Sentimentality can be a very strong emotion, and it does lead people to do some crazy things at times. The world of fashion exhibits a cycle where retro never goes out of style, and there is always room to navigate a particular event with a blast from the past. The realm of consumer electronics is not that forgiving, unfortunately, where nothing but the latest and greatest will do. However, it seems that the tide has turned for such thinking in the case of the Nokia 3310. This iconic feature phone was recently resurrected at MWC 2017, being relaunched as...the Nokia 3310. Yes, the name remains the same as homage to the original brick phone, but it is now half the thickness with a color display and built-in camera, while carrying all of the necessary modern conveniences of a dumb phone. Lenovo, the company that owns the smartphone arm of Motorola, has seen the potential of bringing an old classic to life and fitting it with updated hardware. Knowing how the Motorola RAZR was the undisputed champion of phones in its heyday, the Lenovo CEO, Yuanqing Yang, did not rule out the possibility of rolling out an updated version of the iconic Motorola RAZR.
New Motorola RAZR expected?
While the world suffered from RAZR fatigue at one point, leading to the industry turning away from the flat, foldable handset, many years have passed since then. In fact, there might just be a market for a rejuvenated Motorola RAZR if the redesign effort was done right. No doubt people would yearn for the clamshell form factor as that is what made it iconic in the first place -- alongside the super slim design (back then) and silver exterior that added a touch of class and elegance to the entire device.
Lenovo CEO Yuanqing Yang shared with CNBC, "We should be smart if Motorola fans remember something. If Razr is a good one we should think about how to leverage that. But whatever we bring back, it has to be a stronger product than the original."
New Motorola RAZR specifications
Certainly that would be stating the obvious. What would you like to see in the new Motorola RAZR if it ever sees the light of day? Surely you would like to have the clamshell design remain, and we can also rule out a unibody aluminum chassis due to the foldable nature of the device. However, a high definition color display would be the least that ought to be done for it, since the Motorola RAZR in its time was considered to be a premium handset, so will a relaunch of the RAZR see it positioned as a flagship device? If so, it would be a very interesting proposition due to the fact that there are very, very few clamshell or foldable smartphones in the market, if any.
In any case, if Lenovo would like to position the Motorola as the top three smartphone players in the world, then they have their work cut out for them. Having a Motorola RAZR relaunch would not be a bad place to start at all, actually.
