Motorola Flipout official: Android 2.1 and enhanced Motoblur coming to Europe in Q2 2010 (video)
By Vlad Savov 
posted June 2nd 2010 5:36AM
posted June 2nd 2010 5:36AM
Update: Our pals at Recombu got a quick hands-on with the Flipout, and... it's a square Android phone. Video after the break.
Update 2: We've come across a more comprehensive spec sheet on Moto's dev site, which lists AT&T- and Rogers-compatible 3G bands, make of that what you will.
[Thanks, Martin]
BASINGSTOKE, UK – June 2, 2010 – Motorola (NYSE: MOT) today announced Motorola FLIPOUTTM with MOTOBLUR™, a stylishly square and compact smartphone that's as individual as its users.
Launching in Europe from Q2 2010, FLIPOUT runs on Android™ 2.1 and features an innovative square pivot design that opens to reveal a five-row QWERTY keypad with a separate row for numeric keys. FLIPOUT features up to seven customizable home screens, live wallpapers and added security for exchange server users. It also offers enhanced MOTOBLUR features making it easier to follow who and what really matters to you.
"FLIPOUT merges Motorola's design heritage with Android to deliver a new take on the typical smartphone form. In an incredibly compact square, FLIPOUT fits neatly in your palm, purse or small pocket, making it fun and easy to stay connected while on the go," said Ralf Gerbershagen, vice president and GM, Mobile Devices, Western Europe, Motorola. "For fans of social networking, FLIPOUT also features enhancements to MOTOBLUR, allowing users to connect with their networks however they want."
FLIPOUT's array of colors will be country-specific and could include Licorice, Fairway Green, Raspberry Crush, Brilliant Blue, Poppy Red, Saffron or White.
Enhanced MOTOBLUR
MOTOBLUR is Motorola's exclusive Android experience that syncs contacts, posts, messages, photos and much more - from sources such as Facebook®, MySpace, Twitter™, Gmail™, work and personal e-mail, and last.fm - and automatically delivers them to the home screen. MOTOBLUR automatically backs up contacts, log-in information, home screen customizations and e-mail to a secure server and provides remote data wipe for lost or stolen devices. One username and password restores contacts, messages and connectivity to prior networks and email providers.
FLIPOUT offers enhanced MOTOBLUR functionality and features, including:
• Happenings and Messages widgets – filter by social networking account, by contact(s) or by contact group to only see the information you want
• Screen customization – move and resize preloaded widgets on up to seven home screens
• Battery Manager – manage battery consumption by operating in one of three performance modes
• Data Manager – monitor data usage from the home screen to better manage pay-as-you-go and limited data plans
• Personal and Corporate e-mail – pushed directly to the device
• Re-tweet capabilities
Hear and be heard
FLIPOUT includes CrystalTalkTM PLUS which improves a caller's voice quality while filtering out background noise for better conversations. Building on Motorola's proprietary microphone and speaker configuration, CrystalTalk PLUS adds a second microphone to provide even clearer voice quality, while cutting down background noise.
Web & Multimedia
FLIPOUT brings optimal web and photo browsing to the palm of your hand with multi-touch pinch to zoom, and is Adobe® Flash® enabled which provides access to most content-rich websites.
For music fans, FLIPOUT's connected media player offers full screen lyric support, integrated song ID and a social solution for knowing what people around you are listening to.
Additional multimedia features include a 3MP camera with digital zoom and KODAK PERFECT TOUCH technology for better, brighter pictures and gallery mode for tagging and labeling of photos. One-touch uploads to Facebook, MySpace, Picasa and Photobucket make sharing your images quick and easy. Also included are video capture, playback and streaming options along with Bluetooth®1 capabilities for wireless calls and music.
FLIPOUT features full Google™ services including Google Search™, Google Maps™, Gmail™ and access to thousands of apps on the Android Market.
Availability
Motorola FLIPOUT with MOTOBLUR will be introduced to Europe from Q2 2010. For more information about availability, please contact your local Motorola representative. To learn more about the device visit YouTube™ or here. To experience MOTOBLUR, please visit www.motorola.com/motoblur.
