I came from the samsung captivate with high hopes and well I have noticed a few things the i would rather have over the atrix
one would be the screen, items like the opening screen to the xda app comes out pixaled
the overal make of the phone is I would say is cheap compared to the captivate. It feels as it would break on the first drop not to mention the plastic back cover feel as if it would break after a few openings. Overall I am content with it but not as happy as expected
Sent from my MB860 using XDA App
Agree here. Regret to have my inspire sold.
I'm pretty happy with it, coming from an iPhone 4 (and an Evo.)
Pros:
- Screen looks great, pretty close to my i4. Yeah, if I touch my nose to the glass, I can see pixels. I'm also fine with the screen not being AMOLED over-saturated. My regular laptop isn't, my PC isn't, my Atrix lapdock isn't, my i4 isn't, my Evo isn't, my HDTV's aren't, so it doesn't really bother me that the phone looks exactly the same as everything else I own.
- It is quite fast. As an example, I tend to install or update multiple apps at once, and on my Evo (which was overclocked), it would drag the phone to being nearly unresponsive having more than 1 thing going at once.
- I'm digging the accessories so far. The DLNA feature has been great for grabbing stuff from my media server and displaying it in 720p on my TV. It's not 1080 yet, but it still looks quite good. The browser works well on the TV as well. The lapdock has been quite nifty so far as well. Barring Windows games, I've had no problem doing everything else I use my standalone laptop for.
- Battery has been amazing, compared to either my Evo or i4.
- Fingerprint scanner works extremely well, I was surprised by this, pleasantly.
- The on-screen keyboard is fantastic, right up there with the i4. Far better than any other Android I've owned to date (which is quite a few.)
Cons:
- When flipping through the screens on the phone, it hasn't been all that smooth, even after a fresh boot. It's not bad, but its like my Evo, circa launch day, prior to mods to improve its responsiveness. Might be Motoblur related?
- Data uplink is killing my latency, which if it isn't something that is fixed relatively soon, could actually be a deal breaker for me, since I do like to tether to play stuff like Bad Company 2 while at work... 130ms latency on my Evo is okay, 400 on the Atrix... isn't.
- This might sound odd, but it's so smooth that it is slippery as hell. I've had a few miraculous catches following the phone just sliding right out of my hand.
- When grabbing media for my server, I have to copy it via DLNA to the device first, THEN play it, when using the Webtop OS in either the entertainment or lapdocks. I have a feeling this will come down to someone making a crafty software fix, but who knows.
- The lapdock needs a way to hide the icon bar at the bottom to expand the browser window. If you try a Facebook game, you can't quite fit the whole game window into view, and there are other things that have a similar issue.
Overall I'm pretty happy with it, and it seems like most of the issues I have can be solved in software, one way or another.
No stock UI works that well other than Sense. I suggest getting ADW launcher and theme it like your stock UI. Its very smooth side to side etc.
One thing I noticed - this phone is flat out HORRIBLE with UI animations such as the gingerbread launcher. My captivates UI speed blows this out of the water.
They need to fix that asap.
Pretty happy so far.
Im pretty happy with it so far. I came from the LG Expo which was a WM 6.5 device. This is my first Android phone, so it was a pretty big upgrade.
If there is one thing I am slightly disappointed in is the phone's ram. The "1gb" of ram appears to be split in half between the phone and the web top environment, so either one can only access 512mb at any one time. I'm only slightly disappointed because I expected it. It's another case of misleading, but not totally false advertising...now, about my missing "G" in network speed....
Also from iPhone 4. Still haven't decided if I am going to keep it yet, overall the phone is really nice, but it still just doesn't feel as smooth/fluid/solid as the iPhone. I was really hoping a nice Tegra 2 chip would make things smooth on Android but alas I was still disappointed. The phone is fast don't get me wrong, but the UI still has plenty of places that are just ... chunky. Overall build quality of the phone is also nice, but it still doesn't feel nearly as solid in my hand as the iPhone does.
I like the phone just not sure I like it tons better than my captivate. I think a lot of people that downplay samoled screens have never owned one. Its very tough going back. Overall my phone flys using launcher pro plus with 3d animations. No slow Downs or chunkiness whatsoever.
I'm definitely happy. I @so came from the Captivate and there isn't anything I would change.
I LOVE the fact that the pixel Dr/ity is larger, therefore making everything smaller. today is going to be the first day I see how it performs out in the realworld so I hope that goes well
I'm thinking about picking up the laptock dock since you can tether for free as well... might wait a while though since I don't need it now.
Rooted/ROM Captivate
Rooted Atrix
I'm unimpressed. Of course it's fast but not noticeably faster than the inspire. I really want to keep this phone and use it as my main device but it's not looking good right now. The touch screen isn't as responsive as the captivate or the inspire. When I try to fly through things, I find the phone missing registered touches. At first, I just thought I need to get used to this device but I could do this on the inspire and captivate with no problem at all. I'm going to give this more time so we'll see how it goes. Another thing I noticed, Motorola has a load of crap that runs on the device that I'll never use (see running services) and it takes up a significant amount of memory. It'd be a pain to go through and manually end these services. Even after using a task killer, most of the services persisted.
