The ATRIX HD LTE, or the Atrix 3 to those averse to acronym-heavy names, equates to a list of firsts for Motorola: its first device with a 720p screen; its first with LTE connectivity; its first with on-screen buttons (besides the recently-released RAZR V); and its first with Ice Cream Sandwich. It’s also the company’s best smartphone by far, and one of my favourite devices of the year. What makes the ATRIX HD LTE so good? Read on to find out.

Specs:

- Android 4.0.4 with custom Motorola skin
- 4.5-inch 1280 x 720 pixel TFT LCD display with ColorBoost
- 1.5Ghz Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 processor
- 1GB RAM, 8GB internal storage (5GB usable), microSD slot
- 8MP back camera with flash, 1.3MP front-facing camera
- WiFi, Bluetooth 4.0, GPS, WiFi Direct
- 69.9 x 133.5 x 8.4 mm
- 140g
- EDGE/HSPA+/LTE
- 1780mAh battery

Design

The ATRIX HD LTE bears little resemblance to its namesake. Rather, it takes cues from the existing RAZR line and looks far more like the Rogers-released RAZR XT910 than the Bell-released MB860. We like this: the Atrix, which is 8.4mm at its thinnest point, is comfortable and well-constructed without being oversized.

It’s not a striking handset by any means — while there is a satisfying symmetry on the phone’s face, the bezel is larger than most modern handsets, reminding us once again that Motorola is focused more on function than form. The TFT screen, too, likely keeps the device a millimetre or so thicker than its AMOLED-festooned peers, but the vividness of its colours and sharpness of its text is something to behold.

The Atrix has rounder edges and less harsh angles than its Kevlar-equipped brethren which makes it, in my opinion, a more mature-looking device. High-quality components prevail throughout: the Atrix uses a much more rigid, higher-quality plastic than the recently-reviewed RAZR V, and the right-side power button is subtly textured for optimized sightless operation. On top the the HD has a mini HDMI port, microUSB port and 3.5mm headphone jack; the left side has a small latch that opens to reveal the microSD and microSIM slots. Yes, thankfully the Atrix HD uses a microSIM.

The advantage of being comparatively thicker than the RAZR is that the Atrix suffers less from “reverse chin disease.” While the camera module protrudes slightly and converges with the battery cover in a gentle curve, the transition is not stark, nor does it alter the balance of the device in the hand. This was one of my main complains about the RAZR, being thin for thinness sake. Unfortunately the Atrix is not equipped with a larger-than-average battery, but the 1780mAh non-removable cell is treated kindly by Qualcomm’s Snapdragon S4 SoC with integrated LTE.

Display

Motorola’s first HD display, equipped with on-screen navigation buttons, is stunning. While not an OLED part, blacks are Super LCD-deep and text is some of the sharpest I’ve seen from a mobile display. At 4.5-inches, its pixel density is higher than the HTC One X and Galaxy S III, though by virtue of its TFT roots the screen is more recessed than those handsets. This is due to the LCD being separate from the glass; Super AMOLED and Super LCD screens fuse the LCD, digitizer and glass together for an impression much closer to the surface.

The digitizer on the Atrix is not quite as sensitive as I’m used to. Occasionally when scrolling down a webpage or an email, a slight brush of the screen would activate a link or fail to register my touch altogether; the screen must be acquitted more firmly. Viewing angles, too, fail to impress compared to the two aforementioned devices, but that’s where the downsides end.

Colours are vivid, making media a pleasure to view or watch on the device. Despite calls of oversaturation from other reviewers, I found the calibration to be close to perfect on our testing unit. Text is some of the sharpest I’ve seen from a mobile display and whites were accurate. Auto-brightness worked as expected, and levels adjusted smoothly as lighting changed in the room. While not the easiest device to use in sunlight, it blew past the Galaxy S III in our outdoor viewing tests.

It must also be noted that, aside from the Galaxy Nexus, this is the most powerful device released in Canada with on-screen buttons. While not for everyone — Samsung and HTC have ensured users won’t get too comfortable with the virtual menu button — as more developers add support for Android’s 4.0+ Holo guidelines, Motorola stands to benefit the most from this extra real estate. Having those virtual buttons, which disappear when watching video such as Bell Mobile TV, is a huge advantage over comparable devices, and proves that Google was in the right by changing the way we interact with our navigation buttons in Ice Cream Sandwich.

Performance & Software

The Atrix HD LTE is equipped with Qualcomm’s Snapdragon S4 SoC clocked at 1.5Ghz. This is the same chip used in the North American HTC One X and Galaxy S III and holds up extremely well to benchmarks and day-to-day performance. Due to the relative light-weight nature of Motorola’s skin — it’s as close to stock as any manufacturer is likely to offer without removing features — the Atrix’s build of ICS feels faster than any other device on the market, including the Galaxy S III.

