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 Motorola Atrix Unlocked 4G Cell Phone with Android 2.2 OS. 4-inch HD touchscreen Rating on December 6 Rating: |
Motorola Atrix Unlocked 4G Cell Phone with Android 2.2 OS. 4-inch HD touchscreen
 | Motorola Atrix Unlocked 4G Cell Phone with Android 2.2 OS. 4-inch HD touchscreen 4.5 out of 5 from 40 user reviews. |
Technical Details
- Motorola Atrix 4G, featuring a dual-core processor, quarter HD resolution (540 x 960)
- 1GB of RAM, and huge 1930mAh battery
- This thing sounds like a monster, and we'll be all over it the first chance that we get
Product Description of Motorola Atrix Unlocked 4G Cell Phone with Android 2.2 OS. 4-inch HD touchscreen
Enjoy the power of mobile computing in the palm of your hand with the Motorola ATRIX 4G for AT&T, which offers a 1 GHz dual-core processor and the ability to connect to AT&T's ultra-fast 4G mobile broadband network. Powered by the Android 2.2 platform (learn more below), it also features Motorola's webtop application, which offers a PC-like experience and runs a full Mozilla Firefox 3.6 browser with support for Adobe Flash Player (requires optional dock). The world's first smartphone qHD display, offering high resolution and 24-bit color larger image. With AT&T's 4G network, you'll enjoy mobile broadband speeds up to 4x faster than AT&T's already fast mobile broadband network (learn more below). You also get the optional AT&T Mobile Hotspot service built right into the smartphone--enabling you to connect additional Wi-Fi-enabled devices to the phone's mobile broadband signal. The NVIDIA Tegra 2 dual-core processor (2 x 1 GHz) allows you to multi-task quickly, while the 1 GB of RAM provides PC-like power and performance. The 4-inch qHD touchscreen display offers a rich 24-bit color depth and a 960 x 540-pixel resolution for extremely sharp images. Other features include a 5-megapixel camera/camcorder that can capture video at HD 720p resolution, ultra-fast Wireless-N Wi-Fi networking, Bluetooth for stereo music streaming and connecting to peripherals, 16 GB internal memory, microSD expansion (up to 32 GB), MOTOBLUR for integrated social networking, GPS for location-based services and navigation using Google Maps, HDMI audio/video output, and up to 9 hours of talk time. The dual-core processor lets the ATRIX 4G render graphics and games faster, and everything you see on the ATRIX 4G screen is in crisp, rich 24-bit color with the world's first qHD (Quarter High Definition) smartphone display. And the ATRIX 4G offers up to 48 GB of memory--16 GB on board and an optional 32 GB microSD card.Similar Products
Review of Motorola Atrix Unlocked 4G Cell Phone with Android 2.2 OS. 4-inch HD touchscreen
Customer Reviews
Most helpful customer reviews
64 of 70 people found the following review helpful.
Really Nice Android PhoneBy Thomas M. Taylor
When I first saw the Atrix, I was mesmerized and had to wait a few months to get my hands on the phone. The specs of the Atrix is awesome and I have hope that the phone will live up to the promise that has been made. I have never used an Android phone before this one, but have used the Iphone since it came out and have the Iphone 4. I have used the Palm III, treo, BlackBerry ect... you get the point.
What comes with the phone? You get the phone, USB cord, A wall plug and the HDMI cable, instruction manual and battery. Everything one need to step off into the Atrix Android world.
One thing the iPhone user will notice that the Android software is more difficult to use. It may take a few hours just to get the basics down, but after the few hours a whole new world starts to open up. Unlike the Iphone who's software is easy to operate, the more you learn about Android, the more powerful the phone becomes.
Just a quick comparison Iphone 4 VS Atrix, the Iphone 4 display is way clearer and the screen is a little more responsive. The Artix has a user replaceable battery and the phone can be taken a part and fix for a lot less money than the Iphone. Now, I have never tried to take apart either phone, but the instructions and professional review of the taken down is on line.
One thing I would like to say is that the finger print reader works very well.
The world of Apps...
