Purchase advise - Atrix 4G General

Hello XDA family,
I used to be a regular on the Captivate forum before I moved to WP7. I'm getting a little bored with the newest from Microsoft, and was thinking about moving back to the Android side of life. I've been watching the development of the atrix for quite a while and now that it's been release, I figured I'd look into it.
So, I head back to XDA to get the low down and I see a lot of mixed opinions. I know the bootloader is locked, but like the DroidX, I figured it's only a matter of time before it's cracked, right? Either way, most reviews say that the phone is fine out of the box, and the OTA takes that even further. There is some talk about the mic being jacked on some handsets causing muffled sound, MotoBlur...etc...etc...
Is this phone worth the money? I used to swap roms all the time with the captivate, but that was mainly because it needed it. File system performance, GPS, chronic shut downs, poor battery life, all plagued that device and my man DesignGears and others did their damnedest to correct that. Does this phone have straight up broken features that require the roms at the moment?
Is the screen as bad as everyone says? I'm used to the 3GS, and my last two phones had SAMOLED screens (Captivate, Focus).
I guess, I just don't want to do the ATT phone return merry-go-round again like I did with the Capy (I went through 9)...

Divinedark said:
... I know the bootloader is locked, but like the DroidX, I figured it's only a matter of time before it's cracked, right? ...
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I'd say don't get your hopes up here. I don't think the bootloader will be defeated unless there's a leak from Moto or an official way to do it from Moto.
Other than that, as a potential Atrix owner I'm interested in the answers to all your questions, too!

I came from captivate to focus to Atrix. I have all 3 laying on my desk and just wait h sim card to whichever I want to use. I find myself carrying the Atrix over 90% of the time because it just works. Never have had any of the random issues people talk about on here. I own a construction company and use my phone hard. Email in the field all day, talk 5000-6000 minutes a month and the battery lasts all day. I use a bluetooth headset so I have never noticed the muffled mic issue, however the update we just got was suppossed to correct that. I would buy another one without hesitation. When the high speed upload is turned on it will pretty much be a perfect device for me. Front camera chat works with Tango app. Gps works out of the box. Good battery and no lag.
Hope this helps with your decision.
Jack
Sent from my MB860 using XDA Premium App

The Atrix works great for me, except for the call quality issue. Great battery life, fast performance in demanding games and apps, very stable.
Sent from my MB860 using XDA App

Related

IS the epic worth it yet?

Im going to be coming over to the Epic from the hero. Just wondering if it is worth it or not yet. I still see there are issues and all, but I dont mind that. As long as samsung is diligently working on a fix. unlike HTC, I hope samsung is a tad better.
mroneeyedboh said:
unlike HTC, I hope samsung is a tad better.
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That's debatable - Samsung's history is not great in fixing things.
That said, as a new Epic owner myself, I do feel like some people are getting a little crazy about a few issues that for most people are going to be relatively minor or even unnoticed. The two issues that come up a lot are GPS and the 3G upload speed. Both of these *seem* to be relatively simple fixes; the GPS issue just seems to be relying on outdated data cache (solution: flush the cache), while the upload speed seems to have been broken with an earlier software update... meaning it should be easy enough for them to fix it again. *Should be* being the key phrase. If Samsung doesn't see the cost benefit from doing so, then they will just keep advertising and selling the phone as is.
In actual practice, I haven't yet run across a situation where these issues have really affected me, though it does annoy me that I can't really do video calling if I wanted to, and that if I shot a video and wanted to directly upload it to YouTube or something, I probably couldn't really do that either. But these are hypotheticals; these are not things I normally do every day. As for GPS, I've been using it for turn-by-turn directions and haven't had any problems, though I know what the problem actually is and that I might run into it at some point. But my dedicated GPS unit had this same issue and I dealt with it for the first year that I owned it (at which point it too received an update... that I paid $80 for).
I'm still in my return window but there isn't really a phone I'd want to return the Epic for. I need a keyboard and the only other phone that really appeals to me is the Droid 2, but I don't want to pay extra for Verizon's plans. So I'll probably just keep the Epic and hope they fix the issues; it's not like they're real killers the way I use the phone. Overall this is a great phone. Sucks up juice a little more than I'd like, but it's insanely fast, has a screen that might even be *too* good (the screen uses most of the battery, and I don't need perfect black levels on my phone), has the best keyboard available on a phone right now, and is generally just a pleasure to use as long as your usage pattern doesn't run into those couple issues it has.
badasscat said:
In actual practice, I haven't yet run across a situation where these issues have really affected me, though it does annoy me that I can't really do video calling if I wanted to, and that if I shot a video and wanted to directly upload it to YouTube or something, I probably couldn't really do that either. But these are hypotheticals; these are not things I normally do every day. As for GPS, I've been using it for turn-by-turn directions and haven't had any problems, though I know what the problem actually is and that I might run into it at some point. But my dedicated GPS unit had this same issue and I dealt with it for the first year that I owned it (at which point it too received an update... that I paid $80 for).
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Why does everyone say that they can't do video calling?
I constantly Fring camchat with my friend on her Evo on 3G. She says the video quality isn't perfect on her end, but its never prevented me from video calling! Even on low bars (1-2 bars) i still can comfortably have a conversation over the webchat.
mroneeyedboh said:
Just wondering if it is worth it or not yet.
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Yes.
Not if u plan on using 4g indoors.
Sent from my SPH-D700 using XDA App
I think this phone is great, the gps is good enough but it could be better, I never use the gps inside my house, so I don't really care the indoor, now once I step outside it only takes couple second to lock me.
About the 3g, well I have the same issue but most of the time I'm in a wifi (House, work) so I don't really care about it, but I would be nice if they have some fix to it...I don't get 4g neither in house and work, so don't care about it either.
The I came from the TP2 and just android itself made me jump to this phone, I really hate the keyboard compare to the tp2, so far I haven't use video calling from phone to PC which is what matters to me (please skype hurry up).
