By About a week after we learned that Lenovo plans to revive the iconic RAZR as a smartphone with a foldable display, we’ve learned that the company was just granted a patent which shows what the phone’s design could look like. Filed with the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO), the design patent shows off images of what Lenovo envisions a foldable smartphone to look like. The body of the device bears a striking resemblance to the Motorola V3 which we all loved, even including the chin cutout at the bottom.
Naturally, the main attraction is the phone’s clamshell design is the large foldable display that’s revealed when the phone is opened. The panel’s aspect ratio is roughly 22×9 which is taller than what we’ve been used to recently. The top and bottom edges of the display panel have a subtle curve to them with a fairly large notch cutout up top which houses the speaker. The images also give us a look at the hinge mechanism for the foldable display which apears to hide and protect the edge of the panel where it folds in the middle. The profile image of the device features a line which curves from the front to the back towards the middle of the phone, presumably outlining fold of the display when the device is closed.
While the patent doesn’t go into details regarding the phone’s specifications, the images do reveal that smartphone will feature a circular fingerprint sensor on the back of the phone, a single camera and display on the outside as well. There are those who would object to having just one camera on a smartphone, but since it is placed right above the secondary display, it would allow users to capture higher quality selfies since the main camera is always better than the selfie cameras we typically find on smartphones.
The screen on the outside of the phone would likely be used to display notifications, the time and other useful information. We can imagine that it would replicate or even enhance the current Active Display experience offered on Motorla devices.
The Motorola RAZR smartphone with its foldable display design is expected to make its debut as early as next month and will likely be sold as a Verizon exclusive in the US. The fact that this design patent was filed in Europe, gives us hope that the phone will be making its way to European and other international markets as well. The exact pricing of the device is still unknown, but the original rumor indicated that Motorola will be charging at least $1,500 for the smartphone and will limit the production run to only 200,000 units.
If the foldable display Motorola RAZR smartphone looks like the images revealed in the patent, will it be a device you’ll be adding to your collection?
Source: WIPO
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