In Apps, Apple wins. Not much else to say there. The Apps that I use mostly are iHeart Radio (does not work on Atrix), Scrabble (Not found on Android store), Farkle (Android has but quality is lacking), Bloomberg and Fox News.
Wall Paper...
Android leaves Apple in the dust. The active wall paper cannot be beat by apple, you can have multiple home screens with live wall paper. I love knowing the time, temperature and forcast. If you are like me, the Android system, cannot be beat.
Ease of use...
Apple is a lot simpler to use. Just like pen and paper is easy, but if you are in the computer world, than a pen and paper just won't due, and this is where the Android system comes in. I cannot honestly say which system is best, Android or IOS. If you want simple, but lacking power, Iphone is the way. If you are a person who likes to play, Android is the choice.
Display:
The display is bright and colorful, but the diplay is not nearly as nice as the iPhone 4. The lack luster display is noticed especially noticed when reading texts and PDFs.
Camera and Flash:
The camera takes pretty good pictures. The LED flash works really good. I was able to take a picture in a nearly dark room and the subject came out clear and in focus. The LED flash filled the entire room. As a side note, there is a forward facing camera. I have not used and more than likely won't.
Speaker:
Very loud and clear when using to make calls, talk radio and listening to music. It is a small speaker so you will not get a lot (if any) bass from this little speaker.
Operating System:
I have never used Android before, so I have ability to describe between the Android, the Moto Blur, and if ATT messed it up I can't tell. The user of the Atrix must use the one app store that ATT backs, and the icon for the store comes preloaded. It would be nice to have more access to more stores, like Amazon, but if you get this phone, you are going to be stuck. The few apps that I have downloaded all seem to work fine and most of them were free. It would be nice it ATT did not pull the apple store garbage with this phone though.
The Atrix comes loaded with lots of software, commonly known as bloatware, but you get a lot of it. The software that runs on the computer is called "Motorola Media Link", this is kind of like "iTunes" in the sense that the Media Link software is a way for your computer to communicate with the Atrix. This nifty program will take you itunes music (Not DRM protected) and place the music on your new phone. You can also transfer your pod casts too. The Media Link is automatic and does not need to be messed with. I had no problems with the installation or use of the software. The Software is stored on your phone and will try to load on any computer that the Atrix is hooked up to.
Some of the really things about the Atrix that I like is the Micro SD slot (32BG max) for added memory and the user can remove the battery without having to go find apple support. I was also able to keep my unlimited data package, although a lot of AT&T customers have not been so lucky. AT&T also offers their $5.00/ month warranty on the phone as compared to the Iphone, and you do not have to hook the phone up to a computer the first time you use it. You do need to sign up for a MOTO account, nut it only takes a few seconds and you are able to use you new cell phone.
Things I do not like. I do not like the feel of the phone. My Iphone 4 feels better constructed and feels like it will not easily slip out of my hands, unlike the Atrix. I have not yet dropped the phone. The battery seems to take a long while to receive a charge too.
Big minus for the phone is the Lap top that you can purchase with the phone. I cannot see why I should spend 400.00 for the "dock" that is nothing but an empty screen. And then you have to pay ATT and extra ten per month for "tethering" the dock that is nothing but a screen to you phone. The price is too high for the extra ten you have to pay per month. You can can get a netbook that has more power and does more things for the same price.
Why did I give the Atrix only 4 stars? The Atrix is a good phone, but the lack luster construction of the phone and the steep learning curve do not make up for the other great features that the phone has to offer.
With the construction set aside, you cannot just load apps on your new phone. Like Apple, you can only purchase your apps from the included application on the phone. One reason for me gettig rid of my Iphone was the Apple store that you have to use. Well, thanks to AT&T, the owners ofthe Atrix are stuck too. You cannot side load applications eigther. A real star looser for me.
Update: 02/28/2011:
I have now used the Atrix for a few days so it was prudent to give an update.
Battery life:
The battery life is not to great. After getting the battery at 100%, I then took the Atrix to chuch where I used Bible Reader app as my bible. At the end of Sunday school and main service, the phone was down to 60%, after the evening service, the phone was down to 10%. Lack luster battery life is normal. The Iphones have poor battery life, and the Atrix bettery life is even shorter. There is a lot of heat build up during use and when charging. The phone charges slowly when charging from a computer USB with the display off, and does not charge at all it seems with the diplay on. I purchased a Micro USB car charger and it works wonderfully.
