Motorola ATRIX 2 Review

Introduction:

Can you believe that it has been only 9 months since our eyes first feasted upon the Motorola ATRIX 4G and its innovative qualities back at CES? Adding to its mesmerizing capacity, the handset was attached with the moniker of being the “world’s most powerful smartphone” at the time of its announcement – plus, it helped that it was one serious contenders in the Android space. Fortunately for all of us, Motorola is quick to pump out its successor in a timely manner as the Motorola ATRIX 2 is happily finding its niche on AT&T’s lineup right now. Certainly we’re not fans of seeing higher prices attached to some quality smartphones of late, but what’s especially enticing about the ATRIX 2, unlike some of its rivals, is the simple fact that it’s only sporting a manageable $99.99 on-contract price point.

The package contains:

• Motorola ATRIX 2
• microUSB cable
• Wall Charger
• Quick Start Guide
• Safety, Regulatory & Legal Information

Design:

Considering that it’s packing a larger display, the overall size and weight (5.18 oz) of the handset has been increased – albeit, it’s not bulky at all and manages to be thinner than its predecessor at 0.4” thick. Rather than utilizing the most premium of materials for its construction, the ATRIX 2 is still one plastic device that’s complemented by its gunmetal-like bezel and patterned rubbery back cover. And since its edges are curved, it’s very comfortable to hold without coming off as being unwieldy. Clearly, there is very little resemblance with its predecessor, which isn’t a bad thing at all, but its overall solid build is appreciable to keep it good light with the competition – still, we’ve seen better designs from Moto.



You can compare the Motorola ATRIX 2 with many other phones using our Size Visualization Tool.

Maintaining the same qHD (540 x 960) resolution as before, it’s undoubtedly potent enough to spread out evenly on its larger 4.3” LCD display. Naturally, details are sharp looking to enable our eyes to distinguish fine text from a good distance away. However, what entrances us the most about it all, is that its color production is deep and vivid with its output – albeit, it’s not as saturated looking as Super AMOLED Plus. Nevertheless, our eyes are attracted to it, but after meticulously looking at it more, there’s clearly a yellowish hue to it. Throw in its awesome viewing angles and high-contrast, it’s quite usable in outdoor conditions with the sun present.


Flaunting the usual cast of capacitive Android buttons beneath its display, we’re able to activate them with minimal accidental presses. Furthermore, a front-facing camera is found perched next to its earpiece grill.

Gone is the fingerprint reader incorporated into the original’s dedicated power button, and now, we’re essentially presented with a lonesome typical power button that’s flush to the surface – still, it has a springy feel to it. Clinging onto its sides, we also find a noise cancellation microphone, 3.5mm headset jack, distinguishable volume rocker, shutter key, regular microphone, microHDMI-out port, and microUSB port. With the latter two, they’re combined to work handsomely with the handset’s optional accessories – like the laptop dock or HD station dock for access to Motorola’s Webtop service.

One of the handset’s upgrades is found in the rear as its boasts a larger 8-megapixel auto-focus camera with LED flash, which is able to shoot high-definition 1080p videos as well. On the opposite side, there’s a slit found in the back cover for the handset’s speakerphone grill. Lastly, yanking off the rubbery-coated plastic cover provides us access to its 1,785 mAh battery, SIM card slot, and microSD card slot. Unfortunately, it’s now packed with a 2GB microSD card, plus 8GB of internal storage – as opposed to the 16GB of memory from before.

Interface:

Call it a charge of heart or whatever, but the Motorola ATRIX 2 chooses to employ a 1GHz dual-core TI OMAP processor to power its vessel. Coupled with 1GB of RAM, the smartphone is capable of delivering a sensationally responsive platform experience that’s effortless with almost all basic operations. Upping up the ante, there’s just a tiny hint of choppiness with its movement when a live wallpaper is activated – though, it’s nothing detrimental. In any event, we’re gladly accepting of the rigorous rate that the Motorola ATRIX 2 is exhibiting with its execution.  Even though it might not capture the title of being the world’s most powerful smartphone, it’s nevertheless still an admiral offering that shows of the greatness of its testament.

