Motorola’s 5G-equipped Razr is being sold unlocked, which means you can buy it straight from Amazon. (It’s even on sale for $400 off the usual $1,399.99 price.) But if you do order the foldable flip phone from Amazon, you’ll be greeted by an unusual sight when you open the box: someone else will have already unboxed your new phone and folded it for you.
(That deal is also available from Best Buy and B&H, which will presumably not get their grubby mitts all over your new phone before shipping.)
As Amazon’s product listing explains:
RAZR was meant to be shipped in the unfolded position. However, in order to better protect the display we have folded your RAZR – it’s safer, but may not look as elegant as we hoped. We apologize if you see fingerprints on your device, but we assure you your RAZR is brand new.
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Both the original Razr and the updated model come in fancy display boxes meant to showcase your phone to its fullest degree. (It also functions as a passive speaker, and its shape is designed to amplify the sound from the phone’s speaker.) As part of that fancy design, though, the Razr itself is shipped in an unfolded configuration to better show off the flexible 6.2-inch OLED panel.
But Amazon seems to be concerned about the safety of shipping the $1,399 phone with that massive (and relatively fragile) display exposed to the elements. So the retailer is opening the box, removing the phone, folding it, and then resealing and shipping it to customers.
Is this a casual indictment of the fragility of Motorola’s foldable phone? Amazon taking aggressively cautious measures to safely ship a product? Who can say.
But that’s why your new phone might be all fingerprint-y.