The Motorola Backflip went on sale yesterday for AT&T customers, this is the very first Android phone for AT&T and I have to say I am not impressed and I’m pretty sure no one else is either. I have searched many sites to find out all I can about this phone because it is AT&T’s first. My favorite article so far is Clark Wimberly’s from AndroidAndMe. The opening to his article states:

“Are you in the market for an incredibly wacky form factor running an outdated version of Android underneath a custom user interface that’s had Google search stripped out? Then you’re in luck.”

When you think about it he is not really attacking this phone, everything he says is true. AT&T removed the default Google search from this phone and replaced it with Yahoo, they did go with an extremely wacky form factor, and it is running an outdated android version, there is no doubt about it. He also pointed out that they don’t even show you what android version the phone is running, as you can see to the right. In my opinion the only quality’s that seem interesting are the self docking quality due to the form factor, and the fact the you can turn the camera into a front view camera, which is nowhere near enough to make me buy this phone.

As I was writing this article AndroidAndMe announced another way AT&T is trying to cripple Android and their customers. This phone is missing a huge feature which is the ability to install apps from unknown sources, meaning you cannot install apps from your gmail, you cannot download betas or any apps from any other app markets like slideme.

So basically this phone is the first Android phone for AT&T, but it is being crippled as much as possible, AT&T is trying to give you the lowest possible Android experience no doubt due to their relationship with Apple. I would advise anyone thinking about getting this phone to wait it out to at the very least get a crippled HTC Desire or whatever phone Dell maybe be offering. If there are any phones that will still be good decent after AT&T is done with them it will be these 2.