Sent from my MB860 using XDA App
Coming from the Nexus One, which is still regarded as the baseline for a good Android device, I'd have to say I'm pretty happy with it, no regrets at all in selling my N1 to get this. Yes, I do sorely miss the stock UI and being in that comfort zone that I'll be first to get updates (even though Google has been slacking lately). With that said, the pros out number the cons.
Pros
- BLOODY fast
- Battery is 1000x better than the Nexus One. I can go a whole day on one charge and it's not an iPhone? Say it ain't so
- Screen is 1000x better than the Nexus One, and very, very close to my wife's iPhone 4
I don't know what the guy above is smoking, but the Atrix is a 1000X better than the Captivate in terms of build quality. I was sorta anxious about it being all plastic, but the phone feels rock solid. With an Otter Box Commuter on the way, I doubt I'll ever notice it was any different than my ex-N1 (with a Commuter case as well).
Neutral
- The phone isn't the prettiest, but certainly nice.
Cons
- Motoblur adds some nice touches, but overall it's slow. I'm using LauncherPro Plus which is getting me back some of my sanity.
- Doesn't come with Gingerbread out of the box :-(
- Power button location sucks
- Volume buttons are on wrong side :-(
- I know people hate trackball, but until Gingerbread makes it out to the Atrix, copy-n-paste SUCKS
I prefer this phone over my captivate 10 fold. The screen is not a big issue to me as a lot of times on the captivate screen peoples faces always had a tint of red to them. Over saturation is over saturation no matter how you look at it. The phone is also super fast in UI transitions for me and is worlds better then the captivate in that respect. Motoblur home UI used to cause all sorts of slow down but switching to launcher pro fixed all of those issues. The phone is really quick and snappy. The XDA load screen is pixelated i would assume because it is a lower res image in the first place. Also why is that even important? it's just a load screen?
Some people are just trying too hard to find any excuse to hate the phone.
tbae2 said:
The XDA load screen is pixelated i would assume because it is a lower res image in the first place. Also why is that even important? it's just a load screen?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Coming from a Nexus One (which btw was a great phone in its own right), and having had a plethora of phones including an iPhone 4 and a Captivate, I am very happy with the Atrix.
There are a lot of people making a big deal of AMOLED vs LCD. What I'd like to add is that it really is COMPLETELY A MATTER OF PERSONAL PREFERENCE! I, for one, prefer the more natural tones and higher brightness of an LCD display, but do see the draw of the higher contrast AMOLED. There are valid arguments for the pros and cons of both types of displays, and it really is best to see the two side by side in various environments to determine what works best for you.
Moving right along to the data speed: I've read a lot of posts about the data being capped and slower than 3g phones, but this has not been my experience! I used the new SIM they sent me and made sure I was on the 4G plan, and now my downloads are consistently faster than they are on the N1 and even faster than the iPhone (funny how that the iPhone still sets the benchmark).
Lastly, I want to address the performance of the phone: I think it's phenomenal! I did root and replace the stock launcher right away, but besides that everything is stock. The phone is super responsive. The transitions are seamless. Everything works great with one exception - the lock screen which takes a second to come up.
To wrap up, I think the Atrix is a very nice upgrade to my N1 and that Motorola hit a home run with this phone. Granted, we won't realize it's full potential for a few months, but I believe that the Atrix is a great platform and will have superb development support from the community!
dew.man said:
Coming from a Nexus One (which btw was a great phone in its own right), and having had a plethora of phones including an iPhone 4 and a Captivate, I am very happy with the Atrix.
There are a lot of people making a big deal of AMOLED vs LCD. What I'd like to add is that it really is COMPLETELY A MATTER OF PERSONAL PREFERENCE! I, for one, prefer the more natural tones and higher brightness of an LCD display, but do see the draw of the higher contrast AMOLED. There are valid arguments for the pros and cons of both types of displays, and it really is best to see the two side by side in various environments to determine what works best for you.
Moving right along to the data speed: I've read a lot of posts about the data being capped and slower than 3g phones, but this has not been my experience! I used the new SIM they sent me and made sure I was on the 4G plan, and now my downloads are consistently faster than they are on the N1 and even faster than the iPhone (funny how that the iPhone still sets the benchmark).
Lastly, I want to address the performance of the phone: I think it's phenomenal! I did root and replace the stock launcher right away, but besides that everything is stock. The phone is super responsive. The transitions are seamless. Everything works great with one exception - the lock screen which takes a second to come up.
To wrap up, I think the Atrix is a very nice upgrade to my N1 and that Motorola hit a home run with this phone. Granted, we won't realize it's full potential for a few months, but I believe that the Atrix is a great platform and will have superb development support from the community!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
exactly, my phone pulls the same DL speeds I could get from my captivate in my area. The only thing I'm lacking is the upload speed.
Think I'm going back to my inspire.....on another note, the Atrix's GPS is STELLAR
Sent from my MB860 using XDA App
I'm extremely happy with mine. Coming from a ton of phones recently, including iP4, Captivate, Inspire, Surround among others. It may be the perfect size of phone/screen combo for me. Atrix is super fast and I'm good with the screen.
