Review: Motorola Backflip
The Backflip runs Motoblur, same as the Cliq and Devour. As far as I can tell, Motorola has made no changes to Motoblur between the first release (on the Cliq) and now.
Out of the box, Blur's Happenings, Updates and Messaging widgets are on the home screen. Happenings is a constant live stream of all your friends' Twitter and Facebook status updates. Updates are all of your Twitter and Facebook status updates. Messaging is a master inbox that combines your SMS/MMS and IM messages with Facebook messages and Twitter direct messages.
As I mentioned in my review of the Cliq, I love the concept of having a live feed of all my friends' updates on my phone's home screen. But in reality, it can be overwhelming. If you follow more than a few hundred people on Twitter, Blur threatens to be a real distraction, as it is updating constantly. In the end, I turned Twitter off within Blur and had it only sync Facebook and my messages. This is a shame, as the concept remains to be cool. It's only the execution that is lacking.
The main menu has been littered with AT&T apps, such as AT&T Music, AT&T HotSpots, MobiTV, MusicID, etc. None of these add any real value to the Backflip. All of the widgets can be customized, deleted, moved, whatever. Each user has plenty of choice when it comes to making the basic experience of the Backflip their own.
The Backflip is sluggish, but not as sluggish as the Cliq was. Screen transitions were slow and herky-jerky at times, but better than what I experienced on the Cliq. Performance doesn't come close to matching the Droid.
Qualcomm Reveals Most Powerful 7-Series Snapdragon Yet
Google's New Fitbit Blurs the Line Between Tracker and Smartwatch
Motorola Backflip
