#FBF: Android flip phone by Motorola

 By Felipe Berhau on November 11, 2016       

Flip phones. Who doesn't love them? They represent the 2000s to us, and they represent the best of Motorola to us, crazy Moto fans. These phones have something special, that we can't tell what it is. Feeling cool while closing the flip, pretending to make calls just to open it, and open-close it until the phone begs you to stop. It's just an awesome feeling.

That's why this is one of my most beloved pieces from my collection. This is the 2012 MotoSmart Flip (XT611). This phone was a Latin American exclusive in the middle of the storm, after Google acquired Motorola and started firing everyone and cancelling awesome projects. This device was lucky to see the light and it became the last Motorola flip phone EVER.

The phone looks amazing, though it was totally under-powered. A 3.2" screen (HVGA), 800MHz processor and 512MB of RAM. And you could only install 5-6 apps, otherwise it would give you an annoying no-memory notification (unless you rooted it and installed Link2SD, remember those days?).

(forgive my 2012 English-level...it's a really old video)

It came with an awful 5MP camera and its wifi connection was slower than any other device ever released. But it was an freaking Android-powered flip phone. Its external glass, similar to the MotoMING, or (Krave ZN4 for our American friends) let you use the phone with the flip closed so you could take pictures, listen to music or read text messages. It was such an awesome feature alone that all the drawbacks seemed to disappear. 

I always go back to the Smart Flip when I'm feeling nostalgic, but then I power it on and remember it's a Gingerbread phone running on 512MB of RAM. That's when I remember why I didn't come back to using it the last time, and I put it away.

But it sure lies in my collection as one of my finest pieces. It's the last flip phone Motorola ever released. Who knows, maybe Lenovo asks Moto to release another flip phone one day. Many people will be happy when that happens. Until then, I will cherish this little, under-powered gem.

New $99 Android Flip Phone

 By Felipe Berhau on November 03, 2016       

Remember flip phones? We sure do. Flip phones were the most popular thing last decade, and now seem to be making a comeback. What we have here is the new ZTE CYMBAL-T, an interesting phone with a horrible name.

The new ZTE flip phone was just launched in the US and it's going to be an affordable $99 phone. It comes with a 3.5" touchscreen so you can operate the phone with either your keyboard or screen. There's also an external screen which tells you the time and recent notifications.

The phone also comes with a Snapdragon MSM8909 quad-core processor, clocked at 1.1GHz and 1GB of RAM. There's a 5MP/2MP set up, and it comes with Lollipop 5.0 according to ZTE.

What do you think? Do you still want a flip phone? Will you wait for Motorola or Samsung to release one?

Source

Motorola Droid RAZR's 5th birthday!

 By Felipe Berhau on October 18, 2016       

Today is a very important birthday. It was October 18th, 2011 when Motorola and Verizon announced the DROID RAZR and the MotoACTV smartwatch. 

Announced as the thinnest and most powerful phone, the RAZR was incredibly thin at 7.1mm, running a dual-core processor with 1GB of RAM and came with the innovative Smart Actions feature which later became Moto Actions on newer phones. 

The launch event was huge, with 50 Cent performing in it and lots of media coverage. Droid RAZR was released a few weeks later and quickly became one of the best selling phones of 2011/2012.

Initially released in black, Motorola then released White, Blue, Purple and Red versions. Plus, a MAXX version was released, and won Phone of The Year at CES 2012. Droid RAZR launched with Gingerbread and saw two major updates being pushed. One of its most innovative feature, the webtop app, also got updated and showed us how Android would look on a laptop.

We are covering this story because this phone was one of the best designed phones of the past years and its design and features are still current and powerful. Happy birthday, Droid RAZR (and MotoACTV)!

The History of the RAZR, part IV: the final chapter

 By Felipe Berhau on July 17, 2016       

Some days ago we showed you the cancelled RAZR3 device that would have been released in 2009. Now it's time to show you the final chapter of our RAZR History saga.

The History of the RAZR, part IV: the final chapter

The Razr was gone. But was it really gone forever? NO, it wasn't! It was late 2010 and Motorola had one more RAZR ready for us. In fact, the phone was ready to be released back then, but other products such as Droid 2, Droid Pro, Droid X would have to be cancelled. 

So they waited one full year to release the phone which promised to be revolutionary. Atrix 4G came out, won “Phone of the Year” at CES 2011 for its innovative webtop application and fingerprint scanner. Droid Bionic was announced too, but it was a complete mess. 

