It's finally here -- our Atrix 4G review! We know you've waited and wondered, and we've finally had enough time with the phone, laptop dock, HD / desktop dock, and all the accessories to give you a proper take on this utterly unique smartphone. Did we say smartphone? Really that's not quite right, because the dual-core-CPU-sporting device actually does quadruple duty as a laptop, set top box, desktop computer, and... well, it works as a smartphone too. The Atrix 4G, which sports a 4-inch, 960 x 540 display, HSPA+ data, and a slew of other juicy specs is absolutely the first of its kind -- a multi-use device intended to replace your netbook (and maybe more) via its Webtop environment. But can a phone be powerful enough to become your laptop or hub of your home theater? Is Motorola's new phone set to be the king of the Android heap, or just another face in the crowd? All these questions (and more) will be answered in our full review... which you can read after the break!
Hardware
The hardware of the Atrix 4G is notable for a number of reasons, not the least of which is design. The body of the phone is largely plastic, but don't let that bother you too much -- it's put together so solidly that it feels like a much pricier material. The handset measures 2.5 inches wide by 4.63 inches long, and just 0.43 inches thick, which means that the Atrix is nearly as thin as the iPhone 4 -- quite a feat considering how much horsepower is packed inside. The phone probably gains a little of its solidness via its weight, which clocks in at a not-feathery 135 grams (about 4.8 ounces) -- and we like that a lot.
Like most slate phones, the front of the device is nearly all screen, save for the familiar Android buttons along the bottom, and the front-facing camera and earpiece up top. Along the top rear of the phone is a power / sleep button which just happens to be a fingerprint scanner too, and the 3.5mm headphone jack. Along the right side of the phone is the volume rocker (easily accessible with your thumb during calls if you're right handed). On the left side you'll find the Micro USB and HDMI ports. Around back, the stylishly patterned casing is broken by the 5 megapixel camera with LED flash, and a speaker along the bottom of the phone.
As far as truly unique hardware goes, the fingerprint scanner seems fairly novel -- but in practice it's a little frustrating. It does work as advertised, but being told to re-swipe your finger if it doesn't take when you're trying to get into the phone quickly can be a little bothersome. Unless you really need the high security, a standard passcode will suffice for most people.
Fingerprint scanner quibbles aside, the Atrix 4G is one of the better looking Android devices we've had a chance to use. We would have liked to see higher quality materials in play here, but despite the housing, the phone comes off as both sleek and rugged -- a great combo for something that will likely be doing double (if not triple) duty in your connected world. From an industrial design standpoint, this device more than holds its own against the the best of the best on the market right now.
Like most slate phones, the front of the device is nearly all screen, save for the familiar Android buttons along the bottom, and the front-facing camera and earpiece up top. Along the top rear of the phone is a power / sleep button which just happens to be a fingerprint scanner too, and the 3.5mm headphone jack. Along the right side of the phone is the volume rocker (easily accessible with your thumb during calls if you're right handed). On the left side you'll find the Micro USB and HDMI ports. Around back, the stylishly patterned casing is broken by the 5 megapixel camera with LED flash, and a speaker along the bottom of the phone.
As far as truly unique hardware goes, the fingerprint scanner seems fairly novel -- but in practice it's a little frustrating. It does work as advertised, but being told to re-swipe your finger if it doesn't take when you're trying to get into the phone quickly can be a little bothersome. Unless you really need the high security, a standard passcode will suffice for most people.
Fingerprint scanner quibbles aside, the Atrix 4G is one of the better looking Android devices we've had a chance to use. We would have liked to see higher quality materials in play here, but despite the housing, the phone comes off as both sleek and rugged -- a great combo for something that will likely be doing double (if not triple) duty in your connected world. From an industrial design standpoint, this device more than holds its own against the the best of the best on the market right now.
Internals / display / battery life
Of course, the Atrix 4G isn't really about looks -- it's about raw power. You know that Motorola isn't kidding around by packing this handset with a blazing 1GHz dual core CPU, 1GB of DDR2 RAM, 16GB of storage onboard (plus a microSD slot for another 32GB). Along with the massive internal horsepower, the device boasts a 960 x 540 capacitive touchscreen that Motorola is calling its qHD display -- which also happens to be covered with Corning's Gorilla Glass. You'll also find the requisite radios here -- WiFi 802.11b/g/n, Bluetooth 2.1+EDR, and of course that HSPA+ GSM number which allows AT&T to (somewhat liberally) call this phone a 4G device (more on that in a moment). The phone also has a light and proximity sensor, as well as a built in accelerometer and compass.
