subject: The New Mobile Phone From Motorola-the Backflip [print this page] After seemingly have disappeared off the mobile phone radar, Motorola returned with a bang with the well received Milestone in 2009. Could they follow up that success with the new Backflip.
Firstly lets take a look at the design of the handset, and this is certainly going to be the talking point. As its name suggests, the Backflip is a flip style phone rather than the more commonly used slider variety. It incorporates a full physical qwerty keyboard which is located on the back of the unit, behind the screen. When the phone is "flipped" this keyboard sits nicely below the screen in landscape mode. The obvious benefits of a physical keyboard are that it is easier to compose SMS messages and e mails, so for consumers who find themselves doing a lot of this then this handset will certainly appeal. A good quality 3.1" HVGA screen is fitted on the phone. This is a touchscreen of a capacitive variety, which are generally more responsive than their resistive counterparts. The screen can display a resolution of 320 x 480 pixels and displays over 262 thousand colours. Despite the screen being of the "touch" variety, Motorola have rather cleverly placed a physical trackpad on the back of the unit, and rather unimaginatively labelled it the "back trackpad". Names aside though, this is good for navigating around pages as it is placed where your fingers physically sit whilst youre using the phone.
A good quality camera facility is fitted within the Motorola Backflips frame. This 5 million pixel snapper takes a good quality of image, and this quality is maintained even in poorer lighting conditions thanks to the inclusion of an LED flash. Other features which appeal on the camera are the manual white balance controls coupled with autofocus, geo tagging and a whole host a picture effects. Video footage can also be captured at QVGA resolution. In terms of memory to store this content, the Motorola Backflip comes with a rather poor 256MB built in. Luckily however a microSD port is included, meaning potential expansion of up to 16GB, plenty of room for any budding photographer. With regards to the memory, the Backflip also features an impressive media player. A whole host of audio and video formats are supported, making this much more than a mobile phone, but more like a portable entertainment device.
All things considered, the Motorola Backflip looks destined to follow on from the success of the Milestone. Its impressive feature list obviously appeals, but what really catches the eye is its impressive looks and unusual flip style.
