New Motorola RAZR exclusive to Optus, coming soon

Motorola's new RAZR Android phone: coming to Optus in November

Motorola has unveiled a new version of its iconic RAZR mobile phone — simply called the Motorola RAZR — and will exclusively partner with Optus for its Australian launch.

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The Motorola RAZR Android phone was officially unveiled this morning in the US, but details of the phone are already available on Motorola's Australian Web site. Last week, Motorola released a teaser video for the new RAZR, showing multiple references to a razor blade.

The company also sent an invitation to Australian tech media last week titled "Join us to celebrate the next big innovation from Motorola Mobility". The Optus logo was prominent on that invitation and it also appears on Mototola's Web site. The media event is scheduled for Thursday 27 October in Sydney.

The Mototola RAZR (called the Droid RAZR in the US) is just 7.1mm thick at its thinnest point, giving it the title of the thinnest smartphone in the world. Motorola has focussed most of its efforts on the design of the RAZR: it has a Kevlar fiber backing that the company says makes it sturdier than most other smartphones and is also equipped with Gorilla glass. Motorola says the RAZR has a splash-guard coating that makes it "water repellent".

The Motorola RAZR has a 4.3in Super AMOLED display with a qHD resolution of 540x960, is powered by a 1.2GHz dual-core processor, 1GB of RAM and 16GB of internal memory. It also has an 8-megapixel camera with full HD 1080p video recording and will be compatible with Mototola's Lapdock accessory. This essentially turns the RAZR into a small notebook, using the phone itself as the PC. The Lapdock 100 has no CPU and offers no computing power of its own, however. It has a 10.1in display a full sized keyboard and trackpad and is also equipped with stereo speakers.

The Motorola RAZR will be available exclusively through Optus for $0 upfront on the $59 cap plan over 24 months. The Optus $59 cap includes $750 worth of calls, unlimited SMS messages, 2GB of data and unlimited access within Australia to Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, MySpace, eBay and Foursquare services. The RAZR will be available to pre-order online from 24 October. More details are available on the Optus Web site.