Everyone sees it's a pentile display and all of sudden it's garbage. I don't notice pixels. Sure, maybe if I got really close and squint my eyes I might. I'll never know because I don't spend all day trying to figure out how my phone sucks. Web page loads are faster than the Inspire for me.
Battery looks to be insanely good compared to the Inspire. I'd been using mine heavily since 10am yesterday googing around with it and playing games. I didn't plug it in when I went to bed and it still said 40% when I woke up. I realize that it goes in increments of 10, but that's pretty solid.
Sound quality is excellent! Talking on the phone shows really great audio quality for me. The biggest surprise was how loud/clear the speaker is for music and nav. I couldn't be happier with the phone.
Aaron J said:
If there is one thing I am slightly disappointed in is the phone's ram. The "1gb" of ram appears to be split in half between the phone and the web top environment, so either one can only access 512mb at any one time. I'm only slightly disappointed because I expected it. It's another case of misleading, but not totally false advertising...now, about my missing "G" in network speed....
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hey, that's interesting. How did you come to this conclusion? I can't find any place in the settings that tells exactly how much RAM is in use/available.
Happy from aa TP2 but furious about what I paid for. Horrible Service no, Signed bootloader. Capped 3g Speeds, forget about 4g that is non existent where I live although it says 4G+
sdlopez83 said:
Happy from aa TP2 but furious about what I paid for. Horrible Service no, Signed bootloader. Capped 3g Speeds, forget about 4g that is non existent where I live although it says 4G+
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Just curious why you bought it if your service is so bad? We all knew the bootloader was going to be locked down because it's Moto.
I found the Inspire to be light years ahead of the Captivate, and the Atrix to be just a notch above the Inspire. Also, I like the Atrix's skinned version of Swype. I honestly didn't even know it came with Swype until last night. I was using stock the whole time. lol
As for the iPhone 4, I can see why some aren't as impressed. When it comes down to it, no phone on the market can match its polish. Some come close, but none match. For me, I just prefer Android over iOS.
Sent from my MB860 using XDA App
Related
Those of you who have theirs already,
POST'EM UP!
There was a reviews thread around earlier...between that and all the "this phone sux" threads, I think you kinda already have it.
thecodemonk said:
There was a reviews thread around earlier...between that and all the "this phone sux" threads, I think you kinda already have it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
just thought it'd be nice to have it one place for reference.
you know,in a list form.
Just got mine this afternoon, here are my first impressions:
Pros:
-The screen is absolutely GORGEOUS, one of my biggest issues with past phones (came from the Hero) was the poor quality of the screen compared to, say, an iPhone. This screen blows it away. Its super crisp, very bright and absolutely massive. Its a true joy to browse the web, shoot pictures, watch videos and just plain interact. 10 minutes after I got it I jumped back on my Hero and was amazed at how I ever lasted the 6 months on it.
-Picture quality (still photos), I thought was quite impressive for a phone, and the front facing camera is cool, however it may be a little gimmicky. My dad has an iPhone and I'm sure when the new one comes out he'll get it and I can see us using the cameras to catch up sometimes when I'm down at school, but you do feel kinda silly walking around with the phone in front of your face.
-The phone itself is rather large (obviously), but feels satisfyingly dense and has just the right amount of weight behind it. Feels great in the hand as well.
-The speed is also mindblowing. Everything just plain feels faster, probably because it is. What I found the most improved was navigating the Marketplace, which strangely always felt laggy to me on the Hero. Not anymore, the Evo is literally click-click-click-click DONE. VERY impressive. Text entry also seems very much improved.
Just like any device, it's not without its faults:
-The camera (video), I feel is a little unimpressive. Still it is a very good camera for a phone, it just doesn't pack that same WOW factor as the rest of the device.
-I'm a little worried how the lens itself will hold up, as many have mentioned, the back does rest right on the glass. This is easily fixed with a case though (which I hope to purchase soon).
-SenseUI is also not very appealing to me, I find it incredibly bland and in some sense (no pun intended) flat out ugly. I much prefer the stock Android home. I could also do without the Sprint Bloatware. Both will be addressed with the first custom 2.2 ROM
Things I can't address yet:
-The battery life: I received the phone with approximately 25-30% battery and wanted to run it all the way down before I recharged it fully. I was quite impressed at the lengths I had to go to to get it down to 0. I was watching a live stream on USTREAM, had wifi, gps, sync and bluetooth on, screen on full brightness, and was consistently bouncing back and forth between Google Earth, YouTube and web browsing. Even with all of this, it took 3-4 hours to run down completely. Not bad at all for extremely heavy use
-4G, unfortunately Indy isn't scheduled for 4G until 2012. I should be making a trip up to Chicago soon though and can comment further if requested. There are a ton of people who are in 4G areas who can comment on 4G speeds though.
Anything specific just ask, I'd be glad to address any questions you, or anyone, may have.
booyakasha said:
Just got mine this afternoon, here are my first impressions:
-SenseUI is also not very appealing to me, I find it incredibly bland and in some sense (no pun intended) flat out ugly. I much prefer the stock Android home. I could also do without the Sprint Bloatware. Both will be addressed with the first custom 2.2 ROM
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You know if you go to settings>applications>manage applications>HTC sense> and scroll down and click clear defaults, you take off sense.
