The Motorola Atrix made a splash at CES last month when it was announced. Partly because it’s running on a dual-core 1ghz processor, but it its not just its powerful specs alone that made it impressive. It was its lapdock accessory that made everyone’s head turn. A smartphone that docks into a laptop? That is something new and different.
Motorola Atrix 4G - Design:
With its 4″ display, curved edges and relatively lightweight body which weighs 135 grams, the Atrix feels really nice to hold in your hand. As a matter of fact, the Atrix weighs just a drop less than the iPhone 4, which is amazing considering it’s packing in a dual-core processor. Overall, we find the size and weight to be ideal for our tastes, as we personally find some of the smartphones with 4.3″ displays to be unwieldy for our hands. For starters, while removing the battery cover, we somehow managed to the dent speaker grate located on its bottom back side, and it’s not like we were applying much pressure to it either. Furthermore, the device also tends to heat up – but not so much, that it’s uncomfortable to use.
Motorola Atrix 4G - Display:
The Atrix sports a 4″ qHD 24 bit display with a 960 x 540. The display gets nice and bright, and colors are vivid and really do pop on the Atrix. Unfortunately the display suffers from some graininess. It’s more noticeable if you compare the Atrix side by side to another device like the HTC Inspire 4G or iPhone. That said, the display is still very good.
Motorola Atrix 4G - Keyboard:
The onscreen keyboard is ok. The keys seem a bit narrow, but the typing experience is still good, if not the best one out there.
Motorola Atrix 4G - Performance:
The Atrix runs like a beast and is a joy to use. Multitasking is speedy, and the U.I. feels very peppy. Playing graphically challenging games like the included Need for Speed Shift demo on this device is brilliant. Not too long ago, a 1GHZ snapdragon processor seemed super fast – but apparently two cores are even better!
Motorola Atrix 4G - Software and U.I.:
The Motorola Atrix is currently running Android 2.2 Froyo. The device is also running the Motoblur UI overlay which helps compliment the device with tight social media integration and fun widgets, many of which are social media oriented. Like HTC Sense, many love and many hate Motoblur. It helps take the phone to the next level if you’re a social media addict – and really, who isn’t nowadays. Some Motoblur widgets include a calendar widget, a weather widget, a RSS feed widget, a social networking widget (for Facebook, Twitter, and even MySpace) widget, a message widget, a Sticky Note widget, and a social status widget for making quick post status updates to social networks. What we especially like about these widgets is that you can resize the width and height of these Motoblur widgets. This is something you can’t do with other widget sets like HTC Sense widgets or the Stock Android Widgets. But besides for its social media prowess, the Atrix also has support for Exchange and corporate sync too.
Motorola Atrix 4G - Camera:
The Motorola Atrix sports a 5MP camera with an LED flash and automatic flash. It also has a front-facing camera for video calls! The 5MP rear-facing camera is pretty good. Even in low light it takes pretty good shots, although the flash tends to be too strong and it often washes the subject out. Overall, the Atrix has one of the better smartphone cameras with pretty sharp photos. The camera can also record 720p HD video at 30fps and videos came out great – bright with good color reproduction, especially those taken in daylight and outdoors.
Motorola Atrix 4G - Call Quality:
Call quality on the Atrix is good but about average. Incoming callers sound clear and they say that they can hear us well enough. But the quality is not the amazing experience that we had with the HTC Inspire 4G.
Motorola Atrix 4G - Battery:
With several widgets running, brightness on full, and just moderate use, you’ll just barely get through the day on a charge. Unfortunately this is more or less the standard for most smartphones nowadays.
Motorola Atrix 4G - Web Browser:
Browsing web sites on the Atrix 4G is a pleasure. Besides for Flash 10.1 support, the device is a speed demon when it comes to loading web sites. The Atrix has actually proven to be the fastest smartphone we’ve ever used for browsing the internet and it is even faster than all of the other 4G devices we’ve recently tested.
Out of the box, the Atrix can also work as a 3G mobile hotspot for support of up-to 5 devices. Sure, this is starting to become standard on smartphones, but it’s still worth mentioning.
Motorola Atrix 4G - Lapdock Accessory:
Atrix users can pick up the special Lapdock accessory which is designed to dock your Atrix. This laptop dock lets you access your smartphone on a big 11.6″ screen, with a 1366 x 768 resolution, and also enjoy the comfort of operating your smartphone with a “real” keyboard. Made of black aluminum and soft touch plastic, the Lapdock weighs just 2.4lbs and is very thin yet still manages to sport a full size keyboard. With its chicklet style keys, the keyboard is pretty comfortable to type on. The Lapdock’s display is ok too with good color reproduction, but its viewing angles aren’t that great. Overall, the build quality of the Lapdock is very solid and it feels like it could handle the riggers of a mobile lifestyle, it’s also quite handsome.
The Lapdock has no processor or memory inside of it, so once the Atrix is docks in it, the Atrix becomes its brains. The lapdock also charges the phone while its docked. The dock also sports two USB ports and a 3.5mm jack. The Atrix docks into a slot at the back of the Lapdock. Once the Atrix is docked, the Lapdock gives you access to a full screen Firefox browser. However, the Lapdock doesn’t have a touchscreen, and the Atrix is a touchscreen device, so that makes accessing your Atrix through the lapdock somewhat awkward. To help make things easier, the Lapdock has a very large trackpad, but unfortunately its left and right mouse buttons are too stiff.
Motorola Atrix 4G - HD Multimedia Dock:
We actually think that the HD Multimedia dock accessory for the Atrix is more practical than the Lapdock. This neat accessory lets you dock your Atrix and lets you connect it to a TV via HDMI. It also packs in 3 USB ports for connecting a keyboard and mouse. The Media Dock also comes with a wireless remote, but the included remote is finicky and isn’t always responsive. Once the Atrix is docked, you have two options – you can use the Motorola Webtop app which offers the same functionality as it does when connected through the Lapdock. Of course, you’ll really need a keyboard and mouse to use Webtop interface properly on your TV. To that effect, Motorola sells a bluetooth keyboard separately, or you can plug in a USB keyboard and mouse.
Conclusion:
The Motorola Atrix is certainly a speed demon of a smartphone with a lot of things going for it – including the fact that it’s offered us the fastest web surfing experience we’ve experienced on any smartphone to date. We also love its form-factor, multimedia and multitasking prowess, great camera, and even appreciate its tight social media integration. We do have some issues with the Atrix’s display and build quality, but they aren’t big enough issues not to like the phone a lot. Furthermore, Motorola’s attempt at trying something new with the Lapdock accessory is admirable. But ultimately, the Atrix is a winner, but the Laptop dock is disappointing.
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