Motorola Backflip

Powered by the Android OS and featuring the socially minded MOTOBLUR overlay, the Motorola BACKFLIP for AT&T features an original reverse flip design, 3.1-inch touchscreen display, spacious physical keyboard, and unique BACKTRACK touch panel located behind the screen when the device is folded open--providing you hands-free navigation of the phone without having to touch the display...

Features

• 3G-enabled, Google Android OS-powered smartphone with MOTOBLUR social networking, 3.1-inch touchscreen
• Unique reverse flip design reveals full QWERTY keyboard; BACKTRACK touch pad for navigation without using touch display
• GPS-enabled; Wi-Fi networking; Bluetooth stereo music; 5-megapixel camera/camcorder; microSD memory expansion; personal and corporate e-mail
• Up to 6 hours of talk time, up to 324 hours (13.5 days) of standby time
• What's in the Box: handset, rechargeable battery, charger, 2 GB microSD memory card, quick start guide, user manual

Reviews

Good phone misunderstood, Lazy reviewers

by M. Haines from on 2010-03-14
First, I would like to say this phone is a great alternative to the iphone. Second, the QWERTY keyboard is great. The keys are responsive and they are big enough for my fat fingers. HA! Battery issues - The reviewers who are having a hard time with keeping a charge, download Power Manager. Its free and it will switch your settings when your battery starts to drain. Any phone will not last if you have the screen at its highest brightness, and GPS on all the time. Moto Blur - Its a social program on top of the Android system and it can be intrusive when you dont want it. If you dont like it dont pair any accounts with it and ignore it. Non-market Apps - for the people worried about not being able to install apps from other sites other then the android market. Install the SDK and just install them that way. Tethering - PDAnet, great app to run your laptop or desktop internet from your phone. Works, and try to do that with the iphone, you cant. Yahoo as the default search widget - OOOHHHH.... NOOOO.... get over it. Use the browser and set the home page to google. Done! Now quit complaining. Flash - This phone has been slated to receive the new flash 10.1 for mobile phones. The iphone is not. Android 2.1 - this phone is getting upgraded. So get over the 1.5. Finally, this phone rocks and if someone trys to tell you different just remember. They either have a iphone or want a Android phone and cant afford it.

Took a bit of getting used to, but...