GPS Function:
I do not use the AT&T navigation, but the "Navigation" function that comes with the phone. The Android device does a wonderful with the GPS. Apple's GPS function and mapping capabilty always made the Apple Iphone a lst choice in trying to use as a GPS. The Android does a very good job with GPS, it is not on the level with a stand alone Garmen, but I do use a GPS alot to find customer houses and I would not hesitate to use the Atrix as my main GPS device. The GPS also has an option to use voice for the inputing of an address. It does work faily well, but the voice input for a destination (restraunt name)does not work as well.
When traveling to your destination, you can turn the screen of the GPS off and you will still get voice commands. If you are using the media player function through your cars stereo system, the music will mute and the directs will come through your car speakers.
DLNA Services
If you are like me, you have tons of videos sitting on your hard drive or network attached storage. The Atrix will find the media and play the media. I was able to stream several videos of differing formats with no problems at all. Honestly, I really do not think you will be uising the device as a 3" television set, but it does work. Apple does the same thing, but you must have iTunes and/or AppleTV.
A nifty little function that I have notice after owning the phone for several weeks, the DLNA service will try and link to your home media server where you are within the range of your "in house" network..
Ring Tones:
You can use and song or sound loaded on your phone as a ringtone. Easy to use, and it is free.
Update 3/9/2011
I tried to get Netflix on the phone and much to my surprise, Netflix does not have an App for the Android devices yet. So as an Atrix user, I am stuck paying an extra ten dollars to AT&T for their TV service. According to sources on the internet, Android will have an App adventually but it will be a marketed to new phones. You will see the phones labeled as "Nextflix compatable". Bummer
Update 03/16/2011
Phone is still owrking great. Had to turn the phone off and then back on yesterday. For some reason the phone would not update web based apps like stock market, bloomberg and weather. Turning the phone on and off solved the problem. I also purchased the otterbox defender for the Atrix... sweet phone case.
The Atrix does appear to have better reception when placing calls. i could not make a phone call at my work using the Iphone 4 but no problems with the Atrix.
Update 3/23/2011
Took the phone on a trip of several hundred miles to see how the GPS would function, the phone did a great job. The phone did stop responding when trying to accomplish several tasks quickly. I was not able to turn the phone off to reset the phone. I actually had to take the battery out. You can look at that problem as a possitive and negative. The battery had to be removed to reset the phone, but at least the battery is user accessible unlike the iPhone.
The phone was plugged into the 12 volt power in the car, no problems with the phone over heating or even the phone filling warm to the touch.
I am pleased to announce that iHeart radio now works.
4/3/2011 Update
I have updated the firm ware in the Atrix to 4.1.57 a couple days ago. The firmware update does help a lot with the battery not lasting. I can now get 1.5 days of use out of a full charge instead of having to monitor the battery constantly, and keeping the Atrix plugged in while at work.
ATT bandwidth problem is still there and the radio inside the Atrix is still disconnected thanks to ATT, but the update coming in April is supposed to fix those issues.
4/21/2011 Update:
Still waiting for the AT&T update that is coming out this month. Phone is working wonderful. No major problems.
If you read the complete summary above, you may notice that I included that the phone feels like it would easily slip from my hands. The phone has on several occasions slipped from my hands, but i have been able to catch the phone before it plunged to the floor. Good thing I have the AT&T warranty.
I did some side by side tests to see if the Iphone was faster loading/running programs than the Atrix. The Iphone maybe a little faster. I have run into CPU speed issues with the Iphone 4 that I have not seen in the Atrix. So my conclusion on the speed of the phone CPUs with launching and running application is this; while the Iphone does appear to launch programs faster most of the time, but running the programs (apps), the Atrix appears to be a constant and steady winner. When Android 2.3 comes out it should make better use of the dual core processor.
11 of 13 people found the following review helpful.
This is how Android should be known.By Tiago Malburg
This phone is so awesome, I don't know where to start!
