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Review: Bell Motorola Atrix

By on March 18, 2011 at 12:56pm in Bell Mobility News, Mobile News


The Motorola Atrix is your dream phone, at least on paper. The phone that doubles as a netbook that triples as a media center, it is Motorola’s superphone, and heralds the beginning of the dual-core era.

With dual-1Ghz Cortex A9 processors, 1GB RAM, 16GB internal storage, a 960×540 pixel qHD display, 5MP camera with flash, 720p video capture, front-facing VGA camera and fingerprint scanner, the specs blow away any other device on the Canadian market, including the iPhone 4. And make no mistake, the iPhone is its greatest competitor. But the Atrix is a pre-emptive attack on Apple’s phone next-gen phone and the upcoming inundation of dual-core Android phones and tablets. It reeks of ambition, but treads cautiously between consumer, enterprise and enthusiast device.

But does the Atrix deliver a comparable experience iOS? Should it? Can its Motoblur skin atop Android 2.2 compete with iOS, or even with HTC’s beloved Sense UI? Read on to find out!

The Phone:
At first glance the Atrix appears quite utilitarian: no HTC-like flourishes, no Samsung-like chins. Its entire body is made from a rigid, brushed plastic, and while it resembles aluminum, it lacks the metal’s satisfying heft and underlying rigidity. Since the battery cover is quite thin, Motorola smartly designed it to wrap around the top and bottom of the device. Weighing 135g, the Atrix is no RAZR, but sits comfortably in the hand, and feels significantly lighter than the iPhone 4’s 137g. I would have preferred better materials in exchange for a slightly heavier product, and likely a higher price.


The 4” screen is one of the highest resolution LCD displays on the market. It lacks the “retina”-calibre pixel density of the iPhone 4, but is no slouch. There is a muted tone to the colours, but brightness, contrast and black levels are excellent. I’d still take the lower-resolution-but-better-contrast Super AMOLED screen from the Galaxy S over this one, but Motorola have made excellent use of the increased pixel count. They have raised the LCD density in order to fit more onto the screen, and due to the higher number of pixels, text is comparatively smaller but wonderfully legible. Images are crisp, and the 16:9 widescreen ratio is perfect for movies. Viewing angles are quite good too, but the glossy glass is very reflective.

The rest of the device is fairly unremarkable: the right side houses the small and thankfully delineated volume rocker; the left the USB and HDMI ports. The power button, which resides on the top rear portion of the device, doubles, when enabled, as a fingerprint scanner. At first I found the power button placement a source of frustration, since I naturally rest my thumb on the volume rocker when pressing the power button with my index finger. After getting used to it, I’m starting to wonder why other manufacturers don’t place theirs behind the screen, too. It just feels natural.

After calibrating the device and swiping your right and left index fingers across the sensor, it unlocks the device with a satisfying vibration. Problem is, the scanner is extremely sensitive, and protests tersely if your swipe is incomplete, which happens all too often. Notable, too, is the addition of a notification LED on the front of the device next to the front camera, blinking a solid forest green when it has something to tell you.

The back of the device is lovely – untextured and bare, with a repeating diagonal block design. While glossy and smooth, it’s got sufficient grip to prevent easy slips.

The Hardware:
The Atrix is one of the first devices on the market that runs nVidia’s Tegra 2 SoC, a dual-core CPU combined with a very capable GPU. It’s readily apparent, however, that when browsing through the Android 2.2 UI that extra core is not being utilized. In fact, Motorola has somewhat burdened the stock Android experience with its Motoblur overlay, though somewhat less than on previous devices.

Motoblur now consists of a custom launcher (which is actually quite nice) and a few removable widgets, consolidating messaging, social networks, email, news, photos, etc. But the experience doesn’t feel consistently smooth. Occasionally jerky, it’s a significantly improved experience to previous generations of Motorola devices, but you have to wonder how HTC has gotten it right for three generations. The vast majority of the time, however, the UI responds instantaneously, as much of the underlying Android framework is unchanged from stock OS 2.2 Froyo.

It’s not until you benchmark the Atrix, or play a graphically-intense game, that the benefits of two cores and 1GB of RAM emerge. Included demos of Asphalt 5 and Let’s Golf load quickly and perform superbly. Graphics-intense games like Tank Hero took half the time to load as my G2 (HTC Desire Z) and performed almost twice as fast. In fact, the Atrix took anything I threw at it effortlessly.

