Motorola Flipout joins compact Qwerty Android ranks

Motorola unveiled the Flipout, a square Android smartphone with a Qwerty keypad, on Wednesday.

Weighing 120g and measuring 67x67x17mm, the Flipout has a 320x240-pixel, 2.8-inch touchscreen. The device includes a 3-megapixel camera and an FM radio receiver.

"Flipout merges Motorola's design heritage with Android to deliver a new take on the typical smartphone form," Motorola's head of mobile devices for western Europe, Ralf Gerbershagen, said in a statement. "In an incredibly compact square, Flipout fits neatly in your palm, purse or small pocket making it fun and easy to stay connected while on the go."

The Flipout is due in the UK this summer, with Orange already signed up to carry the device.

The Flipout has a five-row Qwerty keypad that, unusually for a smartphone, includes a separate row of numeric keys.

The phone is the second compact Android phone with a physical keyboard to be announced for this year, the first being Sony Ericsson's X10 Mini Pro. The Mini Pro weighs the same as the Flipout and has the same screen resolution — although its screen size is smaller — as its rival.

Motorola's Flipout runs Android 2.1 with the manufacturer's Motoblur user interface.

The Flipout's version of Motoblur allows for seven customisable homescreens and live wallpapers and comes with battery and data use managers. As with other Motoblur handsets, the Flipout automatically backs up contacts, login information and email to a secure server, and can be remotely wiped if lost or stolen.

The handset's media player also comes with enhanced functionality such as lyric support, integrated song identification and what Motorola calls "a social solution for knowing what people around you are listening to".