What began as a clumsy tool for executives has evolved into a means of personal expression. What am I talking about? The cellular phone of course. And, among these latest expressions from some great designers, the Motorola line truly stands out. Motorola SLVR.

Following the success of their RAZR model, the new SLVR (or "sliver") is poised for popularity. The phone shares some of the look and style of the RAZR, but is not a flip phone model. The candy bar shape is less than a half inch thick, about 4 ½ inches long and 2 inches wide. Weight wise it feels substantial and it nests nicely in the hand. The design is matte black with reflective black keypad and screen frame and sculpted chrome buttons and control switches. The keypad has tactile raised rubber numbers and symbols to make one handed operation easier. These Cingular branded phones are as much about making a statement as they are a communication device.

Part of that personal statement is the kind of music you enjoy. The SLVR is heavily branded with iTunes through the onboard MP3 player. The device functions like an iPod Shuffle in connection with a Mac or PC. And, with a 512MB TransFlash card it has the same limited memory of about a hundred songs. You do have the full iPod style browsing menus and screen, however. The iTunes logo appears on startup and the iTunes option is prominent on the home page.