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Atrix impressions vs Inspire

Zonker1 said:
I agree with you completely here. I just wonder how many people who care about the things you mention keep a phone for 2 years AND want the phone to remain cutting edge for a year.

I think most people who care about cutting edge tech are the people getting new phones multiple times in a 2 year frame. Likewise, I think people who keep their phones for 2 years are a little less in tune with cutting edge tech. Who knows, maybe I'm wrong though.
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I do the 18 month cycle where i can get the subsidized pricing (i am cheap). But i care more about getting the BEST over all phone thats out in my upgrade window, so i chose inspire over atrix.
 
sarstube said:
A)possible, but not an epidemic
B) lithium ion doesn't need to be "charged correctly"
C) there are so many variables in considering anecdotal evidence. What's "heavy" to someone may equal "mod" to someone else. Maybe someone is only answering emails all day with the lowest brightness and 1 account on push and they consider it "heavy usage", while another is playing games and viewing flash videos all day in the sun and is comparing his "heavy usage" to the other person and is going to be disappointed. Not to mention expectations. If I'm under 30% and near a charger, I'm putting it on the charger because I may need to go somewhere or be without a charger (I'm somewhat spontaneous). While someone else may know they're not doing anything that night and is content to let the battery get down all the way.

All that said, inspire does a pretty good job with 1250mh battery. Android is the hog though, and anyone who puts battery first should consider iphone first, not atrix.
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Your right there is no 'correct' way of charging a lithium ion battery but you can take care of the cells inside the phone and ive read several articles explaining how to do so. Thats all I meant

And yes the 'heavy' usage could be extremely light to me thats why I also said to each his own. If the phone fits your needs and you like it than that is what you ultimately should spend money on. I like the Atrix dual core, but from most first impressions I have read people really cant tell the difference between the two. As soon as the software catch's up to the hardware than that will be a different story. Plus I dont game at all which you probably could utilize that dual core then.
 
I like modding my phone so I went with the Inspire. If I didn't care about using different roms I would have went with the Atrix.
 
kstruck said:
Just got the Atrix about 3 hours ago. Spent about 2 hours setting things up.

First, I am not impressed with the Atrix screen at all. The yellows are really off and the colors in general look washed out. To me the Inspire screen has better color and seems more vibrant.

Motoblur - Never used it before and having used Sense, I can say I really do not like Motoblur at all. It may take some time getting used to it, but Sense is overall better IMHO.

Screen size - I really like the screen size of the Inspire compared to the Atrix. 4.3 vs 4 makes a difference. I also like the size of the Inspire itself, but that is just a personal preference.

Build - I like the feel of the Inspire better. Seems more solid. Atrix is not cheap feeling at all, but Inspire has a better feel.

Speed - Both are fast and so far I do not notice a difference at all.

I like the fingerprint reader -some added security is not a bad thing and it works well.

Just a quick impression and I am sure I will find things I like better as time goes on. It has only been three hours, but the Inspire impressed me immediately, the Atrix not so much.

Unless things change drastically, the Atrix is probably going back.

I really wanted to like the Atrix, and I hope things change. I am not going to use the laptop dock or the media dock but I did try the car dock, which I really like. Hate having my phone sitting on the console or in my lap while I am driving. Car dock makes it easy to use and secure.
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WOW. Your experience sums up exactly how I felt about the two devices. I was immediately blown away by the inspire but when I got the Atrix, I was immediately unimpressed. I've been using it all day and the battery is not the beast that it had the potential to be. It seems that it'll be a little better than typical. But the Inspire's screen, fluidity, and Sense UI make it a better experience imo. I knew the Atrix would have to blow me away to replace the Inspire, and so far, it hasn't even come close.
 
i took six hundred dollars and lit it on fire, and i think it's the best here's why:

-the fire was very bright, almost like the sun bright, but smaller
-it put off black smoke. Black is my favorite color, or lack of color
- the smell it put off definitely smelled like money. i talked to my friend and told him I burned 6 hundo, he knew exactly what time i did it. he said there was a definite "money smell in the air." did i mention he was 3 blocks over? awesome...
-heat. it wasn't cold outside, but you could tell if it was, you would have been glad you were standing next to my 6 benjamin inferno. HOLLA!!!
-only took 16 seconds. I decided to blow on it, increasing the oxygen available and speeding up the combustion. my friend did 14 seconds with $400 but i feel like the extra $200 should have taken longer than 2 additional seconds, so all-in-all i'm very pleased with the speed.
-ashes. theyre cool, and GUESS WHAT COLOR THEY ARREEEEEEE!?! if you said black, you'd be wrong they're actually grey.....or gray? either way definitely my favorite color "that's a 50% mixture of my favorite color and my favorite color's negative", color.

so again, if you can swing it burn six-hundred-dollars. it's the best bang for the buck.
 
sarstube said:
i took six hundred dollars and lit it on fire, and i think it's the best here's why:

-the fire was very bright, almost like the sun bright, but smaller
-it put off black smoke. Black is my favorite color, or lack of color
- the smell it put off definitely smelled like money. i talked to my friend and told him I burned 6 hundo, he knew exactly what time i did it. he said there was a definite "money smell in the air." did i mention he was 3 blocks over? awesome...
-heat. it wasn't cold outside, but you could tell if it was, you would have been glad you were standing next to my 6 benjamin inferno. HOLLA!!!
-only took 16 seconds. I decided to blow on it, increasing the oxygen available and speeding up the combustion. my friend did 14 seconds with $400 but i feel like the extra $200 should have taken longer than 2 additional seconds, so all-in-all i'm very pleased with the speed.
-ashes. theyre cool, and GUESS WHAT COLOR THEY ARREEEEEEE!?! if you said black, you'd be wrong they're actually grey.....or gray? either way definitely my favorite color "that's a 50% mixture of my favorite color and my favorite color's negative", color.

so again, if you can swing it burn six-hundred-dollars. it's the best bang for the buck.
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Not really, i could almost get a set of magnaflows for that...now you want to talk about bang (noise) for your buck!.......
 
Ordered Atrix from Costco for 119.99 + tax..
Yesterday had checked atrix demo model in Costco & first thing I noticed was how handy it is compared to Inspire.. Battery (definitely better) + fingerprint reader + speed are other winning points againts Inspire..

So it depends on other points like screen size, colors, camera, UI while deciding Inspire over Atrix..
 
I received my Atrix today, and have been testing it this evening. But, something tells me it will be going back.

I like the size of the HTC. I have big hands...
 
