Moto’s new KRZR and RIZR on the sharp edge of cool

Alex Zaharov-Reutt
Thursday, 26 October 2006 18:25

Your IT - Entertainment

Motorola’s RAZR phone redefined cool like no other phone so far this century. Sleek, slim and sharp, it spawned an avalanche of clones that delivered everything but the design sophistication the RAZR still has to this day. Can HelloMoto do it again?

First the RAZR came in silver. Then came black, pink, blue, ice blue, red (for Bono’s PRODUCT: RED campaign) and even a gold coloured edition with Dolce and Gabanna.

A range of tweaks ensued, available in other countries, with better cameras to even having an iTunes client built in. A thicker 3G version emerged, which retained the shape but seemed double the thickness.

Actually, that has now been rectified with the new RAZR V3xx, a 3G videophone model finally as  slim as the original RAZR.

Motorola also followed up with the SLVR, effectively a RAZR in stretched out ‘candy-bar’ style form. Available in black or silver, and now red (for PRODUCT: RED again), it has also become a hit phone and is widely available today.

There was also the PEBL, a phone shaped like a pebble the size of a bar of soap. While it was announced some time ago and is a lovely phone of its own, I haven’t seen too many of them around, unlike the RAZR which is everywhere.

So, how to follow up the amazing hit that is the RAZR? The KRZR and the RIZR are the answer.
The KRZR, which is pronounced ‘krazer’, is supposed to stand for ‘crazy reflective RAZR’ because of its beautiful designed and shiny case.

The name initially caused some confusion when it was announced a couple of months ago, with photos leaking out onto the Internet. Some thought it might be pronounced ‘cruiser’, as that matched Moto’s naming convention.

RAZR is razor, SLVR is sliver (and not silver!), PEBL is pebble. But having the sound of the RAZR within KRZR, even though it just doesn’t look like that when you say it in your head at first glance, was the intention all along.

And why not? The RAZR still sells quite well today, with Aussie phone companies offering the silver model for AUD $199 with one of their phone plans. It’s a long way from the AUD $1399 it originally commanded on its release a couple of years ago.