We miss old Motorola sometimes– it created a few of the finest phones of their day, however also crafted gadgets that had us asking “It does WHAT?” and looking in confusion. Weve already covered the RAZR, the Moto X, the Nexus 6 and, naturally, the Droid (aka Milestone) with its clever slide-out QWERTY keyboard.

Those were the excellent designs if it wasnt clear. Today we wanted to talk about one of the crazy ones rather– when you meet the Motorola Backflip, which is similarly hard to forget.

Motorola Backflip main images

When hardware keyboards were still seen as a good thing, it came out in early 2010. Instead of a conventional slide-out system, Moto engineers designed an insane inside-out clamshell style that made the phone the name “backflip”.

The Motorola Backflip: closed – opened – from behind

The phone has a couple of more surprises up its sleeve too. A similar touchpad was actually included on multiple Motorola designs, even ones with basic bar shapes.

You think that does not sound too insane? Permit us to direct your attention to the electronic camera and LED flash that are tucked into the bottom left corner of the keyboard. Thats one method to conserve cash on a selfie electronic camera, we think, however utilizing the keyboard invariably included smearing the lens.

We say inside-out considering that the secrets were actually on the outdoors therefore was the screen– the two rested on either side of the phone. A hinge permitted you to rotate the screen so that it was facing the exact same method as the keyboard.

There was a keyboard on the back – and a video camera on the keyboard – 3.5 mm earphone jack

A close-up of the “Backtrack” touchpad

This style wasnt without its merits, it was an outstanding discussion starter if nothing else. However its not simply that, you could tilt the screen at any angle and the heavy “base” would support it, ideal for watching a movie.

Motorola Backflip in “camping tent” mode – Using the alarm clock mode

The phone likewise operated in “camping tent mode”, which likewise held the screen up. Videos, this was also used with the alarm clock mode that revealed a big clock with some smaller sized information below (e.g. the weather condition forecast).

One cool function unrelated to the backflip style was the LED that lit up the microUSB port. Its color symbolized the state of charge while the phone was plugged in and it would start blinking a caution when the battery fell below 15%.

The brightened USB port was a cool method to reveal the state of charge

The screen did have Gorilla Glass security and the develop was surprisingly superior total. The hinge and the frame around the display were constructed of aluminum, as was the detachable battery cover that concealed the 1,400 mAh power cell. Also, the keyboard was made out of a durable rubberized plastic considering that it was continuously exposed to scratch threats.

When it comes to the phone itself, it was fairly chunky at 15.3 mm thick, but not too heavy (133g). On the front was a 3.1″ screen with 320 x 480 px resolution. It didnt support multitouch at launch, a recognized problem for the early Android OS. Attempts to patch it later on didnt exercise very well.

A removeable battery – The Backflip retail bundle

The Backflip ran Android 1.5 Cupcake at first, skinned with Motorolas (relatively) lightweight Blur, later proceeding to 2.1 Eclair It was powered by a Qualcomm chipset with a single 528 MHz CPU linked to 256 MB of RAM and 512 MB of storage (with a microSD slot, which was fairly standard back then).

The electronic camera had a 5 MP sensor and was capable of basic video capture with 342 x 288 px resolution at 30 fps. Image quality was not ideal.

Electronic camera samples from the Motorola Backflip

This isnt the only crazy keyboard style that Motorola prepared up throughout that period. In a future installation we may go to the FlipOut, for example, which also had an uncommon way to conceal its QWERTY keyboard.

Motorola Backflip in the hand

The keyboard was made out of a long lasting rubberized plastic considering that it was constantly exposed to scratch threats.

Weve currently covered the RAZR, the Moto X, the Nexus 6 and, of course, the Droid (aka Milestone) with its awesome slide-out QWERTY keyboard.

As for the Backflip itself, it showed to be an evolutionary dead end, Motorola never made another model utilizing this inside-out clamshell style. And Still, even as a one-off it should be pretty special for us to bear in mind it a decade later.

A comparable touchpad was really included on several Motorola designs, even ones with fundamental bar shapes.

Permit us to direct your attention to the camera and LED flash that are tucked into the bottom left corner of the keyboard. Thats one method to save money on a selfie electronic camera, we guess, but utilizing the keyboard inevitably involved smearing the lens.