Motorola’s New QWERTY Phone Can Do Backflips

Dr. Sanjay Jha introduces the Motorola Backflip

The newest Motorola phone might initially look like a Cliq, but the Backflip has a new trick behind it. Literally. You can actually navigate the phone with a finger on the backside of the Motorola Backflip. Taps and double-taps are supported as is mouse-pad style navigation. In fact, the entire phone has a backwards look and feel to it because the QWERTY keypad flips in the opposite way you’d expect — the keyboard is always exposed as a result.

The display looked vivid, and the keys appear generous in size. But aside from the new navigation method, this largely looks like a modest refresh of the Cliq to me: Android 1.5, 5-megapixel camera, 528 MHz CPU, 3G, Wi-Fi and MOTOBLUR.

On a different note, Motorola’s Sanjay Jha stated that the Cliq would be updated to Android 2.1, but no time frame was provided. If that’s the case, I expect the same upgrade to apply to the Backflip. No carrier partners were announced yet, but the price-to-be-determined phone will be sold in the U.S. as well as other countries around the world before April.