SIZE:
I'll compare it to iPhones, since it's what everybody seems to want. I have an iPhone 3GS and they're almost same size, the Atrix is just a bit taller (2 mm) and wider (1 mm), although the screen is much larger (4 in, vs 3.5 in on the iPhone).
It's thinner than the iPhone 3GS (10.95 mm vs 12.3 mm on the iPhone), not as thin as the iPhone 4 (9.3 mm) and not nearly as incredibly thin as the Samsung Galaxy S2 (8.49 mm)! I've played around with the Galaxy S2, it's amazing, beautiful huge screen and unbelievably thin, but that's another review!
DISPLAY:
Beautiful 4-inch TFT, qHD (540 x 960 pixels), capacitive multi-touch screen, 16M colors, protected by the scratch-resistant Gorilla Glass! Awesome for web navigation even on non-mobile websites, if you can see well, you'll be able to read anything!
BATTERY:
Capacity is of 1930 mAh, which is a pretty large battery for a phone. Talk time of about 7-8h, stand-by of about 200-400h (that'll depend on your settings, such as push notifications). I carry one spare battery around, but I'm a heavy gamer (lot's of Galaxy on Fire 2 lately), and you'll probably be too (at least occasionally), once you get to know the awesome power of the Tegra 2 chipset. Even so, I don't usually need the spare, it lasts me my whole work day (I leave home at about 10 AM and return at about 8 PM). Obviously I don't play much during work, but I do use it constantly for check-ins, web navigation, email, google talk, Facebook and Google+. Lots of people complain about battery life, but that's what you pay for having a smartphone with the processing power of a laptop computer.
SOFTWARE:
Unfortunately, it still packs Android Froyo 2.2 (at least as I write), with no predicted date for an update to Gingerbread 2.3 or Ice-cream Sandwich 2.4. 2.2 is still pretty good, runs very smoothly and has nice features such as WiFi tethering natively. I've never seen Android OS run as smoothly on any other phone as it does on the Atrix, it's beautiful! It comes with Motorola's Motoblur UI, which is pretty interesting, but I did use home replacement Launcher Pro, making it even snappier and quicker.
CAMERA:
As a photographer and filmographer, I barely use my Atrix's camera, I always carry my Canon around, but it has a 5 MP camera with dual LED flash, autofocus and geo-tagging. It captures video at 1280x720 @30fps and is supposed to have a firmware update that unlocks 1920x1080 recording @30fps. It isn't the best camera I've seen, even on phones... I've tried the Sony Ericsson's Xperia Arc, and it seemed much better than the Atrix, specially in low light situations.
It has a VGA front-facing camera which I've barely used, since I've never video-chatted with anyone, but I can let you know that the quality isn't great either.
CPU:
This is where the Atrix shines the most. It's packed with a Dual-core 1GHz ARM Cortex-A9 processor, ULP GeForce Graphics and the Tegra 2 chipset. It'll run smoothly anything available for Android (as I write)! I've been playing all of the Tegra 2 games, such as Dungeon Defenders, Backbreacker, Fruit Ninja THD, Great Battles Medieval, Pinball HD, Riptide GP, Samurai II Vengeance, Galaxy on Fire 2... am I forgetting any? =P
You definitely need to see Riptide GP and Galaxy on Fire 2, they'll easily blow your PSP out of the water!
A lot of people ask me this: yes, it runs Angry Birds... smoother than on the iPhone 4. ¬¬
If that last part got you interested, consider buying spare battery!
It has HDMI out, but does not mirror the phone, it simply goes to a sort of media center Motorola has preinstalled, where you can watch your movies, photos and displays album, artist, song title, etc, as you listen to music (great for parties). You can sort of mirror the phone on the Webtop functionality, which is when you dock the phone, plug the dock to an outlet and HDMI out to a TV or monitor. It will run another OS based on Linux where you can run Mozilla Firefox among other things, and you get to see your phone's screen on a window based view. You can maximize your phone view, sort of mirroring it to your TV, but you'll get performance issues on some apps since you'll be running this Linux based OS on top of your Android/Motoblur.
You can actually connect a USB keyboard and mouse while connected to the dock, and use it as a desktop PC. Otherwise, you can still connect a bluetooth keyboard to the phone by itself.
I'm extremely happy with this phone, I've always dreamt of Android running as smoothly as iOS, and this is how it happens.
If you want to know anything else I haven't mentioned, just let me know in the comments section below (YouTube anyone?). ^^
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful.
Best Android Phone and Possibly the Best Phone PeriodBy Jackie W. Mullins
I'm a corporate smart phone user and IT Director of my company. Consequently, I actually oversee the cell phones for our company and get the chance to try out a lot of good phones. To date, the Atrix has been the best I've ever used (that includes iPhones by the way). I don't dictate what phones our users carry because I see that as a personal choice; I just make suggestions as to which phones work best with our backend systems. Because of this openness, I see almost every high-end phone that hits the market at some point. The Atrix has been the best up until the recent release of the Atrix 2! Both are excellent phones.
I use AT&T Premier to manage our phones and one of the benefits is I sometimes get new phones before the actual release date; that was the case with the Atrix. I got my hands on mine a week or two before the official release and I have nothing bad to say about it. When it first released, there were a couple of annoying limitations that either AT&T or Motorola had implemented. For one, they had disabled the standard Android side load feature and the other was a limitation on the hot spot feature that caused it to only work when the phone had a 3G connection. A subsequent firmware update removed both issues. Neither issue was a major concern for me (I could still use Android ADB to load apps and I am almost always in a 3G area when I need to use the hot spot) so I was very happy with the phone and even happier with later improvements. The only other somewhat negative attribute of the phone to me was that the back plate was very slick when I first got the phone. I'm a person who basically never drops my phone but I dropped this one twice early on because it was so slick. My previous phone was the Nexus One which had a rubberized feel and I had to get used to the Atrix's case. Again, not a major issue; I mentally and physically adjusted to the phone and haven't dropped it since. Plus, over time, the back has gotten a little scuffed which resulted in nullifying the slick factor.
I didn't read all the other reviews here but I did notice that most of the key features are covered, system specs and such. I'll try to avoid repeating stuff that has already been covered and give you my impressions and responses to some negative comments I've seen concerning this phone. At the time I'm writing this, I've been using the phone for well over six months and know it very well.
This phone is an excellent phone and at the time of release, was in my opinion, the best Android phone on the market... possibly even the best cell phone on the market. Obviously, I haven't used every phone available but of the many that I have used, the Atrix takes the top spot. The specs of the phone were a step above everyone else at release and it has been an excellent phone. The call quality is great and operation is smooth and very robust. I have a bad ear and have struggled for years to find a phone that is loud enough for me to use comfortably; this has been an issue for me pretty much ever since the industry switched over to digital cell phones. The Atrix is the first phone I've had in years that I have no problems hearing; it is quite loud enough for me to use comfortably. And other than the two issues I listed above (which were corrected), this has been the ideal phone.
Some people complain about the camera on this phone. I find the camera to be perfectly adequate. I don't buy a phone for its camera and there's probably not a phone on the market today that doesn't have a camera that would satisfy me. I know others put more stock in cameras than I do and that's their prerogative. The phone takes very good photos and the video is very good as well. I have no complaints here.
I've heard people complain about the battery life of this phone. Well, the battery life is actually one of the areas where this phone absolutely shines! I've been using smart phones for a long time and as long as they'll get through a full day without dying, I'm satisfied with them. Every smart phone I've had and/or setup or supported over the years has had to be charged every day (with one exception besides the Atrix). This is usually a shock for feature phone users who get their first smart phone because feature phones can usually run for several days on a single charge. The difference is that smart phones are constantly updating over the internet throughout the day which drains the battery and most have massive touch screens these days that also drain the battery; so, you pretty much need to charge them daily. Very few will run for 24 hours and most will die well before the 24 hour mark; but I regularly get 36+ hours of life out of my Atrix and that's without using the night saver mode. I still usually charge it every night, but when I forget, I don't worry too much because I've only completely ran it dry once or twice since I've had it. Most of the time, it's still running when I plug it in at bedtime the second night; that's roughly 40 hours! That's pretty awesome from a smart phone. Keep in mind that battery life is totally dependent on how it is used and each person will have a different experience but I can say without a doubt that this phone has one of the best, if not the best, performing battery on the market.