It received a 2573 on the Quadrant Standard benchmark, compared to a 1424 on the Nexus S and 1735 on my overclocked G2. It consistently scored over 35MFLOPS in the Linkpack for Android benchmark (even though the app doesn’t utilize both cores in the device) compared with the Nexus S’ 14.2MFLOPS. It completed the Sunspider Javascript benchmark in 4382.1ms, while the Nexus S took 6077.8ms (both running xScope Pro browser).
(note that the Nexus S is not optimized for Linpack or Quadrant, but is used as a base for good benchmark performance)

In other words, the device is already faster than any Android device released so far in Canada, and that’s running Froyo with apps that haven’t been updated to take advantage of both cores.

The Motorola Experience:
Motoblur is a contentious word. Some people love it – most don’t. I think Motorola realized that they had two types of people using their phones – feature phone users upgrading to a Cliq or Backflip, and another, the more hardcore user, who saw the beautiful simplicity of a Droid or Milestone running stock Android. In an effort to appease both and perhaps widen the berth of the Atrix’s demographic, they decoupled Blur away from OS and focused in on usable widgets and value-add apps.

In this sense, they did a good thing: paring down the experience until it was recognizably Android, while improving the aspects that were somewhat lacking, namely the social networking integration and overall UI fluidity.

You will need to make a Motoblur account to use the phone. Since, for Android to be at all useful you also need a Google account, you may as well use your Gmail address. Motorola then prompts you to link as many services to it as you can: Twitter, Facebook, Exchange email — even Photobucket — accounts can be plastered over one, or many, of your seven home screens. Whereas before your interaction with these widgets was limited, they are now rather useful. They allow you to swipe through your various updates and emails, responding inline. While they may not be as attractive, or provide the features of, a dedicated Twitter widget or Picasa app, for the novice they allow access to essential information, and for the pro, are good enough to consider keeping. I especially like the Exchange mail client, which is anaemic on stock Android.

Strangely, Motorola has decided to replace some Android apps with their own, and keep, or only slightly alter, Google’s native applications. The calendar and messaging apps seem the same, while the contacts app tries to be everything to everyone, consolidating all your services’ into one disorganized mishmash: every Facebook, Twitter, Gmail, Exchange and Hotmail contact is grouped together by default, though thankfully you can sort by service.

Along with the Motorola fixtures like a DLNA app, Quickoffice, Phone Portal (a wireless portal to connect to the phone via WiFi), and Media Share (share media between devices), Bell throws in some apps to the mix. Kobo eBook reader, Qik Messenger and their ubiquitous TV&Radio/PVR Remote bundle have been tossed in. Not an offensive amount of bloatware, though we’d prefer the ability to delete them.

The included multitouch keyboard is attractive, but more often will not register button presses, forcing me to manually correct the word. In my experience, HTC is the only company whose included keyboard isn’t worth immediately scrapping. Do yourself a favour and download one of many superior alternatives from the Marketplace.

Performance:
The Atrix feels faster than any device I’ve ever used, and that includes the iPhone 4. It is, and will continue to be the phone to get if you want sheer speed. Apps load instantaneously, multitasking actually feels like such, and there’s a general sense of space. In other words, you never feel like you’re taxing the phone.

The Tegra 2 processor inside the Atrix is certified for what nVidia calls the Tegra Zone, a portal for users to download dual-core optimized games. There are several updated games in the Marketplace – even namestays like Fruit Ninja – that have been optimizd for nVidia’s platform. This is just another way that vendors, carriers, and manufacturers are marrying specific hardware to specific software (see HTCSense.com, Samsung Apps, Sony Ericsson Playstation, etc.), perhaps forcing users to pay again for software they’ve already bought.

This is the first Android device I’ve used that approaches a fluidity and stability similar to iOS. Other reviewers have stated they experienced instability and sluggishness with the UI, but I have had none of those symptoms. Just keep your fingers out of the included Task Manager app, and let the OS do the RAM pruning.

As stated earlier, browsing on the Atrix is very fast, especially since the device takes advantage of Bell’s HSPA+ network, which has a maximum download speed of 14.4Mbps. The default browser will suffice, but for added features, download Dolphin Browser HD or Skyfire. Flash 10.1 is bundled with the phone, and it performs well enough, though I think any inconsistency that you’d experience is a fault of the code, not the speed of the hardware. I found certain higher-quality videos still hiccupped occasionally, but it’s a night and day difference when compared to earlier generations of hardware like the Nexus One or Milestone. Overall, the browsing experience reaches an almost desktop-like robustness. The 1GB of RAM allows for a greater number of tabs to be saved without having to reload them.

