Sometimes, a unique design may be all you need to sell a new handset. That could be what they’re banking on with the Motorola Backflip, a smartphone with various physical innovations that you might find enticing (or retarded, whichever the case may be).

Physically, the unique flip design definitely makes it a noteworthy device. While it looks like the Motorola Cliq at first glance, look closer and you’ll see the huge differences. When closed, the keyboard sits in the back of the phone, such that it flips open to the bottom of the horizontal 3.1-inch display. Sure, it’s a novel way to implement a clamshell for a touchscreen device, but the fact that your keys are exposed 100% of the time definitely doesn’t inspire confidence. They also added trackpads behind the display, which are supposed to allow you to navigate the UI without your hands getting in the way. It works well, although, it’s hard to see a real need for it.

As a phone, the Backflip manages average call quality. It was good on our end, although callers sometimes reported issues on theirs. We’re not sure if it was their phone or ours causing it, however. The speakerphone was excellent, definitely better than average. Battery is rated at 6 hours, which should be good for at least two days of normal use.

Positioned as more of an entry-level smartphone, it’s equipped with a rather underpowered 528MHz Qualcomm processor. It only runs Android 1.5 too and performance wasn’t the best – there were definite lags even with simpler tasks, such as opening your inbox and scrolling through lists. As such, it might be a good idea to forget ever upgrading the OS here to a newer version.

It comes with Motoblur and you can read our reviews of other similarly-equipped Motorola phones (Cliq, Devour) to get the skinny on that. Features are around what you’d expect. You get the usual Android fare (Google’s software suite and read-only QuickOffice), Webkit-based HTML browser (very fast page loads over 3G, by the way), aGPS, WiFi and Bluetooth.

While it continues to use Android’s lackluster music player, the Backflip comes with excellent sound quality. The onboard speakers manage gorgeous sounds, definitely a notch above what you normally get from a phone. Camera appeared great at 5 megapixels of resolution, but the quality of shots left plenty to be desired.

Overall, the Motorola Backflip is a decent choice for an entry-level Android smartphone. There are definite performance issues, but it covers the range of features well and it’s an excellent music phone. Price sounds good too – $99 with a two-year contract from AT&T (not sure how much for unlocked versions elsewhere).