As soon as you click home it will give you an option for sense or launcher (stock android) and then click automatically choose this option and it will keep whichever you like for default.
However the black notification bar, dialer, and lock screen will all be sense as well. And you cannot have the HTC widgets.
booyakasha said:
Just got mine this afternoon, here are my first impressions:
Pros:
-The screen is absolutely GORGEOUS, one of my biggest issues with past phones (came from the Hero) was the poor quality of the screen compared to, say, an iPhone. This screen blows it away. Its super crisp, very bright and absolutely massive. Its a true joy to browse the web, shoot pictures, watch videos and just plain interact. 10 minutes after I got it I jumped back on my Hero and was amazed at how I ever lasted the 6 months on it.
-Picture quality (still photos), I thought was quite impressive for a phone, and the front facing camera is cool, however it may be a little gimmicky. My dad has an iPhone and I'm sure when the new one comes out he'll get it and I can see us using the cameras to catch up sometimes when I'm down at school, but you do feel kinda silly walking around with the phone in front of your face.
-The phone itself is rather large (obviously), but feels satisfyingly dense and has just the right amount of weight behind it. Feels great in the hand as well.
-The speed is also mindblowing. Everything just plain feels faster, probably because it is. What I found the most improved was navigating the Marketplace, which strangely always felt laggy to me on the Hero. Not anymore, the Evo is literally click-click-click-click DONE. VERY impressive. Text entry also seems very much improved.
Just like any device, it's not without its faults:
-The camera (video), I feel is a little unimpressive. Still it is a very good camera for a phone, it just doesn't pack that same WOW factor as the rest of the device.
-I'm a little worried how the lens itself will hold up, as many have mentioned, the back does rest right on the glass. This is easily fixed with a case though (which I hope to purchase soon).
-SenseUI is also not very appealing to me, I find it incredibly bland and in some sense (no pun intended) flat out ugly. I much prefer the stock Android home. I could also do without the Sprint Bloatware. Both will be addressed with the first custom 2.2 ROM
Things I can't address yet:
-The battery life: I received the phone with approximately 25-30% battery and wanted to run it all the way down before I recharged it fully. I was quite impressed at the lengths I had to go to to get it down to 0. I was watching a live stream on USTREAM, had wifi, gps, sync and bluetooth on, screen on full brightness, and was consistently bouncing back and forth between Google Earth, YouTube and web browsing. Even with all of this, it took 3-4 hours to run down completely. Not bad at all for extremely heavy use
-4G, unfortunately Indy isn't scheduled for 4G until 2012. I should be making a trip up to Chicago soon though and can comment further if requested. There are a ton of people who are in 4G areas who can comment on 4G speeds though.
Anything specific just ask, I'd be glad to address any questions you, or anyone, may have.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've been to the sprint store and had a chance to play w/ one.
everything seems awesome, except it felt a little jerky,not smooth like the Hero/Eris.
And I noticed a little bit of glitch when going from the camera to home screen too fast. as Sprint has the best plan, I kinda have to go with them.
I just don't wanna think that HTC/Sprint would fudge things up to be cheap. I mean where's the AMOLED love? all in all, I'm sure I'm going to love this phone.
1wingangel said:
I've been to the sprint store and had a chance to play w/ one.
everything seems awesome, except it felt a little jerky,not smooth like the Hero/Eris.
And I noticed a little bit of glitch when going from the camera to home screen too fast. as Sprint has the best plan, I kinda have to go with them.
I just don't wanna think that HTC/Sprint would fudge things up to be cheap. I mean where's the AMOLED love? all in all, I'm sure I'm going to love this phone.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Here's to hoping the jerkiness you experienced is attributed to early software on the device(s). Regarding AMOLED, there's no way HTC could have possibly included a 4.3" AMOLED display in this phone. There are two main reasons why.
1. AMOLED technology is very expensive as it is at 3.7", I can't imagine how much it would cost for them to order 4.3" displays from their providers. There's no doubt that significant cost would have been diverted to us.
2. AMOLED displays are in short supply. The Droid Incredible's been out of stock for a while because HTC can't get enough AMOLED displays to produce the number of Incredibles that would satisfy the demand of the buying public.
Mecha2142 said:
Here's to hoping the jerkiness you experienced is attributed to early software on the device(s). Regarding AMOLED, there's no way HTC could have possibly included a 4.3" AMOLED display in this phone. There are two main reasons why.
1. AMOLED technology is very expensive as it is at 3.7", I can't imagine how much it would cost for them to order 4.3" displays from their providers. There's no doubt that significant cost would have been diverted to us.
2. AMOLED displays are in short supply. The Droid Incredible's been out of stock for a while because HTC can't get enough AMOLED displays to produce the number of Incredibles that would satisfy the demand of the buying public.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The jerkiness is def a software problem. I'm sure it's because android isn't meant to be on a screen this huge....yet.