Camera:
The 5MP camera on the Atrix does pretty well in low light, which is the benchmark I use to determine sensor quality in phones these days. There is a fair amount of noise, even when using the flash, but is likely due to software tweaks to enhance detail. In daylight situations the camera is excellent, with accurate colour tones and sufficient detail. The iPhone 4 has a far superior lens, especially for low light shots.

The dual LED flash is quick and powerful, though like most phone cameras, due to the fixed-length lens, it tends to overexpose at close proximities, and is insufficient for large rooms.

Video quality was equally grainy, even in well-lit situations, and once shooting begins the focus is fixed, which is a disappointment. Overall quality, however, is good, and scales to a 720p television quite nicely. I’d take a softer result for a decrease in noise, but this seems to be a trend lately with phone cameras.

The VGA camera on the front of the Atrix will do in a pinch, though it produces some of the grainiest photos I’ve ever taken. So too does Android’s video calling experience pale in comparison to Facetime on iOS, but Qik, the included conferencing app, is one of the best current options for Android users.

I honestly expected more from Motorola: they don’t seem to have upgraded their lens since the original Droid.


Battery:
The 1930mAh battery is some 400mAh larger than most phones released on the market today, and it shows. With normal use, the Atrix lasted over a day and a half, and I rarely worried about running out of juice. Specifically, the Atrix lasted for 11.5 of medium-to-heavy use.

In fact, I used the Atrix on a 3-hour conference call and the battery only declined 20% in that time. Considering the battery is removable, I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend this device for travellers and power users. Very impressive battery life.

Call Quality and Download Speeds:
The Atrix has excellent voice quality, and my callers assured me that my voice was clear and distortion-free. Reception was excellent wherever I went in the GTA.

Download speeds consistently averaged 2-4.5 Mbit/s but it seems that, like the AT&T version, the Bell Atrix is not HSUPA-enabled. While the hardware physically supports higher speeds in the upload, the device maxed out at around 450Kbp/s. Hopefully, like AT&T is claiming to be working on, Bell will shortly enable HSUPA speeds of 5.76 Mbit/s. To its credit, the Atrix didn’t feel significantly slower in the upload than any device I’ve used recently on Bell’s network, but this is not going to sit well with customers looking to take advantage of that huge bandwidth margin available to them.


Accessories:
The Lapdock is a very curious add-on, since it claims to provide laptop-like functionality powered by a smartphone. In truth, it loads a portion of the Atrix’s internal storage running a limited Linux variant. Its a very limited feature-set, namely a full-screen Firefox browser, a dedicated media center, and access to the Atrix’s phone and messaging functions in either docked or fullscreen mode.

The quality of the Lapdock is excellent: brushed aluminum and very lithe, it’s most comparable in build to the MacBook Air line, though don’t go near it if you’re looking for the same experience. Opening more than two tabs in Firefox brings the lapdock to a crawl, and there is pitiful else to do with the 11” display. The prospect of scaling up an Android app to such proportions was not attractive on paper, and frustrating in reality. It’s not feasible to interact with a touch-based app with a traditional laptop input. You can use one of the two USB inputs to attach a mouse, but I found the experience largely underwhelming. More useful is the ability to attach a USB printer to the dock.

The Media Center is a fluid, attractive fullscreen app powered directly from the Atrix. It performs the basic function of aggregating all the media on the phone, including photos, music and movies, and plays back HD video without issue. At $329.95, the dock is only slightly cheaper than a dedicated netbook capable of exponentially more, and as a result I cannot recommend the Lapdock.

The HDMI Multimedia dock, on the other hand, is a very handy accessory, though overpriced at $129.95. It provides a media interface to the Atrix’s multimedia functionality, aggregating music, photo and video across the included HDMI cable. Considering you can augment the included 10GB of usable internal storage with a 32GB microSD card, as well as stream media over WiFi using a myriad capable Android apps, it’s a competitive and attractive alternative to a dedicated media server. The remote – like the interface — is simple and sparse, but does the job. Your choice, however, if Motorola synergy is a compelling enough reason to get this over a similar, and likely more capable, alternative.

Downsides:
Besides the accessories, there are some knocks against this piece of hotness. Actually, let’s start there. This phone gets hot – uncomfortably so – which alone probably precluded a metal battery cover. After a few minutes on a call, or playing Dungeon Hunter HD, you’ll likely need to put the phone down.

