Why You Can Trust CNET Motorola Flipout review: Motorola Flipout
Motorola Flipout
Motorola Flipout
The Good
The Bad
The Bottom Line
It's always a risk to define a cell phone by its design; even the most unique and eye-catching handset must also be easy to use. Motorola tried to strike that balance with its new Flipout for AT&T, but ultimately the Android handset falls short. Like the equally square Nokia 7705 Twist, the Flipout has a great keyboard that would make it a perfect messaging device. And if Moto had stopped there, we'd be singing its praises. But as a smartphone, the Flipout just doesn't work. Its camera is only average, its data connection can be slow, and its display is much too small for Web browsing, multimedia, and the touch-screen interface.
Yet, we wouldn't say that the Flipout is a total loss. It runs the 2.1 version of the Android OS, call quality was fine, and it offers some features not common on Android phones. You also can't go wrong with the price, which is just $79.99 with a two-year contract (that's $379.99 if you pay full price). If you can handle the design, then we'd rate the Flipout as a good buy. But if you're hoping for a sparkling display that is optimized for multimedia, then we suggest moving on.
Design
In addition to being square, the Flipout shares the Nokia Twist's swivel design. Though common several years ago, swivel models are quite rare today. It's also quite compact for a smartphone at just 2.64 inches long by 2.65 inches wide by 0.67 inch thick. It will fit in smaller pockets, and at 3.8 ounces it won't weigh you down when you're on go. Fortunately, the Flipout has a solid, sturdy feel, and the swivel mechanism isn't too loose. We also liked that you could type on the Flipout's keyboard without the handset feeling top-heavy.
Of course, the trade-off of a small phone is that everything on it also will be small, including the display. At just 2.8 inches, the Flipout's screen would be more than adequate on a regular phone, but it's much too cramped for a touch-screen handset. Tapping and scrolling through the menus was a rather tedious affair, even if the touch interface is responsive and the Android 2.1 interface is familiar and intuitive. The display supports 16 million colors, but the pixel resolution (320x280) is just average. Some graphics and photos looked rather fuzzy.
But wait, there's more. Though the Flipout has seven home screens thanks to Android 2.1, each screen is big enough for only a few icons, folders, and widgets. So while you can customize in the usual Android manner, you'll have to be selective. When we put the Google search bar and the Motoblur "Happenings" widget on the same home screen, for instance, we had little room left. Curiously, the Flipout lacks the menu tab that you can pull up from the bottom of the screen on other Android phones.
Below the display are the Home, Menu, and Back touch controls. They're also a bit cramped, but they need only a light touch. Around the edges you'll find other controls. When the phone is closed, the 3.5-millimeter headset jack and power control sit on the right side of the phone, the volume rocker is on the top, and the Micro-USB port rests on the bottom end. Around back are the camera lens and self-portrait mirror. Unfortunately, you'll have to remove the battery cover to access the microSD card slot.
Given the Flipout's size, the physical keyboard is surprisingly spacious and comfortable. With four rows of buttons, numbers and letters don't have to double up. Also, the domed keys make for a quick and accurate typing experience. The return, control, and space bar keys also have a good design, though we'd appreciate more shortcut buttons (there's just a search control). On the bottom left corner you'll find a square navigation toggle with a central OK button. It's convenient, even though we didn't use it that much.
The Flipout has a virtual keyboard for typing when the phone is closed. We suppose that it could be useful in a pinch, but we avoided it at all costs due to its tiny size. Even if you have small hands, we'd guess that you'd avoid it, too. Dialing is accomplished through a virtual keypad. It's comfortable to use, and you're offered shortcuts to the recent calls list and your phone book. The integrated accelerometer makes the display orientation rotate accordingly.
Interface
Though Froyo (Android 2.2) is our first choice, we're grateful that we got Android OS 2.1 at the very least. Yes, the Flipout will be upgradable to Froyo at some point, though Moto hasn't said exactly when that will happen. The Flipout also includes a slightly revamped version of the carrier's Motoblur interface that debuted on the Cliq (see our Cliq review for a full description of Motoblur). You'll need to register for a Motoblur account when activating the Flipout--just as you must have a Google account--but how you use the feature is up to you.
All the familiar Motoblur elements are still here, including the unified e-mail box, the news and weather feeds, and the "Happenings" widget that offers a steady flow of e-mails, messages, and social media updates (Facebook, Twitter, and so on). This time around, though, you can resize the widgets, get more access to your corporate directory, retweet Twitter updates with one touch, and better filter the Happenings widget. That last change is especially welcome since we found the widget to be so overwhelming on the Cliq that we deleted it.
Features
The Flipout runs in the middle range of Android phones. It certainly won't blow you away with its functionality, but it offers everything you need for communication and simple multimedia. The phone book size is limited by the available memory, with each contact holding phone numbers and e-mails, street addresses, an instant message handle, a company name, a birthday and anniversary, a nickname, a URL, and notes. You can save contacts to groups and pair them with a photo and one of 12 polyphonic ringtones for caller ID. And if you really don't like someone, you can choose to send his or her calls directly to voice mail.
