Motorola Backflip review – entry level phone with a 5 MP camera!

Sum and Substance:

Thumbs Up:

Unique design, 5 mega pixel camera, comes with all AT&T services and lots of wireless options.

Thumbs Down:

Sluggish performance, runs outdated Android 1.6, small screen size, durability of the keyboard is a concern

Inside the Trunk:

Technology: WCDMA (UMTS) / GSM
Band: WCDMA (UMTS) / GSM 850/900/1800/1900
Phone design: Folder
Caller ID: Yes
Other features: Camera, Speakerphone, Voice dialing, Touch screen.

The Whiz Kid Speaks:

The display of Motorola Backflip is 3.1 inch long (diagonally) has a resolution of 320×480 pixels or 262k colors. Supported audio formats are AAC+, AAC, MP3, MIDI and WAV. Connectors on the phone include 1 x Headset jack – Mini-phone 3.5 mm, 1 x Micro-USB.

1400 mAh lithium ion battery has a rated talk time if 350 minutes and standby time is 315 hours. The 5.0 megapixel camera has LED flash. Supported video formats are H.263 video and AMR audio, MPEG-4, H.264. Downloadable content includes Wallpapers, Screensavers, Ring tones. OS is Google Android 1.5. Additional features include Voice command, Voice dialing, Internal antenna, EDGE Class 12, GPRS Class 12, Touch screen, USB, microSD card slot, AGPS, Speakerphone.

Razzle Dazzle:

We liked the design of Motorola Backflip, it is nothing what we have seen before. Dimensions are just like Cliq with the rounded edges and the rectangular shape. The phone is 0.6 inch thick, 2.08 inches wide and 4.25 inches tall. The phone has a flip design which is the most interesting feature of the design. The keyboard is located at the back of the device and you have to open the phone in order to type. We were concerned about the durability of the keyboard since it is located on the exterior but Motorola told us that this keyboard is made to stand tough conditions.

Inside Dope:

Motorola Backflip comes with a 3.1 inch HVGA display and gives a resolution of 320×480 pixels. The display isn’t sharp or vibrant as compared to other phones like Nexus One or Motorola Droid. The screen is also a bit small which makes a difficult to view Web pages and e-mails. You cannot ‘pinch’ the screen to zoom in and out of photos but you can double tap to zoom in at a point. The built in accelerometer doesn’t work in all applications but its there when you need it for apps like maps and browser. You get a better picture in the landscape mode. It is good to have an accelerometer but the lag is frustrating.

Behind the display, you get a Backtrack navigation pad which is used to scroll through your photos, home screens and applications. All you need to do is scroll your finger through the pad. Motorola said that this hardware is put there in order to give you an unobstructed view of the screen. We can’t say swiping finger on the screen blocks our view per se because that is what a touch screen is made to serve for.

On the bright side, the Backtrack feature of the Motorola Backflip does work as advertised, and the scrolling experience is quite smooth. You might need a bit more time to get used to the trackpad because it is located behind the screen.

The keyboard of the Motorola Backflip has square buttons and is quite spacious. We didn’t have any mispresses but we would have liked the dome keys like in Motorola Cliq. The keys give good tactile feedback. The backlight is also bright enough which makes it easy to type in a dark room.

On the right side, there is a micro-USB port and volume rocker and camera button. On the top of Motorola Backflip, you get a 3.5 mm headphone jack, lock/power button and below the display, there are touch sensitive control buttons for back, home and menu. There is a microSD card slot which supports up to 32 GB cards.

Bundled in the package, you get reference manual, USB cord, and AC power adapter. Just like Motorola Devour and Cliq, the Motorola Backflip uses Motoblur software which merges contact information from various social networking sites and e-mail accounts like Picasa, Twitter, Exchange, Yahoo, Google and Facebook.

Apart from Motoblur, there aren’t much features in the Motorola Backflip. The phone runs on outdated Android 1.5 so you so you miss out on the new features of 1.6 version too. Motorola told us that they will be offering 2.1 updates soon but didn’t reveal any more details.

The phone comes with all the Android essentials which include Google Maps, Google Talk, YouTube, Gmail, Amazon MP3 Store, Android Market and Android Webkit HTML browser. Yahoo is the default search instead of Google which is interesting and there is no way you can set Google as the default search engine. The QuickOffice suite lets you edit Microsoft Office documents but you cannot create new ones.

Motorola Backflip is an AT&T phone so you get all the manufacturers features like AT&T Music and Video, AT&T Wi-Fi Hot Spots, AT&T Navigator, AllSport GPS, Mobile Banking and Yellow Pages Mobile. Some advanced features on the phone include 3G support, noise reduction technology, speakerphone, and voice dialing. The phone also has aGPS, Bluetooth and Wi-Fi.

Motorola Backflip comes with a five megapixel camera which is surprising in an entry level phone. The camera also has LED flash. But the picture quality doesn’t do justice to the 5 MP tag, the photos were washed out and bit hazy. We also saw lag when starting the camera application and it rebooted quite often while we tested it in our labs.

We tested the Motorola Backflip for call quality and it was average. We had a good experience, the audio was clear and crisp and there were no problems of voice distortion or background noise. Our friends though, had a different tale to tell. They said static on their end. Speakerphone call quality was better than handset calls which is quite rarely seen. The voices were full and rich and there is no hollowness in the voice. Friends also said that speaker phone calls were better than that of the handset. For Bluetooth calls, we tested Motorola S9 Bluetooth Active Headphones and Logitech Mobile Traveller and got smooth call quality.

Motorola Backflip is powered by 528 MHz Qualcomm MSM7201A processor that seems to be incapable of handling the phone’s apps. We had lots of problems related to performance and even simple applications like accelerometer struggled.

Motorola Backflip comes with a 1400 mAH lithium ion battery which has a rated talk time of six hours and standby time is 13.5 days. We haven’t completed our battery drain tests but we will do it soon and update this section.

Nitty Gritty:

This is first Android phone from AT&T stables and Motorola tries to do it with style with a unique design. But the performance and features are both lackluster and hence we won’t recommend this phone to you.