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Motorola's ultra-thin and half inch thick RAZR V3 cell phone series are some of the sleekest mobile handsets around. Back in February, company CEO Ed Zander said Motorola was developing a new RAZR-type handset built on Microsoft's Windows Mobile operating system (OS).

A PowerPoint presentation posted on the Microsoft Web site confirms the existence of such a device, two in fact. It says the two models in the series, codenamed Franklin, will differ externally and be nearly identical on the inside.

Of course, both are light and very thin.

There's a tablet-style smartphone with a QWERTY thumb-keyboard and a 324 x 240 pixel resolution screen (see top image), and a traditional clamshell handset with the same size display as the tablet model on top and a keypad on the bottom.

The second phone measures 4.4 x 2.5 x 0.5 inches (112 x 64 x 11.5 millimeters) and weighs 4.1 ounces (115 grams). Microsoft's PowerPoint presentation doesn't say what the more Treo/BlackBerry-like RAZR-style Windows Mobile smartphone's dimensions and weight are.


Clamshell ‘Franklin’ Model

Internally, the two handsets have Intel XScale processors, the Windows Mobile for Smartphones platform, 64 MB of RAM and 128 MB of ROM. A miniSD slot provides room for more memory.

Other features include Bluetooth for connecting to a wireless headset, for example, 1.3 megapixel cameras, and a quad-band GSM/GPRS radio with third-generation EDGE network compatibility. The two Franklin model phones also have 1130 mAh batteries for 4 hours of talk and 8 days of standby power.

There's no word as to when these smartphones may ship or how much you'll have to shell out for them when they do.

New Beginning
The attention the release of two razor-thin Windows Mobile smartphone would garner may go far towards easying the hit Motorola took when it tossed the highly touted MPx Pocket PC Phone into the dustbin of history last spring.

Unveiled to great acclaim at the 3GSM World Congress in February 2004, first delayed the following August, and approved by the Federal Communications Commission for U.S. consumption a few months later, the MPx was beleaguered with difficulties from the start.

The Pocket PC Phone’s unique dual-hinge design was what made the Pocket PC Phone so special. With it, you could open the mobile handset both vertically and horizontally. Other features included a QWERTY thumb-keyboard plus Wi-Fi and Bluetooth wireless networking.

Motorola held off releasing the smartphone for months because of purported keyboard and Wi-Fi integration problems. It delayed the MPx so long, it appeared the smartphone would never make it to market.

Yet, early this year the device seemed to gain a second life when the electronics company at long last began shipping the MPx in limited quantities in Asia—Malaysia and several smaller countries. Shortly after that Motorola cancelled the smartphone.

At the time a Motorola spokesperson said the vendor was still dedicated to the Windows Mobile platform and mobile professionals in general. He avowed the company would unveil new devices for this market later in the year.

Perhaps these handsets will include the two Franklins?