AT&T has announced that the Motorola Backflip will arrive in its stores nationwide March 7.
Though AT&T has four Google Android-based smartphones in the wings, the Backflip will be the first on its network and the eleventh smartphone to enjoy its newly updated HSPA 7.2 technology and 20,000-plus hotspots.
The flexible phone features a 3.1-inch HVGA high-resolution touch screen, a full HTML browser and Backtrack – which, using a touch panel behind the screen, lets users navigate through Websites, menus, e-mails and more without blocking any part of the screen.
The Backflip also, yes, flips backward into a table-top mode that lets it look and pose as a bedside alarm clock, as well as offers users a hands-free way to watch videos, listen to music or flip through pictures.
Motorola’s Motoblur software is also included. Grabbing contact information, social networking details, Twitter feeds and more, it funnels everything together to offer a comprehensive profile of each contact on the device.
Texting and multimedia messaging is supported, along with POP3 and IMAP e-mail accounts, Push Gmail and support for corporate e-mail synch. The Backflip runs Android version 1.5, known as Cupcake, and offers all the Google perks, such as Google Talk and IM, and quick access to Google Android Market.
The camera is a 5-megapixel with autofocus and LED flash, and a-GPS, an accelerometer and a compass are all included, along with a microSD slot – with 2GB of preinstalled memory, but support up to 32GB – and a USB 2.0 slot.
The Backflip will be available in AT&T online and retail stores for $99 after a $100 mail-in rebate and with a two-year contract and data plan.
Earlier this week, AT&T executives announced that carrier will also soon support two smartphones running Microsoft’s Windows 7 series operating system.
EDITOR’S NOTE: This article has been updated to include the version of Android that the Backflip runs.