To put it simply, this is one of the fastest (if not the fastest) Android phones we've ever used. Getting around the phone doing even complex tasks was insanely speedy, and we rarely if ever found ourselves waiting for something to load. Scrolling between homescreens or managing apps and widgets was silky smooth, and feels competitive with the likes of the iPhone 4 or EVO 4G. The phone absolutely blazes as a standalone handset, and we were consistently impressed with how deftly it was able to take on whatever we threw at it; even when playing new 3D game titles like Gun Bros, we didn't see a hint of lag.
As far as the display goes, we're extremely excited to see new Android phones taking higher resolution screens. With the added real estate the qHD provides, we were able to get a lot more utility out of Gmail, the browser, and a handful of other content-heavy applications, and text and images looked crystal clear on the display. There were some issues with Android applications that don't properly take advantage of increased resolution, but they were few and far between -- for the vast majority of software we used, the display worked beautifully. Touch response was also excellent, though we can't say if that's due to the screen technology at play here, or that super fast CPU. One item of note -- the display is difficult to see in bright daylight, and the automatic brightness adjustment didn't quite do the trick.
On the battery side, the Atrix 4G packs an impressive 1930mAh battery inside, and even though Android is data intensive, we found ourselves squeezing more than 24 hours out of the device on a single charge with fairly heavy use. You can probably get more time out of the device if you avoid calls when possible and keep your brightness settings in check, but we were pleasantly surprised by the performance we saw.
To put it simply, this is one of the fastest (if not the fastest) Android phones we've ever used. Getting around the phone doing even complex tasks was insanely speedy, and we rarely if ever found ourselves waiting for something to load. Scrolling between homescreens or managing apps and widgets was silky smooth, and feels competitive with the likes of the iPhone 4 or EVO 4G. The phone absolutely blazes as a standalone handset, and we were consistently impressed with how deftly it was able to take on whatever we threw at it; even when playing new 3D game titles like Gun Bros, we didn't see a hint of lag.
As far as the display goes, we're extremely excited to see new Android phones taking higher resolution screens. With the added real estate the qHD provides, we were able to get a lot more utility out of Gmail, the browser, and a handful of other content-heavy applications, and text and images looked crystal clear on the display. There were some issues with Android applications that don't properly take advantage of increased resolution, but they were few and far between -- for the vast majority of software we used, the display worked beautifully. Touch response was also excellent, though we can't say if that's due to the screen technology at play here, or that super fast CPU. One item of note -- the display is difficult to see in bright daylight, and the automatic brightness adjustment didn't quite do the trick.
On the battery side, the Atrix 4G packs an impressive 1930mAh battery inside, and even though Android is data intensive, we found ourselves squeezing more than 24 hours out of the device on a single charge with fairly heavy use. You can probably get more time out of the device if you avoid calls when possible and keep your brightness settings in check, but we were pleasantly surprised by the performance we saw.
Cameras
Nothing is dinky about the Atrix 4G, and that extends to the cameras too. The real highlight here is the 5 megapixel shooter on the back of the device, which cranks out impressive shots in both high- and low- light, and can be customized quickly for various settings. The camera also functions as a 720p video camera, and we had great results capturing HD content on the device. Even in low light, the results looked sharp.
On the still shot front, we were impressed by the macro capabilities of the camera, but found that some of the images had a purpleish hue that was slightly worrisome. It's not a dealbreaker, but we didn't think that the color quality or saturation was exactly what it could be. As far as video goes, we were impressed with the lack of shake even when walking briskly, though we're disappointed that the device goes into a fixed-focus mode when capturing video (see in action below), which makes it difficult to shoot a variety of subjects at once.
There's also a VGA camera on the front of the device. As you'd expect the results with that shooter aren't anything to write home about, but it more than did the trick when using it for video calls (or hair styling).
Regardless of some minor complaints, the camera on the back of the Atrix 4G is more than good enough to replace your basic point and shoot, and we'd have zero reservations about leaving the house with only this phone in our pocket.
Phone / sound quality
We've come to expect a certainly level of audio quality when it comes to Motorola handsets, and the Atrix does not disappoint. Not only is the earpiece on this phone loud and exceptionally clear, but the speaker on the back delivers crisp, full-bodied audio when listening to music or on a speakerphone call. The Atrix 4G offers variable levels of noise reduction on the earpiece, but we didn't seem to have to tweak anything beyond the "normal" setting for great results. Callers we spoke to said we sounded clear, which is always nice to hear while testing a phone.
As far as dropped calls go, we would say that we experienced a handful, though less than what we typically witness on our iPhone 4 on AT&T. The network is far from perfect, but we didn't see an intolerable amount of call issues.
