Update: Motorola Razr 2022 directly targets Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 4 with launch date.
It's widely believed that Motorola is ready to give foldable phones another go, with a third version of the Motorola Razr in the works. And this time, the phone maker could be pulling out all the stops to make sure its foldable flip phone can compete with the rumored Galaxy Z Flip 4 that's expected later this year.
That's certainly the impression we have about the Motorola Razr 3 after the latest rumor about the foldable phone. Even better, this rumor comes straight from Motorola in the form of a teaser poster.
Chen Jin, the general manager of Lenovo's Mobile Business Group in China, posted an image on the social networking site Weibo that included the logo for the Snapdragon 8 Plus Gen 1 chip announced late last week. In his post, the Motorola executive refers to an Easter egg that's present in the shot.
As spotted by NotebookCheck, the Easter egg appears to be a V-shaped line just underneath the Snapdragon logo. The shape is reminiscent of Motorola's Razr, suggesting that Qualcomm's latest silicon will power the rumored Motorola Razr 3.
If true, that's quite an upgrade over previous editions of Motorola's foldable phone. The initial Motorola Razr used a Snapdragon 710 chipset and the 2020 version used a Snapdragon 765G. While those chips are certainly powerful, they're not a part of Qualcomm's premium 8 Series silicon found in most flagship phones.
The newly unveiled Snapdragon 8 Plus Gen 1 is Qualcomm's latest and greatest system-on-chip. It offers 10% boosts in CPU and GPU performance over the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 chipset that powered the Galaxy S22 family among other leading Android flagships that came out earlier this year. You can also expect a 30% improvement to CPU and GPU power consumption over the previous Snapdragon 8.
Either feature would be good news for the Razr 3, since primary complaints around earlier iterations of the foldable phone centered around pokey performance and disappointing battery life. More important, a Snapdragon 8 Plus Gen 1 chipset would likely put the Motorola Razr 3 on par with the Galaxy Z Fold 4 and Z Flip 4, as Samsung usually equips its devices with the best silicon available.
Samsung hasn't officially committed to using the Snapdragon 8 Plus Gen 1, however; in contrast, Motorola was listed among the phone makers who've committed to featuring the Snapdragon 8 Plus Gen 1 in upcoming devices.
Motorola Razr 3 rumors thus far have promised a number of improvements over the previous foldables. The internal display is rumored to be 6.7 inches when the phone is unfolded, larger than 6.2-inch screen of its predecessors. Rumors suggest a bigger external display, too.
It's unclear when the phone will ship, though some Motorola Razr 3 rumors suggest it could be as soon as June. If so, that would give Motorola's phone a jump on the competition from Samsung, as the latest versions of the Galaxy Z Flip and Galaxy Z fold aren't expected until toward the end of summer.
