Motorola MOTOSPLIT to have dynamic key labels, lame processor?
By Chris Ziegler 
posted February 6th 2010 8:36PM
posted February 6th 2010 8:36PM
The wisdom and usability of this kind of setup remains a huge question mark, but the bigger question mark might be inside the phone itself: we're hearing here that the MOTOSPLIT would use the same core as the Backflip, an old-school Qualcomm MSM7201A. Frankly that seems unlikely at best -- virtually every Qualcomm-powered midrange smartphone to be introduced in 2010 from here on out will be using an MSM7227 or 7627 (including Moto's own Devour), so we're going to cautiously assume this particular piece of the intel is incorrect. Please let it be incorrect, Motorola, we beg of you.
@tluv00
touche
(thank you sir. Best burn I have had in a long while)
@New Reformation
wow. the post I was commenting on got ripped at the moment I posted and the comment went here.
(oh BTW, t-t-t-triple post!)
@New Reformation
They must have pulled it because it was off topic or because of the link to another site. Who knows. I do know that Motorola phone render could actually be worse (if true) than the see through screen SE phone. Who are the R&D people at these companies and why are they not fired?
I think Motorola is going abit overboard with this android thing. I mean I know its free and open source, but damn they've helped themselves.
@B3astofthe3ast
What else should they use? WiMo is expensive and awful, WebOS is in its infancy and may not be available to third parties (almost certainly not for free), and the iphone OS isn't available at any price. What's left, Symbian? Please.
As you said, Android is free and open source, and I'd add that it works really well for most things. So why would Moto pay for an inferior OS when the best one going is free?
@B3astofthe3ast Yes, I guess the droid fever is very contagious. As for the post, Indeed the motoroi has a resemblance with the Backflip model: http://bit.ly/moto-backlip-details-best-worst
@Chip I agree that they should stick with android, but the amount of phones they are pumping out is a little mind numbing.
@Chip agree with that open sources are future.
not these awful 4 icons again!!!
Are those inset keys? That seems impressively unusable...
@EpsilonNot
its like typing on a touchscreen keyboard without being able to accidentally hit the other buttons surrounding it. seems pretty usable to me.
@JW
But you have to poke the keys with a pen!
@EpsilonNot
Its just a render, this isn't official. No worries my friend.
@Ballmer
the last time i checked the very tips of my fingers were not square and had 1 square in of area.
@JW
Exactly. If they wanted to they could program a capacitive layer to be so sensitive that you only have to hover over the keys to type. That could actually create a faster typing experience than physical keyboard (though all applications considered a physical keyboard would still be best).
@JW i completely agree with everything that you say
I personally think it is actually a kind of cool idea :)
This have to be the ugliest shitty phone to this date. Excuse my language. If this comes to AT&T I'm not going even bother to get it cause the keyboard is pointless the faceplate is perfect. I think Motorola is only doing this if it comes to At&t it will look like crap uncomfortable ANDROID phone and it's processor is really slow so theirs no point of making this phone if no one doesn't wants it. I think Moto only makes ugly phones on weak carriers such as AT&T.
@Inspector Gadget80
good for you! but their appears to be a pretty standard arrangement (3rd phone down from the right). as long as the backflip processor isnt true then im sold.
@Inspector Gadget80
So because it comes to AT&T, it looks like complete crap?
What if it went to Sprint or Verizon?
Is it fabulous then?
knowing QCT, customers can still order old chipsets if they desire to do so. They just need to commit to a minimum batch size.
I see nothing wrong with it, but bring on the highend phones, tired of waiting
Soon Motorola will split up and sold... and all of you will be working for a chinese company... your after sales service sucks big time, your quality of your phone is "legendary" and beginning to look more like a chinese produces..good luck to you.. I think you guys fair better doing KIRF..
I like the long screen.
So does this phone have a standard slide down qwerty too then? It looks like it in the second shot from the left. If this phone can be crazy and normal then I'm game!
My idea: Get rid of the entire keypad and turn it into a small touch screen. I would really like to see a dual touch screen slider phone where the bottom screen is used for text input, among other things, notifications maybe, i'm sure there could be many possibilities.
Also, Qualcomm CPUs suck -- all of them, even snapdragon.
Moto had the right idea with the droid; going with TI's OMAP.
OMAP > * :)
@DoctarPeppar: OMAP > guy with clown hat on? I think you brokesded it. The clown hat is scary.
@Prokanda
Good one...if you're going to be performing in a club somewhere let me know so I can buy a ticket before they're sold out!
@DoctarPeppar : Way to give a good chuckle and take that gracefully. /sigh
Cool!
Man, I too am getting concerned about Moto's increasingly quirky designs. Its great that their determined to embrace a growth platform, but I think their trying too hard to distinguish themselves aesthetically. Sorry, but form has to follow function - if we're going back to inset keys and other nightmares of the 90's, count me out.
If this is anything like the Nokia E70 all over again I'll pass. Watching my friend use the E70 was painful.
Who would wanna even buy this phone?
dynamic keyboard is a great idea, especially when one's got to switch to non latin typing from time to time.
also experimenting is always good, of course maybe that's not in a vocabulary of profit maximizing strip down to functionality kind of western mentality
If you're gonna do it like that, then why not just make the whole thing a touchscreen?! Then you can customize the keys all you want, plus you don't have to deal with idiotic design solutions...
Actually don't you remember what CEO Jha said? He said that because Android is a very "light" OS, good processors are not needed, so that the price would be lower. I agree with him. I don't think that the phone would lag with an app or two being ran simutaneously... :)
wait....so it slides out from the top the bottom and both sides?that seems unlikely
Motorola, you're quirky designs are the biggest downfalls of all of your android phones to date. A phone doesn't have to look odd to be popular (iPhone much?). The backflip is a good example. It should be a slider and have the ability to tilt like the N95. The Droid has that random chin jetting out from under the top layer. Take a look at the Nexus One by HTC. The phone is very popular and their is nothing off about the design.
Motorola fails at hardware.
Seriously, I've never seen a company screw up hardware that badly so consistently over so many years. Smartphones, dumbphones, everything--Motorola has no sense of either build quality or design. Motorola is almost singlehandedly responsible for the general public's belief that phones are disposable, because they build their devices like disposable cameras.
I still remember a friend of mine who posted a lengthy review of one Motorola dumbphone a few years ago, tearing the device a new one piece by piece. The sections were titled "psuedo-clamshell design", "shoddy construction", "cheap, short-lived battery", and "unstable and buggy firmware". All my experience with newer Motorola hardware shows me they've not learned a single thing since they made that POS years ago.
@jgp
razr, anyone?
@jgp
As impasse said, you don't know what you're talking about. Motorola's hardware design is its strong suit. Of course there are going to be some low end handsets that are more cheap feeling when you're in the emerging market entry level territory. But that's the way with Nokia and other global handset manufacturers that cover all tiers of phones (as opposed to Apple who has a different strategy and only focuses on the middle/upper).
You can't both yawn at "boring" repetitive designs and also complain when companies try new things. You'd never see the side slider (or the downward slider for that matter) if companies stopped making new designs in the 90's with candybar and flip phones.