2.2 will surely fix it.
thanx for the screen input, I had no idea about an AMOLED shortage.
samsung i9000 has a Super Amoled on a 4 inch screen, but it is also gonna be considered cheap at $500, and stores in the uk have them for upwards of $600 so i guess you do have a point
ps: i do not actually own either of the two phones
edit: but i wont mind $100 more for a display like the samsung
Sounds like you just got a quirky device. I haven't experienced anything like that. I'm amazed at how smooth and responsive it is :/
-------------------------------------
Sent via the XDA Tapatalk App
engineer14 said:
samsung i9000 has a Super Amoled on a 4 inch screen, but it is also gonna be considered cheap at $500, and stores in the uk have them for upwards of $600 so i guess you do have a point
ps: i do not actually own either of the two phones
edit: but i wont mind $100 more for a display like the samsung
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's because Samsung is the company that's producing the AMOLED displays for HTC. Seems like they're cutting the supply they send to them to use in their own devices as of lately. That's why they don't have to charge as much for the devices; they make the displays themselves.
@1wingangel
If that phone was sitting in the Sprint store with everyone playing with it and no task killer installed. I bet every single application was still running and it was still just a lil jerky. I can't imagine people didn't turn all apps and play with it, unless you tried one new out of the box.
jeffrimerman said:
If that phone was sitting in the Sprint store with everyone playing with it and no task killer installed. I bet every single application was still running and it was still just a lil jerky. I can't imagine people didn't turn all apps and play with it, unless you tried one new out of the box.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
no, it was the display model.
so yeah, I'm sure there were alot of apps running,but isn't the point of having all that ram/rom to be able to have a ton of apps running all at once?
1wingangel said:
no, it was the display model.
so yeah, I'm sure there were alot of apps running,but isn't the point of having all that ram/rom to be able to have a ton of apps running all at once?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
yeah that is true. I haven't noticed any lag with 21 apps running before I installed a task killer. It was lightning fast. My only con is the power drain when it is sitting overnight. And that apps randomly start up in the background. I see my 3g on and arrows going up and down when it was sitting overnight or maybe that happens when I turn on the screen. I lose a third to half my batter overnight, but someone also said it has to be drained and charged a few times and it will get better. My brother has the 3gS and he said it blows it away.
Mecha2142 said:
Here's to hoping the jerkiness you experienced is attributed to early software on the device(s). Regarding AMOLED, there's no way HTC could have possibly included a 4.3" AMOLED display in this phone. There are two main reasons why.
1. AMOLED technology is very expensive as it is at 3.7", I can't imagine how much it would cost for them to order 4.3" displays from their providers. There's no doubt that significant cost would have been diverted to us.
2. AMOLED displays are in short supply. The Droid Incredible's been out of stock for a while because HTC can't get enough AMOLED displays to produce the number of Incredibles that would satisfy the demand of the buying public.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
AMOLED display is also craptastic in sunlight. Super AMOLED is better though...but obviously even more expensive with more supply issues.
1wingangel said:
no, it was the display model.
so yeah, I'm sure there were alot of apps running,but isn't the point of having all that ram/rom to be able to have a ton of apps running all at once?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
They said it would run all of them at once, not that it would work smoothly with them all running at once No matter how much memory you have allocated, there are still limits~
Xenithflare said:
They said it would run all of them at once, not that it would work smoothly with them all running at once No matter how much memory you have allocated, there are still limits~
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
okay, so I just got back from radioshack, And the guy said that he killed all running background apps and live wallpapers, and it still felt jerky(not laggy),but jerky.
my only thought is that maybe I just never noticed it before,coming from a smaller screen. or maybe the display models just aren't up to par.
p.s. I've also been spoiled by custom roms on mt3g
minus a few bugs the only con is that the screen takes up so much realestate that i am always accidentally activating icons on the screen and the 4 onscreen buttons are way too sensitive.
I was about to buy a BB or Nokia for business and use the EVO for fun but so far this phone is working just fine for business. this is a fast device and i haven't noticed any lag and i am running tons of widgets and running apps that constantly update.
forgot to mention that i will be returning it for a replacement on Tuesday for one without a dead pixel.
1wingangel said:
okay, so I just got back from radioshack, And the guy said that he killed all running background apps and live wallpapers, and it still felt jerky(not laggy),but jerky.
my only thought is that maybe I just never noticed it before,coming from a smaller screen. or maybe the display models just aren't up to par.
p.s. I've also been spoiled by custom roms on mt3g
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Judging from demos in my own store, I can attest to the fact that as soon as we put a unit on display (whether GPS or phone), it immediately becomes defective It's like a rule.
No jerkiness here...
Only time I experienced lag was when I tried turning on 4G while downloading/installing about 10 apps at once when I first got it, even then it was hardly noticeable.
YouTube freezes up on me when I try switching from HQ sometimes.
MixZing and Last.FM act weird together for me. Sometimes Last.FM will just close and MixZing will start playing music off my SD card randomly. I uninstall MixZing and haven't had an issue after that. Kind of strange.
Supposedly I am in 4G coverage but I don't get very good signal, not sure what that is about. I don't really mind since I use Wi-Fi at home/work. I'd have to play with it more to see if its an actual problem.
