Smartphone Reviews: Motorola Backflip

Posted by Geronimo Boosh on February 25, 2010 · Leave a Comment

Motorola Backflip is the third android smartphone available from Motorola. It is a sweet phone to use. The keyboard is very usable and overall this is another fast phone with an incredible operating system. Let´s take a look at the details on the Backflip, also called the “Enzo”.

If you have already figured out by the name of the Backflip, it does some different moves in your hand. It has a trackpad of sorts on the back side of the display. That is, when you open up the smartphone like a book, on the back “page” of the screen is the trackpad. You do not touch the screen to do things like viewing different photos, accessing email, surfing the web, checking out what your contacts are doing and the like. The idea is to keep the screen big by keeping the display side free of a trackpad. It will also be unencumbered by your finger for a clear view of what is hapening on the screen. Motorola calls the trackpad a “Backtrack”. When you close this smartphone, like you would close a book, the manual QWERTY keyboard is on the back. It has a good tactile feedback while you are using it. The durablity of an open manual keyboard will have to be discovered later, after the Backflip has been in service for some weeks.

The phone has the super-popular Android operating system topped by the Motorola user interface called “Motoblur”. One of the features of Motoblur is the ability to sync all your contacts, including photos and such and have them piped immediately to the home screen. You are going to also be able to update on several social networks at once. You can check out messages in a cluster or by single account. The people on your contact list will have their own updates shown on your phone when they call you. You will be able to wipe your phone from a distance should you lose it or it gets stolen. The Backflip comes with Android version 1.5, which is an old version, but you can update it quickly to version 2.1. The web browser included is the high quality “Webkit” model.

The networks available with the Motorola Backflip are tri-band 3G and quad-band 2G. The 2G is the GSM networks in the 850, 900, 1800 and 1900 megahertz range. This smartphone has most all the data networks including Wi-Fi. It has GPRS, EDGE, and HSPDA at 7.2 Megabytes per second. The processor will be running at 528 megahertz. This makes it a snappy performer. There is two gigabytes of internal memory and 256 megabytes of RAM. The ROM is in flash form and is rated at 512 megabytes. User storage for this smartphone is 256 megabytes. You can install a MicroSD card of up to 32 gigabytes for your videos and music or other important files. Bluetooth 2.0 is installed with seven different profiles. A microUSB is also included.

The screen is a fairly large 3.1 inches ( 7.87 centimeters ) and has an accelerometer, proximity meter, and a magnetometer. The magnetometer allows you to know which way you are going, similar to a compass. An ambient light sensor controls the brightness of the screen automatically. When talking on the Backflip, you have noise cancelling software that uses a second microphone that is “listening” to the background noise. If you have too much, the volume on the call is elevated automatically for you. The reverse also happens. If you have very little noise, the volume of the call is lowered.

All the “normal” things are there with the Motorola Backflip. The camera is rated at five megapixels and has LED flash, color effects, geotagging and autofocus. It is a bit fatter than an iPhone and the iPhone also has a rounder shape than the Backflip. It is already released in China and is called the “ME600″ there. This machine will continue to make its debut in Europe and then make its way to the United States later.