FLIPOUT with MOTOBLUR™
Talk and Standby Time: 275mins / 377 hrs WCDMA, 357mins / 365 hrs GSM
Bands/Modes: WCDMA 900/2100, GSM 850/900/1800/1900, HSDPA 7.2 Mbps (Category 7/8) EDGE Class 12, GPRS Class 12, HSUPA 2.0 Mbps, eCompass/aGPS, Version 2.1+EDR
Weight: 120g
Dimensions: 67.00 x 67.00 x 17.00 mm
Size: 76 cc
OS: Android 2.1
Battery: 1170 mAh
Connectivity: 3.5mm headset jack, USB 2.0 HS, Wi-Fi, NGP
Display: 2.8 inch display 320 x 240 pixels, QVGA TFT
Messaging/Web/Apps: MMS, SMS, Email (Corporate Sync, POP3, IMAP, Push Email), Instant Messaging
Audio: FM Radio Receive, AAC, AAC+, AAC+ Enhanced, AMR NB, MP3, WMA v9
Video: Capture/Playback/Streaming, H.264, MPEG4, WMV v9
Camera: 3 megapixel, digital zoom, fixed-focus
Browser: Android HTML WebKit, Adobe® Flash® enabled
Memory: 512MB internal memory with removable 2GB Micro SD card (included); supports up to 32GB MicroSD (optional)
Form Factor: Rotator QWERTY
Antenna: Internal
Address Book/Calendar: MOTOBLUR aggregates Facebook®, MySpace, TwitterTM and GmailTM; Syncs and merges your work contacts, email and calendar
Location Services: aGPS (assisted), eCompass
Such a strange design
@Physicsguy89
Kin-like. Probably a direct competitor, this looks nice though.
@Physicsguy89
Strange is not the right adjective: "wat a silly design" seems more appropriate.
@Physicsguy89
It is downright terrible. Absolutely downhill for moto since the decent milestone. I hope the EU prevents this from coming in, it should, from a consumer protection standpoint.
@Plexus
Or you agree you are too old for this :(
High school to Undergraduate may have fun using this stuff, and in Europe where the party never stops, it could be a perfect companion.
@Physicsguy89
If it's cheap like the Kin's, then teenagers might like the "weird" designs too :)
@Physicsguy89
Gosh,I hate square phones !
@Physicsguy89
My girlfriend has a Samsung Reclaim and would love to upgrade to the Motorola Flipout.
@Physicsguy89 The hardware looks pretty nice though a bit thick (*insert "that's what she said" joke*) but its that Motoblur crapware that really ruins it.
headed to at&t. "rethink possible"
-___-
why cant they lay off the motoblur shit and make more droid-ish phones? stupid moto
@WillSmith
Don't worry, there are 2 Moto Droids come out this month. :-) the Droid Shadow/Xtreme and Droid 2
@JXCGunrunna Both supposedly with Moto Blur unfortunately
meh!
now imagine tryin to answer the phone as quickly as possible with this....
after all it's a phone eh?
God, that looks ugly as sin. No thanks, Motorola. No thanks.
@Dylbot
I think you mean't, "ugly as kin."
Holding that up to your ear to use it as an actual phone must look real weird
Anyone else notice their dragging indicators are all backwards from what they should be on the web page?
@Itami
In the first video I also noticed this. If thats actually how its going to be, thats going to be very un-natural to use - let alone the thing is square :/
Maybe a normal will buy it, or a tween.. Who knows...
Well on the bright side I'm glad my CLIQ is getting a 2.x update. But this is terribly underwhelming, none of the new "features" are all that exciting. I guess multitouch and finally access to applications that need eclair APIs will have to do. I think I'm going to sell this phone when the Samsung Galaxy S drops or when I can afford an unlocked Nexus One. Whichever comes first.
hey? it's hip to be square these days, isn't it?
Load a Gameboy emulator ASAP
Oh, yes. I am getting one.
i want motoblur on a BIG screen
@darthgault
After having Motoblur I don't want it on any screen unless it's rocking a solid processor.
@Waltah I watched this video just to see what Motoblur on 2.1 was going to be like on my Cliq XT. It looks like a few minor improvements (I guess I could get behind re-sizable widgets), but I'm hoping the real differences are under the surface. If the majority of their efforts went towards optimizing for performance, I'll take the same look and functions in stride. I just hope it runs faster and smoother. Especially since the Galaxy S or any other superphone coming to Big T are going to be rather costly. I'll be stuck with the XT likely till next year.
I really don't have much problems with my moto cliq's speed. I just like the customizing capability ... The quick glance features of the widgets and stuff make me wonder why i ever used an iPhone.
I love reading my tweets from the "happenings" widget ... The calendar widget tells me my next appointment ... I put a shortcut under my calendar widget to googles old XML mobile site that has the "quick add" feature which is so simple for adding appointments.
I can just turn on my phone and see everything that's new without digging through a sea of icons that looks like windows 1.0 desktop. (coughs iGarbage)
I think Motorola may have another hit on it's hands especially with the younger market. Like the Kin One you get the funky form factor, keyboard etc, but unlike the Kin you get full smart phone capabilities.
