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Ah, the Motorola Backflip. An odd little phone with a keyboard that flips up under the screen, and a trackpad on the back. Strange, to say the least. But, oddly enough, it works. At least until you turn the thing on.

While some have lamented AT&T's locking-down of the device -- namely in not allowing the sideloading of apps switching to Yahoo instead of Google for...

The Motorola Devour (running Android 1.6 with Motoblur on Verizon) made its here this morning, and we've had a couple minutes to give it the what-for. Despite playing second fiddle to the Motorola Droid at least as far as specs are concerned -- smaller screen, less powerful processor, etc. -- it's a very well-crafted smartphone.

The Devour has a...

Here's an up-close look at the HTC Legend, the successor to the venerable Hero. An optical trackpad (under the thumb here) replaces the trackball, and it features Android 2.1 and the latest version of HTC's Sense user interface. The shell is carved out of a single piece of aluminum. More pics after the break.

Here we go with an up-close-and personal look at the HTC Desire, the just-announced smartphone featuring Android 2.1 and the newest version of the Sense UI. Remember that it's nearly a carbon-copy of the Google Nexus One, save for the trackball and buttons at the bottom. Same screen, same 1GHz Snapdragon processor.

The Smartphone Round Robin is finally over! After a long trip through five other smartphone platforms, we're finally back on our own lovely Android. Having played with so many different platforms, we can say with full confidence that there's been no better time to be a smartphone user. Really, any smartphone you pick up is worth your time. We've come a very long way from maddening UIs and cruddy hardware.

And maybe we thank the iPhone for...

The Nexus One news has been fast and furious. Here's a recap if you missed it:

If Jimi Hendrix were alive today, this would be the phone he'd be carrying. The T-Mobile myTouch 3G Fender Limited Edition is a refresh of the myTouch 3G that features a guitar-like finish, a serious case that mimics one you'd take to a gig, and it sees the (very welcome) addition of a 3.5mm headphone jack. A full review is forthcoming. In the meantime,...

Ah, Blackberry. If you think about it, Blackberry is the last of the "old guard" of smartphones still standing. Palm rebooted with webOS and Windows Mobile is looking to do the same with Windows Mobile 7. The (relatively) new players in the game,

Nokia. The invisible giant. The king of kings. It's the elephant, if you will. And yes, it's the world's most popular smartphone platform. It's true, even with little to no footprint in the US, Nokia has managed to become wildly successful, landing atop the world smartphone marketshare with a ton of room to spare. Any way you spin it, the world we live in is simply dominated by Nokia smartphones.

How? Well, making awesome phones for one. But they've also been invested in the...

That's it, folks. Stick a fork in us. We're done. The 2010 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas is over, we've fled Sin City and are giving our weary feet a rest. But what a show it was.

The Google Nexus One was unveiled before the show, but it was on hand at an event Wednesday night, as were the Motorola Backflip and Sony Ericsson Xperia X10. E-readers were abundant. And we took a ride with the...

Ah, the iPhone. For better or worse, the iPhone has become the starting point for many consumers looking to buy a smartphone. In a sense, it's become the standard for everyone to measure themselves against. Because of its position at the forefront of consumer's minds and the fact that it's in everyone's pocket, that's completely fair. But because of Apple's sometimes senseless decisions in dealing with all things iPhone, it leaves the rest of us a little...

Google's Nexus One live event is over, phones are starting to get into the media's hands (officially), and orders are going out. After the break: Everything you need to know about the Nexus One:

If you think about webOS and Android, the Pre and the Droid, and Palm and Google--there aren't too many apparent similarities. Think about it: round vs square, small vs big--it's as if they exist in two separate worlds. But you dig deeper and realize there are some similar underlying aspects. The Pre and the Droid have been easily the two most recognizable phones released this year (non-iPhone, of course) and webOS and Android are the two newest platforms that...

It's the end of the first week of the Smartphone Round Robin so it's time to wrap up our thoughts on Windows Phone in a full review. There's a lot to be said about where Windows Phone is headed and we joined the choir for this one but honestly, we like the direction it's showing with 6.5. And before anything, we're going to have to say it, we like Windows Phone 6.5. *gasp*

But let's be honest, there's more similarity...

If you're interested in getting to know Google Chrome OS, Google's latest development in re-creating how we use computers, the videos after the jump are a great start. The funny thing about Google Chrome OS is that it's ambitious in what it's trying to do but relatively tame in its execution. The idea of Google Chrome OS centers around creating a browser as the Operating System, which makes some sense for a lot of users. Since what we do on a computer is often just access...

One of the features we were most looking forward in the DROID was the 5-megapixel autofocus camera. After having middling experiences with previous Android smartphone cameras, we were very hopeful that the DROID would buck the disappointing trend. But even using Android 2.0's updated camera interface to push out 5-megapixel pictures, the results were, well, a mixed bag.

We decided to let you guys compare a few shots we took with...

What better way to get to know the DROID than to compare it to its Android siblings (or is it cousins)? We've put the sharply beautiful Motorola DROID next to the Android phones you know and love: the T-Mobile G1, the HTC Magic (myTouch 3G), and the Sprint HTC Hero. Once upon a time those phones were heralded as the best Android phone available but each will have to bow out for the DROID.

Hit the jump to see the comparison pictures! And for bonus coverage, we...

One of the biggest selling points of the Motorola DROID is that it'll be on the Verizon network. We've all seen Verizon commercials--America's most reliable network, can you hear me now?, there's a map for that--Big Red likes to market themselves as being everywhere. And most Verizon customers we run into seem to be more than satisfied with their network's reception. The one sticking point with Verizon? Price.

As prices for unlimited voice+messaging+data plans are...

In the same article where Samsung revealed their plans for Android, they dropped a very interesting nugget regarding the status of Android. Samsung gave a clear distinction between the Android OS and "Google Experience" devices, lining themselves more with Android than with Google.

To quote:

[Samsung] drew a distinction between devices built on the...

Now that MWC '09 is but a distant memory we thought it'd be a good idea to round up all the Android news stories that Android Central covered in one easy, trackable post! The biggest news on the Android front was quite obviously the HTC Magic. It's sultry form factor, clean lines, and cupcake firmware simply stole the show! But don't think it was the only Android news because