Review :
For what
is essentially a higher mid-range Android smartphone, the Motorola Atrix
2 ticks most of the boxes on the checklist. Unfortunately, a couple of
things are missing. But then again, only the very finicky ones among us
will probably give that fact too much weightage.
Build & Design
The
Motorola Atrix 2 has very plain Jane looks. Unlike the new Sony NXT range of smartphones, or even the unibody of the
HTC One V,
the Atrix 2 keeps it pretty much old school. A thin frame on two sides
flanks the 4.3-inch display. But the top and the bottom have a couple of
design elements. The earpiece stands out, with the silver grille
finish. The front facing camera is visible when you look closely, but it
almost blends in seamlessly. On the bottom are four touch sensitive
keys – menu, home, return and search. The left spine hosts the USB and
HDMI ports, while on the right are the volume rocker and the camera key.
The power key and the 3.5mm jack on the top. Flip the Atrix 2 over, and
the plastic back has a slightly rubberized feel with an imprint design
on it. The 8MP camera and the flash are placed towards the left, near
the top, a placement that may seem odd, but works well. We will explain
that in a bit. The silver Motorola logo lies in the middle, with the
chrome bordered speaker on the bottom.
There is not much to rave about the
build quality, except that it seems well put together. This phone will
not stand out in the crowd like an Xperia NXT or the HTC One V would,
but should get the job done. There is a sense of reassurance when you
hold the phone. It is technically a big screen phone, but doesn’t feel
like it in the hand or in the pocket. The thin bezel could have
something to do with it. Very comfortable to use overall, and you can
use it with the same hand that is holding it, and still reach the
further edges of the display without having to stretch.
Features & Specifications
A 1GHz dual-core processor, paired with 1GB of RAM, powers the Atrix 2.
The graphics capabilities are quite good, with the Power VR SGX540 chip
driving the gaming bit. The 4.3-inch display on the Atrix 2 has a
540x960 pixel resolution, and while it is a humble LCD one, there is the
Gorilla Glass treatment on it.
The phone comes with 8GB of internal
storage, and a microSD slot upgrading it to a maximum of 32GB more. The
8MP camera is pretty standard spec, with recording for 1080p HD videos.
The disappointing thing is that the
phone comes with Android Gingerbread (2.3.6), and till the time of
writing this, there has been no
Ice Cream Sandwich
update released for the phone. This is just truly disappointing,
considering even older phones from Sony and HTC have received the
updates, already. The skin over the OS is pretty simple and there is no
gaudy nature to it. In turn, sacrificing some of that eye candy does
have a silver lining – system performance does not get affected, much.
But then again, it doesn’t have to be this bland to ensure performance!
We had criticized the MotoBlur UI even when we had
reviewed the flagship
Razr
handset, primarily because the widgets have a very boxy design, and the
sharp edges across all elements on the display do tend to become quite
boring after a while.
About the performance and stability of
this UI, we didn’t face any stutters or slowdowns while using it.
However, the lock screen “tap and slide” did disappear a couple of
times, not letting us unlock the phone. A couple of restarts solved the
issue, but this was extremely annoying during testing. And surely will
be scary for a consumer, who will probably be worried that his phone is
broken!
Performance
No one can fault the Atrix 2’s power ambitions with its 1GHz dual-core,
that's coupled 1GB of RAM. Ideally, this phone was probably visualized
to be selling with a higher price tag, but the new quad-core ones just
came along and spoiled the fun! For the sake of a more like-for-like
comparison, we will be comparing the Atrix 2 to the HTC One V.
In the performance benchmarks, the
performance is quite neck and neck. With Quadrant, the One V has a very
slight lead. There are two ways to look at it – one, the Atrix 2 is
holding on well despite being a on a slightly older generation hardware.
Second, just to annoy the HTC fanboys – the One V isn’t much better in
terms of performance than a phone that has been around for quite a while
now! In AnTuTu and LinPack benchmarks is where the Atrix shows a clear
lead over the One V. The biggest surprise has been the sheer superiority
of the Motorola’s web browser over the one on the
HTC One V.
The 4.3-inch display is one of the Atrix
2’s strong points. The resolution of 540 x 960 pixels means this one
will handle video playback well, potentially. And it truly does that.
Black levels are surprisingly good, and fast moving frames are handled
quite smoothly. But the real cherry on the cake is how crisp the text on
this display is, and that really makes texting and web browsing very
comfortable. Colour vividness is okay, but then again, that is limited
by the display technology of the display – possibly the only aspect
where this display takes a beating.
Call quality is quite good, as long as
you are in a good signal reception zone. The moment signal reception
goes below 50%, the audio tends to drop quite a bit. But for the rest of
the time, the quality and clarity of the call, at both ends, is
pristine. The earpiece is loud, but has a soft tone to it, and won't
hurt the ear even at max volume. The handsfree speaker isn’t very loud,
and will not work outside a room.
The 8MP camera is quite good in good
natural light, and when there is sufficient amb7ient light indoors. The
details are retained for the most part, and you can blow up the images
to a certain extent and not detect the noise bit. Lower light step by
step, and the images tend to become noisy. Video quality needs the same
amount of hand holding, and 1080p videos are smooth, even when panned
quickly. Interestingly, the camera will not take images unless you have a
memory card slotted in! We quite understand this limitation, and it
seems to be an unnecessary roadblock in an otherwise smooth journey.
Battery life is decent enough to get you
through a day, and still have some juice left. Under medium call, text
and data usage, the 1785 mAh battery will last a day and a half. And
that is actually quite good, mostly thanks to the big battery in this
one.
Bottomline
We love the Atrix 2, and for a price of around Rs. 20,000 in stores,
this one is a very solid Android phone to have. The best part is the
battery life on offer. However, we have one big complaint, and that is
the OS version on the phone. It isn’t doing any justice to be users that
they get palmed off with an older Android version, while phones with
lighter price tags get the latest build. Motorola needs to sort this
quickly. Till then, we will recommend the HTC One V to most buyers.
Taiwan's HTC unveiled its first smartphones powered by Microsoft's
Windows on Wednesday, in a boost for the US software giant's efforts to
break into a market dominated by Apple and Google.
HTC and Microsoft previewed the 8X and 8S handsets in New York, boasting
that they feature "iconic
design," studio-quality sound and "incredible camera capabilities."