As we move away from our emphasis on benchmarks which do not positively convey how a device feels in everyday use, I will emphasize that the Atrix can and does handle anything you throw at it. While it doesn’t have four cores, nor the fastest graphics processor on the market, there was never a time I found myself saying, ‘I wish this was faster’. The reason we’re moving away from using benchmarks as a gauge for smartphone performance? Despite blazing performance in all the apps and games we tested, its scores (for example Quadrant seen above) were 10-15% lower than the Galaxy S III and One X.

The new launcher embedded in Motorola’s build of Android 4.0.4 resembles stock Android in many ways, including the ability to easily create folders and swipe away notifications, but the company has gone a step further and integrated some pretty useful features that go far beyond what Android was built to do.

The launcher may look like stock ICS, but a few of Motorola’s first-party app icons — Phone, Email, Browser, Messages, Email — have a little arrow near the top right. Flicking up on the icon reveals a mini widget that overlays atop the screen, allowing you to scroll through missed calls, emails, text messages and browser bookmarks. It proved to be a handy and often-used feature, and proves just how versatile Android can be.

And the homescreen layout has been tweaked a bit: new pages are added to the far right, and Motorola has included some templates to accomodate new users. The four-icon dock is customizable, too, but you’re always welcome to install a custom launcher such as Nova or Apex if stock isn’t up to snuff.

There’s also SmartActions, which we spoke about in our RAZR V review. They do a good job at automating some of the most arduous tasks one would think to perform on a smartphone, such as time- and location-based silencing of your ringer, or turning off certain radios such as WiFi or GPS when not in use. This version goes further than last year’s sending suggestions at certain intervals which you can choose to activate or ignore. I found battery life improved significantly after turning on the Low Battery Saver option, though I wish the phone was NFC-enabled as Smart Actions would be great with SmartTags.

Overall, you’re unlikely to be disappointed with the version of Android Motorola has put together. It’s the closest to stock Ice Cream Sandwich we’ve ever seen on a shipping device and all alterations to the interface are improvements. The phone does have a few pieces of bloatware from Bell and Motorola, but they can be disabled by going into Settings/Apps. The HD screen is really great for Mobile TV, if your plan gives you access to it.

The one issue I had with the software is the constant ‘Bell’ logo in the notification bar. It’s a constant reminder that the Atrix is a Bell exclusive, and takes up much-needed space at the top of the screen.

Camera

Here’s where things get a bit muddled. While the Atrix takes decent photos, it’s not nearly up to the standards set by the iPhone 4S and Samsung Galaxy S III. And we mean not even close. For some reason Motorola can’t quite get its stuff together when it comes to sourcing decent sensors and lenses, and while the user interface is positively overhauled, and the speed at which you can take photos is fantastic, the end results are often far less impressive.

The Snapdragon S4 chip allows for 5-shot burst mode and an instant shutter, so if it’s speed you’re worried about, don’t fret. Shots taken in good quality light tend to have a blueish tinge to them, as if the software can’t quite figure out the proper white balance. Detail is plentiful in those scenarios, with only a slight amount of grain or distortion. Move inside, or dim the lights, however, and you’re met with Mr. Grain in large doses, and he doesn’t taste very good.

The phone’s 1080p video quality is moderate at best, and suffers from softness and grain. Captured audio is good — better than on most smartphones — but is still not nearly usable for anything other than sharing the occasional clip on YouTube. We’re not at a point yet where, despite the purported “HD quality” of captured video, smartphones can be used for anything other than casual life journaling.

Battery Life

Again, decent. While we were hoping for a RAZR MAXX-style 3000+ mAh battery in the Atrix HD, the device had no trouble lasting through the day. LTE is still a considerable battery drain, but the Snapdragon S4 processor is one of the most efficient chips on the market and we rarely worried about the device dying on us.

That’s not to see we didn’t encounter some strange battery issues. On one particularly vexing streetcar ride, I yanked the device out of my pocket after discovering it had reached a temperature close enough to burning my skin. There were no open apps or processes that I could tell — some demon in the background was keeping the CPU at 100% utilization, knocking off around 1% of battery life per minute. A restart fixed the problem, but I still don’t know what caused the erratic behaviour. This happened several times over the course of a few days, despite a careful consideration of which third-party apps I had installed on the device.

Nonetheless, I was able to keep the device on and operating for around 16 hours on a regular day, surfing the web, answering emails, making phone calls, tweeting, ‘booking, and ‘gramming (that’s Twitter, Facebook and Instagram for those not in the know). With less intense use, I wouldn’t be surprised to see the Atrix surviving nearly two days on a single charge, especially with assiduous use of Battery Saving features.

Note that in the Power Menu (when you hold down the power button for a second) there is an option to enter into Sleep mode, which is great for movies or other activities when you don’t want your phone to be on and using battery, but want quick access to it after the fact.

