Motorola's Legendary RAZR Flip Phone Is Making a Comeback (engadget.com)

An anonymous reader shares an Engadget article: The year was 2004, and Motorola had just announced what was then an insanely thin flip phone, the RAZR V3. It was -- and still is -- a head-turner, and eventually over 130 million units were sold in total. Such were the glorious days of Motorola. Twelve years later, the now Lenovo-owned brand appears to be prepping a relaunch of this legendary model, according to its teaser video of a nostalgic walkthrough at a high school.The teaser is available on YouTube. Nice of Motorola to try doing something different from most of its rivals. However, a flip phone -- with a tiny display and those buttons (assumption) -- may not have much of practical case in 2016.

Comments

Might make a splash with those who've had enough.

[jddj]

I'm tired of being distracted every minute of the day, and tracked endlessly by everyone.

I'd think about one. And take the battery out when I don't want to be tracked at all.

Legend has it...

[jeffb (2.718)]

There was a time when several generations of people lived with phones that had no screens at all. In fact, some of those people still walk among us, although they may move more slowly than they once did.

There are some people who prefer to use a phone just for talking (and, strange though it may seem, listening). Sure, they skew older, but you're kind of dumb to overlook the segment completely.

Re:Legend has it...

[markdavis]

>"There was a time when several generations of people lived with phones that had no screens at all. In fact, some of those people still walk among us,"

You must be REALLY young. Just without screens??

There are quite a few people walking around (and just fine too) who for many years had NO CELL PHONES AT ALL not just as children, but as adults. Yep. I had even graduated college before having one of those new-fangled, talk-only, screenless, pocket cell-phones.

Imagine a world where you really could be untrackable and unreachable. Where you had no constant beeping or messages. Where there were no distractions while you were thinking or reading or lounging. Where you could eat dinner out without annoying phones ringing and text tones, and people taking photos of you without your permission. Where you could have a conversation, in person, with someone... without being rudely interrupted several times yourself or by them looking at a stupid device. Where you could drive a car and reasonably expect that other drivers were paying attention to only the road. It existed.

In some ways it was bad. In others, it was quite good.

Re: Might make a splash with those who've had enou

[sims 2]

I have a samsung convoy 3 and an ipad 2. I need my phone to work as a phone more than anything else.

Verizon is planning on retiring their 2g and 3g networks in 2020-2021 yet its 2016 now and afaik they do not have a single dumb cellphone that works on their 4G network.

Making a comeback? Really?!??!

[OzPeter]

I still use my original RAZR flip phone. So original in fact that it was pre-GPS chip (and yes, they do exist). It amuses me when I pull it out and use it and other people see it. And then I point out al the advantages:

1. Its smaller and lighter than smart phones
2. I don't have to charge it every day
3. I can (and do) drop it onto hard surfaces with the only worry being trying to find where the #@$%# battery cover bounced off to

And sure I could have a computer in my pocket, by why do I need one when I have 5 computers in arms reach and sit in front of one most of the working day? I also have a dedicated GPS in my car.

I'd rather see ...

[LuxuryYacht]

a slider phone with:

Touchscreen, bigger than the n900
Full QWERTY
Unlocked bootloader
u-boot
Large removable battery
With all the usual sensors and IO
As open a firmware stack as possible for the RF.
FPGA for encryption/decryption

Re:I'll give you a use case

[Etcetera]

Strictly speaking, simply running Android doesn't mean it *has* to be the smartphone we all know and hate.

Japan, for various reasons, caught on relatively late to the smartphone craze and has had a number of flip style phones that you'd swear are BREW, and look pretty close to the late-model LG feature phones (Voyager, etc) circa 2010, but actually use an Android OS -- simply without all the Google stuff actively on top of it.

One example: http://www.kyoex.com/sharp-504sh-aquos-keitai-android-5-1-flip-phone-unlocked/

Re:Old people

[hey!]

Well, yes, because battery life trumps everything for us.

What I'd really like is a flip phone with a replaceable battery that can also serve as a mobile access point.

Re:Old people

[olsmeister]

Someone just needs to make a $25 gutless version of this that connects via bluetooth to the iPhone in the hipsters' pocket.

Re:Consumers want "small" phones !

[Anonymous Coward]

Yes, because my definition of phablet has not changed over the years, while the sheeple's definition has.

If a phone does not fit comfortably in a normal hand, it is a phablet.
5" phones do not fit comfortably in a normal hand.

Re:I'd rather see ...illeagal

[pablo_max]

Having an open RF stack is illegal for a licensed transmitter. The FCC does not allow any changes at all to the conditions to which the device was approved. Small changes can be made via a class 2 permissive change, but allowing you, the user access to change the RF properties is very illegal.
And with good reason too. You would be surprised to know how much damage to a network just one fucked up phone can cause.