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Official Motorola Atrix Review Thread!!

Data speeds aren't great though...My wife's iPhone 4 has better speeds

From Pcworld:

"The Atrix 4G runs on AT&T's 3G HSPA+ network. AT&T brands the network and related devices "4G" because, the company says, the network pumps out "4G-like" speeds, including download speeds of up to 6 mbps. With the FCC-approved Ookla tool installed on the Atrix, I tested the network connection of the phone from several locations around San Francisco, and found the download speeds were consistently in the neighborhood of 2.7 mbps. Only in my tests at our offices south of Market Street were the readings lower, averaging around 1.7 mbps.
Upload speeds across all five of my testing locations averaged 0.3 mbps (300 kbps), a very 3G-like result. Of even more concern were the latency times I saw. The Ookla tool consistently measured about 300 milliseconds of network latency--the time it takes for a packet to move from the device to an online server. That's roughly six times the latency seen in Verizon's LTE network and about a third higher than the latency in Sprint's WiMax network. The high latency number combined with the mediocre upload speed could hamper the smooth operation of apps like video chat and mobile gaming."
 
hmmm: "We didn't experience great HSPA+ 4G data speeds" by Cnet

THis is my Number 1 Fear with all this 4G hoopla! Spec wise it's awesome, but if at&t's new HSPA+/4G network isnt pulling good speeds, then it's a waste of a really cool Game changing device!

I would really like to see some Web Pages loaded up, and See how fast YouTube videos load up on HQ while running on the network...
 
THis is my Number 1 Fear with all this 4G hoopla! Spec wise it's awesome, but if at&t's new HSPA+/4G network isnt pulling good speeds, then it's a waste of a really cool Game changing device!

I would really like to see some Web Pages loaded up, and See how fast YouTube videos load up on HQ while running on the network...
Same here...
 
Data speeds aren't great though...My wife's iPhone 4 has better speeds

I'm willing to bet you'll see similar speeds as other 3g devices in your area, so this phone will give you speeds around what your wife's iphone 4 gets. I'm not really surprised we're not seeing much faster speeds yet, AT&T is still in the process of deploying the backhaul for hspa+. They haven't even announced the 4g areas yet as far as I know and said they won't be deployed until later this spring.

That said, the iphone 4 with the latest software release implements "Network Controlled Fast Dormancy" which allows more rapid connection and disconnection from towers and may contribute to better performance. Not much has been said about what other devices employ this network switching protocol, so the iphone still may have an advantage (latency wise at the very least)

Here's hoping that AT&T's speeds get better this spring.
 
As someone who will be getting the laptop dock, I'm glad to hear the keyboard is backlit.

Well seeing as my new $1300 MBA doesn't have one, I welcome the addition. This is an underrated feature in laptops.

That's one reason I went with an MBP over an MBA, I love the BLKB, especially since I switch machines/OS quite a bit, so having a visible keyboard if I'm chilling in a dark room is nice. It was a "must have" for the woman's replacement machine.

Sorry, that's a little OT, but back on topic, I was surprised to hear that about the dock as well. The design on the dock is surprising. I kind of wish they would've put a little more aesthetic flare on the phone side.

Did you guys also see in the CNET review that they said you can uninstall the AT&T pre-loaded apps as well as that blockbuster crap? That is good to see!

That's kind of shocking, though I always said install it if you must but LET the end user remove it (without root/etc).
 
That's one reason I went with an MBP over an MBA, I love the BLKB, especially since I switch machines/OS quite a bit, so having a visible keyboard if I'm chilling in a dark room is nice. It was a "must have" for the woman's replacement machine.

Sorry, that's a little OT, but back on topic, I was surprised to hear that about the dock as well. The design on the dock is surprising. I kind of wish they would've put a little more aesthetic flare on the phone side.



That's kind of shocking, though I always said install it if you must but LET the end user remove it (without root/etc).

I hoped this would be the case seeing as AT&T's Windows Phone 7 has this ability
 
I'm willing to bet you'll see similar speeds as other 3g devices in your area, so this phone will give you speeds around what your wife's iphone 4 gets. I'm not really surprised we're not seeing much faster speeds yet, AT&T is still in the process of deploying the backhaul for hspa+. They haven't even announced the 4g areas yet as far as I know and said they won't be deployed until later this spring.

That said, the iphone 4 with the latest software release implements "Network Controlled Fast Dormancy" which allows more rapid connection and disconnection from towers and may contribute to better performance. Not much has been said about what other devices employ this network switching protocol, so the iphone still may have an advantage (latency wise at the very least)

Here's hoping that AT&T's speeds get better this spring.
I hope that I wont regret buying it lol AT&T is taking too long..
 
I'm a touch bummed that I haven't seen anybody raving over the improved resolution.

I mean, when you see an iPhone 4, the difference is jaw dropping.

[edit]

I guess PC Mag says it's pretty stunning :D

[edit #2]

That's the 3rd review I've read talking about "buggy" software, that ain't gonna fly.
 
Depending on how this phone pans out, I may either wait or buy outright, because I might be considering a move to Vz, and I'd probably do it right around when the iPhone 5 is released.

At least at non-contract buy, with some offset for the Captivate (private sale), would let me change as needed without compounding the ETF.
 
