Motorola FlipOut
Welcome to the Gadget First Motorola Flipout Review. Firstly let’s take a look at one of the main features of this phone, motoblur. MotoBlur is Motorola's homescreen replacement and it helps bring all your social networks and email accounts into one easy to understand inbox. It’s runs well and Motorola have done very well with the style of it too. The only bad thing about it on this device is the screen size on the handset itself, so not really anything to do with the motoblur software. It is 2.8", with a resolution of just 320X240, adding it up to be QVGA, so as you can imagine, viewing a feed of different live updates isn’t the most pleasing because the display feels crammed with updates and little cluttered. Other than that, this feature works beautifully.
Motoblur = 8/10
Let’s take a more in-depth look at the external features. On the front, as I mentioned earlier is the ‘petit’ 2.8" screen at a 320x240 RES, making it QVGA. Along the bottom are the standard android keys, home, back, and menu button. You may be wondering why I missed out the search key – this is on the QWERTY keyboard, of which I will go into more depth about in a minute. Across the top of the front of the phone(!) is the speaker bar. Switching it round to the back of the handset, you have the Motorola/motoblur logo slashed in the centre, a 3.1MP camera (no flash) and a mirror. On the right hand side is the power/lock button, as well as a 3.5mm headphone jack. There is nothing on the left hand side of the device, on the top is the volume rocker and on the bottom is the mini-USB slot for the cable when charging the phone/plugging it into the PC. When a cable is plugged in to the slot, a little green light appears just inside it, for any reason that... you would want... a green light..! Moving on to another of the key features.. The QWERTY keyboard! Wow, I love typing that word on the keyboard, you just slide your finger along the top row! Anyway, you have the standard QWERTY (there it is again!) keyboard layout, with a 4 –way directional pad, a sensible sized space bar, an enter key and the fourth of the android buttons, the search key. Along the top are 1-0 numeric digits. The device itself holds nice in the hand, although the screen, as we have previously mentioned, is a little too small and can feel cluttered.
External features = 8/10
The build quality of this phone is unsatisfactory, the sliding mechanism feels a bit cheap and makes noises when it's opened and closed, the phone also creaks when held with a firm grip. Put simply, it's below the standard of most smartphones, even cheaper ones.
Build Quality = 4/10
Moving on to connections. A wide variety are included on this handset, including HSDPA, EDGE, GPRS, HSUPA, WIFI, 3G and Bluetooth. Ok, THAT was a mouthful and a half in the video! ( 03:30). What does this mean for you? Basically you can expect fast loading of websites when roaming using the 3G connection and buffering Youtube videos should be fairly quick as well.
Connections = 9/10
Battery life. Oh, so... long awaited. Such a... disappointment! We got just 1.5 days out of it on general usage, but just a miniscule LESS THAN 1 DAY with heavy usage! What on earth happened here?! If this was a 1GHZ Super Phone we could understand the disappointing battery life, but it's rather dismal.
Battery Life = 5/10
Let’s take a look at the operating system inside this phone. It runs Android 2.1, with a pretty standard home screen. The only twist Motorola have put on this is the three buttons along the right hand side of the screen, each leading to phone, menu or contacts. Now on to a HUGE disappoint, not just for a wallpaper fanatic like me, but I’m sure for plenty of other people too. You know the good old nexus wallpaper on all android phones, of the moving coloured lines, which interact with your finger if you touch them? Well I loaded it up on here, and the result was vile. There are no smooth edges, it’s all bulky lines. Disgustingness really! Moving on, looking at the menu, it’s not bad at all. Scrolling is ACTUALLY SMOOTH! Well "ish" anyway, a lot better than what you have previously been thinking! Let’s take a look at the exclusive features to Motorola on this handset. Happenings (basically the motoblur) , Moto Locator and phone portal, so not an extensive amount, but enough to not bulk the phone up too much.
Operating system = 8/10
Shall we take a look at the camera? When we had the device to review, we couldn’t find an SD card that worked with the phone. Which was such a pain, because it meant we couldn’t really review the camera. We could however still get on to the app, and take a look round. Probably the best feature is the panoramic mode,. For more information on this, please visit the Motorola Milestone XT720 review, where we take a more in-depth look at this feature. Not much more to say about the camera really. The quality is acceptable, although if you're used to a Sony Ericsson X10 or HTC Desire there's no comparison.