Editorial: Motorola, sort Blur out or give it up -- Engadget Mobile

As thoroughly as I try to review phones, the phone that I carry for personal use always teaches me things about hardware, software, workflow, and --quite frankly --myself that I can never learn from a transient device that's merely passing through my home (and pocket) for a few short days. This week, I purchased a Motorola Atrix 4G to replace my aging (I kid, I kid) Nexus S, and let's just put it this way: it's been a rollercoaster of emotions ever since. Let's start this on a high note: the Atrix may very well represent the pinnacle of smartphone hardware today. Make no mistake that the engineers at Motorola are stone cold experts at engineering devices. Sure, they've had a miss here and there --haven't we all? --but by and large, strictly from a hardware perspective, this company has pumped out winner after winner for many years predating its Android days. As we said in our review, the device feels positively rock solid, and it exudes a vaguely muscular, high-tech appearance that pretty accurately conveys the maxed-out specifications under the hood. So far, so good. It's the software that kills me. I understand that complaints about Motoblur are nothing new; heck, I've been bellyaching about it in my own reviews for as long as it's been around. But it hasn't improved --in fact, it's gotten worse in some respects --and I'm afraid it's time that I dial up the volume in the hope that someone at Motorola will hear me. On some level, we need to give Motorola credit where credit's due. Blur was engineered and introduced at a time when deep social integration was first becoming very trendy in the mobile industry --manufacturers and platform vendors weren't yet becoming social network aggregators or managing their own clouds on any sort of large scale. Indeed, the concept was way ahead of the curve: in late 2009 at the Cliq's announcement, only webOS Synergy was vaguely on the same page. Even today, iOS hasn't gotten on board. The problem is that in the year and a half since, Android has advanced in countless ways. Google's oft-maligned pace of development on the platform has run circles around OEMs, Motorola included. Many of those advancements have deprecated key features of Blur, and so I can't explain why those features of Blur continue to appear in new devices --essentially unmodified --other than foolish corporate pride or the company's wrongheaded belief that it should carry forward outdated functionality in the name of consistency. It's illogical, it's maddening, and it detracts from these amazing phones that the company keeps releasing. Allow me to give you an obvious example. Blur's Facebook and Twitter integration are famously bad, forcing local contact synchronization and offering views and update mechanisms that don't generally line up with how people use either service in the real world. Fortunately, since Blur's introduction, Android has added native contact integration with third-party services --and both Facebook and Twitter have produced their own applications that directly interface with that capability. Though you might argue that those apps aren't the best in the Market, you'll be hard-pressed to find anyone that believes they aren't better than Blur. Alas, Motorola has continued with its own wonky integration, either unaware or unwilling to admit that there's no longer any reason for its own integration to exist. Even in a best-case scenario, as these services evolve, Motorola will never be able to iterate these integration points as quickly as Facebook, Twitter, TweetDeck, Twidroyd, TweetCaster, or any of the other standalone apps out there. That's nothing to be ashamed of --Motorola is not a provider of social networking apps. It's a phone manufacturer, and a damn good one. I just wish it'd stop pretending to be the former. Let's take a look at another (somewhat related) example --accounts. Android decoupled the user's Google account from the phone and shuffled it into a separate Accounts screen somewhere around Eclair, if memory serves me correctly. Again, Blur was doing the account management thing way back in Cupcake, and credit should be given where credit is due. It was ahead of its time. But for goodness' sake, Motorola, it's time to give it up. Look at that screen up there: nowadays, Blur simply piggybacks on Android's in-built Accounts screen with its own array of account types that sync to Motorola's cloud. It's perhaps the single most confusing, unforgivable screen on the phone. Who inside Motorola --what UX designer --green-lighted this? I'm looking at two different, unrelated types of Facebook and Twitter accounts on the same screen. If I'm not a tech-savvy user who understands some fairly deep ins and outs of Android and Blur, I don't have a prayer of appreciating what's going on here, or what type of account I should choose (hint: it's always the non-Blur type). I can't speak for bugs in the version of Blur that's loaded on the Atrix, but I know they're there. Modern software is never perfect. I'm not saying that because I don't believe in software engineers, I'm saying that because it's statistically impossible to create perfect software at the levels of complexity we see today (without immense validation costs that are reserved for intensely mission-critical things like space shuttles). And let's not lose sight of the fact that Blur is built on top of a foundation that is itself imperfect. And, of course, skins like Blur slow the process of delivering fixes to that foundation in a timely fashion, which makes this an incredibly complex set of moving parts that are all quickly forgotten and left to crumble as soon as manufacturers and carriers no longer find it financially beneficial to patch and improve. What's my point? Mainly, it's that I don't really trust Blur to handle my contacts, and that's a huge problem. Data synchronization is an immensely complicated task that very few devices and software packages over the years have managed to get right; stock Android still hasn't managed to do it, but if you just use Google Contacts, you can sort of reach a happy balance these days. You can make it work and place a decent level of trust in it. When you add Blur on top --which wants to synchronize my contacts to multiple locations, some of which I don't understand, don't want, and can't be removed --that trust no longer exists. Frankly, I don't know what I'd do if the Atrix borked my Google Contacts, but it would probably involve a long string of obscenities I can't print here, followed by several hours of sobbing, followed by the realization that I don't have a great way to piece all that information back together in a timely fashion. And let me make this problem more real for you: right now, the Atrix dialer is showing seven more contacts than I have in the My Contacts group in Google. I have no idea what those are, or why they're there. My guess is they're coming in from Blur Contacts (which I don't use and I wish didn't exist), but that's pure speculation. For that matter, I don't even know where the dialer is getting its data, because it has no options for choosing the source --though I do know that changes I make in Google Contacts are instantly reflected there, so that's a clue. Meanwhile, the phone's actual Contacts app --which inexplicably has no relation to the contacts list in the dialer --is just an insane list of thousands of random names culled from Google, Twitter, and whatever other services you've configured through Blur. You can filter down to Google alone, but not My Contacts, which renders the list useless. As for Blur's look and feel, I know that this is an intensely personal opinion. When it came out in 2009, I thought it looked pretty sharp, and it's still the least "cartoonish" replacement UI offered by any major manufacturer. Since then, it's aged, and today I prefer stock Gingerbread by a wide margin. Frankly, I think we've lost this battle --manufacturers will insist on differentiating their Android devices by making custom UIs for as long as they're producing Android devices. I'm resigned to that, and it doesn't bother me too much. It's the functionality of the device that has me fired up, not the appearance. So, Motorola, let me make this very simple: if you can't take the heat, get out of the kitchen. With Google's immense engineering staff all cranking on Android, you can't be blamed for failing to keep up. No OEM can. But that doesn't give you a free pass to produce devices with half-baked add-ons. Remove things that don't work or don't make sense, and don't add them back in until they do work. And furthermore, while there might be some isolated cases where carriers are asking for tamper-resistant bootloaders, using eFuse or a similar technology on a device with a buggy, deeply-flawed ROM is a jerk move (I'd like to use stronger language here, but this is a family site). You're already making some of the finest phone hardware in the world --now let's get the software into the same league.
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kstruck said:
UPDATE:

