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. It also boasts super-fast Web browsing on AT&T’s 7.2 HSPA 3G technology as well as Wi-Fi networking with access to more than 20,000 AT&T Wi-Fi hotspots.
The unique BACKFLIP features a reverse flip design, spacious keyboard and BACKTRACK touch panel (see larger image). |
With MOTOBLUR, updates from Facebook, MySpace, and Twitter as well as e-mail are automatically delivered to the home screen and fed into easy-to-manage streams. |
MOTOBLUR helps you to stay on top of both work and personal e-mail as well as keep tabs on all your Facebook, MySpace, and Twitter pals–all automatically delivered to the customizable home screen. You can also update your status to Facebook, MySpace, and Twitter simultaneously and sync your social network contacts with your phonebook and e-mail contact lists.
With integrated Google technology, the Motorola BACKFLIP brings one-touch access to the popular Google mobile services millions use every day, including Google Search by voice, Google Maps with Street View, GTalk instant messaging (with presence capabilities), YouTube, and Picasa. The BACKFLIP also provides easy access to both personal and corporate e-mail, calendars, and contacts supported by Exchange Server and Gmail.
This GPS-enabled phone can access Google Maps as well as the AT&T Navigator service for voice-prompted turn-by-turn directions. The BACKFLIP comes with a 2 GB microSD memory card pre-installed, and it’s compatible with optional additional cards up to 16 GB in size. Other features include a 5-megapixel camera/camcorder, Bluetooth for both hands-free communication and stereo music streaming, full HTML Web browser, and up to 6 hours of talk time.
The BACKFLIP’s original design can be used in a unique tabletop multimedia mode so you can watch movies, TV shows or other streaming video on the 3.1-inch widescreen display–it’s also the perfect set up for using as an alarm clock. And the BACKFLIP’s full QWERTY keyboard makes sending messages fast and easy.
It also features another Motorola innovation–the BACTRACK rear navigation pad, which simulates a PC experience and makes scrolling and surfing effortless. With the rear BACKTRACK touch pad, you can flick through photos or Web pages for your friends without your fingers obscuring the home screen.
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Vital Statistics
The Motorola BACKFLIP weighs 4.7 ounces and measures 4.25 x 2.09 x 0.6 inches. Its 1400 mAh lithium-ion battery is rated at up to 6 hours of talk time, and up to 324 hours (13.5 days) of standby time. It runs on the 850/900/1800/1900 MHz GSM/GPRS/EDGE frequencies as well as AT&T’s dual-band 3G network (850/1900 MHz; HSDPA/UMTS) plus 2100 MHz international 3G networks.
What’s in the Box
Motorola BACKFLIP handset, rechargeable battery, charger, 2 GB microSD memory card, quick start guide, user manual
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High-speed data connectivity via AT&T’s 3G mobile broadband data network: The dual-band 850/1900 MHz 3G network provides up to 3.6/7.2 Mbps of download speed, making it possible to enjoy a variety of feature-rich wireless multimedia services, and it gives you the advantage of offering simultaneous voice and data services.
Additionally, this phone is also compatible with 2100 MHz 3G networks found in international territories. (For use outside the United States, an AT&T international data plan is recommended.) When traveling outside the U.S., you can enjoy wireless voice coverage in more than 215 countries and wireless data coverage in more than 185 countries–as well as access ultra-fast 3G mobile broadband services in more than 100 countries. In areas where the 3G network is not available, you’ll continue to receive service on the AT&T EDGE network, which offers availability in more than 13,000 US cities and along some 40,000 miles of major highways. Providing average data speeds between 75-135Kbps, it’s fast enough to support a wide range of advanced data services, including full picture and video messaging, high-speed color Internet access, and email on the go. |
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The full-featured, premium AT&T Navigator GPS navigation application includes audible turn-by-turn directions, real-time traffic updates and re-routing options, and 3D moving maps (additional charges applicable). AT&T Navigator offers several other features to make your commute more enjoyable and reliable, including mobile access to Yellowpages.com. Additionally, AT&T Navigator is the only mobile phone-based GPS service that provides integrated speech recognition for address entry and points of interest search. |
Powered by the Android OS, you can customize your Motorola BACKFLIP with thousands of apps available via the Android Market. |
The Motorola BACKFLIP runs the Android operating system, which provides easy access to a wide assortment of messaging tools and Google apps. With Android, you’re able to richly personalize the entire theme of the Motorola BACKFLIP with new widgets, icons and wallpapers–which can be added directly on the home screen–in order to truly make it your own.