The screen on this phone is just great!!! Perfect for movies (not from the Hub, too expensive) I got the movie from my bro hd2 and they look great, now I need to get avatar from my friend I see myself using the phone for movies so much but whenever I want to its totaly worth it.
For games, well its fast! The response to me its awesome, I don't usually play on my phone but I just download a game Caligo Chaser and its a very addictive game (rpg), but the graphics on the game looks very good on the Epic.
I would say keep the Epic, its a good phone, i will be keep her for a good 1 year and that's when my upgrade is due and I'll get a new one, just like I did with my tp2. The problems with the epic are so minimal compare to other phones, every phone that have release will always have problems, and that's how it always will be. I hope sammy won't take too long to fix it tho.
Sent from my SPH-D700 using XDA App
You won't notice the gaming difference until you load up toonwarz or another graphically intense game. I believe most 2D games will run the same on most phones with a relatively new processor... though it goes without saying that everything looks great on the SAMOLED screen
Thanks guys. I dont plan on doing any uploading or 4g tethering inside my home. just using the internet at work etc.
Also kinda sucks on the battery life. What are people getting roughly with battery life?
Im also coming from the hero to the epic becuase of the physical keyboard. I cannot stand the lag on hero's keyboard. Is there any lag etc with the physical keyboard?
mroneeyedboh said:
Thanks guys. I dont plan on doing any uploading or 4g tethering inside my home. just using the internet at work etc.
Also kinda sucks on the battery life. What are people getting roughly with battery life?
Im also coming from the hero to the epic becuase of the physical keyboard. I cannot stand the lag on hero's keyboard. Is there any lag etc with the physical keyboard?
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I came from the Hero as well. Trust me, you'll be satisfied. I was running Darchstar's Cyanogen and whatever the nfiniteFX ROM was on my Hero and I THOUGHT I didn't notice any keyboard lag, but coming to the Epic, I realize I was completely wrong. There is no lag anywhere on this phone as far as I am concerned.
Just what I wanted to hear. haha One thing I did notice is that the hero lags up in general after a while IMO. Does the epic seem to do that so far?
I to came from a Hero, loved that little phone, the Epics screen is just. Insane to say the least. The camera quality to top notch, better than the Evos, I have done personal tests and have seen this. The battery life could be better but with updates those will help, its still a very new phone!
Well it's pretty much the best phone on the market right now. That said, there are issues. Make sure before you take your phone home that the capacitive buttons work. They either do or don't in most cases anyway.
I had 2 bad ones and an evo before switching to this on. Some people including myself have noticed image retention but i think thats a rare issue with the epic. Also the GPS is not good until the froyo update (hopefully). All that aside this is the best phone i have owned. Google Navigation works pretty well though and endomondo tracks very well as well.
I hope this helps.... Like I said i also had the Evo and once you see the Epic screen you wont like anything else. My new one is pretty solid and I 'm happy with it. I just want the flipping update already.
Sent from my SPH-D700 using XDA App
mroneeyedboh said:
Also kinda sucks on the battery life. What are people getting roughly with battery life?
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I'm getting about 14 hours with regular use. I could probably stretch that if I needed to. If I use it really heavily, including navigation, I might only get 8-10 hours.
In regular use that's long enough for me to go through a normal day, come home and just start charging it for the night once it gets really low.
But this is the first phone I've owned that I've actually bought a car charger for, just in case. If I see it getting low during the day, I will charge it on my way home from work.
This is not great, but my wife's iPhone is actually worse. She can't make it through a full day no matter what she does. Her phone is charging right now and it's 7:30PM; that's pretty normal for her. With me, it's not a regular thing to do that, it's only if I've been playing with it all day.
Also, like all phones the battery takes a few cycles to show an accurate charge. So when you first get the phone, it seems REALLY bad. I got like 5 hours on my first charge. But over time the gauge gets more accurate and you figure out little tricks to maximizing the battery (like dark wallpaper; bright pixels use a lot more power on an amoled screen), and it improves a lot.

My Experience with the Nexus S Phone

Ok, I always read posts on how people don't like thier Nexus S and are returning it. I just got my Nexus S and have placed CM7 and Trinity Kernel on it(will also be trying Nentuh kernel) and wanted to give my experience.
I love this phone. I have been through quite a few cell phones in my life and never have like any of them. This phone is finally a phone in which I am completely happy with! The battery is great for me...I'm am a pretty avid user...very addicted to using the phone. The sound quality with voodoo is jaw dropping and the screen is beautiful. Talk quality is good...and what I can definitely say is that I have experienced very little lag on this phone(fastest phone out of all my phones...and faster than my old Epic 4g). The phone is extremely fluid and I run live wall papers with launcher pro. I don't play games...but all the apps I use such as music players, on line streaming, my intensive live wallpapers like star ship....barely put a dent into the cpu usage.
The keyboard is fine with me and I have no problems with it. It feels comfortable and I never get any lag as others have stated. I text way more than talk on my phone...talking on the phone is what people did in the old days.
I wasn't sure if I would like the curve on it because that how annal I am . After having it, not only does it feel comfortable but it looks extremely cool and set's itself apart from other peoples phones aesthetically.
After reading other peoples posts on this phone, I was real skeptical before I bought this phone and was prepared to take it back even before I received it through the mail. This is a pleasant surprise.
If your reading this and trying to decide if you should buy this phone or not, do not go by other peoples complaints...just try it for yourself and decide.
My experience is the same, I love it!
I love too. And I come from Nexus One. I never thought it was this good. Pretty soon we will be dancing in a whole bunch of Roms. With the Nexus One I changed roms every week and flash my phone almost everyday. I was going between MIUI and Nightlies (that's why I flashed it every day).
None the less this phone lives up to it. If you don't like this phone you don't like Androids and I will have to ask you to change either to Verizon or AT&T and get yourself an iCrap.
dman777 said:
Ok, I always read posts on how people don't like thier Nexus S and are returning it. I just got my Nexus S and have placed CM7 and Trinity Kernel on it(will also be trying Nentuh kernel) and wanted to give my experience.
