Motorola Atrix 4G
Phone Scoop Review
Feb 25, 2011 by Eric M. Zeman
Phone Scoop goes in-depth with the Motorola Atrix 4G, a dual-core Android smartphone that can transform into a netbook replacement with the laptop dock accessory. read review ›
User Reviews
Average Ratings
Decent android device
I have owned 3 other android devices and use my phones for e-mail (corporate & gmail), web browsing, navigation (google maps), rss updates (google reader), and scheduling. I do not use any social networking apps or widgets. I bought the Atrix 4g when it first came out this year (2011) and have, overall, been pleased with it. It does disappoint in a few areas, but overall is a decent device. Price was way too high for the first few months, but now more in line with what it can do.
Pros: Fast, runs multiple apps smoothly (multi-tasking is excellent), beautiful display, gorilla glass is scratch resistant, decent camera, good call connectivity (voice over earpiece is great), nice speaker phone, like the fingerprint / power button combination, battery lasts a full day and then some.
Cons: Motoblur (horrible UI, IMHO), lots of plastic makes it feel cheap (though build is not too bad), camera flash not consistent for photos (it is hard to take good photos with this phone without plenty of practice), not easy to root / flash custom ROMs, terrible selection of ring tones from Motorola. Latest Android Gingerbread with Motoblur remains terrible (you can't remove the Motoblur bits separately).
Update: Having continued to use this phone since my review, I'd like to add that the construction is turning out to be very durable. And I do appreciate the call volume and speaker phone quality on this device. Big NEGATIVE: Motorola backed out of their commitment to port ICS to this device. This requires the user to flash non-Motorola software to the device, which always disables the fingerprint reader and other device specific funcationality. Very dissapointing on the decision to pull ICS support Motorola!! This is why NEXUS devices are the way to go!
totally awesome
ive had the samsung captivate, htc inspire, and motorola atrix, and the atrix is by far the best , way to go motorola !!!!!!!!
atrix 4g
the atrix 4g is a great fast phone i have had the iphone 3g the iphone 3gs and the iphone 4g i got the atrix 4g 5 days ago and i love it faster then then the iphone and apps are free that are not on tunes and it is lighter and just so much better this is the best phone i have had in a while i still have not figured out everything this phone can do but already can do more then any other phone
I like this phone!!
OK I'll start this off by saying, I've had pretty much all of the top phones on AT&T and T-mobile. This phone android wise is the fastest overall device I've played with. Although I would prefer the HTC Inspires build with the specs of this phone. I'll say when it's finally updated to 2.3 or 3.0 this phone will show its true colors.
Pros:
Screen
Camera
Dual Core Processors
Tegra 2 in general
Finger print scanner (that works)
Front Camera
Speaker quality
Build quality although I don't care of the plastic design. It looks nice.
Fastness
HDMI out
Media entertainment while using HDMI
Call quality
Game graphics
Video playback on TV is great. And gaming too.
Cons:
MotoBlur sucks
2.2 Lag at times (Not horrible but you'll notice it at times)
AT&T's lack of 4G coverage
Screen (even though I said it's a pro. It's like 3rd behind the Super Amoled, & Retina.
Fast and powerful!
I've day this phone since day 1 of it's release. It's a very fast and powerful phone! Where's the lag? Ha I laugh in the face of lag. Overall I've had a lot of phones, because I sell them! I came from a Samsung Captivate to this Atrix. I miss the screen on the Captivate. Thus giving the Atrix 4.5. I also have a Motorola droid X. The screen on the X seems to look more vibrant.
The camera on the Atrix is best used in well lite areas such as outside in the day. However, I have just recently used it at a play. When setting it on night mode the camera performed very well for a cell phone. I would have to say that the HTC Inspire performs a bite better for camera use. The Atrix front facing camera is a bit grainy, but with less pixels in the front facing camera you can talk face to face with other front facing android users with less lag. Thus becoming independent from wifi for face to face chat. The Iphone's front facing camera is much nicer but useless outside of wifi. And the Atrix out performs the HTC Inspire's front facing camera due to the lack there of. lol
Pros:
FAST! Did I mention fast?!
Powerful! Switching from one app to another while running music, surfing the net, editing excel spreadsheets, and talking on the phone at the same time. No problem. Might have something to do with the 1 GHz dual-core Nvidia Tegra processor, and the 1 GB of ram!
Moto blur. I liked the widgets and how well they work on this phone.
Battery! With all that Motorola has put into this phone, the battery last longer than a lot of them including the Captivate, the X, and the HTC EVO. For this I think the battery is a pro.
Graphics! Nvidia Tegra processor need I say more? Ok, games look awesome.
Light weight.
Very little background noise.
Cons:
With what the screen is capable of I'm considering this a miss. It's just not as vibrant as I'd wish it to be.
