Motorola confirms Backflip for European launch

Remember than Android phone we mentioned recently with the 'unique form factor'? Well, it's real, it's by Motorola, and it's called the Backflip.

The phone is so called due to it mad design – the Android device features your average 3.1-inch touchscreen, but has a hinged flip down keyboard to boot.

This means when it's shut, the keys line the back of the device fairly uselessly, but flinging them forward opens the device into a messaging powerhouse.

And Motorola says it has designed something extra – the BackTrack, which is a touch sensitive pad on the back of the keyboard (try and work it out in your head) that lets you navigate the screen without touching it.

Blurring the lines

The phone is running MotoBlur, which is Motorola's Android overlay, integrating Twitter, Facebook and MySpace all on one contact, and spewing out a wealth of widgets for the home screen to keep track of who's saying what.

The Backflip has a 3.1-inch screen, with HVGA resolution, and runs Android 1.5. There's a 5MP camera with AF and single LED flash, and 2GB of memory is included with the phone, although this can be expanded up to 32GB with the microSD card slot.

A 3.5mm headphone slot and a 14oomAh battery round out the specs, and looking at it you'd have to assume it's going to appear with a pretty reasonable price tag.

It's due to land in Europe in Q1 this year (we'd imagine around February) but we're awaiting more details about a UK release date.