The foldable Motorola Razr wowed us with its nostalgic design, but underwhelmed when it came to execution. So it's not surprising Motorola is looking to right a few wrongs with a sequel to the phone that debuted this past February.
Just how substantial those changes are has become more apparent, thanks to an XDA Developers report on the Motorola Razr 2 specs. The report, attributed to an unnamed source, details much of the hardware specs planned for the follow-up to the original foldable Razr.
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Based on the report, the Motorola Razr 2 is going to look a lot like its predecessor, with a 2.7-inch exterior screen on a phone that flips open to reveal a 6.2-inch internal display. The focus this time around appears to be on boosting the phone's internal specs — a welcome move on Motorola's part, since areas like processing power and battery life are where the first Razr really came up short.
Starting with the processor, then, the Motorola Razr 2 is expected to feature a Snapdragon 765 system-on-chip, which would add more processing oomph than the Snapdragon 710 inside the original Razr could muster. Motorola will reportedly augment that processor with 8GB of RAM, an increase from the 6GB of memory included with the first Motorola Razr. Storage is expected to double from 128GB to 256GB.
The true significance of a Snapdragon 765 isn't just the increasing in processing power, though. That Qualcomm chipset comes with an embedded 5G modem, meaning the Motorola Razr 2 would have the ability to connect to faster 5G networks. The first foldable Razr had only an LTE modem.
Not all 5G is created equal, however. XDA reports that the Motorola Razr 2 would only support sub 6-GHz 5G networks, which enjoy extensive reach but only deliver a modest upgrade over LTE speeds. The faster mmWave-based 5G requires separate antennas, and there may not be room to include those on a phone as compact as the Motorola Razr. If true, that means the phone likely wouldn't work with Verizon's mmWave-based 5G network.
The original Motorola Razr barely lasted 6 hours on our battery test — more than 3.5 hours shy of the average for smartphones. So you can understand why Motorola would be eager to boost the size of the 2,510 mAh battery in its first foldable phone. The Razr 2's battery will reportedly grow to 2,845 mAh, which is certainly larger than before but still sounds slight on a phone where 5G will be drawing a lot of power.
The cameras on the Motorola Razr 2 are set for an upgrade, with a 48-megapixel Samsung ISOCELL Bright GM1 sensor replacing the 16MP rear camera from the original. Look for the front camera to jump from a 5MP shooter to a 20MP selfie cam.
XDA says the Motorola Razr 2 will ship with Android 10, and not Android 11. That latter version is currently available as developer preview, with Google targeting an Android 11 release by the end of summer.
That's unfortunate timing given the rumored release date for the Motorola Razr 2. Earlier this month, a Lenovo executive confirmed plans for a Motorola Razr 2, saying that the phone would likely arrive in September. That gives us a few more months to find out more about this Razr sequel, including Motorola's plans to improve the build quality and make a true rival to Samsung's Galaxy Z Flip.