OK, full day using the Atrix 100% of the time. Here are some of my thoughts.

1. Battery life - Its good. Surfed the web, received about 15 SMS messages, about 275 exchange emails, 50 gmail emails, twitter and facebook updating all day, made over 40 short calls and spent about 2 hours on phone calls give or take. Battery is about 40%.

2. Screen - Text is crisp and clear, web pages are crisp and clear. I have no problem with "warping" as some people have mentioned. It seems strong to me. Screen is bright but colors still seem washed out a bit, especially yellows. I also noticed some unresponsiveness when tapping letters on the keyboard or tapping icons, but that just may be some fat fingering. I did not notice this problem on my Inspire.

3. Overall speed - This phone is fast no doubting that. I did have a few sluggish incidents, but not enough to complain. Is it faster than the Inspire? Not that I notice.

4. Motoblur - Really not a fan. Just not impressed but this is a personal preference and everyone has their opinions on that.

5. Apps - I noticed at least one app that I tried not rendering properly. Not sure why. It is just a game that I tried that a co-worker said was a good time waster, but for me it did not play properly. He showed me the game on his Inspire, and it worked fine. This could be an isolated incident.

6. Car dock - Rocks. Love it. People hear me fine on speakerphone and I hear them perfectly. As soon as you pop the phone in the dock it recognizes its in the car dock and renders a car friendly screen. Well done. I wish they had something like this for the Inspire.

7. FingerPrint Reader - Again, I really like it. Not much to say about it since it works without a problem. Not once did it not recognize my fingerprint. In fact, I thought, maybe its not working so I had a co-worker try it and it would not allow him access to the phone.

8. GPS - Rock solid. Instantly found me correctly. Used it in the car dock and it was very accurate.

9. Motoblur (Social Networking) - Not working for me at all. There are a few motoblur widgets that are supposed to update based on my facebook account. Facebook app always updates, the motoblur widgets never updated once. Not sure what the problem is there.

Overall I like the phone better than I did yesteday, but I am leaning toward returning it. I really just prefer the Inspire and the larger screen not to mention the price.

I will continue to use the Atrix tomorrow and make my mind up by the weekend.

I realize alot of this is personal preference, but hopefully it helps someone who is considering both phones.
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OK, it is official, I am returning my Atrix and keeping the Inspire. Just too many drawbacks with the Atrix and just too much I like more about the Inspire.

If I were to use the Laptop dock or media dock, it might have been a closer race, but for me, I just need a good solid phone and I really just prefer the Inspire screen size and Sense just blows Motoblur away in my opinion. I will miss the fingerprint reader (I really like that whole idea) but that is really about it. I do not find the Atrix any faster than the Inspire at least for what I do with my phone (Email, calls, some SMS and when bored some simple games).

I have been home the last two days and have kept Wifi on all day both days and it seems to increase my battery life, which I thought would actually be worse. It's been 15 hours since the phone has been off the charger and I am at 63%. Granted a unusually lite phone use day (250 Exchange emails, 3 calls and 2 text messages, 8 apps updated via the market and some playing around with changing my home screens). That being said I am consistently impressed with the battery life, and I did not "condition" the battery at all. In fact I probably did everything I should not have according to what people tell you to do.