And while the build quality is fine, its closest comparison would be the Nexus S, which is a backhanded complement. Obviously cutting down on costs, and a few corners, Motorola skimped on the battery cover material as well as the buttons, which feel flimsy and potentially breakable. The power button position is hard to reach at the best of times, and is not seated straight, a small but condemnable oversight in quality control.

Worse yet, but perhaps most forgivable, is the release of a brand new phone running old code. Froyo, Android 2.2, is almost a year old now, superseded by a newer phone version (Gingerbread) and dedicated tablet version (Honeycomb). Though there are no substantive features, besides perhaps NFC and SIP calling support, between 2.2 and 2.3 that Motorola themselves couldn’t have added manually with their own tweaks, I’d have preferred to see the company skin the phone differently; after using Gingerbread and its lovely black-on-green colour scheme for months now, reverting to a Froyo and its bland, grey landscape is a backwards stumble.

Concluding Thoughts:
Android has come a long way since the G1. It’s a capable, powerful and app-rich platform, competitive with iOS in many ways, and superior in myriad others. What it lacks in polish it makes up for in choice: there is always more than one way to do something, be it in an app, widget, or through the mobile web. But the Atrix is just one dual core phone in a land of plenty, and by the end of this year its specs will be commonplace, even obsolete. But in many ways, the Atrix is going to knock your socks off.

Some corners cut, some software bugs, a lackluster camera, but for the most part this is one of the most well-rounded devices ever released. And unless you crave some hacking and modding – Motorola locked down the bootloader, severely impeding the development of custom ROMs and kernels – this is perhaps the best Android device released since the Nexus One (or the original Droid, depending on who you ask).

The Atrix is largely a utilitarian device. It lacks the design flourishes and fantastic software of the Desire HD and the wonderful Super AMOLED screen of the Galaxy S. But it’s blistering fast, and in this Wild West smartphone market, currently it’s got the quickest shot.

Pros:
- Fastest phone currently on the market
- High-quality qHD screen, multitouch sensor
- Excellent GPU performance
- Superb call quality and battery life
- Motoblur has been toned down
- Good camera quality in well-lit conditions
- Built-in DLNA and media sharing support
- Fingerprint scanner excellent and usable feature
- Lapdock, HDMI Dock well-made commendable effort at bridging phone/laptop experience

Cons:
- Low quality build materials
- Poor low-light camera quality, grainy video, terrible VGA camera
- Occasional lag and freezes when scrolling in launcher
- Lapdock accessory an ambitious failure
- HDMI dock awkward to use with remote but for basic tasks

Specs:
- 1Ghz Tegra 2 dual core processor
- 1GB DDR2 RAM
- 16GB internal storage (48GB maximum)
- 540×960 pixel qHD LCD screen
- 5MP camera with dual LED flash, VGA front-facing camera
- 720p HD video capture
- WiFi (802.11n), A-GPS, Compass, Accelerometer
- HDMI 1.3 out, DLNA support
- Noise cancelling second microphone
- Security fingerprint scanner

Motorola Atrix Rating: 9/10
Lapdock: 5/10
HDMI Dock: 7/10

Related posts:

  1. Image: Here are the prices for the Bell Motorola ATRIX accessories
  2. Bell continues the teasing… Motorola Atrix still “coming soon”
  3. Bell giving away 5 Motorola Atrix starting February 22nd
  4. Bell employees start Motorola Atrix training

Discussion

61 comments for “Review: Bell Motorola Atrix”

  1. Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.

    Like or Dislike: Thumb up 22 Thumb down 133

    Posted by Steve Jobs | March 18, 2011, 1:05 pm
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    • I’ll say this, steve. Your SGX PowerVR video chip can suck it. GeForceULV for the mf’ing win.

      Like or Dislike: Thumb up 38 Thumb down 9

      Posted by cybik | March 18, 2011, 1:32 pm

    • Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.

      Like or Dislike: Thumb up 8 Thumb down 47

      Posted by Steve Jobs | March 18, 2011, 3:02 pm

    • Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.

      Like or Dislike: Thumb up 7 Thumb down 35

      Posted by Graham J | March 18, 2011, 4:15 pm

    • lol have you used the Atrix? its not sluggish at all.

      also the atrix at least has the option of a file browser, not a crippled dumbed down kiddy linux interface that hasnt changed in 4 years.

      the atrix already has custom roms allowing you to flash it to anything you want,

      atrix also has HDMI out

      only a moron would think a dual core doesnt blow away a single core cpu, this was proven by the ipad 2 vs ipad 1 tests.

