Motorola Flipside Review

The Motorola Flipside is one of the first phones to come out from Motorola ever since they branded themselves as a big producer of Android smartphones.  The flipside is the largest of the bunch that had just come out at the time and also has the most utilities.

Out of the quintet of handsets announced at CTIA the Flipside is the only one among them that has a full slide out QWERTY keyboard as well as a fully functioning touch screen keyboard.  The features include:

  • Android 2.1
  • 3.1 Inch touch screen
  • 3 megapixel camera
  • support for 32 GB of memory
  • $99.99 with 2 year service agreement

The Flipside fits in with the traditional idea of a slideout touch screen phone.  Rectangular, rounded corners, slightly thicker and bulkier than those without dual keyboards, and a little bit heavy.  With this being said it still functions fine and fits to the ear well, just a tad larger than most.

The screen being 3.1 inch HVGA is a tad bit too small for the fingers.  It’s nice to see onscreen keyboards on the 3.5 inch which gives just enough room to get into the faster typing without worrying constantly about hitting the wrong keys.  All the seven digital home screens are very nice but there were a bit too many social media icons and they are a bit cumbersome.

The phone is pretty standard Motorola/Android and doesn’t deviate far except for one unique and likeable feature:  the trackpad.  It sits below the screen at a half inch by half inch.  It can be used as an alternative navigation device if you enjoy it more than the touchscreen and can also be used to play games which we enjoyed.  Touching the pad also wakes up the phone.

Let’s get to the hardware.  On the right spine there is the volume rocker and camera shortcut button.  On the left we have the micro USB port.  Up on top is the power button and the headphone jack.  On the backside is the 3 megapixel camera and self portrait mirror.  Beneath the cover on the back is the microSC slot which comes standard at 2 GB but upgradable to 32 GB.

We were impressed with the slide out keyboard.  It’s large enough to be quickly and easily used without extraneous width that makes you stretch.

Pros

  • Trackpad
  • Nice keyboard
  • Up to 32 GB of memory
  • Corporate e-mail through Microsoft Exchange
  • Post production image editiing

Cons

  • Heavy
  • Bulky
  • Bad SD card placement
  • Poor phone quality (and isn’t this it’s true purpose?)

Conclusion

It’s nothing groundbreaking, you’ve seen it all before, but the Motorola Flipside has many great features with an emphasis on socializing.  If you don’t mind poor call quality this might be the phone for you (you texters out there).