Atrix battery was also very good so no complaints there.

Thanks for everyone's feedback and suggestions.
 
kstruck said:
OK, it is official, I am returning my Atrix and keeping the Inspire. Just too many drawbacks with the Atrix and just too much I like more about the Inspire.

If I were to use the Laptop dock or media dock, it might have been a closer race, but for me, I just need a good solid phone and I really just prefer the Inspire screen size and Sense just blows Motoblur away in my opinion. I will miss the fingerprint reader (I really like that whole idea) but that is really about it. I do not find the Atrix any faster than the Inspire at least for what I do with my phone (Email, calls, some SMS and when bored some simple games).

I have been home the last two days and have kept Wifi on all day both days and it seems to increase my battery life, which I thought would actually be worse. It's been 15 hours since the phone has been off the charger and I am at 63%. Granted a unusually lite phone use day (250 Exchange emails, 3 calls and 2 text messages, 8 apps updated via the market and some playing around with changing my home screens). That being said I am consistently impressed with the battery life, and I did not "condition" the battery at all. In fact I probably did everything I should not have according to what people tell you to do.

Atrix battery was also very good so no complaints there.

Thanks for everyone's feedback and suggestions.
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Thanks for the feedback bro! You made the best choice! I know it angers the atrix guys but the phone isnt what everyone made it out to be
 
Two days with the Inspire and so happy I did not come home with the Atrix. I spent considerable time with the Atrix in store before making my decision. The screen was less than impressive, speed was no better than Inspire in my opinion, and camera was no better than my blackberry. The Inspire had one downfall and that was battery, however, in my first day of use I got over 14 hours of what is my normal use, meaning 20 or so minutes of phone calls, around 50-100 texts and emails, downloaded around 8 apps, used a little internet and played around with some of the widgets, particularly the android market, also read USA Today, no games (I'm just not a gamer). If it it can get me through a day like this regularly I will be happy for a good while with this phone.
 
AndreaCristiano said:
Thanks for the feedback bro! You made the best choice! I know it angers the atrix guys but the phone isnt what everyone made it out to be
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No, the Atrix is not what it was hyped up to be, as a matter of fact, my initial reaction was WTF! I thought I had been ripped off, no way this phone was the best at CES. I almost went back to repurchase my Inspire, but I decided to give the Atrix a chance.

You guys seem to have forgotten Android's greatest assett, customization. I never used Touchwiz on my Samsung Captivate, and I won't use Motoblur on my Atrix. However the Inspire is not as good without Sense, HTC has integrated Sense kind of like Apple integrated IOS. Have you noticed how all HTC phones look the same now? Kind of like the Iphone right?

I'm not trying to bash the Inspire, it's a great phone, just like the iphone is a great phone. But I like Android, more than HTC Sense, more than IOS. Now I gotta figure out how to make lemonade out of this lemon *** atrix!
 
dell21 said:
No, the Atrix is not what it was hyped up to be, as a matter of fact, my initial reaction was WTF! I thought I had been ripped off, no way this phone was the best at CES. I almost went back to repurchase my Inspire, but I decided to give the Atrix a chance.

You guys seem to have forgotten Android's greatest assett, customization. I never used Touchwiz on my Samsung Captivate, and I won't use Motoblur on my Atrix. However the Inspire is not as good without Sense, HTC has integrated Sense kind of like Apple integrated IOS. Have you noticed how all HTC phones look the same now? Kind of like the Iphone right?

I'm not trying to bash the Inspire, it's a great phone, just like the iphone is a great phone. But I like Android, more than HTC Sense, more than IOS. Now I gotta figure out how to make lemonade out of this lemon *** atrix!
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Good luck. With a locked bootloader you stuck with what MOTO gives you unlike the inspire you can replace the roms
 
I already decided on not getting the Atrix, the screen was just too much of a step back. After 4.3 inches with the Inspire, the Atrix screen is just too doggone small. I'll wait till a 4.3 or 4.5 HTC dual core phone comes out.
 
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