I got this phone the day it was released because there was a deal where you could get a rebate reducing the price to $50.00. An enticing deal for an Android smart phone, especially when you compare it’s capability to other AT&T smart phones. The great unspoken advantage of the Backflip (or any other Android phone) as compared to it’s competitors is the way Google releases programing. Most Google software is fairly open and I don’t suspect we will see any sort of “App Monopoly” out there as you do with some other devices.

As far as the phone itself, the trackpad is pretty awkward, but I found that to be just because it’s different. It comes in handy when you are having to type and surf the web at the same time (like Facebook and Twitter Apps). The keyboard is larger than most so it takes some getting use to. That being said, by the time you subtract the amount of time you take to correct typos due to “fat-finger typing”, it’s probably not any more cumbersome to operate than that on other touch-screen or slide-out phones.

Even though the phone is brand new, obviously Motorola has another phone on the market with the Android software, so this isn’t exactly “new playing ground” for them. The materials are very sturdy and, as of yet, the keyboard doesn’t appear to get worn or stressed any in pockets, bags, or getting tossed on the desk (normal wear-and-tear). I’ve seen some people complain about lagging in the software, but I haven’t really experienced that.

PROBLEMS: From time to time, an app might crash if you try telling it to do too many things at once. The program never seems to slow down so I suspect this is a junction of running up-to-date apps on the pre-loaded Android 1.5 operating system. At the end of this month (March), Google is suppose to have Android 2.1 pushed to all BackFlips. The phone is listed on AT&T’s website at $199 with a two year contract. No mention is made of a rebate, even though I hear you can get a $100 mail-in rebate at AT&T stores. For this price, I believe you can get one of the more base-model iPhones. Depending on what you want in an OS, I’m not sure the $199 pricing point is too smart. Only other problems I have experienced are subject to who is using the phone. A “popular tech review website” posted a review of features like the alarm clock (if you lift the screen 90 degrees to the keyboard, it turns into a desktop alarm clock) and stated that the alarm clock was a bit too finicky with the whole “90 degrees” thing. I used the clock and thought it was spot on but that is where it comes down to “user preference”. If you make the sensitivity of certain features too fine, then getting a perfect 90 degrees would be too hard (which was this other website’s point). If you make the sensitivity too coarse, than you’ll probably activate the feature accidentally and people like me would get annoyed.

BOTTOM LINE: The phone, as a piece of hardware, is a novelty which makes a lot of tech-heads instantly suspicious as they review the device. Gimmicks aside, it’s a pretty cool phone. It’s basically a perfected version of two or three other Motorola Android devices released on a new network. The software is what it is: it’s a stable, legacy system (Android 1.5) that Motorola pre-installed because they knew it worked and didn’t want to be too risky all at the same time. Time will tell if it was a smart move or not. The software is open for development, highly customizable, clever, and there are already THOUSANDS of apps on the market for free and for very small fees. There are a few memory-management issues on the software side, but Android 2.1 is right around the corner and there is absolutely no credible reason to expect this device can’t handle the upgrade.

If you want to determine whether the features are “buggy” in your opinion or whether they seem to work fine, I suggest getting one out and play with it yourself. Personally, I thought it was great, but there are at least 3 reviews I have seen online that rated the features as marginal. I suspect there is some alternative motive, but that’s why I’m telling everyone to just go try it themselves and make their own decision. It’s a clever phone that you’ll be finding new features and options on months after you purchase it.

AndroidAuthority is more than welcome to contact me if they want to know anything else about my experience with this device.

girl i traded my backflip in for a htc aria and its much better…. upgrade

has anyone found an answer to the problem of not being able to delete contact history?