Network Speeds, Call Quality & More

As with most newer LTE devices, regardless of carrier, network speeds on the Atrix were astounding. We averaged around 30Mbps down and 23Mbps up, and achieved over 35/30 in some tests. Over HSPA+ the device was markedly slower but still blazing fast (and easier on the battery). Such speeds contributed to instant page loads, effortless app downloads and wait-free streaming on services such as Netflix, Bell Mobile TV and more.

Call quality, as with all Motorola devices, was excellent and above average compared to other OEMs. Some things never change, and in this case it’s a good thing. Audio quality from the headpiece and rear speakers were excellent and good, respectively, though maximum volume could have been higher on both.

Unfortunately the same can’t be said for the phone’s reception. Inside a room with thick walls in a small Ontario town, I laid a Galaxy S III (LTE), a new iPad and the Atrix HD LTE next to one another. The two former devices had 2-3 bars of HSPA+ — this was well outside LTE range — while the Motorola struggled to keep a signal at all. When in downtown Toronto, or a place with plentiful 1900Mhz signal, the Atrix maintained full bars of LTE or HSPA+, but keep this in mind if you live in a region of mediocre Bell service and plan to purchase this device.

Conclusions

The ATRIX HD LTE is one of my favourite Android devices of the moment, and speaks to how Motorola has been constantly listening to its customers. Not only has the company opened a bootloader unlock service for developers and custom ROM creators, but they have pared back many of the MOTOBLUR software quirks that irked Motorola loyalists since the original Milestone.

This particular phone is neither complicated nor prophetic. It sits comfortably in the realm of “near-the-top” Android devices with a three-year term price far below that of most of its competitors. Indeed, I prefer Motorola’s no-frills software to Samsung’s overwrought and garish TouchWIZ on the Galaxy S III. And while the latter’s software may have the edge in terms of design, battery life and camera quality, the Atrix has a denser, sharper screen, virtual navigation buttons and a competitive price. It achieves so much because it doesn’t come off as trying too hard.

The ATRIX HD LTE is available for $49.95 on a three-year term or $599.95 outright, exclusively from Bell.

Motorola hasn’t made too much noise since the release of the revamped Rogers-exclusive RAZR in November. Now, nine months later, the RAZR V hits the market on Bell and Virgin for a significantly more affordable price in a body that makes some concessions to achieve it. In many ways this is the same phone that Motorola released last year — internally and externally — but stands on its own with a great new build of Ice Cream Sandwich and a more compact design. Is it worth your time and money? Read on to find out.

Specs

- Android 4.0.4 with (slightly) custom Motorola skin
- 4.3-inch 960×540 TFT display with ColorBoost
- 1.2Ghz dual-core TI OMAP 4430 SoC
- 1GB RAM, 4GB internal storage, microSD slot
- 8MP back camera with flash, 0.3MP front-facing camera
- WiFi, GPS, Bluetooth, FM Radio
- 65.8 x 128.5 x 8.35 mm
- 125g

Design & Display

The RAZR V definitely resembles the original with its angular face, sloping Kevlar backing and chrome accents, but Motorola has certainly toned down the quality of materials. While the RAZR V by no means feels cheap, there is a definite plasticky aspect to it that was absent on the premium-feeling RAZR.

The RAZR V is also some 5mm narrower than the sometimes-unwieldy RAZR, and it feels much more comfortable in the hand as a result. The screen, too, while on paper the same as the RAZR — a 4.3-inch display at 960×540 pixels — is somewhat sharper and less distracting than its predecessor. Instead of going the Super AMOLED route, Motorola opted for a traditional TFT LCD display, making text significantly sharper and whites much more accurate. While it loses the deep blacks and lovely colour saturation that comes with a Super AMOLED screen, we did not miss the RAZR’s moiré aberrations and distinct lack of sharpness.

While the device, at around 8.4mm thick, does not come close to the impossibly thin dimensions of its predecessor, we think Motorola made the right move for the end user. It’s more compact overall, which makes it feel like a smaller handset despite being 1.3mm thicker than the RAZR.

Note that the RAZR V uses a regular-sized SIM over a microSIM, and shares a latch door with the microSD slot on the left hand side. The volume rocker is nicely delineated on the right, and the power button, headset jack and microUSB port sit flush on the top.

Performance & Software

As the RAZR V uses largely the same internal hardware as the Rogers version released last year, we weren’t expecting any performance miracles. Motorola has done a lot with the software, however, and this is not your mother’s MOTOBLUR. The version we see on the RAZR V, which runs Android 4.0.4, resembles in many ways the stock Ice Cream Sandwich experience. While transitions between homescreens are not quite as smooth as those on the Galaxy Nexus, we felt right at home navigating around the menus.

The RAZR V uses Texas Instrument’s aging OMAP 4430 processor clocked at 1.2Ghz, with 1GB RAM and 4GB internal storage. It’s also limited to Bell’s HSPA+ network at 14.4Mbps, but many of these things are built into the price. Still, considering the ATRIX HD LTE is only $20 more on the same Bell network and offers a better array of internal hardware and software, we’d be inclined to recommend that one over the RAZR V. If you’re insistant on the smaller form factor, you’ll be pleasantly surprised by the spritely app load times, total lack of lagginess when scrolling through the browser, and a stability that could only have come from Motorola.