      Like or Dislike: Thumb up 13 Thumb down 1

      Posted by EC | March 18, 2011, 11:05 pm

  2. Real shame about the bootloader. Hopefully that gets sorted out soon. It’d be nice seeing it without motoblur & android optimized for a dualcore CPU.

    Like or Dislike: Thumb up 24 Thumb down 2

    Posted by sickens | March 18, 2011, 1:05 pm
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  3. Great review

    Like or Dislike: Thumb up 14 Thumb down 6

    Posted by brendon | March 18, 2011, 1:07 pm
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  4. $600 for the phone
    $300 for the lapdock
    $130 for the media dock

    Really? Over $1,000!!!

    Like or Dislike: Thumb up 19 Thumb down 20

    Posted by LoveMyMobilflip | March 18, 2011, 1:11 pm
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    • Just don’t get the accessories. It’s still the best $600 phone out there.

      Like or Dislike: Thumb up 33 Thumb down 11

      Posted by zorxd | March 18, 2011, 1:17 pm

    • What did you expect, $800 total?. Just the battery in the laptop probably costs $100. It’s not cheap, but getting the whole package is far from a requirement.

      Like or Dislike: Thumb up 6 Thumb down 7

      Posted by artstate | March 18, 2011, 1:32 pm

  5. A few mistakes:
    You say that Android 2.2 doesn’t use the second core. How do you know? It’s a linux kernel and linux supports multicore. Unless you checked that it was disabled at boot?

    Then, you are saying that HSUPA is disabled. You must know that without HSUPA, the speed is limited to UMTS 384 kpbs, right? Then how come you have 450? That means HSUPA works.

    Then come on, 135g “feels significantly lighter” than 137g? You really feel that 2g difference? Are you human or what :P

    Like or Dislike: Thumb up 27 Thumb down 10

    Posted by zorxd | March 18, 2011, 1:16 pm
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    • He said it “feels” lighter.
      Weight perception is related to volume. The iPhone is more compact and thus feels heavier.

      Like or Dislike: Thumb up 21 Thumb down 5

      Posted by The Cyber Knight | March 18, 2011, 2:26 pm

    • Well, my weight perception isn’t related to volume. But maybe I am the exception :P

      Like or Dislike: Thumb up 9 Thumb down 7

      Posted by zorxd | March 18, 2011, 2:53 pm

    • I was thinking about the same thing. You should clarify.
      When I ready this I was like: wow… “135g… feels significantly lighter than… 137g”
      Love the review, BTW!

      :)

      Like or Dislike: Thumb up 4 Thumb down 1

      Posted by Dawn | March 18, 2011, 4:14 pm

  6. I have the phone right now and I love it.

    I didn’t really care much for the accessories and the phone is blazing fast.

    Motoblur is not an issue since rooting the phone is extremely simple and you can then turn off the bloatware.

    The default ROM is fine for me but the first custom ROMs were successfuly installed on Atrix phones recently so there’s hope.

    The dual core is great because I like to run a lot of applications simultaneously. While a single application might not be optimized for multiple cores, multiple applications can easily run on multiple cores.

    Overall, I am very satisfied with the phone.

    Like or Dislike: Thumb up 19 Thumb down 1

    Posted by GuiSim | March 18, 2011, 1:17 pm
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  7. Just want to say, it’s really nice to see a very professional, in-depth review on mobilesyrup. Props!

    Like or Dislike: Thumb up 21 Thumb down 2

    Posted by rkarsk | March 18, 2011, 1:22 pm
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  8. Ha another great fail from Motorola. Good luck on that update to 2.3 as well. I’m still waiting for one for my XT720.
    They will probably discontinue this model in a few months once the rest of the dual cores come out.

    Like or Dislike: Thumb up 10 Thumb down 13

    Posted by nsnap | March 18, 2011, 1:28 pm
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    • The XT720 was never meant to be updated.
      The Milestone was (and will next week, it will be the second OS update). The Atrix being an other high end phone, it will get 2.3 and probably even 2.4 and maybe more.

      Like or Dislike: Thumb up 12 Thumb down 4

      Posted by zorxd | March 18, 2011, 1:44 pm

  9. I disagree about the low build quality, it feeds solid in your hand. I agree the camera sucks. The messaging app is not stock – it’s buggy and exhibits screen tears (not seen anywhere else).

