Motorola Atrix
The basics
It seems like a long time since Motorola enjoyed an incredible amount of success with its RAZR series of mobile phones. The Atrix is the latest smartphone from Motorola, and the company hopes it will put them back on top of the market. With a class-leading screen, fast performance and lots of accessories, it could be in with a chance.
The good
As with range-topping handsets from Samsung, Sony Ericsson and others, the Motorola Atrix features a large 4-inch screen. The display on the Atrix is better than most, however, thanks to a class-leading 540 x 960-pixel resolution. It really is a gorgeous panel, and only the smaller iPhone 4 trumps it for sharpness. It's equally good when it comes to colour reproduction, with movies and photographs springing to life.
The Atrix is packed with features. The 5-megapixel camera is nothing out of the ordinary, but you'll also find a microUSB port, microHDMI and a fingerprint reader on the rear of the handset. This helps you to unlock the phone easily, and sets the Atrix apart from rivals slightly.
Running Android, Motorola claims that the Atrix is the fastest smartphone on the planet. That may be pushing things a little, but it's definitely blisteringly quick, thanks to a 1GHz dual-core processor and a healthy 1GB of RAM. There's no sign of lag when opening or skipping through apps, and it's equally fast when browsing the web.
The real feature that sets the Atrix apart is the amount of peripherals currently available. You can get a compact charging dock, for instance, turning your Atrix into a bedside clock, or a HD dock with three USB ports and a miniHDMI offering. You can even get what looks to be a full size laptop, at around £250, which the Atrix plugs into. With an 11-inch screen, the Lapdock is similar in concept to the Eee Pad Transformer, just using a smartphone instead of a tablet, and with a proper 1366 x 768-pixel screen.
The bad
Motorola has implemented its own skin over the top of Android – as with most of its rivals. It's quite a heavy UI, and neatly covers the operating system, however, so is unlikely to appeal to fans of Android in its purest form.
The Motorola Atrix is also bland when it comes to styling, with absolutely no features to help it to stand out. When competing against the Apple iPhone 4, the Samsung Galaxy S II and Sony Ericsson Xperia Arc, this could really count against it.
The bottom line
If you want the brightest, sharpest screen, and don't fancy an Apple iPhone 4, the Motorola Atrix could be worth a look. We love the range of features available for the Atrix, although it's hard to imagine that many people will opt for a full on laptop dock – especially when netbooks are available for similar prices.
The Atrix also offers excellent performance, although we're not too convinced by the user interface. It's a nice phone then, but we'd still be tempted by the Samsung Galaxy S II.
User comments (4)
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Anonymous01 December 2011
I have owned my motorola Atrix for a month now, and it's hard to fault this phone. The only fault that I can find is that the back case is plastic and very, very slippery. this could cause you to drop the phone. However I sorted this with a Ballistic hard core case. However I do like the UI with motoblur, which enables you tou Erase all data, contacts & pictures from the phone remotely. And then lock your handset, so it cant be used. And then even better locate your missing Atrix, using the built in GPS. you do this by logging into your motoblyr account from another phone or PC. Overall 5 Stars
Report as inappropriateAnonymous12 December 2011
I have had this phone from the day it came out. Being a huge android fan and fond of the darker side of tinkering with the roms (os software) i found all the moto blur stuff added on quite heavy on the phone and not only that if u get it from a network such as orange or o2 they add there extra stuff to the phone slowing it down even more, but despite all that the phone has no faults its very fast indeed smart and very well built. The laptop dock is a nifty addition to the phone too weighing about 1kg its light enough to put in my bag and give me the almost full laptop experience i get from a net book it just faster as well and with no boot-up time due to the Linux based OS its great for doing work on the go, useing google dos and other websites such as youtube. over-all i am more than happy with the moto atrix 4g so happy i got it instead of following the crowed waiting in-line for days for a phone that has not changed much for years....if u get my hint :-)
Report as inappropriatealan forrest13 December 2011
You can now update your atrix, from 2.2 froyo to 2.3 Gingerbread. I have done this and it works really well. making much better use of the Atrix's qHD screen. There really is a visible improvement. However, the upgrade does take qiute a long time to download and install. But all my data, contacts, photos etc... were all still saved on my Atrix. To install just press SETTINGS, ABOUT PHONE then SYSTEM UPDATES.
Report as inappropriatekittenkate05 January 2012
i have had this phone for about 2 months now all i can say is,its totally brilliant updated to gingerbread no problem.luv it notice someone mentioned the slipperyness of it,i always buy a leather case for my phones,as i am very clumsy and always dropping them,phones that is. as i video my family and keep movies on my phone(for skiving at work)i popped a 16gb card in. on my old phone,a nokia 5800,having lots of stuff on it slowed it down havnt noticed that with the atrix all in all a lovely phone,cant fault it.definate a 5 out of 5 for me.
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