Developed by Motorola, MOTOBLUR is an innovative solution that manages and integrates communications–from work e-mail to social networking activity–on your BACKFLIP. Updates to contacts, posts, messages, photos and more are streamed together and synced from sources including Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, Gmail, and work and personal e-mail. MOTOBLUR automatically delivers these updates to the home screen in easy-to-view streams so there is no need to open and close different mobile applications to keep up with the latest content.
The BACKFLIP also features multitasking capabilities and one-touch access to the Google mobile services millions use every day, including Google Search by voice, Google Maps with Street View, YouTube and Picasa. Easy access to both personal and corporate e-mail, calendars, and contacts is supported by Exchange Server and Gmail. e-mail and contacts are also supported by Yahoo!, Windows Live Hotmail, and other POP3 and IMAP e-mail services. It also combines instant messaging support for Google Talk, as well as AOL, Yahoo! Messenger and Windows Live Messenger.
Additionally, the Android Market hosts a wide variety of unique applications, and with the Motorola BACKFLIP’s one-click access to it you can find and download a wide range of innovative software applications–from games to social networking and on-the-go shopping–to personalize your phone. Here’s a sampling of just some of the available applications:
Rating: 
(out of 29 reviews)
List Price: $ 349.99
Price: $ 0.01
Customer Reviews:
M. Jecha
Rating:
I’ve had the BackFlip since the day it was released and I’m having fun exploring all the functions. I’m so glad that I went to see the phone for myself rather than relying on reviews from the various geek sites. Several claimed that the phone is crippled and limited which made me quite apprehensive. However, for my needs, it fits the bill so far.
I had a short list of “have to have” features:
Good signal – Check – I’ve experienced better signal than my Samsung windows mobile phone
Touch screen – Check – pretty large, given the small phone size
Keypad – Check – Larger keys than my last phone, great for texting and browsing!
Decent camera – Check – 5.0MP baby! With flash! Again, better than last phone
Multi-window Web browser – Check – Up to 4, plenty for me. Changed home page to Google and I’m good to go!
Apps – Check – Market has large assortment and I’ve downloaded several already. Enjoying bar code reader and Amazon apps.
SD Expansion – Check – up to 32GB
I’m new to the Android, but I like the intuitive interface, plus Motoblur and the weather, calendar and message widgets, but I’m sure I’m just scratching the surface. I’m not one to indiscriminately download software all over the web, so open access outside the Market is not a deal breaker for me. The one complaint I’d have is that I’d like to get rid of some of the preloaded AT&T apps that I won’t use…or at least find a way to hide them, but I can work around that till I figure something out.
Bottom line, love the phone and I don’t miss the things that others have complained about. I’m a geek, but apparently not as geeky as some. It cost me less than the windows mobile phone I had, plus has better features, it’s lighter, faster AND IT’S NOT an iPhone, so it’s all good!
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M. Jecha
Rating:
I’ve had the BackFlip since the day it was released and I’m having fun exploring all the functions. I’m so glad that I went to see the phone for myself rather than relying on reviews from the various geek sites. Several claimed that the phone is crippled and limited which made me quite apprehensive. However, for my needs, it fits the bill so far.
I had a short list of “have to have” features:
Good signal – Check – I’ve experienced better signal than my Samsung windows mobile phone
Touch screen – Check – pretty large, given the small phone size
Keypad – Check – Larger keys than my last phone, great for texting and browsing!
Decent camera – Check – 5.0MP baby! With flash! Again, better than last phone
Multi-window Web browser – Check – Up to 4, plenty for me. Changed home page to Google and I’m good to go!
Apps – Check – Market has large assortment and I’ve downloaded several already. Enjoying bar code reader and Amazon apps.
SD Expansion – Check – up to 32GB
I’m new to the Android, but I like the intuitive interface, plus Motoblur and the weather, calendar and message widgets, but I’m sure I’m just scratching the surface. I’m not one to indiscriminately download software all over the web, so open access outside the Market is not a deal breaker for me. The one complaint I’d have is that I’d like to get rid of some of the preloaded AT&T apps that I won’t use…or at least find a way to hide them, but I can work around that till I figure something out.
Bottom line, love the phone and I don’t miss the things that others have complained about. I’m a geek, but apparently not as geeky as some. It cost me less than the windows mobile phone I had, plus has better features, it’s lighter, faster AND IT’S NOT an iPhone, so it’s all good!
Jennifer L. Hughes
Rating:
I’d like to correct something another reviewer said. You can actually install applications from the web. I tested one of these phones out in the store and successfully downloaded, installed, and ran the Pandora application. The phone has a really nice interface. The touch screen seemed responsive and intuitive, and the navigation not difficult to figure out. Yes, like all other AT&T phones, this comes with some applications pre-loaded, but you can also expand the memory on this to 32GB, so it would be an exaggeration to claim that these few items affect the usability of the phone. I hope to receive the one I ordered this week and will leave a more in-depth review then, but don’t let a few gut reactions dissuade you from trying this phone for yourself.