by HDS from Wheelersburg, OH on 2010-05-14
UPDATE: I have now had the phone a few months and can still say that I am as pleased with this phone as I have been with anything I have ever bought. It has turned out to be a great smartphone. The apps store may have something to do with that. You can download video players, office tools, games, etc... Even some pretty decent E6B flight calculators! There are a couple of apps I suggest you download right off the bat. The first is Advanced Task Killer from Rechild, or another tool to manage apps. The apps killer lets you shut down apps without having to go to each one and close it down individually. While multi-tasking is great, you can end up with quite a few apps running in the background. Advanced Task Killer lets you manage them more efficiently than you would using the default tools. A good file manager also helps. OI File is a good one. Another good app is Save MMS, which lets you save photos attached to messages. There are also a number of good games and music players. Many of them very inexpensive or even free! Anyway, I liked the phone before, and I like it even better now. The only thing I can think of that needs improvement, is the voice dialing, (mentioned below). Original review: I have to admit that this phone took a bit of getting used to. I have had it now about a month and couldn't be happier. My previous smart phone worked great as a phone and to text, but sucked at everything else. Anyway, the AT&T sales agent said this phone was targeted at the "online generation" with a lot of features for Facebook, twitter, email, etc. And it has all that. Motoblur is not just ad hype. It syncs it all. But not only is the Backflip great for all that stuff, it is a very capable business phone as well. It has completely replaced my old phone and my iPaq. And works better than both. Anyway, here is my rating system. Great :D Good :) Average :| Poor :/ Bad :( WEIGHT AND DURABILITY :) The phone is fairly lightweight. Heavier than some other phones, but still easy enough to carry. It feels very well built and solid. Does not have that flimsy feel some other phones have. Nice and narrow. Fairly thin but a little thicker than some other texting phones. BATTERY LIFE :) Normally, I can go two days before charging. If I turn on the WiFi while at work, then I have to charge every night. I have never needed to charge the battery during the day. Motorola does not include a car charger, but it accepts micro-USB chargers which can be found inexpensively just about anywhere. OS and SYNCING :) The Backflip runs on Android. Completely different than Windows Mobile. It doesn't have anything like Windows ActiveSync, but you can use Google sync. After a little work I installed Google sync which works very well. Syncing occurs over the air so no cables to plug in. I also like being able to attach the phone as a USB storage device. When you plug your phone into a USB port you can choose to attach as USB or charge only. It disconnects the SIM card when used as a USB but it has come in handy a couple of times. The SIM automatically restarts when you unplug the USB cable. You have to buy AT&T's data plan, but the phone is WiFi capable, which speeds up internet browsing experience. STORAGE: The phone accepts microSD cards. Mine came with a 2GB card included. POWER ON AND SCREEN LOCK :) The screen lock function is simple and works one handed. Press the power button, then tap on the unlock area. If you choose a security code, that also can be entered one handed as the numbers are large and easy to tap on. Unfolding the phone also turns it on. PHONE :D Leave it folded and it works like most other touch screen phones. Apps come up on the screen and you tap to activate. Tapping the phone icon brings up a very simple and easy to use dialer. One handed phone use is the norm. This phone is made for thumb dialing. The narrow size and large numbers make it very easy to use. On this screen you can also select recent calls, speed dial, or frequently called numbers. Sound quality is superb and as a speaker phone it ranks with the best. The volume can be turned up very high. (Sound gets a little gravely at full volume but still good.) I have not had any dropped calls. I have seen a lot of complaints about AT&T's network but I can't say I have ever had a problem. So I don't know if this is something specific to the phone or the network. Anyway, I have not had a problem. TEXTING and KEYBOARD :D Unfold the keyboard and it makes a great texting phone. With my previous phone I found having a real keyboard, (no matter how small) dramatically increases the usability of texting. At least for me. You can develop a feel for where letters and numbers are that I just never got with the touchscreen keyboards. The only complaint I have is that the numbers are tucked up against the top and you have to be very deliberate when pressing them. Still this is a great keyboard. I like the feel and it is spread out enough that even my fat fingers have no trouble. The virtual screen keyboard is OK, but I find the real keyboard better. APPS :D There are plenty of apps on the Android Market, and finding and installing them is a piece of cake. I use spreadsheets a lot and I was able to download the same program for this phone that I used on my old phone. Editing documents is also easy using the keyboard. Plus there are all the usual pre-installed run of the mill apps: calendar, calculator, etc... They all work just like you expect them to. TOUCHPAD?!? WTF?!?! :D Speaking of spreadsheets, there is this strange little touch pad on the back of the touch screen that you use just like a touch pad on a laptop. I thought it was weird at first, but I have come to love it. It makes scrolling around a spreadsheet a joy. Much easier than swiping or using the arrow keys. I know some people who think it's a waste, but I like it. Nice job Motorola. MP3 PLAYER :) It makes a pretty good music device. Sound is good but I thought it got a little gravely at close to full volume. Even with earbuds. I do like the AT&T radio. Actually works very well. Makes up for not having an FM radio built in. Ringtones are MP3 as well. Lots of apps for those. CAMERA and VIDEO :) There is a 5 MP camera and a video capture app. The camera works well and has the best flash I have seen on a camera phone. Prints from the phone pics are very sharp. The video seems to work well but I haven't really used it that much. Still it's neat to have. MULTITASKING :) You can run multiple apps on the phone while making a call. I did it just to see if it worked. I don't know that this is a great advantage but you can do it. It can get confusing pretty fast. VOICE DIALING :( Motorola claims that this phone has voice dialing capability. I could not get it to work well enough to be useful. They could not get it to work well at the AT&T store either. I will miss voice dialing, as my old phone had pretty good voice dialing capability. Voice dialing on this phone just doesn't seem to work well. Very poor recognition. (Just browse on AT&T's support site and you can find a lot of other Backflip users with the same complaint.) I would rate voice dialing on this phone as bad. It is so bad that I think Motorola should not even pretend they offer it. SCREEN PROTECTION :) It has a glass screen. Nice, but because the phone flips backwards (leaving both the keyboard and screen exposed) I suggest you use a screen and keyboard protector. Being glass, the screen shouldn't scratch easily but I feel better with a cover on it anyway. Motorola offers a two piece cover that works well for less than $10.00. I am using one that the AT&T store threw in for free when I got the phone. Does not seem to affect the touch screen sensitivity and keeps the keys up off the surface when you lay it down. I do not use a case. I just drop the phone in my pocket. CLOCK :D Another neat feature that is a bit different, is that when unfolded halfway and plugged into charge the phone becomes a bedside alarm clock. Not just a phone with an alarm, but a classy looking bedside alarm clock. Pretty nifty. It also has all the normal clock and alarm functions. OVERALL :) In summery, this is first and foremost, a really good phone. It also makes for a nice tool to manage your online stuff. A pretty good music player. A very capable business tool. A good game device. Nice camera and video camera. A very nice alarm clock. And a great texting phone. Once you get used to it, I think you will like it. The only feature that is below par, (especially for Motorola) is the voice dialing. Anyway, this is a "different" type of phone. But different isn't always bad. In this case it's great. Good job Motorola.

