Motorola Backflip has fresh design with trackpad behind the display. It also features numerous wireless features, more AT&T services and 5-megapixel camera.

Against:

It is sluggish and only runs on Android 1.5. The display size is smaller than that of other smartphones.

The Whiz Kid Speaks:

Motorola Backflip is based on WCDMA (UMTS) / GSM technology that supports quad-band of WCDMA(UMTS)/GSM 850/900/1800/1900. The smartphone has folder type design and is powered with 528MHz Qualcomm MSM7201A processor. The operating system is Google Android 1.5. The Backflip has one micro-SD expansion that accepts up to 32GB cards. Supported wireless interfaces are Bluetooth 2.0 and IEEE 802.11b/g.

3.1 inches capacitive touch-screen LCD display has a resolution of 320×480 pixels that supports 18-bit (262,000) colors. Motorola Backflip has Backtrack pad behind the display and QWERTY keyboard. It has 5-megapixel camera that features LED light, automatic focus adjustment and video recording. Supported digital video playback formats are H.264, H.263 video and AMR audio, and MPEG4. Supported audio standards include AAC+, AAC, MIDI, WAV and MP3.

The additional features of Motorola Backflip are Class 12 EDGE, Class 12 GPRS, HSDPA, Android Market, Android Webkit HTML browser, RSS feeds, voice command, voice dialing, internal antenna, touch-screen, USB, A-GPS and speakerphone. Messaging features include multimedia and text messaging, support for POP3/IMAP4/SMTP and instant messengers such as Wireless Village 1.1 and Google Talk.

Motorola Backflip has 1400mAH lithium ion battery that has a life of 350 minutes talk time and 315 hours of idle standby time. The smartphone has two connectors: 1×3.500 headset jack – mini-phone and 1×micro-USB.

Razzle Dazzle:

Motorola Backflip looks like the Cliq due to its round edges and rectangular shape. The Backflip is 4.25 inches tall, 2.08 inches wide and 0.6 inch deep. The smartphone has flip design.

Inside Dope:

AT&T had announced that it would launch its first Android Device in February and has come up with the new – Motorola Backflip. This smartphone was one of the big announcements in CES 2010 and was awarded the “Best of CES 2010” awards in “cell phones and smartphones” category. It features QWERTY keyboard, 5-megapixel camera, numerous wireless options and trackpad located behind the LCD display. But the Backflip smartphone has some performance issues and uses Google Android 1.5 as operating system. If you are waiting for some improved and upgraded features, then maybe you should wait for a little while because four other Android smartphones are expected to launch in upcoming months. Motorola Backflip costs $99.99 and comes along with a two-year contract from AT&T after mail-in rebate of $100. Motorola says that keyboard is rugged. The display size is smaller than that of other smartphones. The keyboard is a matter of concern as it is exposed at the back. The company also announced that the Backflip will be upgradeable to Android 2.1, but it did not releasing any details.

Design

The major aspect of the Backflip is its flip design instead of slider. The keyboard is located just beneath the display. The hinge is hard enough and the layout is impressive.

Camera activation/capture key, micro-USB port and volume rocker are located on the right side. Power/lock key and 3.5mm headset jack sits on the top. Touch-sensitive controls for back key, home screen and menu are located beneath the display. Micro-SD card slot is located behind battery door.

Display

3.1 inches capacitive touch-screen LCD display of Motorola Backflip has HVGA resolution of 320×420 pixels that supports 256,000 colors. The display is not sharp and vibrant like other Android smartphones like Nexus One and Motorola Droid. Also, the display size of the Backflip is smaller. The smartphone features inbuilt accelerometer, but not pinch-to-zoom feature. You have to double tap on the screen for quick zoom. The accelerometer only works in selected applications like maps and browser. There is a noticeable delay in the working of accelerometer.

Keyboard

The QWERTY keyboard of Motorola Backflip is spacious and has square shaped buttons of good size. On pressing, the keys provide springy feedback. Symbol and numeric keys are marked in blue and have double size as compared to white marked letters keys. As usual, the keyboard has bright backlight. You will also find some shortcuts such as for menu screen, home screen, messages, search and Web, located at left side and in bottom row. The camera lens and flash are located on the corner of keyboard.

Backtrack Navigation

Motorola has introduced new feature – Backtrack navigation pad located behind the touch-screen display. It just works like trackpad for navigation. You swipe your finger on it for moving between photos and home screen, and scrolling via applications and lists. This Backtrack provides clear view of display because your fingers are behind the screen. We are sure that after some usage, you will like this new concept. It offers smoother experience than touch screen. When you open the Backflip at 90-degree angle, it enters into media mode that shows alarm clock, weather, date and time.

