This is Samsung's answer to the Motorola Razr 2019

While the Moto Razr reboot is yet to launch, Samsung teases its own clamshell

Samsung Galaxy Fold 2
(Image credit: LetsGoDigital)

The rebooted Motorola Razr should have been released by now. Earlier in the year, Motorola VP Dan Dery said that Motorola wanted to get the highly anticipated 2019 reboot of the fondly remembered Motorola Razr into customers' hands "no later" than its rivals.

Well, the Samsung Galaxy Fold is now on sale and the new Motorola Razr is nowhere to be seen, so Motorola didn't get that particular wish.

Now Samsung has taken to the stage at the Samsung Developers Conference in San Jose to tease its own clamshell smartphone which suddenly looks a lot more real than the as-yet-unseen Motorola Razr.

In a short segment at the conference Samsung talked up the future of folding phones and showed a concept of a horizontally folding device alongside the current Samsung Galaxy Fold. Samsung didn't go into a huge amount of detail about the clamshell handset, which you can see in the video below, but Dutch site LetsGoDigital has produced a render of the device which you can see at the top of the page.

What the video does show is is how the phone's interface changes when the handset is folded – Samsung envisages it being a particularly useful form factor if you want to follow a recipe consisting of nothing more than lettuce, carrots and olive oil, from the looks of the video.

The video also shows a punch-hole camera as you'd see on the Samsung Galaxy Note 10 Plus – a welcome departure from the huge right-aligned camera notch on the front of the current Fold.

What the video doesn't show is whether there is a second screen on the outside of the handset – something that is almost certain to feature on the new Motorola Razr, as shown in the render below by Sarang Sheth, Editor in Chief at Yanko Design.

(Image credit: Yanko Design)

Samsung didn't go into any further details about the new handset. It may be a concept that never makes it to market or perhaps the firm will wow everyone by announcing it ahead of MWC 2020 as the Samsung Galaxy Fold 2.

And what of the reborn Motorola Razr? According to CNET, Invites have gone out for a November 13 event in Los Angeles which include the phrase "You're going to flip" and mention the "highly anticipated unveiling of a reinvented icon". So there we have it: the Razr will finally be unveiled in a matter of weeks, meaning that while the new Razr may not be the first folding phone to hit the market, it's almost certain to beat Samsung to be the first flagship clamshell phone to go on sale.

Paul Douglas
Global Digital Editorial Strategy Director, Future

Paul Douglas is Global Digital Editorial Strategy Director at Future and has worked in publishing for over 25 years. He worked in print for over 10 years on various computing titles including .net magazine and the Official Windows Magazine before moving to TechRadar.com in 2008, eventually becoming Global Editor-in-Chief for the brand, overseeing teams in the US, UK and Australia. Following that, Paul has been Global Editor-in-Chief of BikeRadar and T3 (not at the same time) and later Content Director working on T3, TechRadar and Tom's Guide. In 2021, Paul also worked on the launches of FitandWell.com and PetsRadar.