So devices are being announced (not released) today with the old version of Android and a custom skin and they tell us it is not fragmented.
@(Unverified)
Depends what you mean by fragmented. Yes there are several versions around with slightly different capabilities, but manufacturers have always released phones with different capabilities. The skinning provides no real benefit (IMO), but absolutely doesn't introduce compatibility issues, it's just like an extended version of having new wallpaper (incidentally you can custom skin android with different home screens and replacement OS elements as a user, you don't need to have a manufacturer do it for you)
The user experience of using android 1.x , 2.x etc will be smooth, and the market will simply not show them apps intended for phones with new unsupported features (or will show them versions targeted at their device, or in some cases they will simply not experience the new features - depending on how the app developer decided to do it). It would be nice if all devices ran the latest version, just as it would be nice (for the consumer) if all no hardware ever went out of date, but ut certainly isn't a platform killer.
I suspect in the long run, a willingness to maintain software upgrades for phones (within reason) will be seen as a competitive advantage for manufacturers. We're not there yet by any means, but lets see where this goes over the next years
@(Unverified)
Eg. Froyo includes wifi tethering (you can do this in earlier versions too, but it's not built in), and some manufacturers will not want to support it (either for product differentiation reasons or to appease betworks)
Some handsets will be GSM, some CDMA. Is this fragmentation? Some will support video calling, some not. Some will bill for these features, some may include them. This is probably also true of the iPhone in international markets with different levels of network support from carriers.
Yeah there are different features available across a compatible range of products, and it is gracefully handled. This is what you get when you have more than one product / manufacturer. It's free market stuff (with compatibility rules and governance) which is supposed to be good for competition and the consumer.
It's just a business model that nobody else is following, and it seems to be working well for the platform so far. I'm betting on manufacturers and networks falling into line when they realise it works, but it doesn't matter much for platform success if they don't.
To explain my feelings about this device i will use a few simple words
DO NOT WANT!
How much?
And this comment thread is an example of the "you can't win" adage most tech companies have to deal with nowadays.
If you make it look standard what are your options? A rectangle? Glass screen? Oh no it looks like THAT phone...you know the one.
OK, lets make it look different, lets do what RIM did and try and make a full touch screen but with a flip to still have the full QWERTY...lets try a new shape...a square...lets do like HTC and have an uneven battery cover on the back...lets add a twisting keyboard..."Ewww...it's ugly!!! Do not want!!! What is that!!!"
They can't win with you guys. They're either copying your favourite company or they're crazy and their phone is ugly.
@Tes
Yeah at least this way they don't need to worry about lawsuits much :). I still wish these companies would stop with the custom interfaces and just ship stock android though.
@fubarweb
Well in the case of the aforementioned standard rectangular glass screen, what then would make you choose one over the other? If Samsung and LG both offered a 3.7 inch touch screen phone running the exact same OS, the same Snapdragon CPU, same 512mb RAM...as a business you have to see that they HAVE to differentiate their phones or they're going to be victims whims based on if you've heard of them or not rather than the quality of their product.
somehow they make Android look like Symbian. I could understand the other way round but this...?
Nice design, suppose its an alternative to the Kin One. IMO I would definitely get this over the Kin One.
Developers will simply LOVE that phone.
Yeah, finally, a new low resolution to support.... not.
I know techies are not the target audience so Motorola won't care but I would still not recommend anyone buy this phone simply most games and maybe even a lot of apps just won't support 320x240.
@astrath Aren't most Android apps developed with variable screen res in mind? I mean, you can make desktop apps adapt, so why couldn't you get mobile apps to do this too?
Is this the new motoblur that will appear on the Europe / UK Motoroi.??
Please announce the Motoroi for Europe Soon other wise I will have to buy the HYC Desire, but I really want that Xenon Flash.
Aww, the children are going to love this phone...if their parents buy it form them. It's so boxy and snug. (ew)
Is this the Android marketed towards girls that we heard about not too long ago? I can't see any self-respecting guy owning this.
Been done before... See Nokia Twist... probably same sales results as well...
"Enhanced Motoblur"? I hope the enhancement is getting rid of it completely.
@Khav
Amen...Amen... Should be called MotoSludge, or more to the point, MotoCrap...
I was mildly interested until I heard about the camera.
If someone held a gun to my head, I would take this over the Kin.
I got to play with this phone last night and i must say it was pretty terrible. The two decent things about it were the keyboard and the hinge design.