Features

The feature set of Motorola Backflip includes A-GPS, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, 3G Support, noise reduction technology, speaker phone, voice dialing and quad-band world roaming.

In addition, the basic features are polyphonic ring-tones, conference call capability, call timer, basic calculator, reminder, calendar and alarm clock.

Operating System and Applications

Motorola Backflip runs on Google Android 1.5 operating system. The company says that the Backflip will be upgradeable to Android 2.1, but does not comment on releasing any details.

Motorola Backflip has pre-installed YouTube, QuickOffice Suite, Google Maps, Google Talk, Gmail, Amazon MP3 store, Android Market and Android Webkit HTML browser. The default search engine is Yahoo! instead of Google.

MotoBlur

Motorola Backflip uses MotoBlur interface like the Devour and the Cliq. It merges the contacts information from numerous social networking Web sites and email accounts in one master list. Moreover, all emails except Gmail are combined in one universal inbox. All appointments also combined in one master calendar. It also features widgets, which you can add on five home screens to display messages, status updates and others.

A small icon will be displayed next to each unread message to indicate the email account. While testing, we easily configured Twitter, Facebook, Yahoo, Gmail and our Exchange account on the phone. The appointments took some time to display.

AT&T Services

AT&T has also included its services in Motorola Backflip such as Mobile Banking, Yellow Pages Mobile, AllSport GPS, AT&T Wi-Fi Hot Sports, AT&T Navigator and AT&T Music and Video.

Camera

Motorola Backflip has 5-megapixel camera with LED flashlight. While testing, the picture quality was washed out and little hazy. Also, camera took few seconds for turning on.

Call Quality

We made few calls through quad-band based Motorola Backflip using AT&T network. The overall call quality was average and mixed. We received clear, crispy and loud sound at our without any noise distortion or background noise. The callers received some static on their end. The speakerphone call quality was good on both sides. Both of us received full, rich and clear sound without any hollowness. We also did not get any problem in pairing Bluetooth headsets from Motorola S9 and Logitech Mobile Traveller.

3G Test

We browsed some Web sites through browser using 3G network of AT&T. Microsoft.com loaded in 10 seconds and a Google search took 5 seconds to complete. The AT&T and YouTube videos buffered quickly only before playback. Streaming video quality was murky from AT&T Videos, but better from YouTube. The music quality over the speakers was awesome and impressive. The volume was enough loud and clear both on speakers and headphones.

Performance Test

Motorola Backflip is using a 528MHz processor but its Android 1.5 operating system is a hurdle in good performance. The Backflip took some seconds even to rotate the screen on tilting the phone. Moreover, the smartphone restarted once on trying to start camera application. We think that it is better to wait for Google Android 2.1 for this smartphone.

Battery Life

Motorola Backflip uses 1400mAH lithium ion battery that has a life of 13.5 days idle standby time and 6 hours of talk time. The digital SAR rating is 1.37 watts per kg as per FCC radiation tests.

Verdict:

Motorola Backflip has new and fresh design as compared to other smartphones, but its lacks in performance and features. If you need a new smartphone and cannot wait for latest Android smartphones and upgrades, then you can buy Motorola Backflip. We will recommend you to check other smartphones in same price range.

Motorola Devour has sturdy design and this smartphone offers functional features, good performance and spacious keyboard.

Against:

The display is small as compared to the size of Motorola Devour. There is a need to improve camera features and placements of the controls.

The Whiz Kid Speaks:

Motorola Devour is based on CDMA2000 1X technology that supports dual band of CDMA2000 1X 1900/800. The Devour has slider design. It is powered by Google Android 1.6 operating system and 600MHz processor. The smartphone has inbuilt 224MB memory and a micro-SD expansion slot that supports cards up to 32GB. In addition, the Devour ships with 8GB micro-SD card.

3.1-inch touch-screen LCD display of Motorola Devour has a resolution of 320×480 pixels that supports 16-bit (65,000) colors. Supported wireless interfaces are Bluetooth 2.0 EDR and IEEE 802.11 b/g. The pre-installed instant messengers are AOL Instant Messenger, Wireless Village 1.1, Yahoo! Messenger and Google Talk. The additional features are Macromedia Flash Support, Mobile blog, RSS feeds, Accelerometer, Google Maps, Android Market, YouTube, Picasa and A-GPS.

