MWC 2019: Motorola confirms a foldable phone, launch expected this year

While Dery didn’t confirm the release date, he did mention that the company has “no intention of coming later than everybody else in the market. Samsung recently showed off the Galaxy Fold at an event in San Francisco. Meanwhile, Huawei launched the Mate X at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain. With Samsung’s Galaxy Fold expected to launch in April, and Huawei gearing up for a mid-2019 launch, Motorola could launch its folding phone this year.

Lenovo-owned Motorola has been rumoured to be working on a foldable phone for a long time. Recent patents reveal that the company is secretly working to launch a flip phone with a flexible screen. Many believe Motorola’s first foldable phone could be the reincarnated version of RAZR, one of the most iconic phones.

Dery admits the outer-screen design adopted by Samsung and Huawei is the “nicest and the purest” approach. He, however, is concerned about the scratches on the display.

He added: “We have been testing a plastic OLED device with plastic film on top,” he said, referring to the same kind of design Huawei used for its Mate X. “The fact that you’re touching [that kind of display] with your nails is scratching it. It has a short life right away; it starts dying the day you unpack it. But it’s beautiful. That first day, it’s beautiful.”

He says the company’s “intention would not be to put the display outside. When you know the scratching issues you would be facing, you will have something that is very rapidly not usable.”

The Wall Street Journal reported that a folding phone, which would launch under the RAZR brand name, could be announced in February. According to the Journal, the 2019 Motorola RAZR may come to the US as a Verizon exclusive at a starting price of $1500.