Of the three recently released Motoblur-enabled Android phones, the Motorola Backflip has received the most attention - and rightfully so. In Canada, it's available exlusively through Telus. Motorola recently released three new mobile phones based on Google's Android operating system (OS). In terms of industrial design and functionality, the Motorola Backflip is hands down the most daring, most innovative and riskiest phone design seen in a long while.

Oh sure, the Motorola Dext, the "slider" of the bunch has been generally well received, especially with its snappy slider-style keyboard and solid build. The Motorola Quench, meanwhile, won't raise any eyebrows or quicken pulses; it's basically a touch-screen version that's lighter but low on the frills and features.

But the Motorola Backflip explores the limits of what we think a modern feature phone could be, and it single-handedly innovates at every turn.

The Backflip sports a QWERTY keyboard at the back of the devices, where it shares space with the 5 Megapixel auto-focus camera and the LED Flash. The bright screen face is hinged, allowing it to articulate at numerous angles, making it ideal for propping the thing up on a desk.

On the backside of the screen is a trackpad with a button - not unlike what you find on most notebooks, except behind the scene where you can't see it, only feel it. The trackpad and its novel placement is a godsend for scrolling through webpages and documents.

But the big feature of the Motorola Backflip is its backflipping keyboard, obviously.

First, the thing has white LED backlighting so you can actually use it in the dark. In fact, it's the brightest backlit keyboard yet seen on any mobile phone.

Keys are responsive and the layout is a bit unusual but easy enough to get used to. For text-fixated users, the QWERTY allows for speedy, possibly error free input while integrating a lot of useful elements such as four-way navigation pad and hotkeys for home, mail, web and search functionality.

Flip the keyboard back and out of the way and you have a relatively-light yet totally-responsive touch-enabled feature phone. Motorola didn't skimp on this part either, the on-screen controls are sleek and touch-enabled (as opposed to physical buttons like those on the Motorola Dext), essentially making it a seamless slate of interactive glass.

As for the Motoblur feature, you need to set up a Motoblur account out of the gate, which will then allow you to integrate all your mail and social media into the home screen as a bunch of windows and cartoon bubbles. Note that Motoblur guzzles many bits of your chosen data plan, and that the constant alerts can get annoying.

That said, if you want to skip the Motoblurring and just use the innate Android interface, it's possible but a bit complicated. First of all, the Motoblur devices all run on the oldest version of the Android OS, Android 1.5 (Cupcake), which was released way back in April 2009. Since then there have been significant, even monumental upgrades to the Android OS that aren't at all guaranteed to be made available to the Motoblur phones.

In essence, the Backflip is using an antiquated OS at its core with custom Motorola functionality built atop that. With 70 percent of the Android phones on the market now using at least Android 2.1 (and many of the apps updated and improved to run better and more efficiently on the latest version), investing in an older version of Android at this point could well be considered foolhardy.

Not that there are currently any problems with Android 1.5 and Motoblur devices. Indeed, Motoblur on the Backflip runs efficiently and did not crash once in testing - which is more than can be said for HTC's Sense UI, which glitched out quite often. And the fact that you can disable all the widgets and windows and tailor your Backflip experience to taste helps too, through the process takes some work.

Call quality is consistently up to snuff while battery life is good for a day of calls, messaging and average Internet use... but you will need to charge it at the end of the day. The 5 Megapixel camera with LED flash is also good, exceptionally so for portraits but not so much for video.

All told, the Motorola Backflip is a ballsy take on redefining the touch and keyboard phone form factor with a lot of seriously cool, innovative strokes, and yet it's somewhat hindered by its OS 1.5 lock-in.

A business-oriented user would likely love what that keyboard can do, especially when compared to Blackberry's current models, but the over-the-top and always connected-nature of Motoblur may be more of a distraction than a benefit.

In Canada, the Backflip is only available through Telus for $79.99 on a 3 year contract or $399.99 without one.