    I like the phone.

    Did I mention the camera sucks?

    Question, does the Bell version (I have AT&T model) have touch to focus?

    Like or Dislike: Thumb up 2 Thumb down 1

    Posted by Vito | March 18, 2011, 1:31 pm
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  10. On my iPhone4 on Fido in Calgary I’m currently getting 1.67Mbps down and 1.34Mbps up, so it does seem like the Atrix has been crippled. I’ll hold off on buying this device until I hear that Bell has un-crippled the device.

    Like or Dislike: Thumb up 6 Thumb down 8

    Posted by midtoad | March 18, 2011, 1:38 pm
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    • You should get 7.2 down and 5.6 up on your iPhone. Are you saying that it is crippled too?

      Like or Dislike: Thumb up 8 Thumb down 9

      Posted by zorxd | March 18, 2011, 1:43 pm

    • New Atrix user here, love the device. 6.7 down / 2.1 up Mbps on Bell in Vancouver with latest OS update applied, while USB syncing 1200 song files.

      Like or Dislike: Thumb up 0 Thumb down 0

      Posted by MikeW | June 26, 2011, 8:54 am

    • And from Surrey 8.6 up / 2.8 Mbps down (Bell).

      Like or Dislike: Thumb up 0 Thumb down 0

      Posted by MikeW | June 27, 2011, 8:43 pm

  11. Wow, sorry but that initial screenshot is VERY unflattering :-P

    Like or Dislike: Thumb up 5 Thumb down 1

    Posted by Dan J | March 18, 2011, 1:42 pm
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  12. Ugh if only HTC made this.

    Like or Dislike: Thumb up 3 Thumb down 4

    Posted by Lance W | March 18, 2011, 1:57 pm
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    • Don’t worry. The HTC pyramid will be out soon and I will be happily switching from my less than stellar milestone experience to this or the Galaxy S2 when they are released.

      Like or Dislike: Thumb up 10 Thumb down 1

      Posted by monsterduc1000 | March 18, 2011, 2:14 pm

  13. @ Zorxd

    7.2 down and 5.6 up is the max speed, not real usage speed. If you are going to attack someone’s post you might as well get your facts straight first.

    Like or Dislike: Thumb up 8 Thumb down 8

    Posted by Justin | March 18, 2011, 2:24 pm
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    • I know that. I never said the opposite. So what fact should I get straight again?

      It’s just very stupid to assume that HSUPA is disabled just because you get 450 kbps upload speed. The real speed vary a lot depending of where you are, signal stengh, and how many users are nearby. I often get 450 kbps upload speed too on my device, and HSUPA isn’t disabled.

      As I said, without HSUPA, the maximum upload speed would be 384 kbps. That would be the theoretical maximum, not the real usage speed.

      Your 1.67 Mbps / 1.37 proves nothing. I get 6 down / 3 up with my phone. So your phone must be crippled.

      Like or Dislike: Thumb up 5 Thumb down 2

      Posted by zorxd | March 18, 2011, 2:58 pm

  14. htc pyramid is nothing special and htc is nothing to brag about in terms of quality. every phone looks the same.

    By the time it comes here, it will only be on par with the atrix and blown away by newer phones.

    Like or Dislike: Thumb up 2 Thumb down 4

    Posted by KingK | March 18, 2011, 2:57 pm
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  15. If I were to buy a non-WP7 phone today this would be the one I would buy.

    Like or Dislike: Thumb up 1 Thumb down 1

    Posted by Keith | March 18, 2011, 3:09 pm
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  16. Android is Linux based, and Linux has supported multicore since the 90′s, I used to run Linux on a dual Pentium Pro 200MHz.

    Like or Dislike: Thumb up 3 Thumb down 0

    Posted by sookster54 | March 18, 2011, 3:16 pm
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  17. Moto has said they will push out an update to the photo and video 1080 recording ,then i will see if it is much better before i buy it.

    Like or Dislike: Thumb up 0 Thumb down 0

    Posted by bobo peters | March 18, 2011, 3:26 pm
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  18. “The Motorola Atrix is your dream phone, at least on paper.”

    No it isn’t.

