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Motorola ATRIX 4G review
A/V Accessories Are Ridiculously Overpriced, and I’ve Had Enough of It
SlashGear Week in Review – Week 8 2011
Motorola XOOM pre-order at Best Buy: February 24 release

Posted: 20 Feb 2011 01:33 PM PST

You have to be a pretty special device to win Best Device of CES, and this year Motorola’s ATRIX 4G took away the coveted crown. It’s not hard to see why, either: the 4-inch Android smartphone not only pairs NVIDIA’s dual-core Tegra 2 processor with a beautiful qHD display, but offers some compelling accessories such as a laptop-style docking station that wants to replace your MacBook Air. Plenty of promise, then, but does the ATRIX 4G deliver the speed, data and flexibility AT&T promise? Check out the full SlashGear review after the cut.

Hardware

It’s tough to pick holes in the ATRIX 4G’s spec sheet; Motorola has put together a solid list of hardware that pushes several of the limits we’ve seen on recent Android devices. Build quality is solid plastic with a fair amount of heft in the hand: it’s a dense handset, at 63.5 x 117.75 x 10.95 mm and 135g, and feels reassuringly free of creaks and flex. There’s something about the fascia that reminds us of the HTC Touch HD, discrete and sober.

Under the Gorilla Glass sits one of the ATRIX 4G’s key selling points, a 4-inch qHD capacitive touchscreen. Running at 960 x 540 it’s a welcome step up from the WVGA 800 x 480 that has become the de-facto standard for Android handsets over the past twelve months or so. That adds up to a pixel density of 275ppi, short of the iPhone 4′s Retina Display, but still noticeably crisper than most other rivals. Viewing angles are broad, colors are accurate and – as long as you’re not in direct sunlight – there are few problems with brightness. Underneath are the usual touch-sensitive Android controls, for menu, home, back and search, while above there’s a VGA-resolution webcam for video calls, along with brightness and proximity sensors.

On the left edge there’s the microUSB and HDMI connectors, while the volume controls are – somewhat unusually, but still perfectly usable – on the right.

On the angled top edge there’s the 3.5mm headphone port and a power button that doubles as a fingerprint scanner.

We rarely had any issues using this, unlocking the ATRIX 4G with a quick swipe; on a few occasions it took a second pass, but generally the fingerprint system is easier than the usual Android lock screen. Happily there’s a passcode backup should you persistently encounter issues, or need to give someone else access. A speaker sits on the bottom edge, while the 5-megapixel camera with a dual-LED flash is on the distinctively patterned back.

Inside, the dual-core NVIDIA Tegra 2 takes price of place, a set of two 1GHz cores paired with a healthy 1GB of DDR2 RAM and 16GB of integrated storage.

There’s a microSD card slot for a further 32GB, and given the ATRIX 4G will shoot 720p HD video and – with its Entertainment Center – is aiming to handle your A/V requirements, that storage potential is very welcome. Connectivity includes triband HSPA+ (as per AT&T’s 4G branding) and quadband GSM/EDGE, along with WiFi b/g/n with support for both 2.4GHz and 5GHz bands, Bluetooth 2.1+EDR and the microUSB/HDMI ports. GPS, a digital compass and an accelerometer round things out.

It all adds up to one of the fastest Android handsets we’ve used to-date, blazing through webpage rendering and pinch-zooming, loading apps with barely any delay, sending Google Maps whipping across the screen and helping squeeze out some of the frustrating pauses that still leave some Android users looking enviously at the iPhone 4.

Motorola offers both the Laptop Dock and the HD Dock, along with a Bluetooth keyboard and mouse set, which we’ll cover later on in the review.

Software

Motorola’s choice of Android 2.2 Froyo is the first disappointment of the ATRIX 4G’s software experience, leaving Google’s Nexus S as the only Gingerbread smartphone currently on the market. On top, there’s the latest iteration of MOTOBLUR, less intrusive than in its early generations, but still an acquired taste (and a potential cause of delay to future Android OS updates) with its social networking integration, modified UI and resizable homescreen widgets.

AT&T introduces its own modifications and software, including the same limitation on sideloading apps (i.e. installing them from a direct download or memory card, rather than from the official Android Market) that we’ve seen on other Android handsets from the carrier. There are workarounds online, which can address that, and it does introduce a degree of protection from potentially malware-infected apps, but the sort of power users, which will be drawn to the ATRIX 4G, might not really need the carrier’s over-protection.

