Motorola BACKFLIP up close and hands on

By on Jan 7, 2010 at 7:02 PM
CES January 7, 2010

motorola-backflip-1

The folks over at Motorola were nice enough to give us a deep dive into the new BACKFLIP which will be available Q1. You’re all aware that it features MOTOBLUR, Motorola’s UI over Android, so as far as the OS it’s not different from the CLIQ. The big difference is the form factor: it flips backward, hence its name, to close. As you can see above, it’s “Flippin’ Brilliant.” Man, that hurt.

When it’s closed, you have the deactivated keyboard with 5MP camera and LED flash on one side, and a blank slate on the other (screen safely tucked inside). When you flip it open, it’s like having a mini-computer in your hands — the back of the screen even has a trackpad that you can scroll and click on to navigate the screen. Why? So that shiny screen doesn’t get smudgy when it doesn’t have to. You can also flip it open and set it down to watch videos and use it to play a slideshow of all your images. The bonus is that it can go into dock mode or table-side mode, just like the DROID, except you don’t need to purchase a dock for it. Looks pretty good for a mid-range phone. We just don’t have an official release date yet and there haven’t been any carrier announcements from Motorola, but they do say this will be a global device. Click on through to our gallery to check out more pics!

Click on over to our Motorola BACKFLIP hands on gallery!

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48 Comments

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  • Larry

    Putting beauty aside, I think having the track pad on the back of the phone is a great idea. You can navigate without obscuring the screen. I hope more phones come out with this.

  • Keith

    The reviewer is wrong… The screen is exposed when the flip is closed, so the phone operates as a typical candy-bar touchscreen in that mode. When it opens, you get the keypad and access to the track pad.

  • coolguy

    the keyboard is flawless. there is NO WAY to get dirt in the middle of the keys. wait till you guys see it in real life, it actually is very well designed.

  • CJ

    It’s flippin’ HUGE!

  • rapaleeman

    As much as I hate Android (personal preference) I actually find the idea of the form factor for this phone pretty interesting.

    It’s like a reverse Nokia 9300 which I used until I snapped the really weak hinges. This thing looks sturdy and actually really different.

    If Moto can get their hardware working with the software (unlike the Cliq) I may actually look into this phone if it comes out before the HD2 (my next purchase) and I need a replacement.

  • Vought American

    At this point, based on experience w/ G1, its all about processors and Ram for me. This looks nice, but my phone choices will be limited to those with snapdragon (or something equal to it). I really have no OS preference as I can find and adapt any of them to my needs.

  • victoria

    One of the things that interests us MOST is that physical QWERTY keyboard on the back. Our tipster says its always revealed and flips from the back as you can see in the picture. When the keyboard is open a touchpad on the back of the phone is revealed which allows you to easily scroll through webpages and apparently it works very well slightly thinner, slightly shorter both length and width, and lighter than the G1. Hmm, that’s more like it. backflip Details: http://bit.ly/moto-backlip-details-best-worst

  • Dan McNificent

    Hm, seems awkward. I have to test it out myself before I pass any judgement though.

  • Peter Cuevas

    Personally, I like this phone…a lot…it’s smaller and better than the cliq…the form factor is fresh and unique, we just got to see how the keyboard holds up exposed like that…

  • BENJAMIN MEDIAN PERALTA

    Quisiera que me digan por favor cual es la diferencia entre el motorola milestone y el backkflip?
    Por favor en español!
    Muchas gracias!

  • http://google Tyler Harnish

    This phone is freakinnn uuhh-mazinggg!!!!!(= i love this phonee(= if i didnt have the intensity i would for surely choose this phonee(:

  • iName

    i agree, the enV route would have much better. i think this makes the phone look like a toy and very gimmicky.

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