    And yes, HSUPA *is* disabled on this device:

    http://www.engadget.com/2011/03/18/bells-motorola-atrix-also-has-hsupa-disabled-canadians-frown-u/

    Like or Dislike: Thumb up 0 Thumb down 4

    Posted by Graham J | March 18, 2011, 3:47 pm
    Reply to this comment

    • You should explain me how you can get 400 kbps without HSUPA, since the maximum of plain UMTS is 384 kbps!

      Like or Dislike: Thumb up 1 Thumb down 0

      Posted by zorxd | March 18, 2011, 4:49 pm

  19. Galaxy S II is right around the corner (a few months). Check out the specs at http://galaxys2.samsungmobile.com/html/ . Sweet!

    Like or Dislike: Thumb up 1 Thumb down 1

    Posted by Downhill Dude | March 18, 2011, 3:57 pm
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    • I’ve been using the Atrix since yesterday morning and don’t regret getting it at all, I rooted it and froze moto blur and it kicks my Galaxy S in the teeth. I’ll never buy another piece of Samsung Garbage again, other then the great screen the Galaxy S was a nightmare. Today I used GPS to navigate to my gf’s house, not because I need to but because I COULD.

      Like or Dislike: Thumb up 2 Thumb down 1

      Posted by BigC_13 | March 19, 2011, 4:08 am

    • Similar, except I’ll never buy another Moto piece of crap in my life. May not even have the chance as I’m not sure how long they are going to be around. Their stock price keeps dropping.

      Like or Dislike: Thumb up 0 Thumb down 4

      Posted by Downhill Dude | March 21, 2011, 12:02 pm

  20. Blur = Fail
    Locked bootloader = Fail
    Shipping with 2.2 when 2.3′s been out for 3 months = Fail
    Moto s/w updates = Fail
    Price = Fail
    2 cores but only using one = Fail
    Launch on Bell Mobility = Fail

    Like or Dislike: Thumb up 2 Thumb down 11

    Posted by mindo | March 18, 2011, 4:43 pm
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  21. Zorxd

    Your passing around false information.

    the Upload speed has been disabled from full fuction.

    It was even reported on other sites engadget

    att’s is also disabled.

    Like or Dislike: Thumb up 1 Thumb down 1

    Posted by johnm | March 18, 2011, 5:02 pm
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    • It might be capped, but anybody who says that HSUPA is disabled don’t know what he is talking about.

      Also, a single test of 450 kbps is sufficient to prove that HSUPA is working. However, a single test of 450 kbps doesn’t prove that the device can’t do more.

      Like or Dislike: Thumb up 2 Thumb down 0

      Posted by zorxd | March 18, 2011, 5:25 pm

  22. Galaxy S 2 is out in a few months. Go check out the specs. It kicks a*s! Can’t wait.

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    Posted by Downhill Dude | March 18, 2011, 5:50 pm
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    • Yeah check out the specs….they are the same as Atrix and any other top phone coming out.

      Plus samsung is horrible with updates too, average quality at best, has their own problems.

      What’s so exciting or amazing by it? Smaller battery which won’t last long, that’s the only difference I see.

      Like or Dislike: Thumb up 1 Thumb down 1

      Posted by KingK | March 18, 2011, 8:18 pm

    • Seriously? You’re going to criticize Samsung for slow Android updates, while we’re talking about Motorola? They’re the poster child for late updates.

      The S2 has Super Amoled Plus, NFC, will be thinner and lighter, and I expect the processor will outperform.

      I’m happy to wait for 3 months…

      Like or Dislike: Thumb up 0 Thumb down 1

      Posted by Downhill Dude | March 21, 2011, 12:07 pm

  23. Also one downside with the Atrix is that it can’t read a lot of 720p video codecs. I tried it with a few mp4 files that were ripped from BluRay’s in 720p and the stock video app could not read them and rock lite media player choked on them. I love the phone but for multimedia I still prefer the Galaxy.

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    Posted by Fenrir767 | March 18, 2011, 6:55 pm
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  24. Root the bad-boy and remove moto-crap/bloatware…Then you have yourself the true king of the hill.

    I love my Samsung Galaxy S, but I really feel like making a (costly) switch…

    Like or Dislike: Thumb up 0 Thumb down 0

    Posted by mark oskar | March 18, 2011, 8:32 pm
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  25. The Atrix is largely a utilitarian device. It lacks the design flourishes and fantastic software of the Desire HD and the wonderful Super AMOLED screen of the Galaxy S. But it’s blistering fast, and in this Wild West smartphone market, currently it’s got the quickest shot.