Front camera grainy.
Mic makes me sound muffled which shouldn't happen with a dual Mic system.
45 Days With My Atrix
This is my second Android device, replacing my Xperia X10 with OS 2. I maybe the only person who doesn't go "eww Motoblur", but I am beginning to actually like Motoblur.
Pros:
Excellent reception
Sound quality loud and clear
Fast
Stellar battery life for a SmartPhone - easy 14 hours for me.
GPS quick and accurate
WiFi, BT work well
Camera and flash quite reasonable for a phone
Cons:
A slight lag switching between screens.
Video could be better.
Way To Go Motorola!! Awsome Phone
I want to start off by saying that I am happy to see Motorola through all their troubles, come out with an industry changing device. I am coming from every iPhone ever made,Samsung captivate, and HTC inspire. I love this phone.
Signal: AT&T Michigan
Motorola have been one of the best signal providers for at&t since the razr. This Phone although 4G is not in Michigan yet. who cares. The signal is very very impressive. Better than all the smartphones I have used.
Screen:
I wasn't too sure what qHD was but, I love the clarity and responsiveness. Very easy on the eyes and looks great. Sure not Super AMOLED but very very fine and crisp, colors are accurate.
BATTERY LIFE:
I want to start by saying that Android Rocks, sure they have a few things to hammer down on and grow. But I love Android. everyone who wants to multi-task and does should know that a Task Manager is essential. With the Atrix you get a built in task manager designed by motorola to work the BEST with the phone, however, you need to go into it and set up your AUTO-END list but this works great. From 7am I get about until 9pm. Which is GREAT you cannot get an Android phone to work more than a day. Period. unless you do not use it. I do, email, face book, online banking. All of it, so it is great.
Speed:
The Phone is quick and I mean Quick. Dual core is very fast, there is some speculation that the 2nd core is disabled. I don't know, but the phone menus and multi tasking leaves me not lagging one bit. I have used other phones listed above and still get lags once in a while, again I have not had this phone long but it is quick. 3G+ is in my area and is faster on this phone as quick as I need and only going to get quicker, plus the voice/data mix makes me very happy.
Comes with Android 2.2, and well I know some phones are getting 2.3 but again who cares. this phone gets the Job done and the HD dock, blutooth keyboard and wireless mouse look awsome on my HDTV.
It's a Keeper
Coming from an Iphone / NexusOne,I've been testing phones for the last 5 months looking for a place to land.this is it. I'm not a fan of MotoBlur, so I down loaded launcher Pro. It gave me the interface I wanted & lets me create my own desktop look.
The Phone is fast, the calls very clear & data works great. I use the phone a lot & my battery life(especially when compared to other smart phones)seems to be good.
The accessories, multimedia dock, will let me connect to my Computer(Desktop or Laptop)the way I would like to connected.
Conn
The phone feels is a little plastic & the back cover is slippery.
ATT high speed is there but is not yet turned on in this phone. I understand that will come in the form of an software upgrade in the next month or 2 to allow it to see & run 4g up / downloads. This could be the only deal breaker!!!
Amazing, does everything it should!
I have had the EVO, the Epic, the Hero, the iPhone 4 and the Captivate. The Motorola Atrix blows these out of the water. I honestly do not mind the moto blur, and with this phone speed is not a problem. I have broken down some pro's and con's.
PRO's--
Battery Life ( 24-25 hours, medium high usage)
Screen Resolution
Fingerprint Reader
HDMI out
Games [play smoothly)
Quick response
Laptop Dock is amazing
4 inch screen is nice
Sound quality is amazing
Froyo (sucks compared to 2.3 but the flash 10.1 is amazing)
The Camera has dual led flash
16Gb internal memory with 32 additional able to be added.
Tegra 2 is FAST
CON's--
Phone is slippery
Back pops off when taking case on and off
Retina Display is better (iPhone4)
4g is disabled from what I hear(no 4g in my area)
Camera is a tiny bit grainy in low light area, flash helps with close objects though.
-------------------------------
Overall this is an amazing phone, tops any phone I have ever had, I sold phones for 6 years and it pleases me to see something like this set the next gen phones in place.
F'n Amazing Phone!!!!!!
Would give it a 10 star rating if possible. Blazing fast speeds love the flash support actually just upgraded to adobe 10.2 amazing got the first firmware upgrade this morning via wifi download was fast about under 2 minutes. Finger scanner is amazing love it for maximum security. Umm what else theirs so many good things apps tho for att purposes they need to stop blocking third party app support. Other then that the phone is an epic win on Motorola's part nice going keep up the good work.
Pros: Fast internet speeds on 4g and 3g flash support is amazing.
speakerphone is loud and clear.
no software issues
Cons:I know their was just a firmware update this morning and suppose to fix the battery life since the update so far so good will post more on battery in following week.
