Truth to tell, no other brand is as synonymous to the clamshell as the big M, even going as far back as the venerable StarTac series that it first unleashed to an unsuspecting public. And when the company was about to go down in flames after several uninspired designs failed to tickle anybody’s fancy, it was the RAZR that pretty much brought it into the black.

With its striking flat keypad, big, bright internal LCD screen, complementary small external display, sturdy part-metal frame and, of course, razor-thin width, the RAZR was a thing of beauty that’s right up there with the Apple iPod in terms of sheer iconic value. Never mind that because it’s marketed mainly as a fashion handset, it also has limited functionality and, features-wise, won’t hold a candle to its more geek-friendly counterparts from Nokia, Sony Ericsson and even Samsung.

Well, all that’s about to change with Motorola’s new RAZR2 V8. This clamshell rocks our world with its slim and sculpted 11.9mm stainless steel frame punctuated by vacuum metal housing, chemically hardened glass, spun metal and chrome. It also doesn’t hurt that it comes in equally elegant colors of dark pearl gray and espresso. Yes, it’s the thinnest RAZR yet and by far the prettiest in the series.

Just like previous RAZRs, the RAZR2 remains a smudge magnet but this is nicely neutralized by the somewhat tinted effect on the glass housing that frames the 2-inch external display, the largest of any clamshell phone. This external LCD is not just for showing the time as you can actually view an entire text message (not just an SMS alert, mind you) without opening your phone. Not only that, you also don’t need to open the phone to listen to music, which is also possible with play, rewind and fast forward touchscreen (whoa, touchscreen!) controls from the external screen.

And when you do open the phone, you can easily do so with one hand, or one thumb for that matter. The RAZR2 earns extra pogi points for the easy open spring mechanism and the nice tapping sound that it makes when closed. Opening and closing the phone can be just as addicting as playing with Zippo lighters for smokers then.

As for that classic RAZR keypad, well, it’s also better than ever, as speed texters in particular will appreciate its embossed, Braille-like feel that’s also somewhat akin to those touch-inducing Mahjong tiles. It feels that good.

We haven’t even talked about the phone’s other noteworthy features. There’s the 2.0 megapixel camera with 8x zoom and MPEG 4 video support, the 425.4MB internal memory that somewhat negates the lack of external storage support, at least for a good while. There’s also Windows Media Player 11 for simple music management and playback of music and high-speed micro USB 2.0 support.

And because it’s Linux-based, it’s also pretty darn fast. Yes, it’s actually some kind of a bummer that the V8 is "only" a 2.5G handset of a full 3G although non-early adopters should wait until the nearly identical RAZR2 V9, a full 3G phone, is released anytime soon.

Those who don’t desire or don’t need 3G functionality need not wait, though. At slightly less than P20K, the Motorola RAZR2 V8 is simply a no-brainer for RAZR fans. Hell, it’s already a no-brainer for the increasing number of clamshell phone fans in general, period.