Motorola Launches 3 Android phones with Motoblur in Canada

Gadjo Cardenas Sevilla

Something for everybody. That seems to be Motorola's mantra when they unveiled three new (to Canada, at least) Android smartphones, one for each of the big three carriers. Riding on the success of their flagship Android handset Motorola Milestone, the Dext, Quench and Backflip also share the Motoblur application.

Motoblur is Motorola's widget based system which combines various social networking portals such as Facebook, MySpace, and Twitter all in one place without the need of logging into each service separately. Each of the new Android phones differ in design and physical shape and apparently, carriers. Bell will get the DEXT, the QUENCH is exclusive to Rogers while Telus, which already has the Milestone in its stable, now has the Backflip.

Below is a list of their unique features.

Motorola DEXT (Bell Mobility)

• 5.0 megapixel camera with autofocus and video capture
• Full HTML Web Browser
• Bluetooth, Wifi, GPS
• 3.1" HVGA Touch Screen with 320 x 480 pixels resolution
• Slide-out QWERTY Keyboard
• Android Apps & Media Player

Motorola Backflip (Telus)

• 5.0 megapixel camera with autofocus and video capture
• Full HTML Web Browser
• Bluetooth, Wifi, GPS
• 3.1" HVGA Touch Screen with 320 x 480 pixels resolution
• Reverse-flip design with QWERTY Keyboard and Backtrack (trackpad with 
• Android Apps & Media Player

Motorola Quench (Rogers Wireless)

• 5.0 megapixel camera with autofocus and video capture
• Full HTML Web Browser
• Bluetooth, Wifi, GPS
• 3.1" HVGA Touch Screen with 320 x 480 pixels resolution
• Android Apps & Media Player

All Three benefit from Motorola's Motoblur secure server  that is fully integrated with GPS tracking from the online owner’s portal and remote data wipe.  So while users may misplace their phones, they wont lose the contacts and data that keep them connected. Now  contacts, log-in information, home screen customizations, e-mail and social network messages are backed-up.

All three are running Android 1.5 (Cupcake) which is the oldest of the Android OS versions available. Currently there are 1.5, 1.6, 2.0 and 2.1 versions of Android which is causing challenges for developers as well as confusion for consumers. Motorola has not confirmed whether the OS versions of the three Motoblur devices will have future updates. Chances are, this will be a carrier-dependent decision that, as history has proven, is unlikely to happen.