I love this phone. I have been through quite a few cell phones in my life and never have like any of them. This phone is finally a phone in which I am completely happy with! The battery is great for me...I'm am a pretty avid user...very addicted to using the phone. The sound quality with voodoo is jaw dropping and the screen is beautiful. Talk quality is good...and what I can definitely say is that I have experienced very little lag on this phone(fastest phone out of all my phones...and faster than my old Epic 4g). The phone is extremely fluid and I run live wall papers with launcher pro. I don't play games...but all the apps I use such as music players, on line streaming, my intensive live wallpapers like star ship....barely put a dent into the cpu usage.
The keyboard is fine with me and I have no problems with it. It feels comfortable and I never get any lag as others have stated. I text way more than talk on my phone...talking on the phone is what people did in the old days.
I wasn't sure if I would like the curve on it because that how annal I am . After having it, not only does it feel comfortable but it looks extremely cool and set's itself apart from other peoples phones aesthetically.
After reading other peoples posts on this phone, I was real skeptical before I bought this phone and was prepared to take it back even before I received it through the mail. This is a pleasant surprise.
If your reading this and trying to decide if you should buy this phone or not, do not go by other peoples complaints...just try it for yourself and decide.
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Give it some time. The first month I had my S I loved it. Now a month and a half in I have to stop myself from just throwing it out of frustration.
I think when all the bugs get fixed with this phone people will loove it more!!!
Love my nexus s too.
Sent from my MattedBlue CM7 Google Nexus S!
I love my Nexus S so much I haven't even rooted it yet. This is the best phone I have ever owned. All the new dual core phones mean nothing to me at all. Stock Android is seriously amazing.
I do plan on cm7 eventually, the reason I used it my older phones was for the stock Android feel, and this phone delivers what I love out of the box.
Sent from my Nexus S using XDA App
This phone is awesome.
NFC, Amoled screen and other various things brought me to it.
Go back to nexus one. Best phone ever!!
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Sent via the XDA Tapatalk App
I've had a bunch of different android phones, and this one is definitely the best. Running CM7 RC1 with Netarchy 1.2.4, and everything is running great, aside from the random reboots. Just got the phone too ! Voodoo color and sound are great also.
dman777 said:
The sound quality with voodoo is jaw dropping
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What does this relate to? Recorded sound or sound played through the in built speaker?
Streaming music and using my headset. Sounds better than my Cowon D2 player which is saying alot.
Yeah, I don't understand all these posts with people complaining about the phone. I think the phone is amazing. Maybe I'm missing something, but the phone seems to far exceed my expectations.
The only consistently frustrating issue I've experienced is the market insufficient storage space available.
Sent from my MattedBlues CM7 Google Nexus S!
jkusmc said:
Yeah, I don't understand all these posts with people complaining about the phone.
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I'm as annoyed by people who post "flames" or unsubstantiated or misinformed complaints about the Nexus S, however, there are legitimate complaints and legitimate bugs that require discussion and attention from users and ultimately, Google. The only way to reach them, or at least get their attention, is to get people to talk about it, recognize and corroborate that the issue exists, and to report it.
Issues like this: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=956947, which unfortunately has still gotten little to no recognition. Or the random custom ringtones changing, or the rebooting issue during calls, etc.; the list goes on, and many of them warrant complaints.
I'm curious to this as well I'm using voodoo and I noticed no difference. Id be more happy once they work on the front facing camera apps. I could have stuck with my g2. No skype no yahoo video calls forced to use tango.everything else works well for me.it was either this phone or the e7 which I still have my eyes on
Sent from my Nexus S using XDA App
My experience with nexus is good, aside the reboot issue and weak wifi, works fine for me. I never consider returning it (returning date is over and I live overseas ><), I have faith that those issues will go away in some update soon, hopefully.
I´m running with factory preset (rom, kernel, non rooted) and launcher pro, so maybe I can get much more from it customizing, right? Im just concerned with the risks like wiping out everything including downloaded apps... Eventhough there´s a rooting procedure that doesn´t wipe personal data, I wonder if rooting and changing to netarchy´s kernel will erase my apps...
You can always use titanium backup to restore your apps after every flash. real easy to use and is a must if you wanna flash roms. Overall I am preety happy with the nexus s, apart from having a weak wifi signal. I kinda wish the battery could last longer , kinda used to having longer battery since i am coming from iphone 4
Nexus S is by far the most stable Galaxy S phone
if i could just use a USB storage with it, then it'll be perfect
as of it's now, that's the only deficiency missing the microSD
I love this phone only thing that is bothering me is that my signal is significantly lower than it was with my Mytouch 4g, Blackberry 9780, and G2. Other than that I have no other complaints..
Just picked it up for $180 from craigslist though only bad thing was it has a scratch down the middle, but even that doesn't bother me much.

Post reasons why you like the Atrix!

All these hater threads being posted about "I'm returning the Atrix" , "The Atrix Screen is horrible" and "The Atrix doesn't do this..." I decided to show this device some love. We all know it's an electronic device/phone first and sometimes things are broken or just not working right...I get that! However, let's not let the VERY FEW bad things out weigh the MANY GOOD things about the Atrix. Let's enjoy our new toy and give props when props is due.
So I wanted to start this thread for people like myself to post reasons why you bought the Atrix, what you like about it and why you might decide to keep it past your 3o day return period.
I'll go first:
What I like about the Atrix is the sleekness of it. The light weight feel in the hand. and The snappiness of it. One of the reasons I think I may keep the Atrix past my 30 day period is because I feel that if Motorola does allow the bootloader to be unlocked the devs will make this phone one of the most powerful devices out if used to the best of it's ability. And if they don't release the bootloader, I'll still be happy with it and still keep it.
I like that I don't have to have a charger at my desk, car, home desk, couch, night stand, etc. the battery life is great for me.
