Motorola is Going to Make a Flagship Comeback in 2020

Motorola hasn’t made a flagship-level phone in a couple of years. The Moto Z3 was close to being one, but the old processor inside left it below competitor phones. In 2019, they’ve flooded the market with more mid-range phones than I can keep track of and haven’t given us any sort of signal that they might not stay in that lane for a while. As it turns out, they do have plans to enter the premium market again in early 2020.

Motorola president Sergio Buniac spoke at Qualcomm’s Snapdragon Tech Summit today and laid out a vague schedule for the coming year. The big news here is that Motorola does indeed plan to re-enter the premium smartphone/product market and not just with the ultra-expensive Razr foldable.

They’ll utilize Qualcomm’s 5G advancements and follow-up to the Razr with products (with an “S”) in early (“very early”) 2020. I’d imagine we’ll get a Snapdragon 865 phone, but Motorola said specifically today that they will certainly use the Snapdragon 765 to expand their 5G line-up across the globe. They’ll also launch the fastest 5G phone that can top 5Gbps speeds with Qualcomm’s “flagship platform.”

Does that excite you? Have you missed Motorola as a player in the high-end space? I can tell you that I most definitely have. Over the past couple of years, with Motorola falling back in the flagship tier, we’ve been left mostly with 3 players, Samsung, OnePlus, and Google to talk regularly about. I’d love to see what a Motorola could create after a short break.