Gadget review: Motorola Flipout

It's hard not to be intrigued by the form factor of the Motorola Flipout. Distinctively — but hardly uniquely — the Flipout is square in shape. The top of the phone swivels or, as Motorola would like to call it, flips out to reveal a full Qwerty keyboard.

The keyboard is really good, the buttons may be small but they aren't tiny and are evenly placed — it doesn't take too long to get comfortable. There's solid feedback when you're pressing the keys down so you'll enjoy typing on it.

The body of the phone is made of plastic. However, it doesn't feel cheap in any way. Even the swivel hinge is fairly sturdy.

Not much is unusual about the rest of the body with a micro-USB port and volume button on either side and the power button plus headphone jack at the top. The phone does lack a dedicated camera button, though, which means you either need to tap the capture button on screen or flip the keyboard out and press the "Enter" key to take a picture.

The Flipout comes with Android 2.1 with Motorola's overlay on top and there are no plans to update the software as of now. I'm usually not a fan of manufacturer overlays but, in this case it brings real utility.

Given the phone's small screen size (2.8 inches) and unique form factor, the regular layout of icons at the bottom would have been extremely inconvenient, making access to the contacts, applications and call menu hard to reach; so Motorola moved them to the right of the screen.

The rest of the operating system seems to have been left untouched, which is not a good thing at all. Since the screen is smaller and no optimisations have been made, all applications seem to have a rather cramped interface.

Moreover, the screen is also of a lower resolution.

It's understandable that the phone has been positioned as a budget device (it's priced Dh1,299) but the experience has been considerably compromised.

Of course, there may be those willing to adjust or get used to the smaller size of the gadget; only then will they enjoy the rest of the phone.

The sound quality of calls and the battery life is decent. I could comfortably go more than a day without charging and not run the risk of the phone shutting down on me.

The camera quality doesn't leave much to write about, although the pictures do look better on the computer screen than they do on the phone screen.

The Motorola Flipout definitely has a target market defined for itself and it isn't everyone. It is a phone you'll either love or hate, there's not a lot of room for much else in-between.

Bhavishya Kanjhan is a digital marketing professional and an early adopter of all things digital. Follow his tweets on @bhavishya