use them, including my folks. The flip phone isn't dead.
 
But would razr flip flops cut into my feet... or stop my toes being hairy.
"Are you beach body ready?"...
"No, but your feet are"

Ok ok now some comments more related to the article.
Let's go retro. How about the matrix modded Nokia, with a full screen display that's unlock screen is that of the Nokia buttons. Then once you put in your numeric code Morpheus appears, and offers you the choice of the red or blue pill, which requires a finger print on the color you chose in security options.
And then... it gets a mirror look that starts to replicate, and boom home screen.

Brb off down to the patent office. If Fox can ban someone else's video they stole from YouTube, for a moment in Family Guy, and claim its now under their crap rights to own it digitally, well, then all copyright holders can just f off. This is now my idea mwahahaha... which I realise is pointless.
 
Still have my old Verizon Razr V3.. used to love that phone! Remember being the first one at work to have the new V3, and making sure everyone saw it. lol.. goodtimes.
 
I want an Android answer to the Blackberry Style, I.e a flip smartphone with full QWERTY and d-pad. Always thought that would be amazing.
Whilst I'd love a modern android phone with a hardware keyboard, I'm not much of a fan of Blackberry's portrait mode ones, flip or not.

The old landscape sliders were far superior IMHO, I'd drop everything to buy a modern version of something like the HTC Desire Z if someone made one :)
http://www.trustedreviews.com/htc-desire-z-review
 
Yeah the slider phones were just about perfect for the typist. Why did they die? Other slate style but slider smart phones were the Motorola Droid, Droid 2, 3, and 4. I had the 3 and 4 and really liked them. Unfortunately I destroyed both of them forgetting to remove them from my pants pocket and they didn't survive a trip through the washing machine. Now I only buy water resistant/proof phones because I'm forgetful.
 
Daaaamn that V3 was soooo cool, I saved for so many months to get one (Didn't make anything at that time) and I loved it, you were able to put MP3s but had like 64 mb of internal storage or something like that... but enough to have the coolest ringtone ever (Intro to Engel).
 
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