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Bell Canada's Motorola Atrix Dual-Core Android Smartphone Ultimat

Bell Canada's Motorola Atrix Dual-Core Android Smartphone Ultimate Review

By Chris Yackulic
April 30, 2011

 

Bell Canada’s Motorola ATRIX ushers in a new era in mobile Computing

Introduction

Today we will review the Motorola Atrix from Bell Canada that was released earlier this spring. This phone its one of the world’s first dual-core Android Smartphones. Motorola has put together a fine device that anyone shopping for new phone must consider.

Looks

Motorola Atrix its your average candy bar styled Smartphone but certainly comes with some interesting characteristics in the looks department and hardware.  The size is 117 X 63 X 11mm and weights in at 135g. It has a nice black finish and a unique black/silver design pattern on the back of the phone.  On the front it has standard home button, back button, search button and menu button.  Comes with a standard volume rocker on the right hand side in and on the left hand side has the USB work and then mini HDMI port and of course a standard audio jack. It comes with an interesting power on/off recessed button on the back of the phone that is a unique design and works very well.  Overall, the look of the Motorola atrix is a very sharp, clean and crisp look but the real WOW factor this Smartphone is certainly under the hood.

Motorola ATRIX from Bell Canada is a symbol of the innovation consumers can Expect

Hardware

The Bell Canada’s Motorola Atrix is one of the first android Smartphones to showcase the Dual-core 1GHz ARM Cortex-A9 proccessor, ULP GeForce GPU, Tegra 2 chipset.  The CPU and GPU power house can handle any application you can throw at it!  It handles all of the software and applications very smoothly without any lag. It is certainly a future proof design for more intensive software in the future.  Motorola did not rest there; they made sure this phone had the top of the line hardware throughout this entire device.  It comes with past 16 GB Storage and 1 GB of ram and a MicroSD that is upgradeable to an extra 32 GB. This device also supports Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n, DLNA, Wi-Fi hotspot.  When using the Motorola Atrix everything runs like a charm and you can certainly feel the power when multi-tasking .

Screen

The Atrix comes with a TFT capacitive qHD touchscreen, 16M colors and the screen size is 540 x 960 pixels, 4.0 inches which is a perfect size for any user.  It also comes with Biometric fingerprint reader, Gorilla Glass display, Touch sensitive controls, Multi-touch input method.  Large display is perfect for everyday use but also great fun watching videos and looking at your favourite pictures.  The color quality is very good and vibrant.

Battery

Because of the dual-core the Motorola Atrix battery size is a Li-Po 1930 mAh which is larger than most smart phone batteries.  Motorola’s official specifications are standby time of Up to 400 h (2G) / Up to 350 h (3G) and talk time of Up to 8 h 50 min (2G) / Up to 9 h (3G).  Motorola’s official specifications for the Atrix are probably not a real-world usage or 100% correct. The battery certainly does have excellent life and I would go out on a limb to say better than a lot of single core phones.

Operating System

The Bell Canada Motorola Atrix comes with Android operating system version 2.2 froyo, which runs extremely smooth on this phone with no lag or any issues at all.  I was a little disappointed that this phone was not have fitted with android operating system 2.3 gingerbread. I feel certain we will see the update as soon as Motorola has it available.

Software

Atrix comes loaded with software, some of its great and some of it is bloat wear but nevertheless there is no shortage of software.  It is outfitted with a new version of Motoblur which is Motorola’s Custom User Interface which in the past it has been negative due to it’s a lack of refinement but that is a thing of the past.  Motoblur now runs a lot smoother with a simpler interface but yet retains all of the quality applications and functionality from previous versions.  I’m certainly impressed by the improvement Motorola has made to the Motoblur software. I was very critical of this software and considered this a negative aspect of Motorola handsets, but now it functions fast, smooth and is integrated very nicely and has become a plus for Motorola handsets.

Motorola ATRIX runs Android 2.2 with access to more than 100,000 apps and games in Android Market

Applications

The Motorola Atrix comes with a ton of applications with your Motoblur account, Asphalt 5 game, DLNA, GPS navigator, Let’s Golf game, Motorola phone portal , Quick office and Qik Video, this is just to name a few.  It comes with all the standard android applications and a few of the custom Motorola applications as well.  It also has tons of widgets to keep you connected with your entertainment and social network needs and you can access and customize all from your home screen.

Keyboard

Motorola has always had great qwerty and onscreen keyboards and the Motorola Atrix its no different and you’ll be very pleased with its accuracy and layout.

Web Browsing Camera and Video

The camera on the Bell Canada Motorola Atrix comes with digital zoom, LED flash, automatic focus, five mp and a front and rear facing web camera.  The camera comes with 5 MP, 2592Ñ…1944 pixels, autofocus, LED flash that features Geo-tagging and image stabilization that also shoots video at 720p@30fps, 1080p (via future update).  It also does play back in 1080p MP4/H.263/H.264.WMV/Xvid/DivX @ 30 fps playback and it has an HDMI port city that can connect to your TV.

Call Quality

Call quality was above average with a crisp sound and that comes with Active noise cancellation and dedicated mic.

Motorola’s webtop application and optional docking system that offer a larger screen, full-size keyboard and trackpad for an enhanced and more interactive experience

Extras:

If you have seen any of the Bell Canada Motorola Atrix pictures or commercials it looks like this phone comes with what looks like to be a laptop.  Motorola calls this a Webtop that it’s essentially a scaled down version of a laptop that displays and is powered by your Motorola Atrix Smartphone.  You would simply attach your Atrix phone to the back of the Webtop device and you would be able to access all of your applications, documents, pictures, multimedia and essentially every aspect of your Smartphone from Motorola’s Webtop.  When I first saw the Motorola Atrix Webtop, I thought it was going to be a gimmick but after playing around with it, I really started to understand the full potential of the Webtop.  The Webtop will allow you to do everything you do on your phone and more on essentially a custom laptop. This has made a lot of the functions of Smartphone much easier to use and expands the usability beyond the Smartphone .  Webtop is an additional $299 which is a little pricey for the average consumer but for enterprise / business user it’s a cheap price to pay considering it can be used as a laptop. I feel this feature its almost ahead of its time and as Smartphones start to grow in popularity and become a more integral part of our lives, we are certainly headed in the direction of replacing our own computers and laptops with our Smartphones.  The Motorola Atrix and the Webttop are leading this technology well before its time and is very cutting edge. I personally see tons of advantages to the webtop and I’m not sure if I’m ready to make that leap just yet but it’s certainly nice to know that the innovation Motorola is taking is making this technology available to me.

Pros:

  • Dual-core
  • Tegra 2 chipset
  • Motoblur UI
  • 16 GB storage
  • Webtop
  • Media Dock

Cons:

  • Price of accessories
  • No gingerbread android 2.3 operating system

Conclusions and Final thoughts:

Motorola Atrix from Bell Canada is a near perfect Android Smartphone that combines the latest technology and innovation at your fingertips.  The phone is well designed and has the power to handle all of your applications and it’s definitely a future proof product.  Motorola takes it further with their Webtop accessory. This offers something no other manufacturer to date has made available to Smartphone users by introducing the option to use your Smartphone with a laptop functionality.  Bell Canada Motorola Atrix is a recommended buy from Android Headlines. Its cutting-edge technology will satisfy any Smartphone user.