Motorola FLIPOUT hands-on

It wasn’t just the Motorola XT720 we grabbed some playtime with this morning; we also caught some hands-on time with the company’s diminutive FLIPOUT, announced last week. In some ways the FLIPOUT is more of a surprise than the XT720 proved to be, mainly because it’s actually very usable despite the palm-sized dimensions. The QWERTY keyboard is reasonable to type on, and the rotating screen section may be the spiritual successor to the Sidekick’s spring-loaded display when it comes to absent-mindedly fiddling with your phone.

In fact, the main thing holding us back from outright FLIPOUT lust is the display. At 2.8-inches it’s not so much the scale as the QVGA resolution, which is low enough to make webpages a pixelated mush at all but the closest of zoom levels. A slightly higher resolution and this could find its way into a surprising number of professional pockets, we reckon.

Motorola FLIPOUT hands-on

Otherwise it’s generally swift and the new version of MOTOBLUR – while still dominating your homescreen with its widgets – is improved in various mild ways over its predecessor. There’s also a 3-megapixel fixed-focus camera, WiFi b/g and GPS. It’ll land on Orange UK imminently.