ATRIX Motorola ($ 99 with a two-year contract from AT & T) is at the forefront of a technological revolution. This powerful mobile phone that transforms into a laptop or desktop PC shows us what could very well be the future of mobile computing. One day maybe we all carry a small pocket in our brain that leaps into a dock and a desktop, a laptop, a tablet or a phone that everyone shares the same processor and storage. With ATRIX if some of these features avant-garde has flaws and rough edges, but in July 2011 Gingerbread 2.3.4 update relieves many of these (see below).AT & T is the price of accessories discourages the use of ATRIX in portable mode. But that's okay. Even without going into a desktop or laptop, a smartphone ATRIX top-of-the-line techno-elite.
Given the unique nature ATRIX, we will start by describing ATRIX are "regular" phone features, as long as the nation's first dual-core smartphone can be considered common. Then we will cover the transformation of the phone in a laptop and a desktop computer, and then we'll wrap it with some concerns and recommended prices.
Physical and call quality
Atrix Start the Motorola phone is a beauty. 2.5 4.6 0.4 inches (HWD) and 4.8 ounces, it is a smooth black plastic clothes fade attractive pattern on the rear panel. 960-by-540 screen is really nice, is sharper than anything you can find the phone, with the exception of Apple's 960-4-640 iPhone Retinal Display ($ 199 - $ 699, 4.5 stars) . The colors are rich, both inside and outside. This is not a standard resolution Android, but in my testing, I did not see any problem with third-party Android applications. More strange physical characteristic you will find that Atrix has a fingerprint reader, which you can use instead of passwords to unlock the phone. According to Motorola, a fingerprint reader comes at the request of large companies that want to Atrix as a Citrix-based thin clients. Call quality was not good in my testing, but it was good enough to walk.
The ATRIX comes with two (yes, two!) Voice dialing, both as you start using a Bluetooth headset. There are the standard system of Google which is quite accurate, and Vlingo, which allows you to dictate everything from text messages to Web searches. I found this to be a bit confusing, it is so open that I was not sure what to say without a tutorial.
Atrix itself as a "4G" phones, but just like the HTC Inspire 4G ($ 99.99, 4 stars), using the same modem, just goes HSPA speeds of 14.4, we do not like the 4G. Test equipment sales in Manhattan, I saw a speed of 1.5 Mbps of high range above 3 Mbps, which is good for the 3G, not 4G. Upload speed was quite slow, about 200kbps. That said, Atrix is also 802.11n Wi-Fi networks (including the 5-GHz) and can not walk abroad in GSM and HSPA. The phone is also the mode mobile hotspot. What is the battery, Atrix harvested 6 hours and 44 minutes of talk time, which is a great displayed in a powerful 3G phone.
CPU, Android, and Multimedia
The first smartphone dual-core processors to hit the U.S. Atrix is now the Android 2.3 is the Nvidia Tegra 2. Tegra 2 has two ARM Cortex-A9 nuclei spin 1 GHz each, and is competitive with other top-of-the-line smartphone dual-core processors. Benchmark CPU and memory use has remained relatively even after we got an update Gingerbread. In both cases, the benchmarks were the best graphics phones with dual-core low-resolution screens, the Tegra can push more pixels with less sweat. This processor is bad, and can take anything from the Android can throw at it.
Tegra 2 offers some visible differences in Android. Specifically, Flash runs much, much better than any smartphone I've ever seen before. Flash elements in web pages faster and pop the interaction is much softer. Video playback is also a great advantage here. The Atrix was the first phone that I could handle the test files 1080 HD in both WMV and MPEG4. (This is important when connecting the phone to an HDTV.)
There are a lot of room for Atrix, the phone has about 10 GB of free space, and you can add a MicroSD card up to 32 method under the back cover. The phone can operate a computer memory stick, or sync with Windows Media Player phone software and Motorola Portal allows you to manage your contacts and text messages from your computer via USB or Wi-Fi.
