• 

  The 2023 Razr. That front display is real big. [credit: Evan Blass ]

Motorola is still not giving up on the whole idea of a flexible-display Razr phone, and the company actually has a fourth generation of the device coming up. The launch date is already official, set for June 1 . The new Razr line comprises all new-school flip phones that are about the size of a normal smartphone when open, but when you're done with them, the whole device, including the screen, can fold in half, giving you a smaller square to fit into your pocket.

There are two models of the upcoming device, called either the "Razr 40 Ultra" or "Razr+, and a cheaper model that might end up being called the Razr 40. Legendary leaker Evan Blass has been all over the release of this phone, sharing press images and other details , while MySmartPrice has leaks of the cheaper model. We don't necessarily know every tiny difference between the two models, but the big difference will be the cover display.

These foldable devices are closed a lot of the time, so an outer display is very useful for the 100-plus times a day you check your phone—it's nice to just quickly look at it without needing to open up the phone. The Ultra model is going for about as big of a front display as possible, including wrapping around the two primary cameras that live in the bottom-right corner of the front of the phone. Working around all that dead space is going to make for some interesting software design decisions. The cheaper model, meanwhile, has a much smaller display, similar to the first-generation Galaxy Flip. It's a tiny little thing to the left of the camera array and can only show smartwatch-style widgets.

Enlarge / The Moto Rizr is unrolling. (credit: Motorola)

Mobile World Congress is this week, and that means wild flexible display concepts that will probably never see the light of day. Motorola has been letting everyone try out the new "Moto Rizr" concept, a name it resurrected from its line of candybar slider phones in the early 2000s. The new Rizr is a rollable display phone that was initially announced in October, but Motorola is sharing a lot more details about the phone at MWC.

Motorola's concept phone is a stumpy-looking 5-inch device with a flexible POLED display that covers the front of the phone, then rolls around the bottom edge and continues almost halfway up the back. Press a button and motorized internal components push the top of the phone upward, dragging the screen up with it. At the end of the process, all that "extra" display that was on the back of the phone has rolled around the bottom edge and is now on the front, and you have a 6.5-inch display that looks like a normal smartphone.

The sliding component of the phone is a wafer-thin rectangle that houses only the display and looks very fragile. Besides sliding up to support the larger display, this rectangle can also slide down a few millimeters from the closed position, revealing the phone body it normally covers. This small area that is typically behind the display houses what would normally be the top bezel components, like a front-facing camera and earpiece speaker. In the closed position, the display wraps around the phone to the back, and this bit of back display doesn't go to waste: It can show the top status bar on the back of the phone or can kick into a viewfinder mode, allowing you to use the primary cameras like a selfie camera.

Read 5 remaining paragraphs | Comments