Next Motorola smartphone, Motus, has flip keyboard; coming to AT&T
The Motus may be Motorola's next smartphone after the Cliqand Droid, and its signature aspect looks to be a keyboard that flips backwards to face outward when closed.
The Motus, which has been rumored to run on the company's "Motoblur" platform first introduced on the Cliq, is expected to arrive on AT&T. It could be the first Android handset on the carrier's network.
Like the Cliq, which is available on T-Mobile, the Motus carries a three button layout (menu, home, back) with the call and end buttons appearing in a virtual fashion on the screen.
But the phone's calling card seems to be its multitalented backlit flip keyboard. Aside from facing outward when closed, the keyboard also has a trackpad on its underside to allow for scrolling while typing with your thumb, according to unconfirmed reports.
There's also a third hinge that allows the phone to be placed upright as a small display or alarm clock, somewhat like the Droid and its accessory dock.
Unconfirmed reports pin the Motus as having a 5-megapixel camera with LED flash. It's also rumored to be three quarters of an inch thick (the Cliq is 0.62 inches thick). Other reports claim the device has:
- Quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE
- Tri-band 7.2Mbps HSDPA (850, 1900, 2100MHz)
- 256MB RAM
- aGPS
- Wi-Fi
- 3.1-inch capacitive (480×320) display
- Bluetooth 2.0
- Weight: 133g
- 1400mAh battery
- microSD slot
- Qualcomm MSM 7201A CPU
It's unclear whether the chip inside the Motus is a Snapdragon or the Cliq's 528MHz MSM7201A processor, but if the phone is expected to arrive in Spring of 2010, the latter is unlikely.