Once limited to a select few handsets, namely the Motorola DROID 3 and DROID BIONIC over on Verizon, the latest version of Motorola’s customized Android interface is running on the ATRIX 2. Formerly known as MOTOBLUR, this updated interface sprinkles quite a few visual enhancements to the typical Android 2.3.5 Gingerbread experience, which includes some heavy 3D effects and transitions to make the experience completely engaging. Obviously, there is plenty of personalization found with it since most of the stock and Motorola widgets are resizable to any length and size. Frankly, it’s a lovable experience on the whole, but we still find HTC’s Sense UI to be the most refined out there.



Functionality:

Much like the handsets before it, there’s nothing new with the core application experience found with the Motorola ATRIX 2 seeing that it follows accordingly to what we’ve previously seen on devices like the DROID 3 and DROID BIONIC. Specifically, its core organizer apps provide all of the logical and traditional set of features we come to expect out of any Android smartphone. So whether you’re using the calculator, calendar, alarm, or timer, there’s absolutely nothing different about them in any way. Still, it’s nice being able to sync calendars from multiple accounts as well – plus, they’re color coded for better organization.

Thanks to the extra real estate that we’re presented on the ATRIX 2, it makes for a fine and hassle-free messaging experience since the layout is a little bit more spacious and spread out. Additionally, it’s responsive enough to keep up with our feverish rate of typing – without making too many mistakes along the way. So whether you’re using the multi-touch or Swype keyboards, which have their own specialties, the ATRIX 2 is more than equipped to handling all of your messaging needs.


Aside from the fact that scrolling is kept at a minimum with the Gmail experience on the handset, there’s nothing else beneficial that we can find about it. Luckily, the setup process is unchanged with its user-friendly approach by requiring only our email addresses and passwords for automatic setup with most generic accounts. In some instances though, it might ask for additional pieces of information, like server addresses and ports, to set up properly.

Camera:

Since it’s running the same customized experience found on the DROID BIONIC, the layout of the camera interface isn’t particularly new. Dominating most of the interface, we get a good view on what we’re shooting with the viewfinder, but we find the usual suspect of icons littered on its side – like the on-screen shutter key, digital zoom controls, and video mode toggle. Furthermore, there’s an accessible sliding bar that holds additional icons that allow us to change shooting modes, choose different effects, and get into its settings. Compared to others, it’s lacking on some manual controls that are near and dear to photo enthusiast out there.


With its sizable 8-megapixel auto-focus camera, the Motorola ATRIX 2 captures some fine looking photos that are more than passable for anyone to accept. Generally, shots taken in sunny conditions are filled with sharp looking details, but strangely enough, colors are often deceptively bland in appearance. Conversely, its seems apparent that its shutter speed is significantly slower with shots taken in low lighting, which is evident by fuzziness of some photos – thus, slightly diminishing its overall quality. Thankfully though, the LED flash is spot on in casting enough light to sharpen photos, however, it’s completely useless if you’re in pitch dark seeing that it has trouble focusing in on our subjects.

Moving up to 1080p video capture this time around, it’s obviously a welcomed addition – even more when it shoots consistently in all conditions at 29 frames per second. At that rate, everything appears to be buttery smooth with little to no evidence of choppiness. However, things are drummed down due to the soft and faint looking details that are captured by it. Obviously, watching the recorded videos on a small screen isn’t a problem, but its fallacy with capturing details is blatantly realized when viewing them on larger displays. Still, we do like its clear sounding audio recording.

Motorola ATRIX 2 Sample Video - Daytime:



Motorola ATRIX 2 Sample Video - Night:



Multimedia:

On the surface, the music player on the Motorola ATRIX 2 seems to be similar to the ones found on other recent Motorola smartphones, but after a closer inspection, it’s seemingly different. Sure it still boasts that eye-catching 3D like carousel when browsing through songs in landscape, but when it’s in portrait, lyrics are displayed beneath the album cover. Call it a karaoke feature of some sort, especially when lyrics are in-sync to the song, it’s definitely something that we appreciate since it’s cool and not typically seen. In terms of audio quality, its speaker is remarkably boastful with its rich and robust tones, which doesn’t buckle when it’s placed on the loudest volume.


Combining its blazing dual-core processor and lovely looking large display, it’s the perfect marriage in offering the most optimal video watching experience. Loading up our test video that’s encoded in MPEG-4 1920 x 1080 resolution, it’s able to play from start to finish without a single slither of slowdown or lag evident throughout its playback. All in all, we’re mesmerized by its polarizing experience.