I like that the screen practically fills the face. I like the resolution and crispness.
I love the form factor. I like how it fits in my hand, the placement of the fingerprint sensor works perfect for me.I like that it's light but doesn't feel cheap or fragile.
I like that it's not tied to a pc like my iphone.
I love how fast it is, I have no issues with lag or un responsiveness.
I love that it isn't an iphone. I like iphones..I love my atrix
Sent from my MB860 using XDA App
Ill join in.
I love the weight of this phone, its not heavy like most other phones. Its more like what you expect it to be like.
The phone fits your hand VERY well. The finger print reader is positioned so that if you cradle the phone correctly, your index finger is resting on the finger print reader a good portion of the time.
I have yet to have any problems of this phone slowing down.
The battery life is AMAZING! Now I might not be the uber smartphone user that has the phone in front of his/her face 24/7 (driving/walking down halls running into people) but I still use this phone a lot and it easily lasts a full day on 1 charge.
The screen is perfect, everyone saying that the screen sucks need to wait till software comes out that utilizes this resolution. A good 90% of the stuff on the market right now was not made for the resolution on this phone. Also the real estate of this screen is amazing. They utilized all the screen space they could on this phone.
I will also be keeping this phone past the 30 day return period since I feel that the phone flat out works right out of the box. Yea a custom rom would be cool but this phone does everything I need it to do and more without breaking a sweat.
+1 for the Atrix
I really love the battery life. I got home from work tonight at 6:30 and still had 50% and I used it a ton today.
Speed. Silly speed for days. I've not seen any of the lag I hear about and it never locks up on me.
Games are insanely good, especially Tegrazone approved games. Samurai 2 and Dungeon Defenders is sick.
I dig the size and weight. It doesn't feel like a brick in my pocket.
Love the fingerprint reader as unlock.
The screen is fantastic and realistic.
Camcorder has taken some really great videos for me. I recorded almost an entire live concert with it from the send row and it looks and sounds fantastic. I recorded from the car dock to test it and at 45mph the video was crisp and didnt' stutter.
The car dock owns.
This one even surprises me: I don't hate blur. Yes, I said it.
I like the blur widget options along with the standard Android widgets. I find that with the power of the phone that blur doesn't offer any slow down. I wouldn't like it with a 528mhz processor, but it screams on the Atrix so I'm good with it.
Wow, it is nice to see a thread in which people want to say positive things!
Just to add to what everyone has already said (I'm a big fan).
I already love the device. If the bootloader is ever unlocked... holy 'smokes'... it will just be like another christmas - in the middle of the year.
no dropped calls
better signal (probably helps the no dropped calls stat too)
much better battery life
good hi def screen
great speaker
fast as hell
The Bishop said:
no dropped calls
better signal (probably helps the no dropped calls stat too)
much better battery life
good hi def screen
great speaker
fast as hell
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I like having alerts, ringtones, and battery life as proficient as blackberrys.
acPIZZA said:
Wow, it is nice to see a thread in which people want to say positive things
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I know right....I got tired of seeing all these negative threads about people returning the phone, they expected certain features that's not here so they're gonna return the phone etc. It was getting crazy.
Sent from my MB860 using Tapatalk
I love how i dont have to root it to to get rid of the lag isues tht other phones have.
Sent from my MB860 using XDA App
This is my first smart phone, so I have no prior experience to compare my Atrix experience to. Because of my lack of experience with such devices, I know I am not taxing it, putting it through the rigorous paces that others do, or even utilizing much of its potential. But I like it, and I'm pleased with it.
It is very light, easy to pocket, and it fits my hands well. Sheathed in the Body Glove Mirage TPU case, it is secure in my grasp.
It has a great screen. Even small text in web pages is crisp and readable.
I love having an internet browser with me all the time. I used it today in my garden to look up information on soil preparation.
Texting on this phone is a dream. It has a great virtual keyboard. The screen is wonderfully sensitive to a quick and light touch, which makes typing very fast and accurate.
The phone is fast and delightfully responsive. There is virtually no latency when accessing menus and apps.
The battery life is excellent. I can use it all day without running it down completely. Recharging overnight is all that's needed.
LOVE my Atrix
FAST, absolutely no lag, 1 gig of RAM, great quality construction, GREAT screen despite what others think (just look at a hi res video), a pleasure to play with!!
The phone is great out of the box compared to how the Captivate was. This phone is a smartphone on steroids. Plenty of power, RAM, and internal storage for applications for daily use. The fingerprint lockscreen is pretty nifty. 4in is the perfect size in my opinion and the phone is nice and loud.
The drawbacks are the screen isn't as good as SAMOLED, Motoblur is kind of a bummer, and white notification bar is annoying. I am really nitpicking but there isn't too much to complain about the phone.
ok honestly, i just got mine yesterday and didn't see any of the complaints that people are making about it that would make somebody wanna return it, either u got a defective device or u just complain entirely too much(easy fix, return it for another one that works duh). they talking about speed test this and that compared to the iphone/inspire/evo/etc. but no phone is perfect and honestly this phone is better then all of them. Yea it's running motorola Blur, but motorola blur isn't bad at all, the phone that made it look bad was that weak backflip that had sooooo many bugs, i kno cause my sis has it. Another thing, people are complaining about the bootloader, the devs are currently working hard to crack it, and very soon will from looking at their thread. Just wait til this thing is rooted, it's gonna shock a lot of people that returned it for these future phones that come out, so please(not everybody) stop complaining so much and making people seem like this phone is horrible just because u don't like it and it's not 2 seconds faster then your ROOTED device or inspire, u may just have a defective device......
sorri about the rant but after playing with this phone for a day it kinda frustrated me seeing people giving up on this phone soooo quickly, but i like everything about the phone nothing has disappointed me yet
Coming from a (stock) Nexus One that was the best phone I EVER used, this phone is:
- sexier
- faster
- lasting longer
- much nicer to watch videos on
- impossible to fill up with apps (!!!)
