Motorola's powerful HD Multimedia Dock (below) and Laptop Dock accessories attempt to make it more than just a smartphone, but this is a fast and powerful mobile device in its own right, and is a worthy choice for anyone looking for an excellent all round Android phone.
The Atrix is less than 11mm thick, which is a nice surprise given that it comes with a large 4in capacitive touchscreen. Motorola has used 'Gorilla Glass' for the display, which the company claims is difficult to scratch or crack. The screen is bright and clear and has excellent resolution, but its text is a little smaller than on most other Android smartphones, and it doesn't fare too well in bright sunlight. The display has a
resolution of 540x960, making it a full 16:9 screen that's great for video playback.
The Atrix has four touch-sensitive buttons that sit below the display. These menu, home, back and search keys are backlit and generally responsive, but they are easy to accidentally bump. They also can't be used to wake the Atrix when the screen is locked.
FINGERPRINT READER
Along with external volume controls on the right side, the only other physical button on the Motorola Atrix is a power/ lock key that also doubles as a fingerprint reader. This worked relatively well during testing, but is slower than using a pass code or pattern unlock option.
The Atrix uses Android 2.2, which supports Flash and has the ability to act as a wireless hotspot. While it should be able to run version 2.3, since it has a dual-core processor and very high-end specs, Motorola hasn't announced whether this handset will receive this update.
The device comes with the latest version of Motorola's Motoblur service. This is a widget-based interface that combines multiple social networking and communications accounts, such as Facebook, Twitter. Last.fm and Yahoo Mail. You'll need to create a Motoblur account to use the Atrix, but it's free and all content and data is pushed live to the handset.
We like the idea of Motoblur, however, the execution of the service on previous smartphones was far from perfect. Some of the flaws we encountered with the early version of Motoblur have been corrected though, including the ability to resize home screen widgets.
The handset also features Swype text entry with the on-screen keyboard. This allows you to slide your fingers over the letters you want to type in a single motion, letting the software work out the word you're trying to write. Though it sounds awkward, Swype is very easy to pick up and surprisingly accurate. As with most on-screen keyboards, the software will learn as you type and add words that you use regularly to its database.
FAST MOVER
It's one of the fastest Android phones we've tested. Swiping through home screens and using multitouch gestures is smooth and efficient, while the web browser renders pages quickly, and didn't suffer when loading Flash-intense
sites. The Atrix has a few handy applications preloaded, including Guickoffice, Media Share (for playing video and music through a DLNA-compatible television) and task, battery and data managers.
VERDICT
The Motorola Atrix doesn't stray too far from the norm once you lock past its dual-core processor and fingerprint reader, but it's a slick, super-fast Android phone. Anyone after a new Google Android phone with a big screen should definitely consider this handset; we just hope that Motorola gives Atrix users the latest Android updates.
Details
Price £TBC
Further information www.motorola.com/atrix
Specifications Google Android 2.2 (Froyo); 4in, 540x960-pixel screen; 1GHz dual-core ARM Cortex A9 processor; 5Mp camera; 1GB RAM; 3G, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi 802.11b/g/n; 135g; 64x10x118mm
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