In addition to Android, Motorola and AT & T have each added their own software here. Motorola's contribution is unclear, its suite of social networking. While I love the blur on some mid-range phones here, I wish I could just turn it off, you my own programs, and save your phone battery. The update Gingerbread refined look of the screens at home, how you smoothed without them, and also capped while scrolling menu, so it has a bit of elasticity to it. As usual with bloatware phone as a barcode scanner and a Yellow Pages app, but no litter AT & T really gets in your way.
Most of the bugs that we originally ran back in February lost update gingerbread, but some remain. AT & T U-verse TV Live Streaming App is still not perfect. He is slow to start, sometimes stutters a bit ', but plays very smoothly now, even in full screen mode. Update seems to care Atrix show the direction and the intermittent Wi-Fi connection problems, but it was still uncertain whether a Webtop to activate properly when they are hooked Atrix. Despite many improvements, there is still some 'rough edges of an overall sense of Atrix.
There is a 5 megapixel camera on the back of ATRIX, and a VGA camera useless in front of the phone. Performance of the device, much like poor quality is fairly good but not excellent. I'm blue, catch a little soft at 0.7 seconds of shutter lag. IPhone not impressive level, but perfectly acceptable for a camera phone. I was much impressed with the video function of the phone, I was able to capture smooth video at 720p at 30 frames per second, both inside and outside.
Portable Dock
Alone, Atrix is a top-notch Android phone, but it is a turning point. Optional laptop and a desktop docking stations are what make the difference: make a strong argument that you do not need another computer. All it takes is a phone.
Atrix Portable Dock is a thin and beautiful, 2.34 pounds notebooks are made of metal and flexible plastic. Construction is almost perfect. It looks like a notebook is true, but the laptop dock has no CPU, memory and storage no, no, it's just a shell. To use it, pop open a flap on the back and connect the Atrix. Suddenly, the spring back to life something that Motorola calls the "web desktop application," which looks like a full version of Android that runs Linux in a window. (Base price is described on the next page.)
The laptop is good to write. He has a great touch panel and 11.6 inch 1366 x 768 is high. I would like the shift key on the right is a little bigger, but certainly it is a minor dispute. The base also has two USB ports on the back, you can connect a mouse, a USB flash drive or card reader. No more speakers, the sound comes from the speaker phone.
The site has its own battery, which charges Atrix and can take about eight hours, according to Motorola. When the Atrix is docked, first use the battery dock, so that when you remove the phone is always fully charged. And when you download the dock, he charges the phone battery at first. Small button on the front of the pelvis shows the battery status of the Webtop "OS"
Motorola claims that the operating system does when it is clear Webtop by Motorola to create a custom Linux with Android running on a virtual machine. User interface looks much the same, even if the update gingerbread, but that's okay. In Webtop, you have four applications: a full desktop version of Firefox (currently version 4.0.1), Adobe Flash 10.2, file management, Citrix, and the environment window and Android. You can use Android for Android application in a window that shows the card App You can also skip the window full-screen Android, but many applications are not able to take advantage of extended properties, they sit at the center of the screen surrounded by a large black bars.
First, the Atrix tends to force the signal-report, in my limited test signal, I saw two bars, but could not connect calls. The headset is not very strong but still high enough for the situation, so I suspect that the phone has the ability to adapt to background noise. I heard a faint hum of hard drives. Voice sound warm and slightly fuzzy, receive and send. The speaker is strong, strong, and it sounds excellent, and easily Atrix paired with a Bluetooth headset was Aliph Jawbone ($ 129, 4.5 stars) for voice and music.
What are you supposed to do is use Firefox, Firefox and works fine. Firefox works like a traditional laptop, albeit a little slower. There are all kinds of smart integration, so you can click on phone numbers in Firefox to meet Atrix trailer, and if Firefox tries to download an application for Android, which is installed on the side of Android. That's good.