It was supposed to be the first 4G LTE smartphone on Verizon, and it was delayed for nine months, only two months before Droid RAZR was announced, and then the Bionic was paid dust so it became the joke of the Android world. Released in September, 9 months later, any kind of anticipation had died, for a particular reason… something else was about to come.

By July 2011, pictures of the new device emerged online. That's very common for every unreleased Motorola phone... happened in 2008, 2011 and happens in 2016. The name was not known yet but people imagined it would be a Razr, because it was thin. 

We all got excited when Motorola started showing ads on TV saying “Smarter, stronger, faster, thinner”. Those same lines were used for 2007's Razr2 phones. Everyone freaked out. The King of mobile phones was making a comeback!

October 2011 finally saw the release of the DROID RAZR. There it was: the thinnest and most advanced smartphone ever. Measuring an impossibly thin 7.1mm made Kevlar strong, with the webtop ecosystem and HD 1080p video recording, it was beautiful inside and out.

Released in November 2011, the Droid Razr was an instant hit in the US. Due to strong competition from the iPhone 4S and the Galaxy Nexus on Verizon, the Droid Razr was just #3 in sales in Q4 2011. In addition, the release of the Droid 3 in June and Bionic in September hurt its sales. 

But it was a big hit worldwide. Droid Razr consolidated Motorola as one of the bigger players in the market and became a best-seller in Europe and Asia. By early 2012 Moto introduced new colours and lowered its price in the US, attracting even more customers into buying it.

For a second year in a row, they introduced at CES an award-winning phone: the Droid Razr MAXX. This one was not just a simple Droid Razr. It had something current smartphones lacked: an awesome battery. The 3300mAH battery became the wow factor of the Razr MAXX. And it was a huge success, making Motorola the #1 4G LTE manufacturer in the United States by September and becoming one of the best selling Android devices of 2012. This was great news for the company and for Google, which was about to become its parent company.

9 months later, the second generation of Droid RAZRs was born. The HD would bring a big battery and a large HD screen to the table while the Maxx HD would become the new battery champ. Razr M was also announced as a smaller option, featuring an edge to edge display and a great price. The Razr I was also released in other countries as the international version of the M. It came with an Intel processor and one of the fastest cameras.

Then some months of uncertainty came: Google started selling Motorola divisions, laying off thousands of employees and cancelling upcoming products. The last two Razr phones were released in 2013 in Latin America. These were the D1 and D3 low end Razrs, and they were even promoted by Justin Bieber (fun fact: it's the most disliked Motorola video on Youtube).

We do know that the 2013 Droid line was going to be Razr-branded too, but after a last minute change they simply called them Ultra, Maxx and Mini instead of Droid Razr Ultra, Droid Razr Ultra Maxx, Droid Razr Mini. For some time, 2013's rumored X phone was going to be called Razr X. 

These marketing changes made the RAZR line end with the low end 2013 D1 and D3 devices, and that's how the history of the RAZR ends. Will it come back? The RAZR is part of Motorola's DNA and we've seen how Motorola has had more comebacks than Jesus, so...there's always a chance. #RAZR4EVER

The Motorola RAZR that was never released.

 By Felipe Berhau on July 07, 2016       

In this History of the RAZR, part 2.5, we will talk about the Razr3 series and why it was never released. We are talking about the third generation Razr, set to be released in late 2008 to early 2009.

Also read Part 1 and Part 2 here.

The History of the Motorola RAZR: the Razr that never was...

It was mid-2008 and Motorola had no flagship for that year. Its product cycle was delayed by one year due to issues with a supplier and every news outlet was jumping onto the Moto-hate bandwagon. 

Sanjay Jha, Motorola's former Co-CEO said once that during his first day at Motorola he asked to see the roadmap of all the upcoming phones and there wasn't even a single smartphone in it.

Motorola had two options then: to release a third generation Razr phone or to wait until they had their first smartphones ready. As we all know, they chose the smartphone-way, but because of this, a truly amazing phone never saw the light of the day. You may have seen some leaks or heard some stories, but this phone we are about to show you is the cancelled RAZR3 by Motorola.

Going the smartphone way meant the death of this phone, but there are also some other reasons. To begin with, the Razr series needed a break since Motorola was criticized non-stop for releasing Razrs. The phone was still the best selling phone in the USA in 2008 but it wasn't seen as an icon anymore, so they knew it would be risky to release yet another Razr.