Everything else is pretty awesome.
(WARNING: This is long.)
My father got word of the Nexus S (he's not much into technology) and wanted one, so I went to Best Buy today to play around with it. I figured I would compare it against my Nexus One with Gingerbread and see how big the difference is.
I wasn't expecting to be blown away by the new Nexus, since it's pretty much a standard Galaxy S device with a few niceties. It was disappointing to find out that it wasn't even convincing me to feel anything.
The Hummingbird CPU on the Nexus S is indeed as fast as it seems, but the experience doesn't feel that much faster than on my Nexus One (especially when using Launcher Pro). I suppose it would be better for Live Wallpapers, but I never caught on to that. I tested a YouTube video both in HD and standard quality, and neither stream played any better on the S though they looked a bit nicer on a bigger screen. It's a definite, hands-down improvement for mobile gaming, though.
The device itself definitely felt as plasticky as the Vibrant, but it's not terrible. However, I prefer the metallic feel of the Nexus One.
The screen is bigger and a bit brighter, but it also has a cooler color temperature, which may contribute to that brightness a bit. Colors from the camera lens seemed less saturated than those on the Nexus One, though they could also be closer to the actual results. I really liked the front-facing camera; I hope video calling takes off soon. (Has FaceTime even been open-sourced yet?)
The S booted up WAY faster than the Nexus One. I did a boot comparison and turned it on about a half-minute later by accident and it still booted before my Nexus One finished.
These differences would be acceptable for an upgrade, but I'm not sure if I'll feel comfortable with losing the microSD slot and trackball. The SD reader can really come in handy, and makes transfers super easy since tons upon tons of phones and laptops have one. (Then again, the Windows Phone 7 team decided to do something similar here as well, so it could be the sign of a trend. I hope not.) Trackball notifications were really, really nifty too, though not as important as the SD reader.
Other than T-Mobile making it unreasonably difficult for me to actually upgrade to the device, the deal-breaker for me was that it didn't seem nearly as innovative as the Nexus One was for me. I could be biased because my first experience on Android was on the G1...and we all know how wonderful that device was. Because of that, hoping onto the Nexus One was like a BIG breath of fresh air and a big reassurance that Android is an exceptional alternative to the iPhone universe. I feel even more so with devices like the G2 (the device I'm set on getting now), Droid X and MT4G, which have been HUGE upgrades from the devices that preceded them. The Nexus S, on the other hand, doesn't even have Wifi Calling (though I guess it'll get it at some point?) or HSPA+. I can't justify spending a small fortune on that.
As for my father, I'm getting him a Nexus One. Coming from an original iPhone, he, and my wallet, will definitely appreciate it.
It wasn't worth it the moment I heard it wouldn't be covered by the phone insurance and no SD card swap. G2 wasn't worth it either in my opinion
Does make you wonder about no ins coverage
I only played with one at Best Buy, but came to many of the OP's conclusions!
No insurance coverage? Wow, that's weird.
Re: boot time, were you comparing a fresh NS against a full-o-****e N1, or was it like for like?
Rusty! said:
Re: boot time, were you comparing a fresh NS against a full-o-****e N1, or was it like for like?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Like for like; N1 is running the Gingerbread ROM that's being developed, which comes with a few apps but nothing heavy. That might have slowed its boot time a bit.
Rusty! said:
Re: boot time, were you comparing a fresh NS against a full-o-****e N1, or was it like for like?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I picked my NS from CPW yesterday and have been comparing it with my soon to be retired N1.
I've got FRG83D on the N1 (completely stock, no apps) and it takes twice as long to boot as the NS... but the NS only feels 'half done '! It's still got the old market, it can't see some apps on the market, and it feels Buggy... guess that's why the N1 doesn't have gingerbread yet... they haven't finished it!
The NS screen is nice but the back button doesn't work half the time! Wifi is more sensitive on theN1, 3g is more reliable on the NS. The NS feels a lot quicker but its hard to tell if its the phone or the OS.
I'm waiting on an official GB update for the N1 before I decide which phone goes on fleabay...
lf2k5 said:
I picked my NS from CPW yesterday and have been comparing it with my soon to be retired N1.
I've got FRG83D on the N1 (completely stock, no apps) and it takes twice as long to boot as the NS... but the NS only feels 'half done '! It's still got the old market, it can't see some apps on the market, and it feels Buggy... guess that's why the N1 doesn't have gingerbread yet... they haven't finished it!
The NS screen is nice but the back button doesn't work half the time! Wifi is more sensitive on theN1, 3g is more reliable on the NS. The NS feels a lot quicker but its hard to tell if its the phone or the OS.
I'm waiting on an official GB update for the N1 before I decide which phone goes on fleabay...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Back button is a known issue -try and get a swap from CPWH.
To chip in my experience:
Went from a N1 with MIUI (was in love with the ROM, it's awesome, quick looks amazing etc) to Stock NS.
Have to say, N1 has been sat at home not used since the S arrived. The screen on the S is simply amazing, so responsive to touch looks fantastic. The "proper" multi-touch is great too - especially in google maps.