Awesome Phone

by Hando Seward from on 2010-03-14
I almost didn't get this phone because everyone seemed to dislike it when it came out but I'm glad I decided not to listen to them, this phone is awesome all around. I love the apps and there will just be more to come. It's really easy to use and it's lightening fast on bringing up web pages or anything for that matter. It is completely comparable to the iphone 3gs and neither is really better than the other, it is just personal preference. All of my friends are really jealous of this phone for one reason or another. AT&T will let you try it for thirty days and if you don't like it you can take it back and get another phone and all you have to pay is a thirty five dollar restocking fee. I recommend it highly and everyone whom I've let play around with it seems to agree.

very satisfied

by Benyang Tang from Pasadena, CA United States on 2010-03-17
I have used my son's iPhone, but didn't like it so much. Then I got the Backflip on Mar 7. The 5 home screens were full of AT&T and Yahoo icons. I changed them all, putting back the Google Map, Gmail. Now it is just a normal Android phone. I also like the flipped out keyboard. The keys are big, and feel well. There is just one thing I don't like: The 3 touch buttons beside the touch screen. I often accidentally touch them. I wish they were hard buttons so I can use that space to hold the phone. Added 3/26/2010: I found that whenever I use the phone's camera, the phone reboots. Sometimes it happens after taking 2 photos, sometimes after 5 photos. Using the camcorder will reboot the phone also. Very repeatable. It doesn't help to reformat the microSD card, as someone suggested. Added 3/27/2010: I went to an AT&T store to exchange for a new Motorola Backflip, because of my old Backflip's problem of self-rebooting. The new phone is free of the rebooting problem, and everything works just fine. The software version is the same; maybe they fixed the problem after the initial launch; just a guess.

Motorola Backflip Android Phone

by Melisa from on 2010-04-17
I bought this phone 2 weeks ago i like it, the screen is very touchy ,good neat phone, i can download also but i am not really crazy about downloading stuff that i don't need ,well one thing just a reminders it is because the screen is very touchy be very,very careful because you might subscribes to a site that you don't need, all you know is ,,, you got charged for a 30 days trial,it was good that i called at&t and asked them if i had any free trial that i dont even know ,yes i did other wise they will charged me everymonth for that!

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