It is in general an awesome phone! Sure, glitches here & there, however nothing that will not be fixed in an imminent update.
Sent from my MB860 using XDA Premium App
G1-8701 said:
sorri about the rant but after playing with this phone for a day it kinda frustrated me seeing people giving up on this phone soooo quickly, but i like everything about the phone nothing has disappointed me yet
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+1; I understand Motorola has a history of locking down their phones, and the Xoom is a different device entirely...but the fact they're giving that the option of a lockable/unlockable bootloader gives me some hope.
It took some time for the Captivate development to take off, but once people were able to utilize i9000 ROMs/kernels, there were a ton of ROM/kernel options, and almost all of those piggybacked i9000 development from people outside of the United States. So I'm planning on sticking with this phone for a while, unless the Atrix part of the XDA forums here becomes a desolate wasteland and the phone gets abandoned. As somebody mentioned in another thread, once this phone comes out on different carriers in different countries, there should be a lot more people plugging away on the development side.
That said, I love the hardware portions of this phone; it feels solid, the battery cover looks nice, the camera is fantastic, the GPS works great, the screen is solid (if not spectacular, yet), I missed having a flash on my camera and LED notifications, and even with the Motoblur bloat still there...it's snappy.
battery life, battery life, battery life. and did i mention battery life?
over 40 hours on my last charge. im pressed.
i was thinking about returning due to locked bootloader......but the fact of the matter is, i can still do far more customization to this phone with a locked bootloader than i could on a jailbroken iphone (what i came from). i loved the roms/kernels for the captivate that i had for 3 weeks, but even with that phone supercustomized and overclocked, it still didnt perform as well as the atrix.
I like when chicks see me with this badass phone. I usually get laid. This phone is a chick magnet.
D1rk said:
I like when chicks see me with this badass phone. I usually get laid. This phone is a chick magnet.
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Funny as hell...lmao...Good Post!
I'd like to second everyones opinions about the phone. Coming from a iphone 3g ill never go back. I believe when froyo catches up with better apps to support the atrix's dual cores's and att finally upgrades there cell towers' and the phone has only been out for a little more then 2 weeks I'm sure the devs here need more time to play around with the phone. As I'm not rooting yet ill wait for the gingerbread update and att to upgrade there cell towers before I start rooting. But anyway back to subject I am very pleased with the phone as I agree with all comments that members have posted about the positive things.
Ps. I am pleased to live beside a att cell tower mainantance worker and he has said that middle-eastern southern U.S. towers will be updated to the LTE network no later than this years 2nd quarter and he also made a comment about att working with verizon getting everything going?? But he couldn't provided any hard prof.
Now my fingers hurt thanks swype.
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First of all, I've never used a phone that some people didn't hate. The Atrix is the best Android phone. It beats the Nexus S and it beats the oversized, overhyped Desire HD. It beats all the plastic Samsungs. The form factor is perfect. The weight and balance are perfect. The screen is excellent. Call quality is excellent. I like it. I write about smartphones and I use them all. This beats all Androids as far as I'm concerned. And like all Androids, it isn't a boring iPhone, and let's face it that is a boring device.

[Q] Does the Atrix live up to the Hype?

Ok guys ive been reading mixed comments about the Atrix that its good and that its not. I was in 2 minds whether to get the Atrix or the LG Optimus 2X. Originally I was gonne get which ever I could get my hands on 1st. Both have their pros and cons i.e. camera, ram, locked bootloader, screen quality, internal memory etc
Well I decided to get the LG and this comment made in the o2x forum sealed it
Ive been using my atrix couple weeks an am falling out of love with it fast, after yesterday it ramdomly shut off 2x an today once sofar. The screen is beging to bother me the screendoor washed out look. Allready returned lapdock, that cant even compare to a real laptop in my opion. So im looking hard at the Lg 2x for an upgrade of camera, gyroscope, performance, faster upgrade to gingerbread, real mirroring, 1080p recording an play back, 7.1 sound, totaly unlocked phone. Yes 512mb memory is trade off, but operating system will handly that, an the battery is non issue, I'll have a spare battery or a charging source anyway. Not to mention not paying 20/month to not tether, an having my data speeds throttled down to 1.5mb down an 310kb up lat of 350-800. An Atrix doesnt do LTE
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But now im stiill thinking what to do as Im so impatient and want a dual core phone asap. So I made this poll to see everyones view
Coming from a N1, there's not that much improvement. I'm satisfied, but not amazed by this phone. Still debating if I should return it and wait it out.
My impressions:
-Definitely faster, everything is much snappier, but browsing-wise there's not much of a difference.
-Screen is bright and sharp (as long as you don't put your face within inches of the screen you won't really notice the pentile display. But it's still an annoyance when you notice it)
-Camera is marginally better. Pretty disappointing for a flagship device. Plus the media gallery lags like this is a 2 year old phone when zooming in and out.
-GPS is amazing
-Pretty much Motorblur slows this phone's speed and potential. If this device was stock or able to flash truly custom ROMs, it'd be screaming in speed and blow every competitor out of the water.
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Custom ROMS would make it a whole lot better.
19 voters.. 2 responses.. lol
I think it lives up to the hype.. couple quirks I miss from my captivate but.. besides that the phone is solid.
Now I just got to wait for Tango to support our phones :T
Came from the LG Expo. A much better improvement than the last generation phones. The phone just beats about everything out of the expo. Only thing getting to me is that the expo's fingerprint scanner doubled as a trackpad (would've been nice to have for editing text's)
harolds said:
Custom ROMS would make it a whole lot better.
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This pretty much summed it up
I think this is a situation that there is not enough tangible usage of a dual core for majority of people. Most of people wont notice any improvements in UI speed. We need evolution of software just like in iOS that despite this same architecture people could understand what the new software is bring them.
It feels a bit like a premature technology and we are all living dreaming of tomorrow while we are beta testing for Motorola/Samsung/HTC.
Just 2 cents.
