Samsung Coming After Motorola Razr Revival With New Flip Phone

Samsung has revealed a new foldable smartphone design that's quite similar to the popular clamshell of the yesteryears, the Motorola Razr.

Korean tech giant Samsung teased at a possible foldable smartphone design reminiscent of the Motorola Razr, The Verge reported. The design was shown during the keynote address at the company's recent Developer's Conference.

While the reveal shouldn't be considered an official unveiling of a new product, it very well shows where Samsung's foldable smartphone plans are headed – it's obvious that the Korean giant doesn't want to settle with just one Galaxy Fold.

Hyesoon Jeong, head of Samsung’s framework R&D group, explained that the new concept is designed to make Samsung's foldable smartphone technology, which took the company a lot of time and errors to develop, “more compact” and be available in more forms.

“ This brand-new form factor that we’re now exploring will not only easily fit in your pocket, but it also changes the way you use your phone,” Jeong said.

Details

Samsung didn't give away any details regarding the clamshell device. It didn't specify the device's possible processor, display size, dimensions when folded or unfolded, and so on. It didn't even hint at a possible release date.

What's known about it, though, is that Samsung's really interested in creating it. The Korean tech giant promised during last year's Samsung Developers Conference that it will look into more form factors for foldable smartphones, and this is but the second of possibly more.

A teaser video revealed that the device will be tall, and that it will fold horizontally to form a small square shaped device that should fit in a pocket. The inner display has a hole punch at the center for a front-facing camera. The icons shown on screen indicate that the display won't be that big. It's too early to say, though, if the device will have a secondary display like the Motorola Razr.

CNet noted that the teaser video showed a mock up of Samsung's One UI 2 software, which is overlaid atop Android. The video showed the clamshell foldable automatically adjusting its display when the clamshell smartphone was folded halfway, as if to prop it up like a laptop.

Not much is known about the device at the moment. Stay tuned for more updates as they come.