Now that I’ve had it a few days, I have to say I’m very glad I got it. The only real issue I’ve had so far was in transferring my contacts. For some reason, when I tried to copy them all from my old SIM I only got one number per person and no other related data (birthdays, addresses, etc.). So I am still working on fixing that little issue, but the rest of the phone is great. I’ve installed a number of other applications with no problems, and for those of you concerned that you cannot install anything from outside of the Android market, do a little research and I’m sure you’ll find a way around that issue. Personally, I haven’t yet found a need for that.
As the the things I love, I’ll start with five customizable home screens. Having the ability to make this look however I want with the shortcuts, widgets, and background I choose is awesome, and puts this heads above the iPhone in my opinion. I personally always hated having to scroll through the multiple screens on the iPhone just to find the one thing I wanted. The ability to have everything about a contact show up in one place no matter how many different accounts that person has and different ways I communicate with them is amazing and another way I feel this beats the iPhone hands-down, and the “happenings” widget that displays it all real-time is designed to make it all very intuitive. The ability to make this into a nice alarm clock by opening it at a 90 degree angle is very cool and came in quite handy when traveling this past weekend… especially the fact that not only did it show the time, but the current weather/temperature conditions as well. The integration with all my various accounts (social, email, photos, etc.) is so useful and seemless that I already can barely imagine how I lived without it. The 5 megapixel camera and integrated flash are nice and can take some amazing pictures outside (and inside if you can hold your hands steady), and the ability to directly upload those photos to picassa, facebook, emails, etc. makes this feature even better. Having the camera integrated into the keyboard seems a little odd at first, but makes taking self-portraits so much easier, and having it record your location from the integrated GPS while taking the photos is very nice! The flash is crazy bright though, and the response time is a bit slower that I’d like so it probably won’t fully replace my digital camera, but as a phone, I never expected that it would. Battery life so far has been pretty good. I’ve been running numerous applications on it while testing it out this first week, but I would say the drain seems about right for that. I’m sure once the novelty wears off a bit and I stop messing with it every few minutes it will last much longer, but I would say the specs seem about right.
Overall, it’s a strong product. The interface can be a bit laggy at times, but so can all the other phones out there when you’re running as many applications simultaneously as I have been. The buttons and placement of things is taking some getting used to, but I have no real complaints over the design of the phone. If it weren’t for the extra work I’ve had to put in to get my contacts copied from my old phone I’d have given a full 5 stars. Honestly though, if you’re like me and have been waiting for a good alternative to the iPhone on AT&T that had actual buttons, this is a good choice. The Android OS is very user friendly and there are already lots of applications out there for you to try out.
—————Update 3/17/10——————
I have had to contact support to send back the phone after an overheating incident yesterday has rendered the product completely non-functional. I am hoping this is an isolated incident, but it’s very early in the release of the unit to tell for sure.
M. Haines
Rating:
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.
george
Rating:
**Last updated on May 20**
First of all, I came to this phone from a Blackberry Pearl (my first smartphone). I think it’s important to mention that so you can calibrate my experience and opinions: pros are things that are better than the Pearl, and cons are things that are worse, since that’s what my experience consists of.
I wasn’t looking for much in a phone: a webkit-based browser, a gps, a full qwerty physical keyboard. If I wasn’t so sick of BB’s Browser, I might have gotten a Bold 9700, but the only phone on AT&T’s network that fit the bill was the Backflip. (Now that the Palm Pre Plus is out with the Pixi soon to follow there is a bit more competition.) Anyway, most reviews of the phone had the same bullet points: poor battery life, old version of Android, sluggish performance, non-removable AT&T crap, no sideloading, backtrack touchpad is pointless, nice keyboard. Most didn’t seem to care for the phone, but I noticed that none of the phones they preferred were in my price range. So I went to the store, tried it out, and since it seemed fine to me, picked it up anyway.
I have now had this phone for a couple months. There are a lot of reviews of it around the internet, so I’ll try not to rehash too much of what’s already in those reviews.
Where (some) other reviews are wrong:
* Battery life is almost as good as my Pearl. It was unusably bad at first, but since I did a factory reset, it’s been fine. Most likely you will want to charge it every 1-2 days.
* You can sideload on this phone, but you need to install the SDK on your computer and use adb to do it.
Pros:
* It’s pretty small
* Keyboard is huge, especially for a phone this size, and is made from a single piece of plastic without seams (resists water and dust better than BBs). Still, some doming in the horizontal direction would have been appreciated.
