What you need to know
- Motorola has posted a teaser for an upcoming phone powered by the Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1.
- Without explicitly saying so, it's implied that this will be the Moto Razr 3.
- This would be Motorola's first foldable phone powered by a flagship processor.
Last week, Qualcomm delivered some surprising news as it announced the new Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 platform. This is the company's upcoming flagship chipset, and sees Qualcomm moving over to TSMC for manufacturing as opposed to Samsung. As a result, the Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 is said to provide 10% faster performance paired with a staggering 30% better efficiency.
Alongside the announcement, Qualcomm confirmed that some of the best Android phones slated for later in 2022 will be powered by this processor. That initial list includes some phone makers that you would expect, but it didn't tell the whole story. A new post on Weibo, (via GSMArena) shows a teaser ad that indicates Motorola will soon join the Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 parade as well.
Without explicitly saying so, Motorola's teaser shows off the Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1's logo, along with the company's tagline "hellomoto" and what appears to be a foldable phone. It would be pretty easy to surmise that this will end up being Motorola's Galaxy Z Flip 4 contender.
The company joined the foldable phone craze back by re-introducing the Motorola Razr branding back in 2019. In 2020, Motorola provided a rather modest upgrade with the Razr 5G, but we've not seen a new foldable phone from Moto since then. Various rumors and reports previously suggested the company was essentially going back to the drawing board, as its original foldable phones powered by mid-range chipsets underwhelmed users.
But with the expected gains in both performance and efficiency, it comes as no surprise that Motorola is ready to make a splash with the 8+ Gen 1 in 2022. In addition to the new chipset, we're also expecting the Razr 3 to see an upgrade to the foldable screen, moving up to a 120Hz refresh rate from the previous Razr's 60Hz panel. Qualcomm's chipset is said to be paired with up to 12GB of RAM, UWB support, and an improved camera system.
As we've seen with other recent announcements, Motorola stopped short of providing any other information. We'll have to wait for the official announcement, which should come over the course of the next few months.
Still stands out
The Moto Razr 5G may seem a bit outdated at this point, but it's still the only flip-smartphone to sport a cover display that's actually usable. There are a few quirks here and there, but all-in-all it's still an intriguing option.