The company’s SmartActions have been updated for ICS, and now provide recommendations based on usage patterns. For example, the device can keep track of your favourite locations or times of day and, based on your battery life, enable a Battery Saving mode. Similarly, if you tend to go to bed every night around midnight, you can have SmartActions enable Silent Mode and suppress the screen from turning on during the night if you receive a notification.

Motorola has also added a four-way lockscreen shortcut system that provides easy access to the camera, phone and messaging. But perhaps the most notable admission of Motorola’s integration into Google’s corporate culture is the inclusion of virtual buttons in place of capacitive ones. Both the RAZR V and ATRIX HD LTE sport the Galaxy Nexus-like on-screen navigation icons, and while they have been slightly altered from stock, they work identically. We couldn’t be happier.

Camera

The 8MP camera on the RAZR V does a decent job at capturing moments in good lighting, but suffers from Motorola’s reliable distortion and softness. That’s not to say the camera is bad — the interface is fantastic, with easy-to-reach granular controls, and the shutter is snappy for a piece of older tech — but it doesn’t reach the heights of other 8MP sensors on the market. With the bar being set so high by the iPhone 4S, Galaxy S III and HTC One X, it’s easy to dismiss the RAZR V as underperforming. But we have to take into account the handset’s price — $399 outright or $29.95 on a 3-year term — and cut it a bit of slack as a result.

The device can also shoot modestly smooth and detailed 1080p video, though again it lacks the sharpness and smoothness of its ATRIX HD LTE sibling. The VGA front-facing camera does a decent job at video chats and vanity shots, but we wouldn’t recommend using it for anything other than a mirror.

Battery Life

SmartActions is supposed to allow your battery to last up to 30% longer than an equivalent device, but we were happy to find that the RAZR V didn’t need it to last a full day. The 1750mAh battery was sufficiently large to see us through most of the day with regular calling, browsing, emailing, photo-ing and more. While the PowerVR SGX540 GPU is no longer the graphical beast it once was, we found it to be pretty light on the battery wallet when playing games or watching video.

We were a bit vexed that Motorola didn’t manage to squeeze in a larger battery — something like the 3300mAh cell of the RAZR MAXX would have been nice — considering all the extra proverbial legroom, but we’d imagine it would have raised the price of the handset considerably. Nevertheless, the juice, coupled with liberal application of battery-oriented SmartActions, should allow for one-day-plus usage from the RAZR V.

Call Quality, Network Speed & Miscellaneous

As with all Motorola phones, the RAZR V is solid as a phone. Call quality is unsurpassed in the industry, with a sharp, clear feed that never sounds muddled or sibilant. Call volume, too, is more than adequate for even the loudest of rooms, and Motorola’s background noise suppression works very well.

Because the RAZR V is a HSPA+ device, it’s network speeds are limited to Bell’s 3G network. We were able to achieve around 4-6Mbps download and 0.5-2Mbps upload depending on the location and time of day. Compared to the newest LTE devices this is nothing to write home about, but we were pretty pleased with the performance overall.

Bell and Motorola have bundled a number of apps on the RAZR V, including some business-oriented services such as Citrix GoToMeeting and Receiver. There’s also a full version of Gameloft’s Asphalt 6 and Bell’s Mobile TV app, among others. Because the platform has been upgraded to Ice Cream Sandwich, you can now disable unwanted apps, which is the next best thing to being able to uninstall them.

Conclusions

The Bell Motorola RAZR V is a good little smartphone at a decent price. Because its bigger brother, the ATRIX HD LTE, is priced so closely — just $20 more  than the RAZR’s $29.95 on a 3-year term — we can’t fully endorse it unless you’re buying it outright. At $399.95, it’s an excellent deal if you’re looking to go off-contract and want an all-round high-performing handset with a great screen, good battery life and a solid, close-to-stock operating system.

Motorola’s MOTOACTV is geek fitness chic. It’s a utilitarian square piece of metal and plastic, a low-powered ARM processor and 8GB of storage; some sensors and an accelerometer; a pair of headphones and some cloud sync capabilities. It’s not going to change your life unless you let it, and just like every fitness utility, you get out only as much as you put in.

But at its core, the $249.99 MOTOACTV appears to be one of the best, and most versatile, options for the avid runner, cyclist or golfer (more on that later).

Design

MOTOACTV’s design is nothing more than a reframed iPod nano, a square housing with an optional clip; the front is glass, the back a reflective mirror metal. It feels well-made, and likely is if it stands a chance against the elements; I dropped it several times (on purpose, and a couple times by accident) and it fared extremely well. Its 1.6-inch screen has a tired resolution of 176×220 pixels, and is covered with a smattering of Gorilla Glass.

