MOTO MILESTONES 2011-2016
any of Becks’ haircuts, but as
touchscreens allowed displays
to get better at browsing the web
and watching videos became a
priority for many users, keypads
began to disappear and the
candybar form factor took
over. A little later, it took one
major breakthrough in particular
for the clamshell phone to make
its comeback...To foldily go
The new Razr was unveiled in
November 2019, but its story starts
back in 2015, when Ruben Castrano
and his team began looking at what
could be done with new folding
display technologies that were
starting to emerge.
“We weren’t really sure what
the best application for this
technology was, so we looked
at a whole variety of form
factors,” explains Castrano.
“We experimented with
everything from products that
went from traditional smartphone
size to more phablet-like size,
to things that could wrap around
your wrist or form to the shape
of your body.”
The one thing Motorola’s
designers kept coming back to
came from feedback gained from
speaking to end users. Many of
them said they were happy with
the screen size of their current
devices – they just wished
they were a bit more portable.
That led the team to one
obvious conclusion: the return
of the clamshell.Hinge benefits
Bringing the Razr back presented
a whole new set of problems that
didn’t exist in 2004– primarily,
what to do with the screen. Having
a display that can fold is one thing,
but stopping it getting damaged is
quite another.
Fortunately, Motorola had just
launched the Droid Turbo 2 in the
USA, which had a ShatterShield
display made from hardened
plastic designed to withstand
the rough and tumble of everyday
life. Meanwhile, Motorola’s parent
company Lenovo had significant
experience in making hinges
for laptops, so now the quest
for the perfect folding screen
mechanism began.
“The main challenge for us was
how to fold the display in a way
that didn’t create a permanent
crease,” Castrano says. “These
displays are extremely thin,
they are very delicate, and the
way they’re folded needs to be
done with extreme care – but
at the same time, a primaryMOTOROLA ATRIX 2011
As phones became more powerful, it became
clear we could use them to do jobs previously
reserved for computers. The Atrix was a
smartphone that employed a clever docking
system to allow you to hook it up to a larger
screen and use it like a desktop, or slot it
inside the Lapdock chassis, which added an
11in display and full QWERTY keyboard. Nifty.
MOTO MAKER 2015
Ever since screens became touch-sensitive
and expanded to replace keypads, there’s
been a limited amount that designers can
do to make phones stand out. Moto Maker
allowed people to customise their phones,
whether it was picking the texture of the rear
and the colour of the accents, or engraving a
message to mark it out as your own.MOTO X FORCE 2015
What’s the point in forking out for an elegant
flagship phone if you just have to swaddle
it in an ugly protective case? The X Force
was one of the first top-end phones to
come with a suitably hard-wearing build
and shatterproof AMOLED display, meaning
you could use it au naturel and not have to
worry about dropping it.MOTO MODS 2016
Launched alongside the Moto Z, Moto Mods
allow you to add extra functionality to your
phone. Whether you want 5G connectivity,
gamepad controls, a Hasselblad camera with
10x optical zoom or even a Polaroid printer,
Moto Mods clip onto the back of your handset
and change what it can do entirely. If only all
phones were as adaptable.STUFF PROMOTION