Motorola Slightly Delays the Razr

Motorola is "adjusting" the launch timing for its foldable Razr smartphone because it needs to make more phones to supply the "unparalleled" interest in the $1,499.99 Android-powered flip, the company says.

The Razr was originally scheduled to go on presale on Dec. 26 with a street date of Jan. 9, both exclusively at Verizon Wireless. There's no firm date now.

Here's the statement from Motorola:

"Since its announcement in November, the new Motorola Razr has received unparalleled excitement and interest from consumers. Demand has been high, and as a result, has quickly outgrown supply predictions. Motorola has decided to adjust Razr's presale and launch timing to better meet consumer demand. We are working to determine the appropriate quantity and schedule to ensure that more consumers have access to Razr at launch. We do not anticipate a significant shift from our original availability timeline."

The new Razr wowed me when I saw it at its launch event in November. The industrial design is highly reminiscent of the iconic original Razr phone from 2004. It flips closed into something that fits in your pocket, but flips open to become a big-screen smartphone. It's significantly less clunky than Samsung's Galaxy Fold, and doesn't appear to be as fragile.

The idea of using foldable screens to create flip phones, as opposed to horizontally opening tablets, may be a big trend in 2020. Recently, Chinese social media users (via Ars Technica) showed a supposed Samsung flip phone that folds up vertically into a square, a lot like the Razr does, but without that iconic Razr industrial design.

Since the new Razr isn't on presale yet, there's no awkward phase of canceling orders like we saw with the Galaxy Fold, when the first version of the device proved to be too fragile and broke in reviewers' hands.

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We'll have a review of the Razr as soon as we get our hands on one.

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