The Motorola Backflip is a curious looking phone, but at least it is different from the cookie-cutter line of touchscreen, iPhone wannabees that tend to dominate the Android world. And now the phone is coming to Europe, only a month after it shipped in the US with AT&T. It is likely to be renamed Enzo, in line with Motorola’s habit of offering specific names for its US carriers and then a generic label for international markets (Droid-Milestone etc).
The first Europeans to get their hands on the handset will be the Germans, who will be able to buy it SIM-free for €439 from next week, though operator deals and subsidies are still to be announced. UK users are also expected to get the same deal by April 22, though again, no carrier options yet (or if you’re really impatient, get one shipped from Germany). As so often, deals come more expensive than across the pond, where an unlocked handset can be had for $349.
The device has a 3.1-inch touchscreen, the customized Motoblur user interface and midrange specs. And European customers will have more freedom than their US counterparts to choose their own apps and search engines (in the US, non-Android Market apps have been blocked, and the phone comes preloaded with Yahoo).
The key feature of the Backflip, of course, is its distinctive, love-it-or-hate-it reverse flip design. The Backflip’s qwerty keyboard ends up on the back of the phone when it is closed – instead of sliding, it folds back to cover the backplate. The best thing about Enzo versus Backflip it an OS upgrade – it will come with Android 2.1, not the old release 1.5 of its US version.
Other specs - a 3.1-inch touchscreen display with 320 x 480 resolution, Wi-Fi and a 5-megapixel camera – which has to be in an unusual position because of the back-folding keyboard, and has ended up on the bottom left corner of the keyboard.
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