Motorola Razr Then vs Now

Motorola Razr Then vs Now

Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we’re discussing the Motorola Razr Then vs Now.

In this video, we’ll be looking at the Motorola Razr — both as we knew it in the mid-2000s and in its current smartphone iteration.

Do you ever miss having a flip phone? Tell us about your favorite phone in the comments below!

The tech marketplace is a fast-paced and crowded one. New products come and go — many without ever making much of an impression on consumers. Every now and then, however, a device comes along that feels emblematic of a period of time. And in this industry, a few years can feel like a lifetime. From late 2004 until the decline of flip phones around 2008, the Motorola RAZR was the phone to own. Flash forward roughly a decade and a half from its initial release, and this fan-favorite device has gotten a new lease on life as a smartphone.

The original RAZR, released in 2004, quickly became the must-have phone of its time. It was a status symbol. It was cool. It felt like a perfect marriage of style and functionality. The V3 model alone managed to sell 130 million units, making it the bestselling clamshell design phone in history. And that’s not even taking into account the Razr2. With its sleek design, the Motorola RAZR was initially heralded as a fashion phone — a conversation starter with a price tag to match. But the cost quickly came down, and it went from status symbol to the logical choice. You couldn’t walk down the street without seeing a Razr in the hand of a passerby. Characters in movies and television used them. Heck, it was even one of the player tokens in the 2006 edition of Monopoly Here and Now.

Ask anyone who owned a Razr back in the aughts and they'll likely tell you that it was their favorite phone (at least pre-smartphone technology). There's an enduring fondness for this device. During its lifespan, it didn’t necessarily beat out the competition in terms of specs, but it was a testament to the fact that specs aren’t everything. What it offered were competitive specs in a package that was both beautiful and undeniably functional.

When talking wistfully about the original RAZR it’s easy to get caught up in the aesthetics. But it’s important to remember that Motorola achieved that sleek profile through innovative design. At the time, this was the slimmest clamshell design on the market. The keypad addressed the increasing shift towards texting by offering buttons that felt huge for the time - but made typing a breeze compared to other T9 options. The original RAZR might seem small in hindsight, but it was actually quite wide by then-current industry standards; this was a necessary design choice to accommodate the tech. It also served to give the user a larger than average screen — a design choice that acknowledged the burgeoning interest in mobile gaming.


The new Motorola razr comes with its own fair share of innovations. The most obvious difference from older models is the foldable screen. This means a larger screen that takes up less space, and can’t be easily scratched in a pocket or purse. Unlike many other foldable phones, which fold vertically, the new razr stays true to its roots and folds horizontally, with that satisfying flip motion. It’s intuitive and makes the phone especially compact. There’s still an external screen, too, which now boasts much more functionality.

Of course, when it comes to flip phones, it’s all in the hinge. One of the main concerns with foldable phones is their fragility. Motorola collaborated with Lenovo to design a hinge that’s actually an elaborate system of different hinges working in conjunction with sliding plates. The result is a hinge that feels a bit more rigid than the original, but sturdy; and a screen that’s seamless when unfolded.

In terms of specs, the model released in early 2020 features a Snapdragon 710G processor, 6GB of RAM, and 128GB of storage. In reaction to mixed reviews, the most recent model, the Motorola Razr 5G, improves on that, with a 765G processor, 8GB of RAM and 256GB of storage. The battery capacity is 2800 mAh. It’s kind of mind-blowing to look back, and think that the first RAZR in 2004 had 5.5MB of internal memory - and no card slot. Simpler times!

The original RAZR came with a 1.3 megapixel camera, eventually getting up to 2 megapixels in subsequent models (some with a secondary camera). In contrast, the rear camera on the 2020 razr has 16 megapixels, or 48 for the 5G model, and an aperture of f/1.7. It can also shoot 4K video. The front camera of the newest model has 20 megapixels; because of its clamshell design, this has the potential to revolutionize your selfie game.

The biggest selling point of Motorola’s new razr is, without a doubt, the folding technology. But a folding smartphone is only as good as the resulting screen. Hard though it might be to believe, the RAZR V3’s 2.2 inch, 176 x 220 pixel display felt luxurious back in 2004. The modern razr, by comparison, has an 876 x 2142 pixel, 6.2 inch flexible OLED display. Compared to conventional smartphones, these aren’t groundbreaking specs. But relative to the folding competition, it’s pretty impressive.

As for the front-facing screen, at 600 x 800 pixels, the 2.7-inch quick view display is a massive upgrade from flip phones of yesteryears. But it’s what the quick view display represents that makes it stand out. In addition to checking the time, users can control music and check notifications without opening their phone — and there are additional applications on the horizon.

The early days of the smartphone era were exciting. Companies were pushing the boundaries to make the ultimate smartphone; innovation was apparent in every new model. But it's no secret that over a decade later, the vast majority of smartphones have largely adopted a uniform design. Picking a smartphone has gotten kind of boring. And that's a big part of the new Motorola razr's appeal. It satisfies modern demands while proving that there's still room for innovation.

And man, do we miss that flip!