Are you going to get ours on release day or wait and see ?

I'll definitely go play with it on day one that it's out, but I'm waiting until I hear something about the state of the bootloader. History suggests that within a week or two of release, we'll know some preliminary info about how it's locked. If it's encrypted like the DX and D2, I'm most likely out; if it's locked in a more reasonable fashion I'll probably jump in knowing it'll be unlocked within a month or two. I'm still sorta debating whether I'll jump in if it's rooted but with an encrypted boot or if I'm not going to bite unless it's unencrypted... We'll see soon enough! It's still a beast of a phone, some of those features will be hard to pass up!
 
There's been some question about the webtop ability from the phone through a direct HDMI connection and the PCMag review answered it for me finally!

Here's what's exciting: Used with the dock (and only with the dock), the phone kicks into Webtop mode and you're surfing the Web on the big screen, hitting all of those desktop Flash sites to stream videos and such.

This makes the Atrix a viable extra home PC. Typing on a full, USB keyboard is a breeze.

I've read every review out so far and I'm more excited to get it now than before! How about you guys?
 
Well, the good news, if you can call it that, is that the Atrix isn't alone in having slow data rates on "4G" through ATT. Reviews of the Inspire 4G phone, also on ATT, said they had the same issue. So, chin up, there's still hope for the Atrix to go much faster, but it's being limited somewhere upstream...

(And before I get slammed, I'm not comparing the Atrix to any other phone per se, just saying that a different phone on the same network has the same slow data rate issue.)
 
Very happy to see the positive comments on the processor. Nothing annoys me more than slow phones/computers. I like my electronics to be as fast as possible when performing multiple tasks.
 
Sounds like from this review that the screen suffers from similar problems as other pentile matrix displays, that's a shame; I'm looking forward to reading more reviews soon!

Yea I read that and came back here to if anyone else picked up on that too....:(

Its gonna be worse for the Bionic being a bigger screen....well at least the Amoled fans should be somewhat pleased...

I am trying to decide, if I go to AT&T do I get this or the LG 2X...

So, question is what do I overlook for my next phone? Screen res, pentile matrix, Ram....its getting harder to pick a phone that you will hopefully be happy with.
 
Yea I read that and came back here to if anyone else picked up on that too....:(

Its gonna be worse for the Bionic being a bigger screen....well at least the Amoled fans should be somewhat pleased...

I am trying to decide, if I go to AT&T do I get this or the LG 2X...

So, question is what do I overlook for my next phone? Screen res, pentile matrix, Ram....its getting harder to pick a phone that you will hopefully be happy with.

I'm sure the LG won't be perfect either. They all have an issue and always will. At least it has a Dual Core, HDMI, big battery, high resolution screen, FFC and plenty of RAM/ROM. I can deal with a less-than-perfect screen. Hell, the Inspire doesn't have any of those things.
 
I was pumped to see this thread start, I have 'trolled' google for info on this bad boy, since CES. Finally we're getting some reviews :) but I don't know about the rest of you - I was almost put to sleep by the Slashgear guy! I thought for a minute he was going to do the whole demo with the 'Drive don't text' protective film on !! I guess reviewing new awesomeness just gets 'old' after a while.. is it in stock yet? is it in stock yet? is it in stock yet? :D
 
...I've read every review out so far and I'm more excited to get it now than before! How about you guys?
Honestly? Not so much...

Number one, and it's a biggy for me, are the hangups mentioned in the reviews - that's always been my concern about Android, and I don't even own one yet.

The screen is "pretty good", frankly, that's disappointing to hear considering it's resolution.

The other irritation is not a single review of any 4G phone shows "4G" working. Okay, fine, the network's not complete yet... okay, but we're paying for it now and it's broke...

Granted, the last one isn't an Atrix issue, but still. Yes they'll get the sw sorted, yes the network will catch up, but come on, there's nothing worse than buying a brand new anything and having it disfunctional right out of the box. Guess I was hoping for better news than what I'm hearing, and I know all phones have issues, it's just... disappointing.

[edit]
Went and did some reading, and the network speed is alledgedly to be increased soon - meaning HSPC+ isn't enabled yet, so all the reviews are going to show disappointing 4G speeds.
 
Honestly? Not so much...

The other irritation is that I've not seen a single review of any 4G phone that says "4G" actually works. Okay, fine, the network's not complete yet... okay, but why the heck are we paying for it?

You're not paying for it.
 
Motorola Atrix 4G (AT&T) Review & Rating | PCMag.com
Unfortunately, I ran into several bugs in the phone's software. AT&T's U-Verse Live TV streaming app stalled out several times; I could never get it to work correctly. Also, the Android Market and Fring crashed in my tests. The phone dropped its Wi-Fi connection twice without explanation during testing, and sometimes the display changed orientation unexpectedly, or froze up in one of its docks. In all cases, trying again fixed the problem, but I got a cumulative sense of rough edges with the Atrix.

I really don't care if AT&T U-Verse is buggy since I doubt I'd use crappy AT&T software and it might just be the software rather than the phone. Not sure i like wifi dropping and android market crashing though.

As far as motoblur goes...do you really have to sign up for it or can you bypass the setup and not use it? I hope you can skip that step and get right to the phone.
 
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