The S feels nice to hold - especially in landscape. The extra bulges make a big difference, it sits very nicely in the hand.
It feels a little less sturdy that the N1 does, deff lighter and doesn't feel like it'd take well to being dropped.
Still slightly worried about the screen - since no one seems to know how easily it'll scratch yet.
Speed wise, the S is quick. Navigation is about the same as N1 on MIUI (maybe a little slower), apps load wise, everything feels nippier.
The phone does lack a few features, but no doubt these will be added over the coming months - either officially or via the dev community.
It remains to be seen how the dev community will take to the S. Early days show a couple of custom roms, kernel and recovery and a few of the "bigger" names starting to work on the phone....
Is the S worth the upgrade - it depends. The overall experience IMO is better than the N1. It seems (so far) easier to get along with out. There's a few features missing - if these are must have's then the S isn't for you.
Go and have a play with one if you can.
FWIW - my fiancée is IN LOVE with the S. She normally hates smartphones, but this seems to be an exception...
You Can Have It
I just came back from Best Buy returning my Nexus S.
Yeah the touch screen had a little more snappy response
and the gpu makes it a little faster than my Nexus One
but the phone is not worth wasting a two year contract
on. Its just not much of an upgrade over the N1.
The lack of any way to move the curser was the last straw.
No track pad or track ball, no NS for me.
I did side by side tests clicking each app simultaneously and both my nexus one and the S loaded identical speeds for most everything.
I was however impressed with the quality and feel of the build of the nexus s. Much more solid and high end feeling than I thought it would be.
RogerPodacter said:
I did side by side tests clicking each app simultaneously and both my nexus one and the S loaded identical speeds for most everything.
I was however impressed with the quality and feel of the build of the nexus s. Much more solid and high end feeling than I thought it would be.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I just got a Nexus One (traded a old netbook for it ) but had a EVO for a while now. Friend I traded with got a Nexus S so I got to play with both a lot. The bottom line is that most apps are pretty simple and would probably run fine on a 400 MHz CPU, but the apps that don't (Google Earth, Maps in 3D view, 3D gallery app, Games, etc) usually require a decent GPU to run 100% smooth, and it becomes obvious that the Adreno 200 can't keep up. It may run decently (20-30 FPS) but once you put the N1 or EVO side by side to the NS you can see that the apps are buttery smooth on second gen hardware.
It also pisses me off that I can't run a LW paper without causing the home screen to lag under 20 FPS while doing certain actions - especially the Microbes wallpaper which looks cool as hell IMO.
I say I will upgrade to watever phone Cyanogen upgrades too... and thats just being real honest loool.
Sent from my Nexus One...
Award Tour said:
usually require a decent GPU to run 100% smooth, and it becomes obvious that the Adreno 200 can't keep up. It may run decently (20-30 FPS) but once you put the N1 or EVO side by side to the NS you can see that the apps are buttery smooth on second gen hardware.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It is not necessary the Ardeno200 to blame. Gingerbread has got a much better 3D stack they bought from outside, while the N1 and Evo are still using the old one. Currently it is not clear where the NS performance advantage is coming from.
draugaz said:
It is not necessary the Ardeno200 to blame. Gingerbread has got a much better 3D stack they bought from outside, while the N1 and Evo are still using the old one. Currently it is not clear where the NS performance advantage is coming from.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You can replace the Nexus S with a SGS running 2.1 and you'll see the same results. Its the GPU, we all know it's that. If it wasn't for that weakness, the Nexus One would still be as speedy as the newer phones.
Sent using Tapatalk
Award Tour said:
You can replace the Nexus S with a SGS running 2.1 and you'll see the same results. Its the GPU, we all know it's that. If it wasn't for that weakness, the Nexus One would still be as speedy as the newer phones.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Are you sure? As far as I can tell, the SGS UI is not significantly "smoother" than nexus one.
On the other hand, everyone drools how buttery smooth the WP7 devices are, and almost all of them are using Adreno200. And they even consider some "serious" 3D gaming with XBL.
Does anyone have any infos in regards to battery life on the NS? What is the battery life on the Nexus S? I think comparing battery life with the Nexus One is useless for now, since both devices are not running 2.3 yet!
draugaz said:
Are you sure? As far as I can tell, the SGS UI is not significantly "smoother" than nexus one.
On the other hand, everyone drools how buttery smooth the WP7 devices are, and almost all of them are using Adreno200. And they even consider some "serious" 3D gaming with XBL.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah, I'm sure, seen it with my own eyes. The SGS suffers from weird lag to due the file system but with it fixed it runs fine, and even without it fixed it still runs smoother in things that rely on the GPU (those things I mentioned). But like I said, weird issues (like the file system lag) aside, running through a list shouldn't require a lot of power; it's when you hit apps that do need the power that you realize the difference.
...and about WP7, I agree. But this isn't WP7, and everything Google has shown so far isn't as optimized. The Adreno 200 will always be weak compared to every other high end GPU but I hope that Honeycomb w/ full HW acceleration (if it even supports the Adreno 200) can at least bring some life to it like WP7 has.
