Switched has a new home! Huffpost Tech.

Click here to visit the new home of Switched!

Hot on HuffPost Tech:

See More Stories
AOL Tech

Hands On: Motorola Backflip Debuts With Full QWERTY Keyboard

by Thomas Houston on January 7, 2010 at 12:40 PM

Motorola, riding high on the success of the Droid, yesterday officially unveiled the Backflip, an Android-based phone. Nothing too exciting on the software front, as the Backflip is currently running the Blur skin (also seen on the Cliq) on Android 1.5. With Android 2.0 already out, the phone's older OS is already looking a bit old pre-launch, but Moto promises 2.1 later in the year.

The phone's hardware, though, is an interesting alternative to many of the stock touchscreen Android phones that have been announced over the past year. Moving away from the Droid and Cliq's heavier lines, Moto opted for a sleek design for the new device. We're most excited about the full QWERTY keyboard, which doesn't slide out or open like a clamshell: Instead, the keyboard is on the outside of the phone when closed, and flips outward, reversing how flip phones usually open.

The Backflip fortunately forgoes the odd directional pad on Moto's Blur (which led to a cramped typing experience) in favor of computer keyboard-style directional keys. This, in addition to the alternate opening mechanism, opens up a lot of space for comfortable, full-size keys. More importantly, we were able to get up to typing and texting speed in no time.

When typing with the physical keyboard, your index fingers naturally move toward the back of the display, and Moto placed a square there that allows you to scroll through menus, images, and Web pages. It essentially saves you from needing to take your hands off the keyboard in order to scroll via a scroll wheel or the touch-interface. As far as the touchscreen, no big improvements over any other Android 1.5 device; typing is still a bit clunky, but navigation is on par with the rest of the pack.

No confirmation on carrier yet, but we wouldn't be surprised to see it land on AT&T later this year.

Motorola Backflip: Hands On

Tags: backflip, cesmobilemedia, moto, moto blur, moto cliq, MotoBlur, MotoCliq, motorola, motorola backflip, MotorolaBackflip, top

Add your comments

Please keep your comments relevant to this blog entry. Email addresses are never displayed, but they are required to confirm your comments.

When you enter your name and email address, you'll be sent a link to confirm your comment, and a password. To leave another comment, just use that password.

To create a live link, simply type the URL (including http://) or email address and we will make it a live link for you. You can put up to 3 URLs in your comments. Line breaks and paragraphs are automatically converted — no need to use <p> or <br /> tags.

HuffPost AOL Social News Most Popular