Droid RAZR set for November release

Everything old is new again. On Tuesday, Motorola introduced the Droid RAZR, a much-upgraded version of the clamshell flip phone of yore. According to Motorola, the new RAZR – pronounced "razor" – will get a frame that's only 7.1 millimeters thick, strengthened with kevlar fibers and kitted out with a Gorilla Glass display. "Diamond-cut" metal accents grace the corners of the handset, and the whole thing gets a coating of splash-resistant finish.

In fact, if the Droid RAZR press release could be boiled down to two words, it would read something like this: "Strong, thin." But the internals aren't bad either, from the dual-core 1.2 GHz processor and 1GB of RAM, to the Android 2.3.5 Gingerbread OS. There's also the obligatory camera – 8-megapixel, with video capability – and a big and bright 4.3-inch Super AMOLED screen.

Preordering for the Droid RAZR begins Oct. 27; the handset will begin shipping in early November on Verizon. It's worth noting, of course, that the RAZR, even with a two-year contract, will set you back $299.99, which is a hundred bucks more than the iPhone. Obviously, this is a full-featured phone, with plenty of sharp lines – see the photo at left – but that extra $100 may put the RAZR out of reach for many users.

In September, of course, Motorola unveiled the long-awaited Droid Bionic, a 4G-ready smartphone sold exclusively through Verizon Wireless stores. The Bionic, which runs Android 2.3 Gingerbread, and includes Flash and HTML 5 capability, also sells for $299.99. The Bionic is "an undeniably great phone, powered by the fastest wireless network in the air today," one reviewer wrote last month.

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