A Visual History of the Motorola Razr

The Moto Razr is back, in a radical new form.

The new Razr is an Android-powered flip phone with a big, folding screen in the middle. Like the original Razr, the new one is priced for the elite: a $499 phone in 2004 felt as out of line as a $1,500 one does today. So perhaps more than selling millions of flip Razrs, the new phone will buoy Motorola's other lines—much as Motorola's first Razr helped lend a halo to the company's popular "triplet" lines of affordable phones.

I reviewed the first Razr for PCMag. It was the first US phone that made such a strong fashion statement, although there had been weird fashion-phone lines, such as Philips' Xelibri in Europe. But it also had great call quality and reception. Then Motorola decided to cycle through Razr colors, Razr refreshes, and Razr reboots before running the product line into the rocks on the shoals of America's transition to smartphones.

Even after that, though, Verizon's thin "Razr" Android phones were the best models Motorola was making in 2011-2012, although I don't know how many people were buying them for the name.

Now, after seven years, the Razr has returned. I'm excited to see where it goes. First, though, let's see where it's been.

Moto Razr V3: The Original

In 2004, the Moto Razr V3 hit the market with a small, color external screen and a 1.3-megapixel camera. It swiftly became an icon with its premium materials, super-slim form and great quality. Motorola sold 130 million Razrs, making it one of the best-selling phones of all time.

Then They Made the Razr Pink

Over the next two years, Motorola juiced Razr sales with an array of colors, like this pink one from 2005, and then a series of price cuts. By 2007, Razrs cost $49 with a contract, which meant they no longer had premium phone prestige.

Verizon Got the Razr

Verizon got the Razr in 2005, as the V3c model. It had terrific reception and call quality, but I lamented the lack of an onboard MP3 player, an issue that would become a sort of zig-zagging sticking point for the Razr team over the next year and a half.

Razrs in Every Color

By 2006, you could get Razrs in every color of the rainbow. Broad arrays of colors were common back then, with phone makers spinning out new colorways to juice sales without having to build a whole new device.

For Some Reason There Was a D&G Version

I, and many other people, saw the proliferation of gimmick Razrs as devaluing the brand and trying to beat it to death. This Dolce & Gabbana version came out in late 2005.

Moto Razr V3m with Windows Media

The 2006 Razr V3m brought expandable memory and Windows Media Player to the Razr line, but the end was in sight. Razr users were already starting to complain about slow performance and a lagging camera.

Doomed iTunes Razr V3i

Before the iPhone came out, Motorola had a short, doomed partnership with Apple to put iTunes on its phones. The Razr V3i had an awkward method of syncing with iTunes, only held 100 songs, and came out two months before the announcement of the iPhone.

Faster Moto Razr v3xx

Motorola tried to refresh the Razr line with the V3xx, a much faster version with a better screen, reception, voice quality, performance, internet speed ... pretty much everything. It was inexpensive, too. But by the end of 2007, the writing was on the wall for the flip phone generation.

Moto Razr Maxx Ve

The Moto Razr Maxx Ve for Verizon brought the next generation of Razr to the nation's largest carrier, with full 3G support and a bigger front screen in a slightly thicker body than other Razrs.

Razr2s for Every Carrier

The 2007-2008 line of Razr2 models had even bigger front screens, terrific call quality, and in some cases even streamed video. I called them some of the best phones available for their carriers at the time—a time when the iPhone was locked to AT&T and didn't make very good phone calls.

Razr2 Open for Sprint

The Razr2 models had familiar Razr styling, just with updated specs. Ultimately their main problem was the familiar Razr operating system, which really limited their functionality.

Moto Razr VE20

By 2008 I, and most people, were tired of seeing the Razr rehashed over and over again. The Razr VE20 was a "perfectly good voice and camera phone for Sprint," a basic communication tool that wasn't going to turn heads or set anyone's world on fire.

Motorola Droid Razr

Out goes the old Motorola; in comes Google, and by 2011 the Razr name started to be attached to some pretty decent Android phones. The Droid Razr was "super thin" and helped clear the palate after Motorola's previous flagship Android phone, the Droid Bionic, was caught in extensive delays.

Motorola Droid Razr Maxx

The Droid Razr Maxx variant added a larger battery, so it wasn't quite as thin.

Then They Made a Razr HD and Maxx HD

The next year's versions upgraded the batteries and displays.

Motorola Droid Razr M

The 4-inch Droid Razr M was the smallest member of the family. It was great value for the money, had a terrific screen-to-body ratio for the time, performed well and wasn't huge. I recommended this one to family members. After this generation of phones, Motorola changed its tactics and built the Moto X, one of my top five phones in all of history. The Razr line was almost done, until now.

Motorola Droid Razr (A Very Bad Idea)

The Droid Razr line went out with a whimper. The Droid Razr i was part of Intel's push into smartphones in 2012, swapping in an x86-based chip for the usual ARM-based processors. That didn't end up going well for Intel; unable to provide truly differentiated performance over ARM-based processors, it quietly ended the effort, at least outside China, in 2016.

New Moto Razr vs. Razr V3

The new Razr is wider than the original classic V3, but it's just as slim. There are a lot more electronics in this one, of course, and it needs to be wide enough to support a touch keyboard.

New Moto Razr vs. Razr V3 Open

Opened, the new Razr isn't longer than the classic device, though. Really, this is one of the smartest designs I've seen in ages.

The New Motorola Razr Is a True Flip Smartphone