There are five buttons and a capacitive area: volume up, volume down and power are on the right side; Start and Music are on top; the Android back button is on the face, under the screen. This limits its use to a single orientation, something I wish Motorola had taken into account when designing the device, since it’s not easy to consistently clip it the right way to a jacket or shirt. It involves having to remove it from the included clip and reorient it.

Start and Music operate independently: the former jumps into a workout screen while the latter either jumps into the music screen or pauses the current song. There is a microUSB port for charging and syncing with the computer, covered by a piece of rubber. In this case I’d say the rubber is welcome, since the MOTOACTV claims to be sweat resistant and rain proof.

The back area, as stated, is made of metal and has raised edges that allow the unit to slide easily into a number of proprietary accessories. The included clothes clip is the cleanest and likely most useful; I found it to be extremely tight, and fell only once despite numerous attempts to disengage the clip. I also had a chance to try the $19.99 Sports Arm Band, which uses the same attachment technique. Both accessories are well made and fundamental to the enjoyment of the gadget, and there are optional bike mount, watch strap and both wired and wireless headphones, each sold separately. It’s clear that Motorola is attempting to sell you the razor as well as a number of pricey blades here.

Usability

The Android-based interface is sparse but robust. There are four main areas in which you’ll spend your time: Watch, Workout, Music and Notifications.

The MOTOACTV is a bit too bulky to be used comfortably as a watch, but it can be configured as such. There are a number of timepieces available, ranging from the “train station” digital design to an apocalyptic analog face and many in between. That same screen also displays the calories burned and steps taken, which is reset at midnight each night. The device uses the included accelerometer to gauge the level of activity, but I found it easy to trick, and by the end of the day usually had a few thousand unearned steps in my tally. I can’t vouch for the caloric accuracy, either, but to have both is a reassuring presence.

The Watch screen also allows you to configure a digital timer, stopwatch and enable or disable a wakeup gesture, which will turn on the screen if you not-so-vigorously shake the unit. The problem is that with this gesture turned on the screen tends to wake up and go back to sleep every few seconds while walking, wasting precious battery life. At the same time it’s very useful if you’re using it as a watch; I wish there was a way to adjust the sensitivity of the shaking.

The Workout screen is, if you’re an avid runner, cyclist or even walker, where you’ll be spending the bulk of your time. It allows you to configure time, distance (or both) as well as calorie goals for the specific workout. You can also just press start and work it all out at the end. The MOTOACTV takes care of GPS location (though it was occasionally difficult to find a satellite lock), calories burned, speed and distance travelled. The MotoActv.com service also lets you upload these results to Motorola’s portal, tracking individual workouts and improvement over time.

As of a recent software update, the MOTOACTV also allows you to download golf course information from around the world, tracking distance, ball location and a number of other stat-junkie goodness. You’re not limited to those activities, though: the device is pre-programmed for Elliptical, Step Machine, Walking and Cycling, in addition to running. You can also set a custom activity such as Badminton, Baseball, Hockey and more. Each of these provides enough material to gauge improvement over time, and if you enter personal information such as weight and height when beginning your training, the device will tell you how much you need to work to hit a certain weight target.

Music

The MOTOACTV also comes with 8GB of internal storage, and a number of pre-loaded workout songs that I found completely all over the map. However, in addition to Motorola’s MotoCast app, which allows you to sync iTunes playlists to the device, you can merely drag and drop songs or albums in Windows’ or OS X’s file manager and the unit will parse all the necessary metadata.

Music plays into workouts in inestimably important ways, and Motorola thought ahead on this one, too. By default there is a permanent playlist called Fitness Music. You can choose individual songs to add to this playlist, which play when you start exercising. The harder you work while listening to a particular song, MOTOACTV’s algorithms figure out when and how often to play the song. If you take a particular running route every day, and tend to lag during an uphill, for example, the song that gets you the most pumped will begin playing as soon as the previous one is finished. It’s an excellent feature that I appreciated, especially during early morning runs when I wasn’t very happy to be out in the cold.

As a general music player, however, MOTOACTV does a decent job, though the Android-based interface is rather clunky. While there are slick transition animations, I would have loved to see gesture-based navigation such as on Apple’s fifth-generation iPod nano. Repeated use of the back button gets tiresome after a few clicks, and while you can hold it down to return quickly to the home screen, there is little panache to the procedure, especially when you’re shelling out nearly $300 for the device.

Conclusions

The MOTOACTV is something I’ve taken to wearing every day, even if I’m not exercising heavily. I use it as a pedometer and a calorie counter and, more recently, as a music player. It supports Bluetooth with A2DP profiles, so my stereo headphones play just fine; it can map out my walking routes and determine how far and how quickly I’ve been moving; and it lasts a long time. The battery can be relied on for 20 hours before it gives in, and Motorola has thankfully included a dual-USB wall charger with the kit so you can plug in your phone and the MOTOACTV before you go to sleep. That’s thinking ahead.

