Motorola Slvr makes us shiver

By Mary Lojkine on 01 February 2006, 12:10pm

The Glamorous Event of the Year (so far) Award goes to Motorola, for the launch of the Slvr, a slim mobile phone that's basically a Razr without the hinge.

The good and the great of the consumer tech press gathered in a rooftop bar to celebrate the launch with a startling light show in the centre of London. Images of the phone were projected onto the old London Stock Exchange, Lloyd's Insurance building, Tower 42, Deutsche Bank and the old Barclay's HQ, causing late-night workers caught in the spotlights to blink and cower under their desks. Meanwhile, the assembled press was shivering in a roof garden, trying not to laugh as the muffling effect of the PA system led to the announcement of the Motorola Slither.

Slvr (pronouced 'sliver', of course) rumours and images have been circulating the Internet for over a year, so the phone hardware offers few surprises. There are two versions, the black Slvr L7 and the silver Slvr L6, both with slim profiles and Razr-style metal keypads. However, unlike the black and silver Razrs, the Slvrs differ in features as well as colour. The black L7 is 11.5mm thick and has a slot for a microSD (TransFlash) memory card; the silver L6 is slimmer at 10.9mm, but doesn't have the memory card slot. Both phones have VGA cameras and can record video; the L7 also has an integrated MP3 player.

Crave got its frostbitten fingers on the Slvr L7 at the end of the event. First impressions: it's slim, but not that slim. The Razr was radically slimmer than all the preceding clamshells; the Slvr is somewhat flatter than competing candy-bars. It looks large and lardy next to the iPod nano, and it's only slightly slimmer than a folded Razr. The memory card slot is a significant upgrade, but the VGA camera is hugely disappointing. We can only assume that Motorola bought a job lot back in 2004 and is still using them up.

Both versions of the Slvr are available now. On pay-as-you-go, L6 prices start at £80 and L7 prices at £140, and both phones are available free on monthly contracts. -ML