Motorola Atrix review

The Motorola Atrix has generated a lot of interest since it was announced and demonstrated at CES 2011. On the face of it, the Atrix is a pretty standard dual-core Android 2.2 smartphone with the usual features you'd expect and a responsiveness that we've seen on all of the new dual-core handsets.

But it's actually a great deal more when combined with one of Motorola's docks. There are cradles for in-car use, home multimedia use designed to be connected to an HD television and, most significantly, Motorola's Lapdock. The Lapdock turns your phone into a linux-powered netbook with an 11.1in screen and an additional three-cell battery to power everything for up to eight hours.

First impressions of the hardware are excellent. This doesn't have the wow-factor you might get from a Samsung Galaxy S II or the HTC Sensation, but it feels solid and the large, bright display helps to win you over.

On the downside, the smooth plastic can feel a little cheap at times. We actually prefer the feel of the Milestone 2, which has a less smooth back, and has more friction in your hand. It's not a deal breaker by any means, but it might irritate some people.

Good security
One of the best things about the Atrix is that it incorporates a fingerprint scanner. This can replace the standard Android lock systems like the secret pattern and standard PIN.

Setting up access to the phone using a finger is very straightforward. You need to enrol, much as you do with a laptop. This option is within the Location & Security menu of the phone. The process requires you to swipe your finger on the reader between five and eight times.

A record of both index fingers is stored, should one become temporarily unavailable for some reason. The fingerprint system is also backed up with a traditional PIN, should you want to lend the phone to someone or if both of your index finders are somehow out of action.

There's a fair amount of debate about the security of a fingerprint scan. Systems administrators might be reluctant to trust it, but it does at least reduce the chance that staff will select a numeric PIN that is too easy to guess, although the PIN backup does still make this a potential risk.

In practice, getting into the phone with a finger scan is easy and works most times. The reader can't cope with fast swipes, slow swipes or half-hearted attempts. But the location of the scanner means that it's convenient to unlock the phone and then swipe your finger straight afterwards. Indeed, the reader is located on the power/unlock button.

Dual-core responsiveness
Comparing the Atrix to the Motorola Milestone 2 reveals how much more responsive the dual-core processor is than Motorola's old single-core 1GHz Texas Instruments chip. Flicking through menus, apps and even using Motoblur widgets is much faster and slicker than with previous handsets.

As with all Tegra 2 phones, the Atrix is capable of HD video playback and real-time HD encoding from its built-in 5-megapixel camera.

Performance is also assisted by a generous 1GB of RAM, which should keep apps responsive and allow widgets to run smoothly. Other handsets using the Tegra 2 have used half this amount of RAM and still been enjoyable to use, but there is never a case where having more RAM is a disadvantage and we're pleased to see Motorola isn't cutting corners.

It's also worth mentioning that this extra speed makes Motoblur a much more usable product. It is particularly useful for backing up contacts, although Google also takes care of this, as well as restoring a phone's email settings without the need to manually re-enter them each time.

This is good if you have to switch phones for any reason, although the single password could be viewed as weakening the overall security of the device. This would be a problem if someone worked out your Blur account password as they would then have access to many of your email accounts as well as any social networking tools you use.