In theory, you can install and update the plug-in for Firefox, but in practice I had a problem. Moonlight plug-in Silverlight and Adobe Reader plug-in, and still failed to install, even if the update Gingerbread. (I could not re-test because the real RealPlayer have been killed since then in the Linux version.) You can not install applications on the Linux side of reality. All updates for Firefox is to send the AT & T firmware update.
You can also print. Webtop mode, you can set up network printers that support PCL or PostScript. You can not just connect the printer via USB, it's your Wi-Fi network. I printed 10 pages of Lexmark laser printer with no problems, but the phone could not understand how to talk to Brother inkjet printers. And I was not able to print from any application for Android, Firefox only.
Websites to see the Webtop browser on desktop browsers, not a piece of furniture. Along with Flash skills Tegra 2, means that you can watch Hulu and other TV channels online, and other mobile devices can not be beaten. We tested at a distance from Hull, but improved significantly when we installed the Android 2.3.
Webtop reverses the general rule that one should always use the native applications on the head. Vevo clips in the window of Android was pixelated and crashed once during testing is seen through Firefox and Flash, they were larger, clearer and more stable, but also less liquid. Quickoffice, the native Android App Bureau, was great to create basic Excel and Word documents, but it was easier to navigate a web page with Google Docs.
Office Depot
I'm actually more excited than the desktop docking station Atrix laptop docking. Desktop docking station is small, with three USB ports, HDMI port, power connector and headphone jack. USB ports can support the standard mouse and keyboard, as well as an HDMI port for connecting to any HDMI HDTV (via docking station also comes with a keyboard and mouse, which makes more sense, if you use a giant television monitor .) Phone has an HDMI port, too, that plays video and music stored on your phone directly to your TV. It works. But it's boring.
Here's what exciting: Used in the pipeline (and the dock only), the phone mode kicks Webtop and Web surfing on the big screen, hitting all these sites on your desktop Flash video stream, and so on.
This makes ATRIX an additional PC at home viable. Write a full USB keyboard is a breeze. Even without a second monitor attached (although it seems ridiculous), you can do a lot of QuickOffice for Android. The mouse does not work in Android State, but only in Webtop.
Prices and conclusions
This is where it gets complicated: AT & T has almost killed ATRIX are portable dock with its pricing. Dock will cost at least another $ 500 no matter what you do. You can buy one for $ 500, or pay $ 300 and be tied to a $ 20 per month, two years to complete your service plan ATRIX (it will cost $ 540 at the end). The extra $ 20 also gives you 4 GB of data instead of 2GB, and tethering capabilities for any other notebooks you may have, but it is mandatory, and most people do not spend more than 2 GB of data a month anyway.
The problem is that I have a nice Windows 7, netbooks, Samsung NF310. About $ 400, it becomes more powerful processor, tons of storage and compatibility with Windows 7 Atrix that mathematics can not oppose.
I pressed the AT & T rep because the yard is so expensive. The most important thing is that the driver wants to charge users of the pier itself as laptop users who also receive $ 20 for further connection to the network of AT & T. Basically, the AT & T does not want to change the game, then kill the potential benefits of Atrix.
Dock office is a better deal. For $ 190, you get the dock, a mouse, keyboard and remote control. You can use any monitor or TV with an HDMI input as a monitor. This is a price low enough so that people see it as an extra, extra PC.
Earlier this year, I was talking to MetroPCS, which reminded me that many customers do not even have desktop computers. Their phones are the only Internet portal. A phone, how could Atrix open the door a little more.
Motorola Atrix could be the beginning of the revolution, has already been sold, though often self-4G smartphone accessories and the like. We hope that is not the end. Atrix mistakes and disappointments, yet a number of the last update of the operating system, does not mean smart phones for beginners. HTC Inspire 4G and 4 on both interfaces of Apple iPhone is more stable and mature. For this reason, the best of AT & T's smartphone is iPhone 4, which is simply a more traditional, safer choice. But the more adventurous, Atrix is simply what any other smart phone does, and that alone is impressive.
Test Results
Continuous talk time: 6 hours 44 minutes