Believe what you want but I love the Atrix. Had a captivate and it doesn't compare. My phone has never rebooted or lagged- I don't know what others do to theirs but my phone is rock solid.
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I'm lovin mine all around. For people who return it because of locked bootloader, I'd say that you knew that when you bought it if it's a dealbreaker.
The webtop dock alone has made this phone exceed the hype. All thanks to the devs
You guys rock
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i have a nexus one and now and atrix and have had it for about a week and i love it. It works great, no random reboots or anything ... just smooth sailing.
I know i can not customize it like I could my N1 but I think that day will come in time. I'll wait ...
Yes, it lived up to the hype in my opinion.
Came from Nexus One. Love the Atrix. It fast and solidly built. Im not sure why everyone said motorblur slow the phone down. I use ADW launcher and it scream.
The Atrix doesn't live up to the Best of CES 2011 hype. The locked bootloader, 1080p "coming soon" recording, overpriced lapdock, overpriced multimedia dock, and good-but-not-great screen keep it from living up to the incredible hype it garnered when it was announced.
Your poll is worded slightly differently: Was the Atrix worth it?
I just came from an ancient Iphone 3g, so the Atrix is absolutely amazing in pretty much every way compared to it and finally getting to use my upgrade was absolutely worth it!
I originally tried out a Captivate for about a week back when I first came up for an upgrade last november. It kept turning itself off (not sleep, total shutdown so I wouldn't receive calls, txt, email ect.) which was a deal breaker. The useless GPS didn't help it's case either. Screen was gorgeous, speed was decent, build quality was ok, battery life was ok. Anyways, I sent the Captivate back after a week, I couldn't have a phone that didn't take phone calls.
First and foremost I love the speed. This thing is lightning fast and seems to have horsepower to burn under the hood. Second is the battery life, I get home from work most of the time with over 40% battery power remaining which is absolutely astounding, my iphone couldn't make it through a full day without getting some juice at my desk and while the captivate did, it was usually at 10-15%. I'm also using the Atrix more than either of the others because I don't feel like I have to conserve battery power to make it through the day.
After those two big features, there are a bunch of less important things that I like:
Finger print scanner is great, I can unlock the phone without even looking at it. I know this doesn't sound important, but it's surprisingly useful when I'm just trying to pull information off my phone quickly and can have it already unlocked as I'm pulling it out of my pocket.
GPS is the best I've experienced on a phone, and better than some dedicated GPS units I've had the displeasure to work with.
Build quality (contrary to some reports I've read) is quite good imo. The phone itself is very sturdy feeling when held by the sides. The back cover is a bit flimsy, but it is also what convinced me to skip getting a case for the Atrix, if it gets scratched I'll just get a new back.
Gorilla Glass is not glued to LCD. Should keep repair costs down.
HDMI out is great, webtop with working firefox extensions is awesome.
Some good, some bad:
Screen resolution is good (colors not so much). The auto-brightness seems to be set a little low imho. I only notice a pentile effect on particularly small+thin fonts.
Camera is surprisingly good in low-light and indoor conditions. Not especially great overall though, tint seems a little off. May just need to set up a custom photoshop filter to correct it.
Call quality is good in quiet conditions, very clear reception and a detailed microphone. Not so good in noisy or windy conditions, the mic picks up a lot of extraneous noise, people are often asking me what's going on or where I am now based on background noise.
I haven't had much reason to use the front facing camera...frankly with AT&T's network I think video chat is a gimmick more than anything else.
I wonder about the finger print scanner/button longevity.
I wouldn't necessarily say the Atrix is the best phone around, but it was the best phone that fit my requirements (ATT, asap, batt life, fast) and so far I like it a lot.
Running ADW Launcher and really like the Advanced Clock widget.
I took mine back and have the Nexus 1 now; I liked the speed but for the most part, my 2.3.3 phone is about as fast; the main thing slowing these phones down now is the network speeds anyway.
If I'm on a wifi network, they're all pretty much the same speed.
Living up to the hype? Definitely not. There are a lot of small problems with this phone that a lot of people don't like; to me, it feels slightly rushed.
I came from an iPhone 4 and I haven't missed the iPhone experience yet. I started with the HTC Inspire which is a nice phone but the battery is rotten and the volume from the phone was pathetic. The Atrix has been an awesome phone for me. It has pretty good battery life so far and yes there are no truly custom ROMs but Adeo (REDUX) has made the UI lag go away on my end and I know others have said the same thing. I am loving the experience of this phone.
Just know that anytime you get a phone shortly after a better one will come out. It's all user preference and what you want and what you think is important. I'm happy but guy x may not be happy. So use one and if you don't like it don't keep it.
I went from a HTC Fuze directly to the Atrix. I love it. (almost) Everything about it. I have played with the Inspire and a couple other 2.1/2.2 devices (girlfriends captivate) and this thing stomps the crap out of them. The colors are just a little off, but that's probably just me going for an extreme upgrade from the phone I had before.
The *ONLY* gripe I have about it is the locked HSUPA. But with all good things come some bad, I think I'm gonna stick it out with the Atrix. Not only that but Spectral Souls looks amazing on it
Guys, please, help me to make a right decision.
Is it possible to buy AT&T version of Motorola Atrix and use it outside US? Is it simple to unlock it? Or where do you recommend to purchase unlocked phone.
P.$.: does motorola have any plans to upgrade it 2.3/3.1 in the future? As I know it's not the trivial to customize firmware for motorola phones (my old G1 can be customized without any problems).
Thanks a lot.
The phone is great nuff said.... We are all a bit too picky but for what its worth this is really the only phone out right now that can take down the iphone 4. My iphone 4 has just been sitting on my night table since I got the Atrix. Atrix has so much more potential and the Android os is so much more pleasing than iIS. Once the bootloader gets cracked its game over!
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Genixoid said:
Guys, please, help me to make a right decision.
Is it possible to buy AT&T version of Motorola Atrix and use it outside US? Is it simple to unlock it? Or where do you recommend to purchase unlocked phone.
