Motorola Atrix HD Review: Fast, Sharp, Bargain
by Jason Inofuentes on September 5, 2012 12:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Smartphones
- Motorola
- Mobile
- Atrix HD
With the RAZR, Motorola proved that a decent capacity battery can be squeezed into an awfully thin phone. The Atrix HD is just a few hairs thicker and that nets it a slightly larger battery. It's not RAZR MAXX territory, nor Galaxy S III for that matter, but it's still got more battery capacity than the One X (AT&T), by a fraction.
We start with talk time, which has been a strong suit for Motorola for quite a long time.
The king of this test remains the RAZR MAXX with its mind boggling 20+ hours, and the other OMAP 4 devices also do extremely well. The ATrix HD falls in line with other S4 devices, but clearly Motorola's special talent at this test owed something to TI's SoC's. But at 10 hours of talk time that's plenty for any talker.
Our web browsing test cycles through several sites and have been treated to a variety of surprises over the last few years. Here, the Atrix HD falls behind when tested on WiFi, well behind the One X (AT&T) that shares its internals, even when normalized. Under 3G that situation continues, with a huge deficit between the Atrix HD and the One X (AT&T). It's under LTE that we get a little surprise. At exactly 6 hours, the Atrix HD bests the One X (AT&T) by a half hour, but more startling is that we have a phone that seems to exhibit battery life under WiFi that's within an hour of LTE performance. I'd have preferred to see WiFi battery life go up alongside LTE, but more LTE battery life is always better.
And here, another surprise. I mentioned in the HTC Droid Incredible 4G LTE review that my new place has some signal issues. I've resolved the VZW issues through the use of a Network Extender, and AT&T performance has actually been pretty good, so I don't know if this is a fluke. The Atrix HD isn't the only device whose LTE Hotspot performance actually bests its 3G Hotspot performance, it shares that distinction with the RAZR MAXX. And at just over 5 hours under LTE, this is right near the top and right alongside the One X (AT&T). All around, battery life is good, and very nearly great under LTE.
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Schadenfreude - Wednesday, September 5, 2012 - link
I hate to be "that guy" - but the correct first sentence/question "is there room for . . ." instead of "their".There, I said it!
JasonInofuentes - Wednesday, September 5, 2012 - link
Thanks, it's fixed now. Their's always one. :)noblemo - Friday, September 7, 2012 - link
Similarly, I think "tack" should be, "tact."noblemo - Friday, September 7, 2012 - link
Well, "tactic," actually.coolhardware - Wednesday, September 5, 2012 - link
Thanks for mentioning the Atrix HD's color balance issue!I too have a Motorola phone with a 'nice' display, the Motorola Photon. The display looks 'nice' when you look at the spec sheet, but when you actually look at the screen it is way skewed toward blue.
However, there is a software solution that has worked well for me:
http://www.jdhodges.com/2012/07/correcting-color-b...
and after making the adjustments using the Android color filter app the screen looks MUCH better!
I hope this helps anyone else in a similar situation and I would love to see how the Atrix HD subjectively fared after being adjusted using software. :-)
jjj - Wednesday, September 5, 2012 - link
Interesting device,now lets see what they have to show today,hope it's something relevant (if anyone cares Moto is live streaming the event on their youtube chan)dagamer34 - Wednesday, September 5, 2012 - link
If 8GB worth of NAND Flash clearly isn't worth the $100 difference between this one and the Galaxy S III or the HTC One X when it debuted, one has to wonder why the GS III and certainly the iPhone 4S sell for so much in the first place.Oh well, no more iPhones for me. I'm tired of basically being cheated on the cost of Flash.
Death666Angel - Wednesday, September 5, 2012 - link
SGS3 is lighter, has a bigger, removable battery, SAMOLED display (which is superior to normal LCDs in my book), double the RAM and double the NAND. That's what that extra $100 gets you. I'd chose the SGS3 over this any time.zero2dash - Wednesday, September 5, 2012 - link
I strongly considered the Atrix HD because I didn't want to pay $200 for a SGS3 and I hoped that the Atrix would be "good enough" for half the price. In the end I figured I might as well buy something that meets or exceeds my needs now, and should hold up in the future.....and I went ahead and paid the extra $100 for the SGS3. Couldn't be happier.The general consensus seems to be to not compare the AHD to the SGS3 or the One X and I think that's a good point to make, because the AHD is, as the review states, more of a middle class device than a higher class/top tier phone. With One X's now being lowered to $99, I think the AHD is an even harder sell than it already was and I expect these to drop to $49 before too long otherwise they're going to have an even worse uphill battle. Clearly the price tag of the SGS3 is not scaring people off.....and for good reason - it's a phenomenal phone, arguably the best phone available today.
Impulses - Wednesday, September 5, 2012 - link
The AHD is already $50 at several third party retailers... Probably free during holiday sales, quite a lot of phone for very little (contact renewal and that whole ridiculousness aside).