* Screen is pretty nice (160dpi); similar to the iPhone/Pre’s but not as good as, say, the Droid’s.
* UI is much snappier than the Pearl’s, so I am happy, but I guess that does not say much
* Gorilla Glass screen (no screen protector needed)
* Dual microphones for background noise cancellation
* Call quality/reception is fantastic, even in my apartment, where signal is poor
* I don’t use MOTOBLUR widgets, but the MOTOBLUR service itself is pretty snazzy (contact aggregation, linking, and backup); it is functionally identical to Palm’s Synergy.
* Remote wipe (via MOTOBLUR)
* It’s an Android phone (obvious, I know)
Cons:
* Cannot turn 3G or data on/off independent of airplane mode
* Cannot reorder any lists (folder contents, contact infos, bookmarks, etc)
* Browser UI could use a lot of improvement
* No status LED (led on micro-USB plug is not for notifications)
* Not as configurable as the Pearl (menus, email … basically everything)
* Only pushes from MS Exchange (typical for non-BBs, I think)
* Cons from other reviews (UI occasionally hangs, non-removable AT&T cruft, etc)
Conclusions:
For the price, I think the phone is pretty good. It’s not the cutting edge Android phone that nerds stuck on AT&T have been clamoring for, but it also isn’t priced like one. The novel design allows for a large keyboard, which is a big plus in my book (I can’t stand software keyboards). MOTOBLUR is also pretty great, and I think it’s something that’s only offered by Palm and Motorola. The phone’s flaws are not fatal, in my opinion, and in fact it performs better than I expected it to, based on mainstream news reviews.
Notes:
* If you don’t know what sideloading is, then it isn’t important to you.
* SD card is hot-swappable, but it’s in the battery compartment.
* The first con is mostly an issue when trying to conserve battery power in places with poor signal.
* My review had this wrong until now, but you can turn wifi, bluetooth, and GPS back on while in Airplane Mode, so there is a way to turn off the phone radio while still using these other services. This can help with battery life when you don’t have phone service.
* WRT the third con, if you have a contact with multiple phone numbers or email addresses, you cannot reorder them. My wife has something like 5 email addresses, and the one I use most is at the bottom; I have tried adding it again to bring it to the top, but that doesn’t seem to work. Folder contents will also reorder themselves occasionally.
* The browser is serviceable, and the rendering is as great as you’d expect, but the UI is poorly designed. Some commonly-used functions (eg, forward) are hidden in a lengthy submenu, while the redundant “Go to page” command gets prominent placement. I greatly prefer Opera Mini’s UI, even though its text reflow isn’t as sophisticated. Dolphin’s UI is also better.
* WRT push email, it’s not just email, but also social media-type things (eg, facebook). On BBs, EVERYTHING is instantaneous. It’s something I miss.
* The keyboard is recessed and only lightly domed, so if you lay it on a flat surface, it won’t scratch.
* I kind of like backtrack, though it’d be a lot more useful if I could use it in portrait orientation. Unfortunately, that isn’t physically possible. With that in mind, I think an optical trackpad like on HTC Desire or the BB Bolds would have been better.
* It would be nice to have Android 2.1, but it doesn’t add all that much, and in any case Motorola has announced Q3 2010 release (though they may very well miss that target).
* Right now, this is the only Android phone sold by AT&T, but if you just want Android, supposedly there are other phones coming, so you should wait if you want something more like the HTC Desire or Samsung Galaxy S (that is, if you like software keyboards and pretty screens).
* If I were buying now, I would seriously consider the Palm Pre/Pixi Plus as alternatives. Feature-wise, they are more similar than they are different.
Nicholas Woods
Rating:
I was very hesitant to get this phone like others but i wanted so badly to have an android phone so i figured i would just do it knowing the next droid phone for att wont be coming out for 3 months. So far so good i actaully like the phone alot more than i thought i would the track pad on the back takes a bit to get use to but is actually very helpfull. My brother has the verizon droid and i can say the one thing it has is a bigger screen but 3.1 is not bad. Few things I would like to respond to about other reviews. You can download apps dont believe every thing you read from some that said they didnt even open the box. I got lots of apps already and they are tons of fun to mess with. Att did swap their browser for yahoo witch is stupid and petty but download opera browser and you can use google all day long and its a faster browser anyway. Call quality is actually quite good I was pleasently suprised over my samsung. 2 other things that sold me where 1 the glass is made of gorilla glass which is very strong and scratch resistant and 2 the keyboard is sealed to militay spec and is water resistant. All in all I would tell you stop by a att store give it a spin and find out for yourself if your unsure but I am enjoying mine.