Motorola Blogged

It seems that the Motorola Flipout is indeed Euro-bound, but the Android smart phone will initially be available in Germany. According to the latest reports, the new square Android handset from Motorola will be getting a July launch and it will be priced at about 350 Euros –pretty decent for a handset of this caliber.

The Flipout is most well known and recognizable for the unique form factor; it is almost perfectly square –if you do not count in the rounded, tapered edges. The screen is a 2.8 inch TFT capacitive touch screen with a resolution of 320 x 240 pixels that sits in the center of the device. Also has an accelerometer that allows the screen to auto rotate when viewed in different orientations.

Hidden below the front screen is a physical QWERTY keyboard which literally flips downward (though it is a sliding-spinning motion as opposed to a clam shell style flip). The four row QWERTY keypad gives users convenience and ease when typing long messages and emails. Sadly, the buttons of the keyboard are packed in rather tightly, and some users might take a while getting used to typing on this phone. Thanks to the slightly raised buttons and the slight space adjustment between the “t” and “y” columns, typing with two thumbs seems a lot more efficient.

As expected, the device will be using Motorola’s very own Motoblur user interface which gives users access to live widgets. This feature allows you to customize the various contents that will be displayed onscreen. With only 150MB of internal memory, users will want to make use of a microSD card (the device can support up to 32GB cards). The 3.2 mega pixel camera takes great quality images and it also takes custom 352 x 288 videos at 30 FPS.

So far, Motorola has yet to confirm when the device will actually hit UK shelves, but many are predicting it to be within the same month as the German release.

When it comes to smart phones, users have a very wide range of choices; after all, usage preferences and patterns change from one person to another. And while one might think that slapping in all features into a single device is a great idea, doing so will sacrifice a couple of important factors –size and weight.

This is why there is variety when it comes to smart phones, and even a single phone can come in a variety of flavors. This is the case with the Motorola Milestone. Many of you may remember this handset as one of the most elusive Android devices to ever be released. It was; the phone as first announced as the DROID in the US where it would be released exclusively under mobile carrier Verizon. It was not until a later announcement that the device would indeed be available in the UK and under a different name did Android fans finally get to rejoice.

One of the reasons why the Milestone was such an anticipated handset was that it bought together several important elements: the (then) new Android 2.0 Éclair, a slide out QWERTY keyboard and a big touch screen display. The 600MHz CPU is hardly anywhere near the Snapdragon chips used in today’s smart phones, but it did keep the price of the handset lower.

Now, Motorola is trying a new approach to the Milestone, dropping the keyboard and slimming down the handset. The new XT 720 Milestone smart phone is now a media based handset with an 8 mega pixel camera, 720p video recording and even an HDMI output port for video playback.

The new device moves away from the usual tech crowd to the more media centric Android fans. As fun as a full QWERTY keyboard can be, not all smart phone users are heavy typists; this makes the shift from typing to media playback a pretty good choice.

The Motorola DROID is getting a second look. Many Android smart phone fans may remember this impressive little handset by the name of Milestone –the name it was given when it was brought over to the UK. This handset proved to be the top selling Android device of the previous holidays, giving users the combination of the impressive Google mobile platform and a slide out QWERTY keyboard.

Now, a new Motorola handset is announced to be carrying the DROID name, the XT 720. While the new device still carries the old DROID moniker, it loses the slide out QWERTY keyboard and gets a sleeker, lighter form factor. Of course, keyboard fans will be disappointed at the loss of the slide out attachment, but it is certainly a great way to get the DROID marketed to the general smart phone community –after all, there are plenty of people who prefer to have a much lighter phone.

As expected, the UK version of this handset will be labeled as the XT 720 Milestone (also Motoroi), and at the weight of 160 grams, the weight difference between the two phones is not exactly far apart (the older Milestone weighed in at 165 grams). Instead, the new phone trades off the older 5 mega pixel camera (with D1 video recording) and replaces it with an 8 mega pixel snapper (with 720p video recording) while the phone itself gets an additional HDMI port.

Overall, the tradeoff between the two phones is more about personal preference than actual device performance. With both handsets using an ARM Cortex A8 CPU (clocked at 600 MHz), 3.7 inch capacitive touch screens and mostly similar hardware specs, the end decision boils down to choosing a more text-centered device with a QWERTY keyboard, or a handset that focuses more on media with its better camera and HDMI output support.