Motorola goes beyond the mere slider with Flipout, an Android 2.1 smartphone with a QWERTY keyboard that twirls out from underneath.
Besides its good looks, its main innovation is its spruced-up Motoblur interface, letting you better aggregate social networking by resizing its windows and filtering stuff you don't need right away. Nice idea, making it easier to navigate its tiny, 2.8-inch square screen.
We like the idea of a smaller phone, particularly if most of what we'll be doing is texting and social networking. While this isn't the first twisty square phone we've seen — check this one out from Nokia — the Flipout's appearance is more versatile, letting you change its back cover to your choice of kooky colors.
If you live in Europe, you'll be able to get your hands on it sometime this quarter. Watch how it works in the videos, and then wonder along with us when Motorola's going to tell us when it'll be available in the U.S., and at what price.
