Foldable phones have been around for several years, but they’re still coming into their own. Companies are still figuring out how to squeeze their user interfaces into such drastically different form factors. Motorola just made a Leap forward in this respect. According to Evan Blass (via 9To5Google), the 2023 Motorola Razr will be able to run full apps on the outer display.
Right now, we don’t 100% know the phone’s name. Rumors pointed to it having the name Motorola Razr 40. However, it seems like that won’t be the case. According to information from Blass, Motorola might simply call it the Motorola Razr while the more premium version may have the”+” moniker.
You’ll be able to use full apps on the outer display of the Motorola Razr
Since the very first clamshell foldable, the outer displays have been gradually getting bigger as customers wanted more utility from them. They were tiny displays only capable of showing notifications, but Motorola is looking to completely change how you look at your phone’s outer display.
Evan Blass was able to share some leaked promotional images and a video from Motorola. The leaked video shows the Motorola Razr from all angles with an emphasis on the outer display. The outer display, as we’ve seen, will stretch to the bottom of the phone when it is closed fully encompassing the two outer cameras. There’s a bit of a forehead bezel, but it’s well worth it for such a large outer display.
Notably, we see full apps running on the outer display like Google Maps, a music app, TikTok, a messaging app, and a simple maze game. The apps themselves appear heavily reformatted to fit the screen, so we should expect mostly first-party apps to fully take advantage of this.
Also, we see the full Gboard being displayed. The keyboard picked up most of the display with a text field at the very top. This means that you’ll be able to check your notifications and respond to them using the outer display.
While we don’t know all of the apps that will support this, we did get a bit of a preview. The video shows an app list. In it, we see apps like YouTube, Google Duo, the camera, and the Google Play Store.
This new Razr phone is expected to be rather affordable, so, this could very well be your next phone. Stay tuned for more information on this phone as details pop up.