Motorola sharpens its star RAZR

Gary Krakow Columnist • E-mail

NEW YORK - Motorola needed a big boost.

Cell phones sales have sagged since everyone and their sister bought a Moto RAZR phone — once the coolest, exclusive, super-expensive handset on the planet. Not much had been done to update on the now ubiquitous phone since its release in 2004.

In New York City today, Motorola announced a completely revamped RAZR² (that’s pronounced razor-two) as part of a revamped line of innovative new phones.

There are some blockbusters in Moto’s new lineup, but the biggest news is their RAZR².  Based on the world’s favorite cellular phone, this new handset is smaller, thinner, and much smarter than the original.

Motorola The new RAZR² is slightly slimmer than its older sibling.

RAZR² has been given a new lease on life. Motorola has added a slew of new features to make the famous design a lot more than a pretty face. First of all, the new RAZR is physically two millimeters thinner, has a seamless case with a vacuum metal finish (you have to see it to believe it) as well as chemically hardened glass for the inner (2.2-inch) and new larger outer (2.0-inch) screens. That new outer display has something called “touch-sensitive vibrating music keys” to control the MP3 player.

RAZR² also has a full HTML browser, WMA, MP3, AAC music player, high speed USB port, a 2 megapixel camera for still pictures and videos, a miniSD memory card slot, USB 2.0, Bluetooth and a feature called "CrystalTalk" which automatically filters out noisy surroundings and boost the volume so you can hear in difficult surroundings.

There will be three new RAZR²’s released this summer: a GSM/GPRS version, a 3G HSDPA/UMTS/GSM version for download speeds approaching 3.6mbps (very, very fast), and a CDMA/EVDO version for the U.S.  Prices and carriers have yet to be announced.

The entertainer

Motorola Not only is the Z8 loaded with features,  it also tilts the microphone towards you when you slide open the case.

Another major-big blockbuster featured today was the Z8 video/audio masterpiece first announced at 3GSM in Barcelona back in February.  Motorola is calling the Z8 their "media monster". 

It too works on the super-fast HSDPA/UMTS wireless networks currently in use in Europe and the Far East — so fast that compressed-music files can download to your handset in 3 seconds. Add to that Z8’s video capture and playback capabilities at 30 frames per second and you have a formidable portable device. In Motorola's brief demonstration of Z8 video, it looked very smooth and clean — not what we’ve come to expect from a cell phone.

Motorola will ship the phone with mobile TV access to streaming content from CNN, BSkyB and others.  Moto claims up to 32GB of expandable memory (depending on the market) and the use of microSD cards makes the Z8, according to Motorola, the ultimate portable media machine.

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