This is a unique phone by Motorola. It is called the “Backflip” ( among other names ) and is true to its namesake. Take a quick look at it here and see what it can do.

The Backlfip created by Motorola has the first form feature of being a flip-open smartphone with the manual keyboard on the exterior backside of the device. Some call it a “reverse” clamshell. The touchscreen is also created a bit differently by touching the opposite side. It weighs just a bit more than some phones, but if you know Motorola, they like to make their phones tough.

The touchscreen on the Backflip is sized at 3.1 inches, which is an average size for many smartphones. It has the common 320 by 480 pixel resolution. The color saturation, or amount of colors viewable, is a bit low at 262,144 colors. That is not much, but enough to merit it here. The operation of the touchscreen involves the opening up of the phone and touching the trackpad ( called “Backtrack” ) area on the opposite side of the screen. This prevents your hand from being in the way of navigation. The phone won the “Best of CES Award” by CNET for this innovative way of navigation.

What perhaps may be even bigger news, the Motorola Backflip ( also called the “ME600″ ) runs the white-hot Android operating system. This is an open source software that gives the user a very positive navigation experience. It is very customizable and as of today has at least 30,000 applications for making your life easier, more productive or just to save money. One of the latest “android apps” allows the user to connect to customer service at larger companies without having to “jump through the hoops” of the companies recorded menus. It claims to put you through to right where you want to be in the phone system of six hundred companies. The app goes by the name of “Dial Zero” and can be used by the Backflip. The Android system can do the normal “wiping” of personal data from the smartphone should it be stolen or lost. The web browser is the WebKit model and operates well on smartphones like this one.

The Backflip comes with a five megapixel camera. The camera features white balance, geotagging, LED flash, color effects and autofocus. The camera also takes video at a very respectable twenty five frames per second. The resolution for taken videos is at the QVGA level. For audio, this Motorola has stereo speakers and a 3.5 millimeter stereo headphone jack.

The processor runs at an average ( compared to many smartphones ) 528 megahertz. The processor is the popular Qualcomm MSM7201a used on many phones. It does have an high amount of flash ROM memory at 512 megabytes. RAM memory is also not too bad at 256 megabytes. The clincher is the ability to plug in an external 32 gigabyte MicroSD card for a truckload of space. The speed of the Backflip is overall a satisfying experience.

The manual keyboard stays on the outside of the smartphone when it is closed. Motorola says it can “take a licking and keep on clicking”, but only time will tell how durable this keyboard will be. The battery is large and gives a talk time of six hours. For now it seems to come in two colors; basic black and platinum silver. You can also download free games, ringtones, applications, softwares, wallpapers etc. It is priced at $500 dollars but you can get it free with activation.