As for AT&T software, there’s the carrier’s Code Scanner, Family Map, Navigator, YP Mobile and My AT&T apps already installed, along with Motorola-bundled copies of Quick Office 3.0, Vlingo Voice, Blockbuster, Need for Speed and MobiTV. That’s on top of the usual suite of Google apps (Gmail in particular looks brilliant on the qHD display, with the Tegra 2 CPU slicing through any inbox delays we’ve encountered on other Android devices). Some apps can be deleted while others are fixed, though of course a custom ROM would take care of that (and the horsepower of the ATRIX 4G is already drawing plenty of attention from the homebrew Android community) if Motorola hadn’t locked that down as well. Of course, modders have already addressed that with an (unreleased) rooting method, but it’s another degree of frustration that belies Android’s generally open, mod-friendly nature.

The useful additions we’ve come to expect from smartphones, like a mobile hotspot app, are present and work fine, with the ATRIX 4G able to share its HSPA+ connection with up to five WiFi-enabled clients. There’s also DLNA support, for wirelessly streaming content to a compatible display or audio player, though Motorola really expects users to use its HDMI output or HD Dock.

Camera and Multimedia

We’ve criticized Motorola’s cameras in the past, and the ATRIX 4G is another middle-of-the-road effort from the company. At 5-megapixels – with autofocus and a dual-LED flash that doubles as a video light – it’s not the highest resolution on a recent smartphone, though there’s undoubtedly more to mobile photography than sheer pixel count.

Still images are clean but uninspiring, with reasonable contrast and sharpness outdoors but a little too much noise for our liking indoors. We’ve had better luck from recent Samsungs. Color balance could be more accurate, too, though at least the camera boots quickly – even without a dedicated hardware button – and the ATRIX 4G processes and saves shots with the minimum of delay.

Video, meanwhile, is currently limited to 720p HD, rather than the 1080p HD the Tegra 2 is capable of. That will apparently be unlocked – for recording and playback – in a later firmware update, though Motorola is yet to commit to an exact release date. As it stands, though, video is more successful than stills in many cases, with plenty of detail, swift responsiveness to changes in lighting, and smooth recording despite the lack of any optical stability systems.

The qHD display is obviously great for showing off photos and video, but since the ATRIX 4G packs an HDMI output it’s also easy to hook up a nearby HDTV for direct playback. Plugged in – with the bundled mini HDMI to HDMI cable – the smartphone boots into a dedicated Entertainment Center interface, with a big-screen friendly UI for photos, video and audio playback. The ATRIX 4G itself shows a remote control for navigating, and the phone supports AAC, H.264, MP3, MPEG-4, WMA9, eAAC+, AMR NB and AAC+ formats with video playback at up to 30fps. With the 1080p update this will be even more useful, but 720p looked good nonetheless.

Phone and Battery

Motorola’s noise reduction system is in evidence on the ATRIX 4G, and it helps the Android smartphone put in a solid showing when it comes to voice call quality. Audio on both ends of the call is clear and crisp, and the speakerphone is suitably loud.

Data, unfortunately, hasn’t faired so well. The Motorola may promise 4G speeds, but performance felt more in line with regular 3G devices than other HSPA+ handsets we’ve used. We tested the ATRIX 4G in multiple locations (with HSPA+ coverage indicated) and saw on average download speeds of 1.3 Mbps to 1.6 Mbps, while upload speeds proved ponderous at between 0.12 Mbps and 0.2 Mbps. It’s unclear at this stage whether this is entirely the ATRIX 4G’s fault, the fledgling AT&T HSPA+ network, or – most likely, perhaps – a combination of the two, but the end result is that rival 4G networks deliver better raw performance if data speeds are your primary concern.

The 1,930 mAh battery Motorola supply is a considerable step up from the sort of power packs we’ve seen on other high-end devices of late, and the company expects it to push the ATRIX 4G on to up to 540 minutes of talktime or up to 400 hours of standby. In practice, with push-email turned on and the usual mixture of daily use – Google Maps, Internet browsing, some music and video playback – we’ve seen well over 13 hours of runtime from the ATRIX 4G. Yes, you’ll be charging it nightly, but that’s par for the course for a modern smartphone.