Plus, they needed to cut costs by late 2008 due to the economic downturn and one of their decisions was to kill development for all future Linux and Symbian devices to focus on Android. And this Razr came with Symbian so it had to be killed.

By November 2008 every Moto fan was expecting this phone to be released or announced at any time. However, it was announced that the phone codenamed "Ruby" was cancelled, leaving many fans in tears. But that was not the end!

Around MWC 2009, official press shots for Motorola model VE1 were leaked by Mobile-Review, leaving everyone confused. Were they cancelling the phone or not? Was it coming at MWC?

It seems that for a moment they thought about launching it but they made a last minute change and killed it back again, sadly. But that wasn't it, again.

By 2009, Motorola moved to Android-powered devices and was on top of the game again because of the Droid smartphone. But they quietly released the phone somewhere: South Korea. That country has always been known for having some exclusive Moto phones but we wish they had released it somewhere else. Ruby was finally alive somewhere in all its metal and glass glory.

It had some lower specs and a different (and Korean) OS, but the concept was the same. In a weird branding move to make people forget about the Razr series, the phone was renamed to Motorola Klassic V13. And that was the end of the RAZR series for some time.

The mysterious Razr3 VE1 often pops up on Youtube and other sites. Some of them were produced, and it was about to be released, but for some unknown reason it never happened. By 2010 a video of a prototype leaked, showing the original phone running Symbian UIQ.

As you can see this is a very interesting device that has become every collector's dream. I am one of the biggest Motorola collectors out there (that's how TechDroider reached out to me and then I became Editor here!) and I still can't find this phone. It's impossible to get but I won't give up. 

For the next chapter we will discuss the Droid RAZR, and how the Razr series were reborn, now running Android and becoming a hit once again.



Here are some specs of the cancelled RAZR3:

• Symbian UIQ
• External 2.0" touchscreen, 2.2" internal QVGA display
• HSDPA
• WIFI
• 5.0MP w/Autofocus and LED flash
• 105g
• microSD support, up to 32GB, 300MB internal
• GPS support

Motorola keeps teasing the RAZR

 By Felipe Berhau on May 20, 2016       

We were the first to report the news: Motorola is teasing the RAZR. Now that everyone else is reporting it, Motorola uploaded the video to its YouTube account, and it makes us wonder...is it a new RAZR really coming?

Motorola Mobility's account just uploaded the video we were talking about today, which means this is a real ad for the new Moto phone that is coming on June 9th. They've also been talking about the RAZR since last week and through their new Snapchat account they are only posting videos about the iconic V3. Now, it's possible that it's not a RAZR, but the phones codenamed Vector Thin and Vertex are rumored to be only 5.2mm thin. Maybe Moto is trying to point out that the new devices will be so cool that everyone will have them, like the original RAZR. 

Whatever it is, we can all agree that the ad looks great and reminds us of the old Motorola, even having the HelloMoto ringtone at the end. At the end of the video we are pointed out to a motorola.com subscription page, so that we are the first to know about the new phone: Here

Here is the amazing video we are talking about, in case you missed it:

Motorola is teasing a new RAZR for June 9th?

 By Felipe Berhau on May 19, 2016       

The king is back and better than ever! Over the last few days, Motorola's Twitter account has been remembering the iconic RAZR phone, and now they just uploaded a video teasing a new RAZR!

Is this "Vector Thin"? Is this the new modular phone? Are we getting a flip smartphone? There are many questions going around, but all we know is that the phone is coming on June 9 at Lenovo Tech World Event. The press release for the event said: "new technology designed by Motorola". Watch the video after the jump.

Time warp! We’re cranking the nostalgia to 11 as we flip back to the #Razr days of 2006.https://t.co/CKsEC90Epg

— Moto US (@Moto_USA) May 19, 2016

The MotoRAZR is still one of the best selling phones of all time. Up to 2012 it had sold 150 million units worldwide according to Motorola. It was the #1 selling phone in the USA from 2004 to 2008, even outselling the original iPhone and iPhone 3G during that period of time.

Motorola brought back the RAZR brand in 2011 with the Droid RAZR and RAZR MAXX phones, which won "Best of CES" at the 2012 CES show. The device was one of the best selling phones in Latin America and the US.

Is a new RAZR really coming? We will find out soon, but we really hope there is!

Are you excited for the new phone Motorola is teasing to us? Tell us in the comments section.