However, I have helped several people who complained about the battery life on this phone and they weren't exactly wrong in their complaints. What I found is that if you don't fully charge the phone when you first get it, before initializing it the first time, whatever your battery level is at the time you set up the phone will be the max you'll get out of it. The phone apparently assumes the phone is fully charged when you set it up and the battery manager uses that initial charge level as the base level for a 100% charge. This may have been corrected in a later firmware update. But using the initial firmware the phone shipped with, if the phone was at 40% when you set it up, it would show 100% after the configuration was complete and start counting down from there. I have read comments from other users who state that the battery manager will adjust itself over a series of charge cycles. But if you will charge the phone to 100% before you configure it, I've found that you won't encounter this issue. If you already made this mistake, you can correct it by charging the phone overnight and then do a factory reset (Settings/Privacy/Factory Data Reset) while it is 100% charged.
(Notice: Performing a factory reset will erase everything on the phone; you'll lose any text messages and call history and anything else that you don't have backed up somewhere else, including apps. I find resetting an Android phone to be a simple task because I can quickly reload the apps I use and I don't really care if I lose old texts or the phone logs. My contacts and e-mail are all restored when I reconfigure the phone. There is always a period of reconfiguring apps and custom settings that can take a little time but I don't find it to be much of a hassle. You should be aware of what will happen before you do a reset and make a backup if you are concerned about losing anything important.)
Another area I see people put down about this phone is the screen. They usually compare it to an iPhone and say it looks washed out or something along those lines. It doesn't look the same as an iPhone to be sure; but the screen looks great to me. And the automatic backlight brightness management on this phone is better than any other I've ever used; most of the time I turn them off and manage the brightness manually because phones usually do such a poor job managing the brightness themselves; but I leave the Atrix on automatic and never have a complaint. I've compared the Atrix to an iPhone while outside in bright sunlight and while I've never seen an LCD perform well in this situation, the Atrix does seem to be more usable in sunlight to me.
The Atrix runs MotoBlur and a lot of people complain about Blur. This is probably the biggest complaint you see about Motorola smart phones in general. The Atrix is the first MotoBlur phone I've used for any period of time but I replaced a Nexus One with the Atrix and can say confidently that there is very little difference between MotoBlur and the stock Android interface. A lot of people prefer HTC's Sense UI over both the stock Android UI and MotoBlur but I've always liked the stock interface better myself and I found the version of MotoBlur that the Atrix runs to be pretty darn close to stock. There are definitely a few customizations but I've not seen anything to complain about. Motorola apparently reduced the MotoBlur impact before the Atrix came out so I can't argue about MotoBlur of the past, but the Atrix has a nice clean user interface. Keep in mind that user interfaces are subjective and everyone has their own ideas about them; this is just my opinion. And MotoBlur's Exchange integration is one of the best I've seen. I used to use TouchDown because I didn't like the stock Exchange e-mail app that Android provides, but the Atrix messaging app is excellent.
Another area of complaint is bloatware. Bloatware consists of apps that the carriers puts on phones to push their services and some manufacturers will install their own apps as well. This phone does have some; but almost all of it can be uninstalled under Settings/Applications. That's a nice touch and a change from past experiences. There are a few that can't be uninstalled but I haven't had any issues with any of them. I don't use them and they don't take up much space; so I tend to forget they're even there.
I've seen comments from people claiming that the Atrix is cheaply made and they usually compare it to an iPhone or possibly a Nexus One or some other popular phone when saying this. I disagree; I find it to have a solid, quality feel about it. And having dropped it pretty badly a couple of times (once it hit my foot while I was walking and was kicked across a room to land on a concrete and tile floor), it came through without a scratch! One of my co-workers and a few of my personal friends who use iPhones have dropped them only to see them shatter when they hit the floor. I know one guy who has had that happen twice!!! In my opinion, the Atrix has a good solid design and the Atrix 2 only improves on that build.
All in all, in my opinion, the Atrix is an exceptional phone.
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