Hasta La Gadget!

What is Motorola Kobe? The device, also known by its model number MB520, seems to be popping up on a couple of certification websites. UPnP Forum certified it on June 16, 2010 (listed as “Kobe ATT”), and additionally on July 8th the smartphone quietly got a thumbs up from the WiFi Alliance for single band (2.4GHz) 802.11b/g/n. Of course, an IEEE standard does not a phone make, and so we’ve been in touch with a trusted source who’s provided us with specifications of the device, as well as screencaps of some benchmarks results and the all-important About Phone page.

The Kobe is a slate-style smartphone currently featuring Android 2.1 with a Motoblur skin reminiscent of Droid 2 / Droid X‘s UI. We’re told it has a 3.5-inch LCD with 480 x 854 resolution, a 800MHz TI OMAP processor (either 3440 or an underclocked 3630), PowerVR SGX 530 GPU, 512MB RAM, 2GB internal storage and a bundled 2GB microSD card, and a 3 megapixel camera (without flash). It currently comes loaded with Swype, Vlingo, and DNLA support. We gotta say, camera notwithstanding, this sounds like a pretty appealing addition to AT&T’s growing Android lineup. Hit up the gallery below for benchmark scores.

Exclusive: Motorola MB520 ‘Kobe’ boasts a Droid X-esque UI, AT&T affinity originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 21 Aug 2010 18:34:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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In another case of Canadians getting things ahead of their southerly neighbors, the Motorola Flipout has made its journey across the Atlantic and settled on Rogers as its first North American carrier. 3-year contractual commitments will be greeted with a lowly C$30 charge for the phone, or if you can’t bear the thought of being locked in for so long, you can buy the flipping thing outright for C$375. As a quick reminder, the Flipout runs on Google’s Android 2.1 OS, but embellishes things a little with a freshened up variety of the Motoblur UI. If that, together with the “hip to be square” form factor, sounds like your slice of pie, we suggest you head on over to the source link and put those Canadian Dollars to good use.

[Thanks, CoconutCheez]

Motorola Flipout makes North American debut with a Rogers exclusive originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 05 Aug 2010 19:47:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Sure, we’d heard tell of a Motorola Sage and briefly posited that the 850 / 1900MHz Android device could be AT&T’s followup to the Backflip, but bless our bluetooth and count our digital compasses if this isn’t it. Ubergizmo obtained this shot of a Motorola device that’s a dead ringer for the aforementioned horizontal clamshell, complete with the huge trackpad (mounted on the front this time) and 3.1-inch screen. Mr. Blurrycam reportedly says it will sport Android 2.1 and a hardware keyboard as well, though from this angle there’s no telling where Motorola might have stuck the QWERTY in, on or around the silver-trimmed shell. Portrait slider, anyone? [Thanks, Calob]

Motorola Sage spotted in the wild, Mr. Blurrycam claims there’s QWERTY on board originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 03 Aug 2010 18:22:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The rumored Charm has just gotten a proper unveiling from Motorola — and while it’s not getting nearly the media fanfare its Droid X corporate cousin did, it’s arguably even more unique. The phone features a full portrait QWERTY keyboard placed directly below a 2.8-inch landscape touchscreen, but for most operations, you don’t have to touch it if you don’t want to because you’ve also got a touchpad mounted on the back of the phone (the so-called “Backtrack”) much like AT&T’s Backflip. Not only is this the first widely-launched Android phone to employ such a form factor, it’s also the first to run Android 2.1 with Blur — and interestingly, they’ve carried over the old version’s general look and feel rather than going with the Droid X’s updated skin. It’s got a 3 megapixel camera (with Kodak co-branding, something we haven’t seen on a Moto in a long time), WiFi, and a noise-canceling second microphone. Pricing and availability haven’t been announced, but T-Mobile customers can expect it “this Summer.”

Motorola Charm official for T-Mobile: portrait QWERTY Android at long last originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 07 Jul 2010 11:04:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The original Droid made a powerful statement. Actually, make that statements, plural: for Motorola, it was the largest single affirmation that it was going all-in with Android (after having already released the far less memorable midrange CLIQ on T-Mobile) and that it could play in the very highest rungs of the smartphone elite. For Verizon, the Droid was the carrier’s very first Android device, period — announced to great fanfare in collaboration with Eric Schmidt and crew — serving as a pretty spectacular exit from the Windows Mobile / BlackBerry doldrums that the carrier’s smartphone lineup had historically suffered. By almost any measure, the phone went on to serve its purpose; it let customers (and potential customers) know that Verizon could release a “cool” phone, and they responded. The Droid’s an unqualified success. Today, Verizon’s involvement in Android has never been greater, and Motorola — by all appearances, anyway — seems to be on its way back from the brink.

Time stops for no phone, though, and we’re now halfway through 2010. Motorola’s success as a competitive phone manufacturer is ultimately going to depend not on its ability to produce a single hit, but to produce a never-ending string of hits, each better than the one before it. It’s a tall order — and that’s exactly where the Droid X comes into play. Featuring a 4.3-inch WVGA display, 8 megapixel camera with 720p video capture, a reworked user interface, and a significantly improved processor, this phone apes the first Droid in at least one critical aspect: its ability to immediately steal the spotlight from anything else in Verizon’s lineup. Specs don’t tell the whole story, though, so let’s dig in and see what this beast is all about.

Continue reading Motorola Droid X review

Motorola Droid X review originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 01 Jul 2010 12:40:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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