A relatively small phone that sports a backlit keypad the flips down. Once open your forefinger(s) rest on the unique touch pad on the back part of the screen. This allows you to scroll and browse hyperlinks without obscuring the screen by touching it (realistically at first we are more prone to touching the screen). Despite being a little used feature, having the choice is definite plus on the diminutive screen. Loading the Opera Mini app for improved website rendering speed will also let the touchpad feature shine. The keyboard also features arrow keys and the primary navigation buttons of android (back level, home, application menu).My primary interest in purchasing this item was having an Exchange capable work phone with SMS texting. I also wanted to load apps such as Words with Friends / Angry Birds or even advanced scientific calculators. The games run a bit slowly (hint: turn off background in Angry Birds). Other apps run just fine My messaging needs were met with the excellent MotoBlur aggregate tool that comes preloaded on Motorola Android phones. This tool can present a universal inbox that has your texts, SMS, and email accounts presented in a pleasing tile manner. I was pleased with the extra backend features that are paid services on platforms like Apple''s MobileMe. A real boon when your various configurations choices are stored with your MotoBlur account. This allows easily transitioning to another (newer) Motorola Android phone later on. One fantastic feature of MotoBlur is a remote tracking of the phone using GPS and a remote wipe so you can protect your sensitive data if the Backflip is ever stolen or lost. MotoBlur does have its share of quirks, as some initial confusion confounded me pertaining to exactly on which service was I composing the message or from which address book was being used. For instance one email message to a coworker went to his defunct Facebook registered email address rather than his work email. I did like the tile like presentation of the information - it immediately reminded me of the new Windows Phone 7''s manner of presenting important information on the main screen. I will be moving to another MotoBlur capable android phone for AT&T rather than HTC or other for just these features. Motorola has added a service that makes using the Backflip a real timesaver.Caveats:A common source of frustration with attempting to text in collapsed "phone" mode was a propensity for my rather sausage-like fingers to hit the "home" button rather than the on screen keyboard''s space button. I made a point of using the backflipping keyboard for important messages. Tilting the phone into landscape mode would have obviated this I suppose and increased the on-screen real-estate for the touch screen keyboard.It is a real shame the Motorola Roadmap flags this device to remain at Android 2.1 level. AT&T also blocks some of the more interesting Android Marketplace options (such as the new Amazon AppStore for Android). Again, this phone will remain at 2.1. It would be great to see a 2.2 Froyo version with it''s tighter code, better features and purported ability to leverage performance improvements even on older phones (this was released in 2010 and it speaks to the Android marketplace that Backflip is considered dated). The processor in the Backflip really suffers in comparison to modern Android phones such as the Optimus S (sprint) or Optimus V (Virgin Mobile). This is primarily due to the graphics chips in newer phones that offload much of the grunt work of rendering onscreen eye-candy from the main processor resulting in a much smoother user experience.Final Word:The phone still has performance enough to serve most entry-level android user needs. Motoblur features alone kept us using this phone long past when we could have upgraded.