Laptop Dock

A fair amount of the excitement around the ATRIX 4G isn’t so much the handset itself, but the accessories Motorola is offering. Flagship of these is the Motorola Laptop Dock, an 11.6-inch ultraportable notebook-style clamshell with a full keyboard, trackpad and integrated battery. Alone it has no intelligence; instead, you have to dock the ATRIX 4G into a flip-up cradle at the back, upon which the Laptop Dock boots into Motorola’s Webtop system.

The Laptop Dock hardware is certainly solid, made of brushed black metal and plastic, and with strongly-sprung keys. Despite the broad width they keys themselves are a little smaller than what we’re used to from, say, the MacBook Air, and general feel is slightly less impressive than a regular notebook. The trackpad is large – though the button bar is far too stiff for our liking – but the absence of multitouch support for two-finger scrolling and other gestures is frustrating.

As for the display, that’s a 1366 x 768 panel and is bright and reasonably clear. The Webtop system is a custom Linux build, with an OS X style dock of apps – including a full version of Firefox – along the bottom of the screen and a windowed version of the ATRIX 4G’s display floating on the left.

You can boot into the Entertainment Center – more of which in the HD Dock section – or, more likely, the browser (there are shortcuts for AT&T, Facebook and Motorola, but they simply open the relevant pages in Firefox), and both the phone view and browser view can be maximized to full-screen (though the phone image is merely magnified, not upscaled, so gets relatively pixelated in the process).

Motorola is particularly proud of the full build of Firefox installed, though the actual user experience is a mixed bag. You can certainly load up Google Docs, stream content, view YouTube and Hulu, and other full webpages in various tabs, but the Tegra 2 processor falls short of the slick experience we’d hoped for. There’s noticeable sluggishness, whether you’re opening Firefox, flicking between tabs, playing Full HD content or even just working with Google Docs documents.

Still, you can handle calls and messages while the ATRIX 4G is docked, and the integrated battery – which Motorola reckons will keep the Laptop Dock running for up to 6 hours of video playback or 8-10 hours of web browsing – recharges the smartphone as you work. Hopefully some further software optimization will give Webtop a speed boost in the coming months, since right now it’s an expensive and limited alternative to a netbook.

HD Dock

Motorola’s desktop dock is a halfway house of sorts between the Laptop Dock and the basic HDMI connection the ATRIX 4G itself offers, including not only an HDMI output but three USB ports for hooking up peripherals and a 3.5mm stereo audio output. They could include a wired keyboard and mouse, though Motorola also sent us its Bluetooth keyboard/mouse set.

What you do get over and above using the onboard HDMI, however, is access to the Webtop UI, turning your ATRIX 4G and HDTV into a desktop PC. The Entertainment Center UI can be controlled by the bundled infrared remote, which is a physical version of the on-screen controller shown when you use a direct HDMI connection.

The Bluetooth keyboard and mouse work as you’d expect, pairing with the ATRIX 4G and allowing for easy navigation and text entry. The keyboard has several Android app shortcut buttons, and the chiclet keys are easier to use than the Laptop Dock’s keys.

Price and Value

The Motorola ATRIX 4G is priced in line with most other high-end smartphones, at $199.99 with a new, two-year AT&T agreement. Both voice and data plans are mandatory, but if you want to use the tethering feature then you’ll need to step up to the most expensive data package (the cheaper plans only offer on-device data) at $45 per month. With the cheapest voice plan that means you’re looking at a minimum of $84.99 per month.

Where it gets really expensive is when you take into account the accessories. The Motorola HD Dock is $129.99, while the Bluetooth keyboard alone is $69.99; AT&T will sell you an “Entertainment Center/Webtop Access Kit” including both, plus the Bluetooth mouse, for $189.99. As for the Laptop Dock, that’s $299.99 after $200 of rebates (mail-in and instant), though you’ll need to have the tethering data plan to qualify. Alone, the Laptop Dock is a hefty $499.99, which might not get you a MacBook Air but does cover quite a few netbook and notebook options (all of which are functional without a phone docked into them).

Wrap-Up

If there’s one thing the Motorola ATRIX 4G shows, it’s that there’s no shortage of innovation in the smartphone market. The Laptop Dock may be expensive – and Palm may have previewed the idea with the Folio, and Redfly even attempted to commercialize it with the Celio – but Motorola deserves some kudos for bringing it to market and to a major carrier. There’s certainly no shortage of geek appeal, and the HD Desktop Dock is similarly useful, but right now the Webtop interface falls short of what a simple, WiFi-tethered netbook would deliver. The HD Desktop Dock is good, but its core abilities are readily served with a far cheaper HDMI cable. Early adopters can probably justify one or both, but mainstream users will likely want to wait for Motorola’s engineers to finesse the experience.

