Review: Motorola Atrix

Announced at CES 2011 (Consumer Electronic Show) was the Motorola Atrix. Simply put, it was the star of the show. Boasting an NVIDIA Tegra 2 processor (a 1GHz dual core processor), the first ever LapDock, (Motorola's interesting hybrid of a laptop and the phone), and 1 Gigabyte of RAM, the Atrix has high powered specs. But is it worth the 200 dollars that you will have to fork over to call one of these your own? Find out after these pictures.
Internal Components:

The Motorola Atrix boasts a dual-core 1Ghz processor, 1 Gigabyte of RAM, and AT&T's beefed up HSPA+ 4G* network. All of that adds up to one fast phone. While the 4G really isn't 4G, it seems much faster than AT&T's 3G network, except on the uploads, which AT&T says it will fix some time in April. The phones processor accomplished almost any task without a hiccup, and NVIDIA's new processor really shined. The phone loaded almost anything within seconds, and the processor made web browsing a truly magical experience when compared to most other phones. The storage capacity on this is 16 gigs internal, and is upgradable to 48 gigs via an SD card. The touchscreen seems very responsive on my unit, however sometimes it seems like it does not register the input when an app is selected.

Grade- A+

Hardware:

The outside of the Atrix is mostly covered with plastic, except for the huge 4 inch qHD display with a resolution of 960 by 540. The pixel density is much greater than on other Android devices, and it really shows in web browsing. The back of the phone has a carbon fiber pattern on it (unfortunately not real carbon fiber), and feels mostly solid with the exception of an annoying little squeak whenever I press near the camera, which got so annoying that I returned it for a new one. On the top of the phone is the fingerprint scanner, which is actually very useful for quick and secure access to the phone. The scanner also doubles as the power button. The familiar Android button layout is done away with in this phone, so if you are coming from other Android devices, it may take some time to get used to. Overall I was satisfied with the build quality, other than that one minor complaint. The Atrix boasts a 5 megapixel back camera with dual LED flash. There is also a front facing camera for video chat. The shooter on this device isnt going to replace your dedicated camera, but it is useful and sports good quality.

Grade- A

Software:

Software is the one area where the Atrix lags a bit behind its competitors. It comes with the latest build of Motoblur, which put simply, is not the greatest skin for Android in the world. It works well enough, but lacks the human element, unlike HTC sense. Its decent, but would be much better served by stock Gingerbread (2.3) or even just stock FroYo.

Grade- B+

Wrap Up

The Motorola Atrix is probably the best android phone on the market. Its specs are almost unmatched, but it all depends on how much you like Motoblur. I would recommend this phone to anyone looking for a new phone on AT&T, as it is certainly their best phone to date

Overall- A

2 comments:

  1. review was simple & clean and easy to follow for a non teckie like myself. Look forward to more reviews in the future.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Please justify your p pinion that the phone sucks.

    ReplyDelete