As far as dropped calls go, we would say that we experienced a handful, though less than what we typically witness on our iPhone 4 on AT&T. The network is far from perfect, but we didn't see an intolerable amount of call issues.
Software
If you're expecting Gingerbready goodness here, prepare to be disappointed. Also, if you're craving just the stock Android experience, this is not the phone for you. Instead, Motorola is treating customers to its customized Froyo (2.2) build, featuring none other than -- yep -- Motoblur. We thought that Motorola's social-centric skin was going the way of the dinosaur, but it's back in full force with the Atrix 4G.
Now, before you get all let down and mopey, we'd like to say that the software side of the Atrix is actually quite good, and there are lots of little improvements the company has made to bring Android together in a bit more of a cohesive manner. It also helps that Google has begun to independently update its core apps (such as Gmail and Maps) outside of system updates, which means you'll get the same experience in many places that you would on an untainted Nexus S running Gingerbread.
Since this isn't exactly a new version of the software, we're only going to delve into a few points that we think are notable.
For starters, we're a little disappointed by the fact that Motorola and AT&T are loading up the Atrix with a considerable amount of bloatware. Vlingo, a handful of AT&T apps, Blockbuster, and a smattering of other programs all ship on the handsetwith no option to delete them. Even worse, some of them occasionally throw notifications up bugging the end user to register or use the applications. Adding insult to injury, Motorola (or AT&T, who has a habit of doing this sort of thing) has locked the device down in a way that not only prevents you from flashing the phone with a custom ROM, but also won't even let users install apps via email or SD card. That means that when our developers gave us a new version of the Engadget app to test out, it was a total no-go on this handset. So much for open!
Update: Some of the pre-installed apps can be deleted, but not all.
On the bright side, there are lots of good pieces to find in this OS, like the inclusion of QuickOffice for dealing with documents and PDFs (which it handled speedily), and some of Moto's own embellishments, such as the ability to use the keypad dialer to find specific names or numbers (which greatly sped up call-making), and the company's Mobile Hotspot feature. The latter was easy as pie to set up, though didn't deliver any mind-blowing downloads speeds in use (more on that in the data section).
We're not the biggest fans of Motoblur or its widgets, but luckily the vast majority of stock Android widgets are present here, allowing for customization that gets you close to a pure experience. Of course, the big difference with this phone isn't widgets or bundled apps -- it's the device's ability to function as a full blown computer when used with one of its dock accessories, and that brings us to...
Now, before you get all let down and mopey, we'd like to say that the software side of the Atrix is actually quite good, and there are lots of little improvements the company has made to bring Android together in a bit more of a cohesive manner. It also helps that Google has begun to independently update its core apps (such as Gmail and Maps) outside of system updates, which means you'll get the same experience in many places that you would on an untainted Nexus S running Gingerbread.
Since this isn't exactly a new version of the software, we're only going to delve into a few points that we think are notable.
For starters, we're a little disappointed by the fact that Motorola and AT&T are loading up the Atrix with a considerable amount of bloatware. Vlingo, a handful of AT&T apps, Blockbuster, and a smattering of other programs all ship on the handset
Update: Some of the pre-installed apps can be deleted, but not all.
On the bright side, there are lots of good pieces to find in this OS, like the inclusion of QuickOffice for dealing with documents and PDFs (which it handled speedily), and some of Moto's own embellishments, such as the ability to use the keypad dialer to find specific names or numbers (which greatly sped up call-making), and the company's Mobile Hotspot feature. The latter was easy as pie to set up, though didn't deliver any mind-blowing downloads speeds in use (more on that in the data section).
We're not the biggest fans of Motoblur or its widgets, but luckily the vast majority of stock Android widgets are present here, allowing for customization that gets you close to a pure experience. Of course, the big difference with this phone isn't widgets or bundled apps -- it's the device's ability to function as a full blown computer when used with one of its dock accessories, and that brings us to...
Specification of Motorola Atrix 4G Android:
- Nvidia Tegra 2 1GHz dual core processor
- Presently Running at Android Froyo 2.2 may be upgradable to Android 2.3(gingerbread)
- 4”inch screen @ 540 x 960 pixels (Gorilla Glass display)
- Biometric Fingerprint Reader
- MotoBlur UI with Live Widgets
- 16GB internal storage expandable up to 32GB via microSD
- 1024MB RAM
- HSDPA 14.4Mbps, HSUPA 5.76Mbps
- WiFi 802.11 b/g/n, DLNA, GPS w/ aGPS support
- Bluetooth 2.1 w/ A2DP, EDR, FM Radio Tuner, USB 2.0
- 5MP autofocus camera with LED Flash
- 720p HD video recording
- Li-IOn 1930mAh battery
No comments:
Post a Comment