    Pros:

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    Posted by dsgerh | March 18, 2011, 9:20 pm
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  26. To the reviewer……you kept saying that the phone cannot be hacked….however from what I have read they managed to root it and flash custom roms weeks ago….where did you get your information?

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    Posted by Andy | March 19, 2011, 12:23 am
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    • @Andy,

      I never said it couldn’t be rooted, I said it couldn’t be hacked. There is a very big difference. Hacking Android means being able to load a customer recovery ROM and therefore much more control over the general Android experience. It includes an unlocked bootloader to enable custom ROMs and kernels.

      The Motorola Atrix can be rooted, but only on the ROM is shipped with. That isn’t hacking, that’s rooting.

      Like or Dislike: Thumb up 0 Thumb down 0

      Posted by Daniel Bader | March 19, 2011, 9:27 pm

  27. It is unfortunate that the laptop dock was not very useful at all. That is one really cool feature of the phone that I liked. I guess CPU’s on phones are still limited and it looks like a phone would not be replacing the PC any time soon.

    Still I would have liked to see some video of the laptop dock in action.

    Like or Dislike: Thumb up 1 Thumb down 0

    Posted by Stuntman | March 19, 2011, 4:23 am
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  28. This looks like a pretty sweet phone regardless of how it stacks up to the iPhone4 or the non-existant iPhone5. Thankfully the shoddy writing and horrible grammer in this article are no reflection of the quality of the phone.

    Like or Dislike: Thumb up 1 Thumb down 6

    Posted by JBR | March 19, 2011, 8:32 am
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    • @JBR,

      Glad you like the phone.

      However, I’d hold off commenting on the quality of my writing, and especially the accuracy of my “grammer” until you learn to spell the word correctly.

      Like or Dislike: Thumb up 8 Thumb down 0

      Posted by Daniel Bader | March 19, 2011, 9:32 pm

  29. The 1950 mAh battery alone pretty much has me sold…

    Like or Dislike: Thumb up 2 Thumb down 0

    Posted by daveincanada | March 20, 2011, 11:44 pm
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  30. I ahve already exchange my atrix for a new one. The finger swipe stopped working. Hardware exchange. Not a good way to start.

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    Posted by Rick Morayniss | March 21, 2011, 8:18 am
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  31. BTW, HTC is locking bootloaders now. ThunderBolt Locked.

    Enjoy

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    Posted by KingK | March 21, 2011, 4:15 pm
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  32. nice ! I went to Cotsco to try this phone and the demo unit was unusable :(

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    Posted by Jérémie Pettigrew | March 22, 2011, 1:09 am
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  33. Android shipped on Atrix does recognize and use both cores. Have a look at Smartbench 2011 results published on http://smartphonebenchmarks.com

    Clearly, all Tegra 2 devices outperform all single-core devices by a huge margin.

    The key factor here is the “SMP” flag. If Android is compiled with this flag on, then it WILL recognize multiple cores and let apps use them.

    Like or Dislike: Thumb up 0 Thumb down 0

    Posted by JohnB | March 22, 2011, 1:46 am
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  34. Its Motorola, therefore junk. The last good phone Motorola ever maid was the 650flip

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    Posted by blargh | April 19, 2011, 8:34 am
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  35. I read that call quality was excellent, but how about voice volume and ring volume? Are they loud enough to be heard in LOUD environments? Missed calls because the ringer isn’t violently loud when the phone is tucked away on your hip under your jacket while driving sucks. How about hands-free Bluetooth voice dialing? Looking at this for a new phone, but it has to work well as a phone first.

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    Posted by GinNB | April 23, 2011, 9:04 pm
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  36. I ma running gingerbread on my atrix no problem…it’s called doing the updates

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    Posted by William | November 18, 2011, 2:18 pm
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  37. This is the worst phone I have ever had. The first week of having it I had to exchange it for a new one because the first one was picking up a double touch. Then I had to send it in for repairs because of software issues. Then two weeks after getting it back the battery overheated to point in which the screen went black. This time they replaced the handset again. Know this phone has another software issue and sends all emails 20x and constantly says to that needs to force close because motorola can perform this function. This happens well texting, calling, checking email just basic functions. I will never ever own a motorola phone again.Know i am stuck with this phone on my contract.

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    Posted by chantell | April 2, 2012, 8:36 pm
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  38. biggest waaste of time and money biggest piece of sh*t ever gone through 2 atrix phones and its only bin 1.5 yrs

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    Posted by steve | May 16, 2012, 8:45 pm
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