Motorola Backflip Video Demo
| by Rob Jackson on January 8th, 2010 |
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At first glance the Motorola Backflip doesn’t look like anything we haven’t yet seen – in fact it looks a lot like a Moto CLIQ-Clone. But if that were the case the Backflip would be the ultra-flexible, double jointed, ridiculously bendable version. The phone – which was announced earlier this week – has a unique and appropriately named form factor that you have to see to believe.
We grabbed a Motorola rep who was using the Backflip as their personal device to give us a quick tour of both the hardware and software:
One thing I love about the Backflip might just be a matter of consequence: the 5MP camera is normally positioned on the rear of the device but because of the acrobatics it becomes a front facing camera when it tumbles into an open position. For the “vloggers” out there or folks who aren’t the best at taking self-pics for facebook, this oughta help.
I’m also a big fan of that rear touch pad for web browsing if only to prevent accidental link clicking. Scrolling up and down throughout the page without being visually hindered from your fingers blocking the screen is also pretty nice.
Beyond the obvious benefits you get from the hardware, the Backflip is – as you may have guessed – a lot like the Motorola CLIQ in looks and specs. If you want to talk to others about the device to ask questions or share tips, head on over to our Motorola Backflip Forum!
1. G8D wrote on January 8, 2010
Kinda iPhone-y from the front (I hate this kind of design).
But a cool concept indeed.
2. swehes wrote on January 8, 2010
now my question would be, would the camera be able to be used as a webcamera? That would be sweet if it could. Any developer want to look into that?
3. Piranaguy wrote on January 8, 2010
backtouch is great idea! i hate browsing on my iphone and tapping links i dont want, happens a lot… for the rest of this phone it requires a smarter user, not all tap and go. should be fine for teens obsessed with social networks and who are smart enough to link all their contacts…
4. Aerimus wrote on January 8, 2010
I have to admit, I thought this phone would be stupid, but after seeing the video that concept seems much cooler than I thought.
@G8D One thing I like about the iPhone is that the screen is equa-distant(sp) to both the top and bottom of the phone. This makes it really nice for typing in landscape mode. However, on this phone that’s not really necessary because you’ve got the keyboard.
5. Miller wrote on January 8, 2010
Why didn’t they enable auto-rotate on the home screen? Instead, it seems you have to have the keyboard fully opened.
Btw, that rep reminds me of Miss South Carolina from Miss Teen 2007. “…so you don’t mistakenly click on something as well, so we’ve kind of thought… to try and make it… prevention…”
6. thelee wrote on January 8, 2010
I have to say, I was really skeptical about the form factor, but after seeing it in practice, I kinda wish I could get my Droid in a thin backflip version (that back trackpad is nice!)
7. thelee wrote on January 8, 2010
Not to mention the forward facing camera and effectively “free” multimedia dock
8. Terran wrote on January 8, 2010
this surprised me a lot. actually kinda want the phone. still wondering how protecting the keyboard will work since its always out in the open. i smell a lot of repairs in the future….
9. ari-free wrote on January 8, 2010
“Scrolling up and down throughout the page without being visually hindered from your fingers blocking the screen is also pretty nice.”
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yeah my philosophy of screens is you can look but don’t touch. That’s also why I prefer a real keyboard. I want to use the entire screen.
10. Dee wrote on January 8, 2010
Did I just see a slide-out HERO @ 3:23?
11. YankeeDudeL wrote on January 8, 2010
I think it’s kinda neat.
12. maddmatt02 wrote on January 8, 2010
@ dee, it looks like a cliq w/ a silver bottom instead of black (I think its upside down)
13. Abrown wrote on January 8, 2010
That thing is crazy, I had to go back and watch the first part a couple of times because it looked so crazy when he flipped it open. My first thoughts about the camera were “front facing camera!” and the guy in the video totally called on that one. Someone would be genius to hook up with Skype on that one. I’m thinking it’ll happen eventually, but I really think it’d be cool to get a forward facing camera so you can make Skype calls and use it just like a webcam for video conferencing. It wouldn’t be the best way to conference especially if you’re a business mogul but I would use it just for fun…it’s totally going to go that way in the future, someone just needs to do it well and then market it in a savvy way.
14. moises wrote on January 8, 2010
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RIrmw7H-jzA heres a link of the camera being used on it the flash seems real bright too bad its for at&t
15. moises wrote on January 8, 2010
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gWyCjCRkNRk
the first dropped backflip at 0:43 seconds hahaha maked me think how i would want to close it with one hand
16. Mensahwatts wrote on January 9, 2010
Yeah…thing looks kinda dandy. I’m glad I didn’t jive it before it came out
17. chewtoy wrote on January 9, 2010
Finally someone builds a camera in that faces both directions, and they don’t even seem to realize the gigantic leap forward they’ve made.
WTF can’t companies realize the world is waiting for good video cell phone hardware, and the only thing missing is a camera that’s easily positioned to point where you want it?
Consider me happy at least that they finally got this close though.
I do wish the hardware were faster, instead of being more last-gen kit.
18. AT&T Motorola Backflip Coming March 7th For $324 [RUMOR] | Android Phone Fans wrote on January 13, 2010
[...] Motorola Backflip sports a pretty crazy form factor which we demoed on video at CES. It’s an interesting entry as AT&T’s first ever Android Phone – rather than [...]
19. D-man wrote on January 13, 2010
“Why didn’t they enable auto-rotate on the home screen? Instead, it seems you have to have the keyboard fully opened.”
Neither does the Droid, but I after using it for a while, I realized that this is actually a feature.
When you quickly pull your phone out of your pocket, do you really want your home icons moving all over the place?
Likewise, if you pull the keyboard out on the Droid home screen it knows to switch to landscape mode.
20. boristhebladexx wrote on January 13, 2010
Pretty cool concept and form, but did you notice that super lag in loading those widgets when he came back to the home screen? Maybe its motoblur slowing it down…
21. akkharu1033 wrote on February 15, 2010
I thought this was a gimmick of the worst kind when I saw the first reports of it and brushed it off. Now that I see it function in real time, I don’t understand all the criticism, because the form factor is TRULY original and enables so many uses that other over-powered, but still orthodox phones (eg nexus one, et al)do NOT, like possible video-calling or video conferencing, and the trite alarm clock feature is pretty cool, too. I can now say the only legitimate criticism of this phone is the software: it needs to ship with Android 2.1 (as promised, but never guaranteed LOL) and ATT needs to stop stripping it of innovative Google features in order to please partners Apple and Yahoo. If this phone can be hacked to run with T-Mobile’s upcoming Android 2.1 OS with Motoblur (the soon-to-be-released update for the Moto Cliq) that is NOT stripped of Google’s native OS apps, this just might be the perfect cell for me because I don’t need nexus power on the go and much prefer this phone’s unique potential and features inherent in the innovative form factor.