I noticed that, just sitting idly, the device depletes around 30% battery every eight hours, so be sure to plug it in. Battery usage will be inevitably higher if you choose to connect it to various ANT+ compatible sensors such as a heart-rate monitor.

Considering you can participate in challenges on MotoActv.com, and have people comment on your workouts, encouraging you to do better, the device succeeds as both a social tool and an individual motivator. For $250, it’s by no means cheap, and by the time you’re done paying into the various accessories you could be closer to $400. But if you’re serious about fitness — and an increasing number of geeks and non-geeks alike are — MOTOACTV is a very compelling product.

The prepaid market is one that we don’t really broach too often, but it’s an essential component of everyday life for millions of Canadians. While the penetration rate for smartphones is nearly 40%, it’s still much more common to see someone with a cheap flip phone or aging candybar walking down the street. Smartphones are essential to peoples’ lives, but so is the savings from a $89.99 prepaid phone paired with a $20/month commitment-free rate plan.

The MOTOKEY SOCIAL, hereby deemed Motokey for austerity sake, is an interesting take on the the portrait QWERTY phone. At first glance it appears quite similar to the previously-reviewed Android-powered Motorola Pro+ but for the smaller screen and dedicated Facebook button.

Let’s take a look at this pseudo-smartphone and see if it’s right for you, or your younger sibling.

Specs:

- Custom Motorola operating system
- 2.4″ 320×240 capacitive touch screen
- 64MB RAM, 128MB ROM (50MB user available) with microSD slot
- 3MP camera
- GSM 850/900/1800/1900, EDGE Class 10, WCDMA 850/1900
- 910mAh battery
- WiFi / Bluetooth, GPS
- WiFi hotspot support
- Built-in Facebook button
- Stereo FM radio
- 87g
- 60 x 105.5 x 9.98 mm

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It’s important to note that the Motokey is not, depending on your definition, a smartphone. It runs a touchscreen-”friendly” operating system, but it’s a far cry from the versatility of Android, or even Samsung’s Bada.

This simple Java-based operating system is surprisingly robust, with capacitive touchscreen support and native social networking features. There are smartphone features we take for granted, such as a Java browser (Opera Mobile), Twitter, Facebook, Gmail, Yahoo and weather applets. I’d be remiss to call them apps, but they perform ably enough.

There are five home screens, each of which is adorned with various widgets and app icons; holding down on one will bring up an ugly prompt asking to change the source of that shortcut. You cannot move an icon, or replace it with a widget, so an icon must be replaced with another, and a widget with another, and so on. The system works quite well, though getting things exactly right is time-consuming and cumbersome. Nevertheless, we have to go back to one thing: this phone provides, for $90, similar albeit vastly simplified functionality as a device three or four times the price.

The hardware is quite hardy for such an inexpensive device. The keyboard is similar to the one on the Motorola Pro+, but adds a dedicated number row in the space where an extra half-inch of screen space would be. The keys are spritely and well-honed, spaced just right for messaging hounds; the number row will appease those with aversions to the “BlackBerry Way” of holding down the alt key for most secondary presses. As you can see, like the Android-powered HTC Status there is a dedicated Facebook button near the bottom left of the keyboard. Such an inclusion leaves no doubt as to whom this diminutive device is to be marketed to.

The 2.4″ QVGA screen is appreciably crummy, but not a write-off. With sufficient brightness, clarity and touch responsiveness, it’s a great deal better than a resistive layer. Viewing angles are pretty laughable though, and you can see the banding in most gradients, owing to the limited colour palette.

Around the back is a 3MP camera, for which the software could be worse: one-touch Facebook sharing, plus decent response time makes for a pleasant enough experience. I foresee many young people pointing the lens at their own faces, friends gathering in the shot for a candid self-portrait. The lack of flash is no surprise, but one can take grainy and low-framerate video at a decent 640×480 resolution.

Though the phone does not come with a microSD slot, the phone supports one up to 32GB, and it’s a good thing too, since there are only 50MB of usable storage out of the box for photos, video and music. There is a decent media player built in, though, to accompany the top-side 3.5mm headphone jack. Indeed, the phone appears to be a smartphone from the look of it: it is charged with an industry-standard microUSB cable (provided, thankfully) and has similarly robust build quality.

The Motokey is ringed by a chrome plastic bezel, to which a sturdy battery cover is attached. Underneath the hood is a 910mAh battery, but I had no issues with the battery. Since I couldn’t perform my usual suite of battery tests (for lack of apps), I merely repeated a short video I filmed until the cell wore to zero. The phone lasted nearly fifteen hours on medium brightness, indicating a relatively mild battery draw under load.