P.$.: does motorola have any plans to upgrade it 2.3/3.1 in the future? As I know it's not the trivial to customize firmware for motorola phones (my old G1 can be customized without any problems).
Thanks a lot.
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Yes, I am using Atrix on my business trips to EU using local sim cards.
Probably, but the timing of updates is another question.
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Thoughts from a recent Vibrant user

First off, I love T-mobile, had them since the Shadow came out, and moved up to the G1 when it was launched. They have the best customer service and most reasonable, and most clearly stated rates and bills. My employer recently offered to provide me with a smartphone from verizon, so my wife and I left T-mobile and our vibrants.
She hated her vibrant since day one, so I was always trying to defend the sammy phone and tweak/flash hers to make her happy. We settled on the most recent TW rom and continued battling the annoyances that comes with owning a vibrant. The phone has some great things going for it. It's very thin, and light (some call this "cheap" feeling, I love it personally). It has an awesome screen and will play a wider range of media formats than anything I've ever ran across. However, the lag, various different "lag fixes", random force closes, dropped data and voice signal, freezing and even random shutdowns were difficult to deal with.
I now have a Thunderbolt. It's big, heavy and thick. I don't have 4g in my area, so that's no gain, but it works. It works great, right out of the box. Then with a little effort (the rooting method is pretty lengthy) it screams. It has made me realize how much I was rationalizing my satisfaction with the vibrant.
On paper, the Vibrant should be better in my situation/location. Better GPU, smaller form factor, better screen (I still think 4" is the perfect size for a phone. 4.3" is pretty large in your front pocket), but truth is, it isn't. My advice is to sell it while you still can, and move on to something else. I have no personal experience with the G2, or MT4G, but they're both HTC phones, with plenty of support. My guess is they would do the same for you as my thunderbolt has for me.
Just to clarify, I have the upmost respect, and appreciation for the devs and contributors here. I appreciate their efforts, and do not intend to belittle any products they released or efforts they have made. My opinion, the Vibrant was crippled from the start, and they've done an outstanding job enhancing it. Thank you.
I feel you, if it wasn't superamoled i'd have sold mine already, I'll get a G2x maybe. Unbelievable how Samsung is not acknowledging hardware issue with gps
While I agree that the phone has its problems, neither I nor anyone else I know with a SGS variant (vibrant, fascinate, etc.) has THAT many issues. I waited about a month to flash this phone and while I was on stock the only problem I had that you mentioned was lag. After I rooted it got better but I never truly got a lag free experience until bionix 1.3.1. I'm guess you sold your vibrant before TW came out with that ROM, but in all seriousness it handles better than my cousin's Evo with CM7 on it.
The latest MIUI ROM is also quick as lightning to which I found very surprising considering its a.) a port and b.) non AOSP
I will admit though that Samsung has created an enigma with this phone. On paper this phone is easily the best single core smartphone on the market yet, on stock, it is much slower than the likes of older HTC phones. So for awhile I regretted not waiting for the MT4G, but the recent ROMs and kernels have really stepped this phone up to the next level.
bionix v1.3.1 is very laggy. that is the reason i switched to trigger. trigger was much ,ore stable and consistant. edt has greate roms personally.
no lag, nothing......
If you still had your Vibrant, you would see how fast these new ROM's are.
I've used CM7 for a while, and considering that it's still buggy, it's AMAZINGLY fast. Only problem is, I need a stable ROM, and that's where Trigger 2.8.1 came in. I though it was horrible, but I installed it last night, and it's nothing but amazing. I can't wait to flash 2.9, it's supposed to be faster.
Bionix 1.3.1 is not laggy on my phone. Thanks to that rom I really love my vibrant now. People that have the same phone with stock software are left with their mouth open after I show them what their phones is cappable of doing.
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I've loved my vibrant ever since I had gotten it. I may have stayed on stock for all of 3 hrs (literally) before I flashed my first ROM (Nero) and I've never looked back. I've never experienced lag and my gps (assisted, ofc) was always on point. I don't know if it had to do with my manufacturing date (10/10) or what but my phone has never given me issues (that I didn't cause it to give me and even then, those were easy to fix).
My husband got a good look at how fast and glitch free my phone on a ROM was running. After a few months of random reboots, complete crashes & a host of other problems running stock decided to give up and joined me in flashing a Bionix ROM and he's never looked back either. I will admit that his gps was a bit wonky too but that also changed when he installed Bionix. Now it does see birds but locks on just a little slower than my gps does which really isn't a biggie anyhow.
It really sucks that we have to put custom roms on our phones for them to really be powerful. I love my vibrant, but the constant problems it was giving would have made me sold it if it wasn't for Team Whiskey and other developers. I have Bionix 1.3.1 and Ive done the hardware GPS fix and now my vibrant is running the way it should have when I first opened the box. This wouldn't be so bad if Samsung would just support their devices a little more.
Im ready to move on. I have had a good time with my vibrant.
My wife has had a so so but she loves it.
Still we both have decided to leave tmobile as well and are excited to see the many options coming in may to june. When we plan to switch carriers.
I like sprint. Im not sure if verizon compares in price.
If it does I love the nfl and that may entice me to verizon.
I dont want the thunderbolt.
Im just waiting for the dual core nvidia phones.
I like the galaxy s2 and with the nfl...whew.
Im really going to look at the cost of the s2 on verizon lte. Im really intrested in that combo as well.
Still ive had alot of good times with my galaxy s.
But the signal has been completely unreliable since day one.
As where my was always very solid.
I dont know what I'll do with my galaxy s.
I have some kids who love media players.
I wonder what it would take to make a rom that would allow me to disable calling and let them just use it for that.
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Over the span of 8 months I started with the Vibrant then sold it for the myTouch 4G only to selling it and buy the HD2 at bargin. But, in the end I sold the HD2 and found a Vibrant on craigslist for cheap.