Aside from using its DLNA functionality to share multimedia content wirelessly to compatible devices, the Motorola ATRIX 2 features an all too useful micro-HDMI out port. In addition to having an option for a mirrored experience, we can also get into using Motorola’s Webtop experience by using any one of the optional accessories – such as the HD Station dock or lapdock. If you’re going to use the latter, just be aware that it’s not compatible with the laptop dock for the original ATRIX 4G or DROID BIONIC – so yeah, that’s another expense you’ll need to consider.


Strangely, its internal storage capacity is now broken down to 8GB of internal storage and a 2GB microSD card, which is less than the 16GB found with its predecessor. Perhaps, its affordable pricing is the reasoning behind the lower storage capacity – though, it can accept cards up to 32GB in size if you really need more.

Internet and Connectivity:

Right off the bat, we’re astounded  by the handset’s significantly better data speeds as we’re able to get download and upload speeds around 4.5 Mbit/s and 1.5 Mbit/s respectively, which is much better than what we saw with the ATRIX 4G. In terms of the overall web browsing experience, it’s fittingly efficient in handling our needs, but for some odd reason, there’s a little bit of choppiness evident with kinetic scrolling. Nevertheless, it doesn’t adversely affect the overall performance, which is further enhanced by its desktop-like feel with Flash support in tow.


Already, we’re raving about the handset’s significantly better HSPA speeds, but besides that, there’s nothing else new with this GSM enabled smartphone. Along for the ride, we’re also presented with aGPS, Bluetooth 2.1 with EDR, 802.11 b/g/n Wi-Fi, and mobile hotspot functionality.

Software:

Appeasing a wide range of people, the Motorola ATRIX 2 features a handful of apps that target both the general consumer and enterprise population. For those business-oriented users, they’ll find applications like Quickoffice and ZumoCast fitting for their specific needs. With ZumoCast though, it’s a remote file sharing service that allows you to stream files like pictures, music, videos, and Office files from your internet connected PC to the ATRIX 2. Moreover, other third party apps preloaded on the handset include AT&T Code Scanner, AT&T FamilyMap, AT&T Navigator, Lets Golf 2, Live TV, myAT&T, Qik Lite, and YPmobile.

Performance:

Regretfully, calling quality is one of the down points with the ATRIX 2 seeing we’re faced with quite a few obstacles with its performance. For starters, its earpiece is rather weak in tone, which makes it  difficult to hear voices – especially in noisy environments. Furthermore, voices have a tiny bit of sharpness to them. Oppositely, our callers mention that our voice sounds garbled on their end of the line. Lastly, the speakerphone is undeniably boisterous with its volume, but voices tend to sound muffled.

Displaying an adequate amount of bars in high coverage areas, the Motorola ATRIX 2 fares well in retaining a solid connection to the network – plus, it didn’t drop any calls during our testing in the greater Philadelphia region.

Heavily touted for its class-leading battery life, we’re happy to say that it lives up to our expectations. After fully charging the battery, we’re able to place a continuous phone call for over 9 hours, which is above the 8.5 hours of talk time stipulated by the manufacturer. In our day-to-day usage, it’s also able to adapt handsomely to our needs by providing us with 1.5 days of normal usage. Of course, light users will especially take a liking for the handset – while heavy users will be able to get by a solid day with no issues.

Conclusion:

Overlooking the obvious hardware improvements, like its larger display and camera, the absolute best thing going for the Motorola ATRIX 2 is its tempting $99.99 on-contract price. At that level, it’s almost guaranteed to attract hungry consumers who are strapped in the wallet with cash – while still offering a top of the line experience similar to the competition.

In an era when $200 is no longer deemed as the golden price of high-end smartphones, it’s especially an endearing testament to see that the ATRIX 2 is striving to break the tradition. AT&T customers can consider picking up the recently released Samsung Galaxy S II as an alternative option, but when we see the ATRIX 2 priced at half the cost, while maintaining a steady high caliber experience, it’s balanced enough in all areas to compete with the heavy hitters in the big leagues. Without a doubt, this successor packs a lot of value for the buck – so you won’t regret picking it up!

Software version of the reviewed unit:
Android Version: 2.3.5
Kernel Version: 2.6.35.7-gac99e44
Build Number: 5.5.1-165_EDFFW1-16

Motorola ATRIX 2 Video Review: