Introduction

Two years ago top designers at Motorola began a secret project - to develop a phone the size of a credit card featuring all the latest multimedia features including a camera, video recorder, and MP3 player.

After months of refinement it was released last year accompanied by a furious barrage of ad campaigns; outperforming Motorola's initial sales estimate of 750,000 units. Two months later and over 2 million units sold, that top-secret device became the best selling mobile device in history. That phone, of course, was the Motorola RAZR.

Shortly after the RAZR's success, Motorola designers wasted little time getting back to the drawing board, creating the next family of RAZR-like handsets.

This month, the latest variant of the ultra-thin phone, SLVR L7 (Pronounced Sliver, not Silver), hits the market. Offering not just form, but also functionality, the SLVR includes a VGA camera with video capture and playback capabilities, and iTunes functionality, giving music lovers the ability to carry up to 7 hours of music or 100 of their favorite songs. As a block form factor phone with similar RAZR-thin characteristics, Motorola hopes to achieve the same golden touch it did with the RAZR, gives an alternative to clamshell-averse consumers.

Design

Expanding on the RAZR-thin popularity, Motorola designed the SLVR at a remarkable 114 x 49 x 11.5 mm in size. Narrower than the size of a credit card (86 x 54 mm), albeit 50% taller, the SLVR is even slimmer than the revolutionary RAZR's 13.9 mm profile.

Functionally, due to its thinness, an all plastic casing would have been too fragile. Therefore a hybrid glass-filled body was created for stability and rigidity; durable enough to withstand everyday wear and tear and the occasional bump or drop.

Featured on the front, a 262K-color LCD screen displayed images at up 176 x 220 px in resolution. A 5-way navigational keypad is surrounded by Menu, Send, Power / End, and Left and Right soft keys, while the numeric keypad allows for iTAP predictive text messaging.

Due to the design of the SLVR, conventional raised keys could not have been used since it would have increased the thickness significantly. To bypass this, Motorola instead covered a keypad in nickel-plated copper-alloy, chemically-etching numbers and symbols into an electro-luminescent strip and finishing it off with a metallic spun finish. The result is an innovative wafer-thin keypad that illuminates a light glow in the dark.

Turned around, the back contains the lens to the 0.3-megapixel VGA camera. Although the lens is always exposed, Motorola has used hardened glass instead of a lens cover to avoid any scratches that may occur.

Created for the image conscious consumer, the Motorola SLVR also features chrome-plated Volume and Voice Keys along the left and right sides. Along the right a mini-USB connection is included, doubling as the charging port when an adaptor plug is attached. Located below, a TransFlash memory card slot provides expandable storage up to 512 MB in size.

Out of the box, the Motorola SLVR L7 comes with a Standard 820 mAh Li-Ion Battery, A/C Charger, Stereo Handsfree Headset, iTunes PC software with USB Data Cable, 512 MB TransFlash Card, PC Studio CD, and User Manual.

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