The Motorola Atrix 4G is an Android smartphone with a dual core NVIDIA Tegra 2 processor and a whole slew of accessories that transform the phone into the brains of a notebook computer or a home theater system, the company has started to send out demo units, and the folks at Engadget, MobileCrunch, GigaOm, and Business Insider have posted some previews. BGR went all-out and posted a full review. AT&T is expected to begin offering the phone in the US on March 6th.

What’s the verdict so far?

BGR calls the Atrix 4G the world’s fastest phone… although that will change soon as a number of handsets hit the market with NVIDIA Tegra 2 chips. Still, you probably won’t find a faster phone for a while, which makes the Atrix 4G a pretty good bet if you’re looking for high power performance on an Android device. It also makes the Atrix 4G a good choice if you’re say, Motorola and you’re looking for a phone to bundle with a media docking station or a laptop docking station.

The phone comes with the MOTOBLUR user interface running on top of Android, which will likely turn off some users. But BGR says it works pretty well on the phone thanks to its zippy processor which doesn’t slow down to deal with Motorola’s software. Battery life seems to be pretty good, but the high resolution 960 x 540 pixel display reportedly doesn’t actually look sharper than the screens on many other Android phones.

The Webtop laptop docking station is an interesting device which basically doesn’t have any processor or memory of its own. It’s basically an 11.6 inch display and keyboard/touchpad which is designed to work only when the phone is docked. BGR says the software which brings up a virtual phone on the laptop screen, while letting you use a full-fledged Firefox web browser in full screen mode worked pretty well, but the keyboard, touchpad, and overall experience of navigating the user interface wasn’t all that great.

The biggest knock against the keyboard dock though, is the price. You can pick up the Atrix 4G phone for $199 on contract, but if you add the dock the price jumps to $499. If you want the Webtop dock off contract, you’ll end up paying $499 for the docking station alone.

Overall, it sounds like the Atrix 4G might be a great phone with some excellent expansion options — but whether the accessories are worth the price is an open question at the moment. We should see more reviews in the coming days, and Motorola will be sending me a demo unit to test soon as well.

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2 replies on “Motorola Atrix 4G previews starting to roll in”

    1. You’re entitled to you opinion and choice of what you decide to spend your money on but one sided propaganda isn’t going to convince most people to not buy pretty much any company product when the facts aren’t as black and white as you’re trying to make them seem.

      Sure the Gaza Strip situation is lousy, but Israel is a tiny country and the Gaza Strip is pretty much the only buffer they have against all the nations that wish to annihilate them. Never mind the missiles the Hamas keep lobbing over the border. So it’s not like Israel has a lot of alternatives.

      And let’s not ignore that Israel also gives Palestinian women more rights than they would get anywhere else in the middle east. Like Israel prosecutes honor killings! Palestinians living in Israel get all the benefits, like health care, jobs, etc. Israel has even given the Palestinians a chance to form their own state and it wasn’t Israel that messed that chance up.

      There is also a long list of how the Palestinians are mistreated in other Arab nations that no one seems to like to talk about. Or how the Hamas forces families of suicide bombers to also become suicide bombers. It’s only news worthy if it involves Israel and the world ignore that the Palestinian people are being used as pawns against Israel.

      So let’s not pretend this is all one sided and that either side is completely the victim or prosecutor of the other. Because it’s a lousy situation all around.

      Fact is for us that Israel is our only ally in the region, the only force for democracy in the middle east, and under constant threat from those who would have that nation destroyed.

      So if you want to oppose Israel because you don’t like their tactics then I’m sure you’ll love it when Israel is destroyed and Iranian type government is set in place with zealots willing to kill their own people to keep control. I’m sure the Palestinian people will be just peachy then, especially sine then they would no longer be useful to the other Arab nations who don’t really care about them to begin with.

      It’s easy to criticize and blame, not so easy to come up with real solutions! There are reasons why nothing has really changed in decades in that region!

      The Palestinian people need to form their own state but that won’t happen as long as they are the pawns of the enemies of Israel who don’t want peace and blaming Israel, and anyone even remotely working with them, for everything that’s going wrong in the region isn’t going to fix that.

      That said even for those still inclined to get the Atrix, it’s a very appealing device but Motorola is asking quite a bit for the dock and that likely will not appeal to the average consumer. Especially since it’s basically just a screen and keyboard with it’s own battery.

      You can get a netbook for less and have more computing power to boot. The laptop dock option may thus mainly only appeal to businesses that typically are willing to pay a premium to equip their work force.

      So hopefully the price will drop after the initial release, otherwise it’s likely most people will only get the phone and not the dock or at least not the laptop dock as they may instead opt for the cheaper table top dock.

      Most people are only so willing to pay a premium for convenience before they’d rather lug a little extra weight instead.

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