Motorola Devour has 3-megapixel camera that has automatic focus adjustment and geo-tagging feature. Inbuilt music player supports digital audio formats of WMV (sound), AAC+, MIDI, WMA, WAV, MP3, AMR and AAC. Supported video formats are H.263 video and AMR audio, MPEG4 and H.264.

The interfaces of Motorola Devour include 1×3.5mm headset jack – mini phone and 1×micro-USB. In addition, the Devour is compatible to hearing aid. It has 1400 mAH lithium ion battery that has a life of 389 minutes of talk time and 443 hours of idle standby time.

Razzle Dazzle:

Motorola Devour has the same shape as the Droid. The Devour is 4.4 inches tall, 2.4 inches wide and 0.6 inches deep, and it weighs around 5.89 ounces. It feels solid while taking in hand due to its extruded aluminum, which wraps on all the sides. The metal skin delivers the protection and attractive sheen to the smartphone. The Devour has rubber sidings and tapered ends that gives sleeker look than Droid.

Inside Dope:

Motorola made a lot of money with Droid last year, it was a big hit in the smartphone market. Motorola Droid was the first phone for Google Android OS that offered numerous features and satisfactory performance. Now, the company has launched Motorola Devour to repeat its success. It is also the first smartphone to bring MotoBlur interface in the market. The touch-screen display of this phone is small and work has to be done to improve user controls. Still, the Devour remains solid member of the Android family. It is a good alternative for the Droid smartphone. Motorola Devour costs around $149 with a contract from Verizon Wireless with mail-in-rebate. As a result, the Devour has $50 less cost as compared to its predecessor, Motorola Droid. On the down side, the camera has less features and the display is small as per the size of phone. If you like the new MotoBlur interface and do not mind the small display size, then go ahead and buy the Motorola Devour.

Design

3.1-inch display looks very small on 4.4 inches tall phone. We prefer to have large display screen for better user interface. The display size might be small for placing the touch-sensitive buttons beneath the screen, which includes menu control, home button and back key. Motorola Devour has enough gap on the left side of these keys to adjust one more key. The thumbpad sits beneath these keys and on the bottom left corner of the phone. We do not understand why the company did not arrange all the controls in single row for enlarging the display size.

Power button sits on the top of Motorola Devour. The camera shutter, voice dialing button and volume rocker are located on the right spine. The volume rocker is easy to access on call, but the power button is not tactile. You will find the camera lens on the rear side of the Devour. The micro-SD card slot and battery are located behind a door on the left spine. You will also find 3.5mm standard headset jack on left spine. Micro-USB/charger port sits on the top.

Display

3.1 inches touch-screen display of Motorola Devour has a resolution of 320×480 pixels that supports 65,000 colors. It shows vibrant and bright colors. The capacitive touch screen is quick responsive without any lag, unlike Nexus One. It features proximity sensor and inbuilt accelerometer. You can customize the backlight time, brightness and wallpaper, but you cannot calibrate phone’s display. You will receive a vibrating feedback on selecting any option. Google Android’s user interface and phone dialer looks similar to other Android smartphones. You can customize five home screens with user-defined shortcuts. The menu has user-friendly icon layout.

Thumbpad

The company has introduced new feature – thumbpad located on bottom left corner of Motorola Devour. This thumbpad works as both optical mouse and physical control. You can press it down for selecting options and swipe your fingers to move between menu selections and home screen. The thumbpad is easier to use than toggle or trackball, but it takes some acclimation due to small size. You can adjust the sensitivity of thumbpad. Motorola Devour gives both physical and touch-screen navigation methods.

Keyboard

Motorola Devour has both virtual onscreen Android keyboard and physical keyboard. You can slide the Devour to access the physical keyboard. The sliding mechanism is so well constructed that enables to slide the phone for opening and closing through one hand. The keyboard is spacious and its keys are raised over the surface for easy typing. However, we still had one issue with the keyboard layout. There are three rows on it – top first row for numeric keys and other two for alphabets. The last alphabetical row has small space bar adjusted between B and V keys. We do not like the space bar placement. There should be a different row for space bar with some shortcuts or hot keys.

MotoBlur

Motorola Devour is the first device to bring the MotoBlur. The Devour shows all the email accounts, Facebook accounts and phone contacts in a master list. For more detail, you can go through the Motorola Cliq review at our website.

MotoBlur features news and weather widgets and options for managing the accounts on different social networking Web sites including Photobucket, Piccassa, Last.fm, MySpace, Twitter and Facebook. This new feature also creates a universal inbox for unread emails from various corporate sync, POP3 and IMAP4 accounts. You just have to devote few seconds to configure the MotoBlur for your social networking Web sites account, like in Motorola Cliq. You can also use the MotoBlur to backup your emails and contacts.

