10 years of the Motorola Razr V3: The original thin phone

The Motorola Razr V3 made its debut 10 years ago this week when then-CEO Ed Zander displayed the handset during an investor’s conference.

Not since Moto introduced the StarTac in 1996 did the company, or any manufacturer for that matter, sweep the world with such a hot and trend-setting mobile phone. The never-seen-before design drew long lines and sparked the thin phone revolution that swept the industry. A thousand imitators followed, and even today in the age of the smartphone, a passion for trim handsets persists.

Motorola would go on to ride the Razr wave longer than it should have by painting versions in almost every color and introducing subsequent upgrades that added features and tweaked the profile. The company even carried the thin theme over to candy-bar (the Slvr) and slider handsets (the Rizr) while dropping vowels in the process. Finally, after the iPhone and Android hit their strides, Moto would change course and instead apply the Razr name to its flagship line of Android smartphones. such as the Droid Razr Maxx.

Ten years later, the Razr V3 remains a striking example of industrial design and one of the defining phones of the past decade. Join us for a tour through the Razr V3’s history.

Author: Kent German
Source: Cnet