I really liked the myTouch 4G it is fast and very functional, but the screen size was just too small. Plus there was a batch of myTouch 4G units that had washed out screens; I was fortunate to end up with a good screen. The HD2 is the most versatile being that you can run so many roms from a variety of OS's on it including a very stable gingerbread 2.3.3 running from the NAND. Plus the 4.3" screen is great for browsing. I would still have the HD2 today if it wasn't for the At&T buyout of t-mobile. I fetched such a great price on my HD2 and found a vibrant for sale for $200; I jumped on it. Why? The vibrant will work next year on at&t's network so I won't be forced into contract with at&t by needing to buy a new phone to work with their networks. I don't like at&t (nasty customer service & dropped calls) and I really hope the buyout is blocked.
Which leaves me with no clear choice of carrier. Verizon has expensive plans and lots of unexpected costs. Sprint is trying hard to be CDMA version of t-mobile and have my interest, but will they be able to survive with at&t and verizon? Currently, I am no longer under contact so having the vibrant will provide me some time before deciding to commit to a carrier while testing the waters with merger.
So if my thoughts resonate with you maybe holding on to the vibrant won't be such a loss.
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I agree that every phone will have a few lemons. However, with my wife, we had 2, which we both had replaced with new ones. I kept my wife's on what I thought was the most stable roms (mostly TW, Eugenes, Master's and toward the end trigger) while I flashed mine almost daily. Still they both exibited the same flaws, reguardless on what rom they were on. I always wanted to try CM7, but I have to use my phone's GPS for work (construction, so I'm always traveling) so that and MIUI was out for me. If you like your vibrant, then I'm happy for you, it's got great potential. But if you were like me, and TRYING to like it, my advice is to sell it and move on. You'll be very happy you did.
The Vibrant is an interesting device (or rather, the Galaxy S series).
The Hardware is good. As a phone, they are perfect: GREAT reception/signal strength, and great sound in the earpiece/speakerphone.
For media they are good. The screen is nice and the speaker on the Vibrant is superior to any other phone I've ever owned.
However, the GPS and Software Performance/Stability issues just make it not worth it. Flashing a phone every day? Sorry, you are too patient.
The battery life also leaves much to be desired, and swings a bit too wildly.
The Lack of an LED Notification Light also became an issue (something the HD2/HD7 has), as well as the lack of a Camera Flash since I found the Vibrant not worth using to take pictures in some areas without great lighting (rinks, etc.). I also found it's 720p video recording produced grainy videos (which looked like watercolor paintings a bit on larger screens).
As a secondary device it's perfect, though. I just had to brush it aside and get something else to use as my daily driver.
After using a 4.3" screen so much, 4" just seems so small. I can hardly type on the Vibrant because I'm used to the better WP7 keyboard and larger screen size. Browsing is noticeably easier and the Vibrant's browser tends to lag on a lot of pages, anyways so that was a good change. A 4.3" phone is hardly much bigger than a Vibrant.
If you can barely fit a Vibrant into your pocket, then either you're severely obese or wear skinny jeans.
My next phone will be a sgs2. Currently im bored out of my mind so I just picked up a dell streak. Uusally when I flash a new rom it works nice for the first 2 weeks but as I add my usually apps it eventually becomes laggy. Trigger rom has givin me great battery life. After work im between 50-60% now(8-5) before with bionix I barely could make it home before dying. But my god has the lag become very noticeable. Im currently using the default launcher pro with only pure widget calender, dolphings bookmark manager, and extended power control on the homescreens.
Ive been flashing roms since Winmo and I find it fun. Going to a hd7 for a short period of time showed me how good an os can be. I love android but these manufacturers are killing the os. I dont know to the extent when I heard google is putting some locks on the OS, I said good for them. As much as people dont like HTC Sense, its the only launcher thats implemented well.
I love my vibrant. why even make these kind of negative threads, just move on and stop bringing down the forum....
I had a hd2, hated it... But didn't go there and dog it...
I think of these threads as eulogizing, rather than *****ing: the Vibrant, how great it could've been - shame it ended up the way it did (i.e. a poorly executed & supported product)....
-bZj
XDAapp
After rooting and running Bionix 1.3.1 and Overstock 2.2.1 kernel, my battery life has gone through the roof, I haven't noticed any lag, and it runs better than ever. I do still have slight issues with GPS (it locks but then after a few navigation instructions she forgets where I am and starts giving me different directions) I couldn't be happier with the phone. I guess YMMV depending on what you use the phone for. I'm sorry for the people that have had poor experiences with this device because the SAMoled is just stunning.
Wow, so many whines........... to date this phone has been one of the best units I ve seen. Only the GPS issue is a real complaint on the hardware side, which is totally fixable.
On the software side TMO and Samsung fail, but then that's why there is XDA. Since the Frankin Twiz rom in Sept 10 there has been a great performing, stable rom. And, Since Nov there has not been battery life issues,
People are being way too myopic about this. It is a great stable unit, and unless you have to have the latest great because of your addiction to it, then accept the consequences for that addiction.
ME ? I am waiting for the S2 and until then, this phone still rocks !
oka1 said:
Wow, so many whines........... to date this phone has been one of the best units I ve seen. Only the GPS issue is a real complaint on the hardware side, which is totally fixable.
On the software side TMO and Samsung fail, but then that's why there is XDA. Since the Frankin Twiz rom in Sept 10 there has been a great performing, stable rom. And, Since Nov there has not been battery life issues,
People are being way too myopic about this. It is a great stable unit, and unless you have to have the latest great because of your addiction to it, then accept the consequences for that addiction.
ME ? I am waiting for the S2 and until then, this phone still rocks !
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
why contrubute to such a thread if you disapprove of it?
just wondering.
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Ehh same here, I get bored easily, and the lag does become quite noticeable at times, switched to miui, and loved it for about a week, then got bored again.. currently attempting to trade my Vibrant for an hd2+100 on craigs ;] I'll surely miss it though!
Bionix was mentioned as being laggy. I've been running it for a week with no lag. Its been one of (if not the best) roms I've ever used.
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