Operating System

Motorola Devour runs on Google Android 1.6 instead of OS 2.0 on its predecessor, the Droid. This version is much better than Android 1.5 on HTC Droid Eris. Therefore, we recommend other smartphone manufacturers to embed the Google operating system.

Applications and Email Accounts

Motorola Devour has Google applications such as Google Maps Navigation with Google Maps, YouTube, Google search, Google Talk and Gmail. The other features include stereo Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, internal compass, A-GPS, Microsoft QuickOffice, speaker independent voice dialing and voice commands, Flash Lite supportable Web browser, visual voice mail and calculator. It also has multi-touch support for double tap only and not for zoom and pinch.

Motorola Devour supports extensive email features. The messaging features include instant messaging, support for POP3/IMAP4/SMTP accounts, multimedia and text messaging, and Microsoft Exchange support. We setup Google account for testing and synchronized with our Exchange as well.

Camera

Motorola Devour features a 3-megapixel camera that works both as still camera and camcorder. The still camera captures images in three different resolutions. It has options for geo-tagging and color effects. We would recommend Motorola to include more camera features. There is a picture gallery application that allows managing captured photographs. It has attractive user-interface with slideshow option. The photo quality is good. We captured some still images for testing. The images were little dark and had some noise.

The camcorder records the video clips at 23fps in four different quality settings. The MMS clips are limited to one minute, but you can record long videos in standard mode. There is a handy meter in both still camera and camcorder modes, which informs about the storage space limit.

Music Player

Motorola Devour has inbuilt music player that has similar interface like other Android smartphones. Its features include play-lists, repeat and shuffle modes. As per our previous recommendations, the Google Android and Motorola both have to work to improve the music player features and interface. You can easily transfer the music to memory card via USB cable.

Services and Applications

Verizon Wireless has also added some of it services in Motorola Devour like V Cast Music with Rhapsody for downloading on the air music, V Cast streaming video for accessing online video contents and VZ Navigator for GPS.

Motorola Devour ships with pre-installed applications including Moto Phone Portal to connect with computer via GPS or Wi-Fi for transferring files. It also has inbuilt Media Share that allows to share the media files with any other device. Moreover, you can also download the numerous games and applications from Android Market. These downloaded contents will be saved to internal memory and could not be transferred to memory card.

Call Quality

We made few calls through dual-band based Motorola Devour via Verizon Wireless service. The overall call quality was passable. The signal strength was clear and strong even in underground basements and elevators, where other service providers failed on testing. We received clear and natural sound at our end without static or distortion. However, the volume was low and we could not hear the voices in loud places.

The callers received our sound with background buzz at their end and they could tell that we were using a cell phone. The speakerphone call quality was clear and loud. We both did not get any problem during conversation.

Motorola Devour is using 600MHz processor that is better than 528MHz processor of the Cliq. The music quality is good from the external speaker. We will recommend you to use headset for better sound. GPS locate function is also better than previous Android phones and it could locate our position quickly

Battery Life

Motorola Devour has a battery life of 18.45 days of idle standby time and 6.48 hours of talk time. The digital SAR is 0.45 watts per kg as per FCC radiation tests.

Verdict:

Motorola Devour delivers good features with MotoBlur. If you need a smartphone with good performance, nice feature set and latest interface, then you can buy this new smartphone – Motorola Devour.

Durable, great call quality, comfortable keypad

Against:

Ugly looks, lacks back button, 2.5 mm headset jack

The Whiz Kid Speaks:

The external display has a resolution of 120×160 pixels, or 65k colors. The internal display is 2.2 inches big and gives 176×220 pixels resolution. The 2.0 mega pixels camera can shoot pictures in max resolution of 1600×1200. The video resolution is 352×288 pixels. Supported audio formats are AMR, RA, WMA, AAC+, AAC, MP3. The handset has 180 MB internal memory and supports 8 GB memory expansion. Features for phone book include caller groups, multiple numbers per contact, picture ID and rind ID. Voice features include push-to-talk, speaker phone, recording, dialing. 1750 mAh li-ion battery has a rated talk time of 5.8 hours and stand by time is 6 days.