Mediocre 4G data speeds aside, meanwhile, the ATRIX itself is a solid, very usable smartphone lifted from among the Android crowds by its lightning fast performance and pixel-rich display. The combination of Tegra 2 and qHD resolution add up to one of the best Android experiences to-date. Rivals will soon begin snapping at the ATRIX 4G’s heels, but in terms of as much future-proofing as you can lock-in over the course of a two-year agreement, today the Motorola offers the best starting point.

ATRIX 4G unboxing and hands-on

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A/V Accessories Are Ridiculously Overpriced, and I’ve Had Enough of It

Posted: 20 Feb 2011 10:30 AM PST

As you've probably gathered from reading my columns here on SlashGear, I'm pretty much obsessed with every single product that can help improve my entertainment in the living room. Whether it's an HDTV, set-top box, game console, or surround-sound system, I love it.

Over the past several months, I've been turning to audio-video accessories to quell my insatiable desire to get my hands on more tech goodies. I've bought universal remotes, home-theater cables, HDMI switchers, and so many more products I can barely keep track.

Needless to say, I've been quite busy improving my home-theater set-up.

But earlier this week, I decided that it was time to buy some 3D glasses for my 3D set. When I went to the store, however, I quickly realized that the glasses cost $150. And at that point, after overpaying for far too long, I finally had enough.

I'm sick and tired of paying too much money for accessories that don't justify the price.

Let's turn to HDMI cables for a minute. How many times have you been told by your local salesperson at a big-box retailer that you need to buy those expensive cables that feature gold-plated connectors and all kinds of other happy garbage?

"How much is it?" you say.

"Oh, it's uh, $75," the salesperson responds.

If you're anything like me, you laugh at them and walk away. You then go home, surf on over to Monoprice.com and buy yourself a cheap 6-foot HDMI cable for a few bucks.

The same can be said for HDMI switchers. I don't know how many times I've wanted to pick one up for a room in my house or for a friend, and I've been absolutely appalled at the pricing. Even online, HDMI switchers seem rather expensive for what you're getting.

But all that pales in comparison to universal remotes. Some of the top universal remotes on the market, including the Logitech Harmony line, are wildly expensive. Logitech's Harmony One, for example, retails for about $200. Some might say that it justifies that price tag. As for me? I'm just fine sticking with the remote my cable company gave me.

Perhaps it's all that strife over previous purchases that made me balk at $150 3D glasses. It's just too expensive. And I don't feel comfortable feeding into a beast that will continue to pump out low-cost, high-priced products until the market as a whole stops it.

Look at the computer space. Remember when cables were outrageously priced and you couldn't get a good accessory for under $50? That changed. And it changed quickly.

Now the time has come for things to change in the home-theater market. Enough with over-priced garbage. The time has come to stand up to the outrageous pricing going on in that space and make it clear once and for all that reasonably priced products will be chosen — and overly expensive devices will be left on store shelves.

Now, who's with me?!

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SlashGear Week in Review – Week 8 2011

Posted: 20 Feb 2011 06:43 AM PST

Welcome to the latest edition of the SlashGear Week in Review. This week was MWC 2011 in Barcelona, Spain so there are hoards of phone announcements from the show. The Smasung Galaxy S II went official last Sunday packing in a 4.27-inch screen with WVGA resolution and a 1GHz processor. On Monday we landed some hands on time with the Galaxy S II and put that time on video for you to check out. We think that the smartphone is hugely impressive.

Pandora is looking to do more than music in preparation for its IPO. Pandora is said to be looking at expansion into talk and sports programming. The LG Optimus 3D smartphone got official Monday. The phone packs in a 1GHz dual-core processor, 5MP dual lens camera for 3D video and a 4.3-inch screen.

RIM announced a pair of new PlayBook 4G tablet models early in the week. The new PlayBook 4G models added versions for LTE and HSPA+ both with WiFi and they are set to land in H2 2011. One of the biggest announcements at MWC 2011 was the Nokia and Microsoft tie up for WinPo 7 on Nokia smartphones. Nokia claimed at the show that the decision was made the night before the show and that Intel knew before the show started.

Another smartphone to debut during MWC was the Acer Iconia Smart running Android. The notable feature is the big 21:9 aspect ratio screen that measures 4.8-inches. The HTC Desire S smartphone got official this week. The device gets a 1GHz processor, a 3.7-inch screen, and will run Android 2.4.

