The Moto Razr 2019 was officially announced earlier this week, and boy is the company’s homage to its past and first foldable phone a pretty looking handset.
However, the arrival this week, ahead of the January release, was a little later than expected. Now we’re learning the reason for that delay beyond summer 2019 may have been partially attributable to the Samsung Galaxy Fold.
A new, fascinating chronicle of the launch by CNET examines Motorola and its partner carrier’s reaction to reports the Galaxy Fold began breaking in the hands of reporters, just prior to release.
“When the reports came out, I immediately went back to Motorola,” said Brian Higgins, vice VP of devices for Verizon. Higgins says Moto had rerun all of its specification tests on its Razr prototype, as a result of Samsung’s issues.
Related: Moto Razr vs Samsung Galaxy Fold
In fact, the Galaxy Fold’s failings assured Moto that it was treating the right path, because one of the early hinge prototypes for the Razr 2019 was in the same vein as the Fold’s.
Motorola had, in fact, created a unique ‘zero gap’ hinge design that enabled the screen to completely close on itself without the need for a complete fold. Instead of folding flat, the mechanism enables a fold akin to a teardrop.
“We looked at the ways this could fail and would account for it,” Tom Gitzinger, director and principle engineer of innovation and architecture for Motorola, said.
As thus, CNET reports, Moto ‘added steel plates behind the display on each side of the bend point, reinforcing the display and straightening out any creases’. This is a step Samsung took only after the issues with the Galaxy Fold arose.
Moto says that instead of rushing its phone to market like Samsung and Huawei with the Mate X, it bided its time until the Razr was ready.
“Of course, we want to be fast to market, but we are not in a hurry or desperate to launch so we believe now is the right time,” Motorola president Sergio Buniac said.
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Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
Professional conduct
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.