Camera = 7/10
Gadget First Overall Rating. Well here we are. As an over all rating, we would give the Motrolola Flipout a 7/10. Good features include the qwerty keyboard and onscreen keyboard. However, drawbacks consist of screen size, and the camera app.
Gadget First Overall Rating = 7/10
Motoblur = 8/10
Let’s take a more in-depth look at the external features. On the front, as I mentioned earlier is the ‘petit’ 2.8" screen at a 320x240 RES, making it QVGA. Along the bottom are the standard android keys, home, back, and menu button. You may be wondering why I missed out the search key – this is on the QWERTY keyboard, of which I will go into more depth about in a minute. Across the top of the front of the phone(!) is the speaker bar. Switching it round to the back of the handset, you have the Motorola/motoblur logo slashed in the centre, a 3.1MP camera (no flash) and a mirror. On the right hand side is the power/lock button, as well as a 3.5mm headphone jack. There is nothing on the left hand side of the device, on the top is the volume rocker and on the bottom is the mini-USB slot for the cable when charging the phone/plugging it into the PC. When a cable is plugged in to the slot, a little green light appears just inside it, for any reason that... you would want... a green light..! Moving on to another of the key features.. The QWERTY keyboard! Wow, I love typing that word on the keyboard, you just slide your finger along the top row! Anyway, you have the standard QWERTY (there it is again!) keyboard layout, with a 4 –way directional pad, a sensible sized space bar, an enter key and the fourth of the android buttons, the search key. Along the top are 1-0 numeric digits. The device itself holds nice in the hand, although the screen, as we have previously mentioned, is a little too small and can feel cluttered.
External features = 8/10
The build quality of this phone is unsatisfactory, the sliding mechanism feels a bit cheap and makes noises when it's opened and closed, the phone also creaks when held with a firm grip. Put simply, it's below the standard of most smartphones, even cheaper ones.
Build Quality = 4/10
Moving on to connections. A wide variety are included on this handset, including HSDPA, EDGE, GPRS, HSUPA, WIFI, 3G and Bluetooth. Ok, THAT was a mouthful and a half in the video! ( 03:30). What does this mean for you? Basically you can expect fast loading of websites when roaming using the 3G connection and buffering Youtube videos should be fairly quick as well.
Connections = 9/10
Battery life. Oh, so... long awaited. Such a... disappointment! We got just 1.5 days out of it on general usage, but just a miniscule LESS THAN 1 DAY with heavy usage! What on earth happened here?! If this was a 1GHZ Super Phone we could understand the disappointing battery life, but it's rather dismal.
Battery Life = 5/10
Let’s take a look at the operating system inside this phone. It runs Android 2.1, with a pretty standard home screen. The only twist Motorola have put on this is the three buttons along the right hand side of the screen, each leading to phone, menu or contacts. Now on to a HUGE disappoint, not just for a wallpaper fanatic like me, but I’m sure for plenty of other people too. You know the good old nexus wallpaper on all android phones, of the moving coloured lines, which interact with your finger if you touch them? Well I loaded it up on here, and the result was vile. There are no smooth edges, it’s all bulky lines. Disgustingness really! Moving on, looking at the menu, it’s not bad at all. Scrolling is ACTUALLY SMOOTH! Well "ish" anyway, a lot better than what you have previously been thinking! Let’s take a look at the exclusive features to Motorola on this handset. Happenings (basically the motoblur) , Moto Locator and phone portal, so not an extensive amount, but enough to not bulk the phone up too much.
Operating system = 8/10
Shall we take a look at the camera? When we had the device to review, we couldn’t find an SD card that worked with the phone. Which was such a pain, because it meant we couldn’t really review the camera. We could however still get on to the app, and take a look round. Probably the best feature is the panoramic mode,. For more information on this, please visit the Motorola Milestone XT720 review, where we take a more in-depth look at this feature. Not much more to say about the camera really. The quality is acceptable, although if you're used to a Sony Ericsson X10 or HTC Desire there's no comparison.
Camera = 7/10
Gadget First Overall Rating. Well here we are. As an over all rating, we would give the Motrolola Flipout a 7/10. Good features include the qwerty keyboard and onscreen keyboard. However, drawbacks consist of screen size, and the camera app.
Gadget First Overall Rating = 7/10