Review: Motorola Backflip on Telus
Monday, June 21, 2010 at 12:27AM 
Motorola Backflip: Innovation in bunchesText and photos by Gadjo Cardenas Sevilla
Of the three recently released Motoblur-enabled Android phones, the Motorola Backflip has received the most attention and rightfully so. In terms of industrial design and functionality, it is hands down the most daring, most innovative and riskiest phone design we've seen in a long while.
The Motorola Dext, the slider of the bunch is generally well received specially with its snappy slider-style keyboard and solid build. The Motorola Quench won't raise any eyebrows or quicken pulses- its basically a touch-screen version that's lighter but but low on the frills.
The Motorola Backflip, $80 on a 3-year contract from Telus and $400 with no term, explores the limits of what we think a modern feature phone could be and single-handedly innovates at every turn. The QWERTY keyboard is at the back of the devices, where it shares space with the 5 Megapixel auto-focus camera and the LED Flash.
The bright screen is shielded by metal and has a hinge that allows it to be articulated in numerous angles, making it ideal for tilting up on a desk. Behind the screen is a trackpad with a button just like what you find in most notebooks. The trackpad is a godsend for scrolling through webpages and documents and really works as advertised.
The big feature of the Motorola Backflip is the keyboard. This is the brightest backlit keyboard we've seen on any mobile phone. Keys are responsive and although a bit unusual, the layout is easy enough to get used to.
For text-fixated users this keyboard allows for speedy, possibly error free input and integrates a lot of useful elements such as four-way navigation buttons and hotkeys for home, mail, web and search functionality.
Flip the keyboard back and you have a relatively light yet totally responsive touch-enabled feature phone. Motorola didn't scrimp on this part either, the controls on the screen are sleek, touch-enabled and not physical buttons like those on the Motorola Dext. This gives the screen a seamless slate of glass to work with.
Like with most Motoblur phones, you need to set up an account to get started and this will integrate all your mail and social media into the home screen on a bunch of windows and cartoon bubbles. This may be great for some users who spend most of their time cycling through their social media, specially since this offers everything on one plate and updated real time.
Some folks may just want the Android interface without Motoblur and this is where things become a bit complicated. First of all, the Motoblur devices all run on the oldest version of the Android OS. Android 1.5 (Cupcake) was released in April 30, 2009 and since then there have been significant, even monumental upgrades to the Android OS which aren't at all guaranteed to be made available to the Motoblur phones.
It is a challenge because not only are you dealing with the Android OS core but with the Motorola functionality built atop that. With 70% of the Android user market now using at least Android 2.1 (and many of the apps updated and improved to run better and more efficiently on the latest version), investing in an older version of Android at this point is a bit of a risk.
Still, we found no problems with Android 1.5 on any of the two Motoblur devices. Motoblur itself ran efficiently and did not crash which is more than we can say for HTC's Sense which gltiched out quite often. In fact, you can disable all the widgets and windows and tailor the experience to the way you want but it takes some work.
While we think that the Motorola Backflip is a ballsy take on redefining the touch and keyboard phone form factor with a lot of seriously cool innovative strokes, we worry that it will be hindered by its software lock-in. A business-oriented user would absolutely love what that keyboard can do specially when compared to Blackberry's current models but the over-the-top and always connected-nature of Motoblur may be more of a distraction than a benefit.
Call quality was consistently good and signal from Telus was quite above average for voice and for data. Battery life is good for a day of calls, messaging and average Internet use, you do need to charge it at the end of the day. The 5 Megapixel camera is good specially for portraits and the LED flash works well but not for video.
The boldness of design, solid build and the abundance of features on the Motorola Backflip are really impressive and show Motorola's ability to make great ideas work. That they have managed to pull all of this off on one device is even more amazing. If you need the best keyboard on Android an can live with the Android 1.5 OS and the Motoblur overlay, then this could be a really good option but if you want a larger screen and the latest (possible) version of the OS then the Motorola Milestone is the way to go.
Rating 4 out of 5.
Reader Comments (1)
pretty happy with my backflip. love the slide out keyboard and the touchscreen is responsive. proscessor is faster than my old unlocked at&t phones and the camera and recorder are great for my family moments. it offers great wifi gps and email experiences and it’s great for my business and also pleaseure for long trips. love my unlocked new phones. also got my unlock codes and blackberry unlocking free! my daughter loves hers for the facebook and all the games, keeps her busy all the time. got our last couple backflips at unlockthatphone.com 2 thumbs way up