engineering and design time
perfecting the hinge – and there’s
a particular element to it that
Castrano picks out as being
key to the whole system. “The
essence of the hinge is the fact
it involves moving plates,” he says.
“That’s one of the core innovations
of this device.”
When the new Razr is unfolded
and the screen is flat, metal plates
underneath the OLED display
ensure it remains solid and
responsive to touch. But as soon
as you start to fold it in half, they
slide towards each end of the
Razr’s chassis, creating space for
the screen to bend, leaving justthat teardrop-shaped gap in
between the two surfaces when
the phone is closed. The end result
is a device that’s very close in size
to the original Razr.Testing, testing
Before the new Razr could be
released to the public it had to
be put through its paces to ensure
it could withstand all the rigours
of modern life. Any phone must go
through these testing procedures,
but when you introduce moving
parts to the equation, the process
becomes even more rigorous.
“After we had figured out what
the mechanical design of the hingeobjective for us was to achieve a
zero-gap design.”
Take a look at the original Razr
and, when folded in half, the screen
and keypad would touch, ensuring
the phone remained as compact
as possible. Use that technique
with a folding screen and you’d end
up with a load of broken pixels, so
Motorola’s design team came up
with a system that maintains a
teardrop shape at the point the
display folds, meaning the screen
can come into contact with itself
without putting too much stress
on the bending point.
It sounds simple, but the Moto
team spent a huge amount of
“THE MAIN
CHALLENGE
WAS TO FOLD
THE DISPLAY
WITHOUT
CREATING
A CREASE”
STUFF PROMOTION
Slim pickings
Weighing 95g and just
10mm thin, the original
Razr was significantly
skinnier than any of its
rivals – and much of that
was down to the
metal build.No time to dial
The original Razr had a
VGA camera that could
shoot video, Bluetooth, WAP
2.0 mobile internet and a
‘voice dial’ key that let you
call someone by saying
their name.Golden balls
The Razr came in many
different finishes over the
years, including gold, hot
pink, matt black, and even
one decorated with David
Beckham’s tattoo
designs.