Razzle Dazzle:

You will easily make it out that the Brute i680 is a durable phone just by a glance. But it certainly won’t win any beauty contests with its thick rubberized skin and bulky body. The handset is 1 inch deep, 2.09 inches wide and 3.92 inches tall. It weighs 5.63 oucnes. If looks are important for you, stay away from this the Brute i680

Inside Dope:

Whenever we see a water and shock resistant phone, we automatically assume that it is going to be ugly. And most of the times, this is true because there is a lot of padding on the handset for standing through shocks and water. Brute i680 meets military specifications for elements like salt fog, low and high temperature, vibration and shock and dust. Though it is a water resistant phone you can’t take it with you for swimming with you underwater. But you can use it while talking in the rains. We held the phone under running tap in our labs and the device wasn’t damaged at all. For testing the shock resistance, we put threw the phone around on concrete floor as well as carpet. There wasn’t a single scratch on the device and it was working well too. The Brute i680 is made for Nextel, you can get it for $119 with service. Other features on the phone include a music player, camera which though not the best, are still nice to have on a phone. The call quality is also good, overall we didn’t have much to complain about this device.

Display

The Brute i680 has two displays, the one on the lid has a resolution of 160×120 pixels and supports 65k colors. You can use it as a viewfinder for the camera, photo caller ID, and it also displays the recently called numbers. Above this display is the flash and lens for the camera. The internal display is 2.2 inches big, supports 65,000 colors and gives 220×176 pixels resolution. The resolution isn’t the best, but photos and graphics appeared bright and vibrant on the display. You can change the backlight time and text size.

Navigation array and keyboard

The navigation array consists of Talk and End keys, camera shortcut button, two soft keys, dedicated menu key and a four way navigation button with OK key in the center. There is no back button which we bitterly missed. Below the navigation array is the spacious keypad. All the buttons are adequately raised above the surface which makes it easy to type. Ample backlight made sure we could type well in dark environments too.

Phone book and PIM features

Motorola Brute i680 has a 600 entry phone book which can take multiple phone numbers, notes and an e-mail address. You can make groups of callers, and photo caller ID is also supported. You get a choice of 20 polyphonic ringtones. As a Nextel handset, Brute offers a variety of the operators Direct Connect PTT services like Direct Talk (for out-of-network PTT-chat capabilities), Group Connect (for chatting with up to 20 others via PTT at once), and International Direct Connect.

Additional features include datebook, alarm clock, caller timers, speakerphone, memo pad, multimedia and text messaging and vibrate mode. Advanced users include voice playback for menu browsing, voice recorder, PC syncing, USB mass storage, application manager and stereo Bluetooth. There is also GPS and you can use it through Sprint’s TeleNav service for local search and real time directions.

Camera

The 2 MP camera can take pictures in 7 resolutions, the highest being 1200×1600 pixels and the lowest being 160×120 pixels. Editing options include two shutter sounds (without silent option), four color tones, auto focus, macro mode, GPS tagging, self timer, 4x digital zoom, white balance, exposure control and 2 two quality settings. The flash of the camera automatically switches on when you go in to the camera application. You cannot switch it off. The flash doesn’t help much in the photo quality, they look a dim. Photo quality is average. Camera also lets you shoot videos, and the editing options are quite similar to that of the camera. MMS clips are capped at 1 minute but you can shoot for more in normal mode. For storing videos and photos, the Motorola Brute i680 comes with 180 MB internal memory and supports up to 8 GB of microSD cards.

Music Player

The music player of the Brute i680 has a simple interface. You can choose from a variety of visualization and themes and it also supports album art. There is a nine setting equalizer along with repeat and shuffle modes. For transferring music, you can use Bluetooth, USB cord or memory card.

Games and personalization

You can personalize the Motorola Brute i680 with variety of wallpapers, color themes and clock styles. You can also download variety of ring tones from the WAP 2.0 browser. If you like gamming, there is just one game, Family Guy Uncensored. You can download Java games from the browser. For racing enthusiasts, there is Sprint’s Nascar Cup Mobile app.

Call quality

When tested for call quality, we didn’t have many issues on the Motorola Brute i680. Our friends sounded natural on the phone, the audio was clear and even though there was a slight background hiss, it didn’t bother us much. We used Nextel service and had good reception. Our friends were also happy with the call quality. They didn’t hear any background hiss while on the calls. However, they could tell that we were using a cell phone. The sound gets really loud and hence we could talk easily even in high noise environments. Bluetooth calls were very clear too.

Battery life

Rated battery life of the Motorola Brute i680 is 5.8 hours. We haven’t conducted battery tests yet, we will update this section when we do it.

Verdict:

Motorola Brute i680 may not be a pretty looking phone, but the features inside are really good making it a good mid-range buy.