Surprisingly, the Motokey has a built-in WiFi hotspot feature to accompany the HSPA+ baseband inside. Telus offers a wide range of Prepaid Plans, though the base cost is 20c/min with a monthly plan and 30c/min without one. Data can be added, in 250MB/month increments, for $20, though it does not look like it can be combined with a voice plan. One plan, which includes such “deals” as $45/month Unlimited Voice gives you access to 5 numbers, plus evenings after 6pm and weekends and no-limit messaging, are a far cry from post-paid contract rates, but perform the function for those people who want nothing to do with a 3-year contract. Per-use data rates are $3/MB.

Thankfully, like all Motorola phones, call quality is excellent. There is an ample-sized speaker on the back for those tinny music urges, and the device, which is around the same height and width as the BlackBerry Curve 9360, is very comfortable to hold in the hand.

There is no doubt that the MOTOKEY SOCIAL is not aimed at me, nor most of our readers. But I decided to review it precisely because it is the type of phone that parents will buy their kids, or themselves, if cost is important and usage is kept to a minimum. Prepaid costs can add up quickly, but those who will seek one out are unlikely to be the heavy “Crackberry” users who will invest in an expensive handset.

As such, the Motokey gets a hearty recommendation without many of the reservations I usually foist on a smartphone. For $89.99 outright, and a $20/month prepaid plan which comes with no commitment, it’s the most robust and feature-filled fuss-free handset I’ve used.

The MOTOKEY SOCIAL is available from Telus for $89.99 outright.

Since then, three things have happened: 1) It received an upgrade to Gingerbread, which completely overhauled its software and gave it a huge performance boost. 2) Its bootloader was unlocked, allowing for custom ROMs, kernels and recoveries. 3) It’s been surpassed time and time again by its competitors, including some more recent Motorola devices.

But to its credit the Atrix, with its 4″ qHD display, 1Ghz dual-core Tegra 2 processor, 1GB RAM, 16GB internal storage and huge 1930mAh battery, has survived the onslaught of time pretty well.

First, let’s go over what has held up well. Since its launch every major ARM-based manufacturer, from Qualcomm to Texas Instruments to Samsung, has released a dual-core solution. And even NVIDIA’s own Tegra 2, with which the Atrix was the first to launch in phone form, is about to be supplanted by the quad-core Tegra 3. But dual-core 1Ghz still feels fast, and using the Atrix now is not a significant step down from the latest Snapdragon or OMAP.

This is aided by the fact that the Atrix included 1GB of RAM when the rest of the industry was pumping out phones with half that number. Multitasking still feels effortless and fluid. The included 16GB storage has also aged well: there isn’t a single Android phone on the market that ships with more than that.

The Atrix’s speed practically doubled overnight when Bell released the Gingerbread update in August. In truth, though, I installed Android 2.3 long before that, when enterprising hackers unlocked the device’s bootloader and discovered, hidden in plain sight on Motorola’s servers, early builds of the eventual upgrade. Not only was it a big aesthetic change — they did away with most of Froyo’s ugly, blocky design choices — but Motorola injected some magic into the kernel, as the device just flew.

Then came CyanogenMOD7. From being one of the most locked-down devices on the market emerged a piece of versatile hardware that now has a vibrant development community. CM7 changed the way I used the Atrix, giving it the same enormous feature set as the other 50+ handsets supported by the custom ROM.

And, whether you’re running a custom stock-based ROM or CM7, various kernel improvements have helped developers push the capabilities of the 1930mAh battery to unbelievable levels. The Atrix is still, by far, the longest-lasting Android device I’ve ever used. I can easily get two days of use from it.

Physically, the Atrix hasn’t aged so well. Stout even at its release, it feels practically bloated now. We know now the extra girth was needed to accomodate the huge battery, but its plastic body and flimsy battery cover have since been condemned to the “2010 design faux pas” category.

I still think that its 4″ screen size makes for a very comfortable experience —  far better than the 4.3″ – 4.6″ variety. The qHD screen is a slim 16:9 ratio, so the Atrix is easy to hold between two fingers. The quality of the screen, however, leaves a LOT to be desired. This is the area in which Motorola has fallen the farthest behind — even on their latest handset — and after using the Galaxy Nexus and Optimus LTE extensively, the PenTile-inclined Atrix looks practically terrible. With inaccurate colours and poor viewing angles, not to mention practically unreadable text at its furthest zoom, we’re happy these days are behind us.

Moving on, the Atrix is a great phone. No, I mean an actual phone: sound quality from the earpiece and speaker is still best-in-class. Fundamentally, this makes it a mean business phone. It’s got all those great Motorola business features such as built-in certificates and extensive vendor VPN support. And remember, it has that unique fingerprint scanner that has yet to make it, for better or worse, to any other smartphone.

The camera on the Atrix still sucks. That won’t change, and as other manufacturers make improvements to their optics the Atrix will begin looking even worse in comparison. Focus is slow, low-light quality atrocious and photos overall lack detail and colour.

But with the Gingerbread update came a nice bonus: 1080p video recording. Though it took a third-party app to actually capture video at such a high resolution, today we have a phone that captures decent true HD at 24fps.