When you're not making calls, you can use the integrated text and multimedia messaging features to keep in touch. The Flipout also offers instant messaging and you can sync the handset with your Gmail account and most POP3 services like Hotmail and Yahoo. The setup process through Motoblur is straightforward and we like the universal in-box. Corporate e-mail support will vary depending on your company's policies. We were able to use Outlook Web Access to sync our CNET Outlook mail.
Organizer features include all the basics like an alarm clock and time, a calculator, and a calendar. As you'd expect, the Flipout can sync with not only Google Calendar, but also other work and personal calendars. Deeper down, you'll find voice search, speaker-independent voice dialing, Microsoft Quickoffice, Wi-Fi, stereo Bluetooth, and all the usual Google apps like Google Talk, YouTube, and Google Maps with GPS navigation. We particularly appreciated the dedicated File Manager, which is a feature that too many previous Android handsets have lacked.
The Flipout comes with a nifty Phone Portal application that serves as a central place for transferring content between your phone and a computer. Though Android phones always have had this capability through the main Settings menu, we like the idea of a dedicated app with a more visual interface. You can transfer data back forth using a USB cable or Wi-Fi; we used both and didn't encounter a problem. When you're searching for Wi-Fi access, the Flipout comes with a dedicated app for locating and connecting to AT&T Hotspots.
As we mentioned, we weren't impressed with the Web experience on the small display. The browser itself is fine--you can create bookmarks, open multiple windows, and even use pinch and zoom multitouch--but you have to do a lot of scrolling to see a Web page. Also, unless you zoom in, selecting links on a crowded page proved to be a challenge. Keep in mind that the browser will default to a mobile page if one is available.
The 3.1-megapixel camera takes pictures in three resolutions. Other editing options, however, are limited to just a panoramic mode, a digital zoom, and photo tagging (either custom or by location). No, camera editing options don't always work wonders, but we'd rather have them than not. And don't go looking for a flash, either. The camcorder also offers three resolutions, but no other customization features. Your shooting time is limited by the available memory.
Photo quality is fine, but not excellent. Colors were a bit dim, and there was an excessive amount of image noise. Getting photos and videos off the Flipout is easy using Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, a USB cable, or a memory card. The Flipout has 512MB of internal memory and comes with a 2GB microSD card in the box.
The Flipout's media player will be familiar to experienced Android users. It supports album art and a shuffle mode, and you can organize tracks by playlist. It's nothing special, really, but it does the job. And just as with photos, we had no problems transferring music on and off the handset. AT&T also added its own AT&T Radio app and AT&T Mobile Video along with a dedicated app for MobiTV.
The Android Market, of course, offers access to many other applications and games. Alternatively, you can access AT&T's portal for more applications, though they will be specific to the carrier and may involve an extra fee. A few of the carrier's services like AT&T Maps, AT&T Navigator, and AT&T FamilyMap come packaged on the Flipout out of the box. You'll find Mobile Banking, Where, and Yellow Pages Mobile.
Performance
We tested the quad-band (GSM 850/900/1800/1900) Motorola Flipout world phone in San Francisco using AT&T service. Call quality on our end was satisfying. Our conversations were clear, we didn't have trouble getting a signal, and we didn't detect any static or interference. Interestingly, you can only make calls when the phone is open.
The volume level was fine for most environments, though we could have used a boost when we were talking on a busy street corner. Our other complaint was that some of our friends sounded a little breathy. Their voices weren't distorted, but it almost sounded as if they were breathing heavily. On the other hand, we didn't detect excessive background or wind noise.
Motorola Flipout call quality sample Listen now:
On their end, callers said we sounded fine. They reported some background noise; a couple of people said that it was excessive. And to be fair, both problem times we were calling from a noisy place. Automated response systems could understand us, but we needed to be in a quiet place. Unfortunately, we weren't impressed with the Flipout's speakerphone. The audio was a bit distorted on our end, and some of our friends had trouble understanding us.
The data experience on the Flipout was highly variable (the handset supports the 850 and 1,900 3G bands). At times it took just a few seconds to open the mobile versions of CNET.com and Yahoo.com, but on other occasions it took well over a minute. The same was true for full Web sites. It could take as little as a minute for Airliners.net or almost 3 minutes. As we mentioned, video quality on the Flipout's small display isn't worth watching. Music quality also is unimpressive from the weak speaker, though a headset will offer a better experience.
The Flipout has a rated talk time battery life of 5.95 hours for 3G calls and 4.58 hours for 4G calls. Promised standby time is 15.71 days for 3G use and 15.21 days for 4G use. It has a tested talk time of 5 hours and 10 minutes. According to FCC radiation tests, the Flipout has a digital SAR of 0.67 watt per kilogram.