Intel unveiled a new high-end processor Tuesday called the Core i7-990X Extreme Edition. The CPU has six cores, runs at 3.46GHz, and can be overclocked to 3.73GHz using Turbo Boost. One of the big HTC announcements at MWC was the interesting Flyer tablet. We posted up a video of the device being shown by a HTC schlep since the company wouldn't allow us to hold the tablet.

HTC showed off a pair of new Facebook smartphones called the HTC ChaCha and Salsa. The ChaCha has a QWERTY keyboard and a 2.6-inch screen, the Salsa is a touchscreen only device with a 3.4-inch screen, and both have a dedicated Facebook button. That HTC Flyer tablet I mentioned earlier has the ability to play streaming games from OnLive. The tie up came after HTC invested $40 million into OnLive.

Rumors surfaced that Apple plans to give the next iPhone model a larger 4-inch screen. Whether or not that will happen remains to be seen. A soldier in Afghanistan has taken to a very cool hobby. He is building action figures out of the stuff he comes across at the base where he is stationed and they look really cool.

NVIDIA unveiled details on the Project Kal-El quad core chip early in the week at MWC. The chip would be the first quad-core chip for tablets and phones that is sampling. HTC made so many announcements at MWC that it was hard to keep up with. If you want to be sure you know all HTC has to offer we put up a recap of all the HTC announcements at MWC.

Nokia apparently won’t have Windows Phone OS on its smartphones until at least October. Nokia is waiting for a new version of the OS. Warner Brothers is going to sell movies on the App Store as apps. The two flicks to start with are The Dark Knight and Inception.

LG announced its Cinema 3D LW5700 3D HDTV that has the first certification for being flicker free. That flicker free design means that the TV will be easier on the eyes and some people that have problems with 3D images might find that they can watch without issue. The pricing on the Motorola Xoom tablet was confirmed mid-week at $799. Motorola thinks the speed of 4G makes the price justifiable.

The iPhone 4 won an award at MWC 2011 for Best Mobile Device. The irony is that the iPhone 4 wasn’t even at the show. Pioneer unveiled a new DJM-900nexus DJ mixer for club DJs. The mixer has all sorts of effects and features and will sell for about $2400 in March when it lands.

The Motorola Xoom is heading to Europe with hints at the official launch date coming by way of an interest page from Carphone Warehouse. The page hints that April is the expected launch date. Spotify has signed a deal with EMI giving the service two of the four major music labels. Warner Music and Universal are the two remaining major holdouts.

AeroViroment unveiled the prototype of a small UAV that looks like a hummingbird. The UAV has flapping wings, battery, and a video camera inside the small package and is the result of a DARPA project. The price for the LG Optimus 3D has surfaced and the phone is very expensive. The price on the pre-order page at Expansys is listed at about $835.

Google has announced that it will invest millions into celebrity YouTube channels. Apparently, YouTube is offering celebs $5 million each to start a channel to cover payroll for production and more. YouTube wants at least 20 celeb channels. Photos from President Obama’s Tech dinner have surface and it looks like the Zuck got to sit at Obama’s right hand.

The NYT has debunked the rumors that a smaller iPhone is coming, but some interesting concepts and more rumors keep surfacing. Perhaps a smaller screen device with a keyboard would work. Thanks for reading, see you next time!

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Motorola XOOM pre-order at Best Buy: February 24 release

Posted: 20 Feb 2011 05:04 AM PST

Motorola’s XOOM is on track to be the first Android 3.0 Honeycomb tablet commercially available, with Best Buy stores now accepting pre-orders of the 10.1-inch slate ahead of its retail release on this coming Thursday, February 24. Priced at $799.99 complete with embedded Verizon 3G broadband – and set for a 4G update later in the year – the XOOM is also being offered with a range of accessories.

They include the Motorola XOOM desktop dock, priced at $49.99, and the Motorola XOOM speaker dock, priced at $129.99. There’s also a portfolio case which flips into a stand for the tablet, at $39.99, and a Bluetooth keyboard for $69.99.

Unfortunately online pre-sales aren’t supported, so you’ll have to head down to your nearest bricks & mortar Best Buy if you’re interested, and currently the 3G version is the only XOOM on offer. The WiFi-only model will follow on in Q2 2011. More details in our hands-on with the XOOM.

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Minggu, 20 Februari 2011