The Atrix was one of the first Android handsets to come with an HDMI-out port, capable of transmitting a 1080p signal to your home theatre system. And while it came with a Webtop and HDMI dock, sold separately, its built-in HDMI mirroring feature was enough for most people.

The Atrix, nearly a year later, is still going strong. Countless Android handsets have been released since March, boasting improved internal specs, sharper screens and better build quality. But then, as now, Bell’s first superphone still retains many of the qualities that made it such a compelling device to begin with.

Update: According to their sources, the Atrix 2 will not be LTE-capable despite previous hints as to the otherwise. Sorry for the confusion!

We know that Rogers and Bell are in the process of rolling out Canada-wide LTE networks to satiate the millions of data-hungry mobile users across the nation. We also know that Rogers (but not Bell) is releasing an LTE-capable Samsung Galaxy S II later this year.

Now screenshots have leaked of an upcoming refresh to the Atrix, which internally at Motorola is going by the codename Edison, on the way to AT&T. The good news is that AT&T’s upcoming LTE network is using the same AWS spectrum as our carriers’, with a view to the upcoming 700Mhz spectrum, too, when it’s auctioned off next year.

Other specs include a 1.2-1.5Ghz dual-core chip, most likely powered by Texas Instrument’s OMAP SoC, an 8MP camera capable of 1080p video, and the newest version of Android (though Ice Cream Sandwich has not been confirmed). The screen also looks to be a shoe-in for the original’s qHD 960×540 pixel resolution, though with a slightly larger 4.3″ or 4.5″ screen.

Considering the Atrix was Bell’s first superphone, and is still a pretty beefy machine, the sequel will have some pretty high expectations. Hopefully they can improve the PenTile screen and smooth out the rough interface edges, and keep decent battery life, and they’ve got a surefire hit on their hands. One more pic after the break.

Source: BGR

So what does Moto do now that its RAZR brand is dated enough to be considered nostalgic? Well, in this impatient age, it brings it back, of course, to rule again! According to the above screenshot the device used to take it is referred to as a Droid RAZR. Yes, EXIF data from a smartphone can easily be faked, but let’s pretend for a second that it isn’t. What would a RAZR need to look like for Moto? It would need to be the thinnest, lightest Android phone imaginable, with a view to design and functionality.

So, then, cast your mind back to the Motorola Slimline, a device that was leaked from a website redesign a few months ago that was subsequently yanked and pretended didn’t exist. While only a computer-generated render, it showed off a pretty unique clamshell smartphone design with a, ahem, droid-like backing and a curved front. We’d expect nothing less from Motorola if you chose to bring back the RAZR brand, but one thing is for certain: it couldn’t fail. Their entire legacy depends on it.

What do you think about the Droid RAZR? Would you buy one?

Source: Phandroid via Pocketnow (2)

While a select view devices have been released with unlocked bootloaders, for the most part Motorola has taken an unfriendly view to Android developers and their need to tinker. Tonight, however, a tweet from one @ibproud who started a campaign five months ago called “Unlock teh Bootloader” (sic) claims that he sat down with Chris Wyatt, a VP at Motorola and the company is deriving a scheme to unlock all existing and future bootloaders.

Current locked phones will be unlocked via a software update, and pending carrier approvals, available in late Q3 or early Q4 of this year. Why such a long wait? Even regular Android updates seem to take ages to be approved; releasing one that could potentially open up their devices to potential security threats will take a bit more scrutiny.

There is nothing official from Motorola itself just yet, but you can be sure that if this is true, the company, whose market share in recent quarters has been steadily ceded to HTC and Samsung, will try to use this good grace to its fullest advantage.

Source: Phandroid via AusDroid

Motorola Mobility focuses on cellphones and set-top-box “delivers personalised information to meet the needs of consumers both in the home and on the go” while Motorola Solutions will focus on public safety radio and enterprise handheld devices that “provides business and mission-critical communication products and services to enterprises and governments”. As for branding the businesses, the famous light blue Motorola logo of years past will go to the Solutions business and the Mobility business gets a brand new vibrant red logo.

Motorola is set to announce a number of new Android devices this year including smartphones and tablets.

Source: Motorola
Via: PhoneScoop & Engadget

The upgrade will not be Android OS 2.1 but will include the following: Improved Text Messaging, Bluetooth Improvements, Enhanced “Contacts” Feature, Improved Stability, Improved Battery Life, Improved Streaming Audio & Video Playback, Phone Application Improvements (to avoid occasional “Call Ended” notifications).

Moto states that “On Monday August 23rd we will have an optional early software release available for the Motorola Backflip from TELUS! Our goal is to have 200 customers test and provide feedback on the software before it is officially released to all customers! We will be making the preview software available via an over-the-air update from 10 am EST until we reach 200 users”. If you want in on this all you have to do is from your home screen hit the Menu > Settings > About phone > System Update.

Good luck to the 200 chosen ones, let us know how it goes.

More here at Motorola
Via: Twitter