Award Tour said:
Yeah, I'm sure, seen it with my own eyes. The SGS suffers from weird lag to due the file system but with it fixed it runs fine, and even without it fixed it still runs smoother in things that rely on the GPU (those things I mentioned). But like I said, weird issues (like the file system lag) aside, running through a list shouldn't require a lot of power; it's when you hit apps that do need the power that you realize the difference.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Comparing stock for stock, when I scroll a list I can hit 100% CPU utilization on a N1, and ~84% with NS.
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
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
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.
Sent from my MB860 using XDA App
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.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
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.
Sent from my MB860 using XDA App
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
Sent from my MB860 using XDA App
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!
Sent from my MB860 using XDA App
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.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, I am using Atrix on my business trips to EU using local sim cards.
Probably, but the timing of updates is another question.
Sent from my MB860 using XDA App
I'm on Cappy #3. And now my speaker doesn't work.
I'm going to argue a lemon and see if ATT can't let me have a different phone.
I was looking at the Atrix but- has anyone used both the Captivate and Atrix? Why would I chose the Atrix? I'm using Serendipity ROM, it's great, fast...
I don't really use GPS much (mainly because it sucks- but also because I just don't use it). So overall I'm happy, I'm just tired of the Captivate hardware issues.
What scares me about the Atrix is the locked bootloader. If it works out of the box, great, but you sure do limit support with a locked bootloader. But maybe Motorola actually updates it and there's not a need for custom ROMs?
My other options, were perhaps waiting for the SGS II (or something else). It's still Samsung, but I have a feeling, just like the Captivate, the draw of the specs and beautiful screen might be too hard to resist.
June iPhone 5 launch isn't too far away, either. But the problem with both of these, is I don't know if ATT will let me get a brand new-just-released device, you know?
I also considered getting the iPhone 4 and just living with the Apple nonsense world until this summer- and selling it (iPhone fanboys pay crazy money for those devices, I could flip it easily).
But even with the retina display, I don't know if I could live with an LCD display. ???????
Ideas?
I've got the vibrant, the captivate and just picked up the atrix last week.
Only thing that really bothers me is the screen, the colours are so much less vibrant, its not a deal killer but i don't like the washed out look.
the camera app on the atrix is kinda odd too, i prefer the galaxy one, but you get used to it, its slow to focus and no spot focus.
i miss the quiet mode alarm clock of the captivate too. i liked being able to access the wifi off on and by dragging down at the top, the motoblur is initially annoying.
took me a little while to get used to the power button placement, i dig the fingerprint reader. the usb connection is in an annoying location (off to the side) and at least you get and hdmi cable with it.
its a lot more fluid speedwise, dont get the lag i was used to with the galaxy.
Screen vs. Screen, captivate kills it. The motion blur is so noticeable on the atrix its almost a slap in the face.
The screens between the captivate and atrix are completely different and appeal to different people. Yes the captivate is much more vivid and bright but the atrix's qHD display is much more accurate and crisp and the graphics when gaming blow the captivate out of the water imo.
The NVIDIA processor and gpu make a big difference in screen quality and quicker rendering of images and videos.
I have both a captivate and atrix but I use my atrix as my daily phone due to the battery life and stable gps.
Don't get me wrong though i love being able to mod my captivate which is a big reason why I have not sold it yet.
If you have the option to grab the atrix, take it, it will be a major upgrade.
Atrix wins hands down. While the screen is more vibrant on the cappy, i think the quality is better on the Atrix. Even though the first atrix i got had some sort of hardware issue, i was just able to return it and have it work. WIth the cappy i was stuck with a terrible GPS no matter how many times i'd return it. The camera on the captivate seems to be much better tho unless you're dealing with night shots or out door shots in the bright sun.
While i miss the community of the captivate and all the possibilities of Roms, i'm quite content with my atrix knowing with almost certainty that i'll get gingerbread and i won't have to wait almost a year for it.
The screen really isn't good on the Atrix; I compared tthe Captivate, Nexus 1 , and Atrix aide by side and ended up taking the Atrix back and selling the Captivate.
If you want a higher resolution, just go and get a LCD density app off the market.
As for speed, the Atrix really isn't that much faster. Foe the most part, all apps aside from games aren't really CPU heavy, it's the allocation of apps all running at once that slows people down. If you properly manage your running apps then you shouldn't see much of a seed difference. (My N1 and Atrix are nearly identical).
Sent from my Nexus One using XDA Premium App
TexUs said:
I'm on Cappy #3. And now my speaker doesn't work.
I'm going to argue a lemon and see if ATT can't let me have a different phone.
I was looking at the Atrix but- has anyone used both the Captivate and Atrix? Why would I chose the Atrix? I'm using Serendipity ROM, it's great, fast...
I don't really use GPS much (mainly because it sucks- but also because I just don't use it). So overall I'm happy, I'm just tired of the Captivate hardware issues.
What scares me about the Atrix is the locked bootloader. If it works out of the box, great, but you sure do limit support with a locked bootloader. But maybe Motorola actually updates it and there's not a need for custom ROMs?
My other options, were perhaps waiting for the SGS II (or something else). It's still Samsung, but I have a feeling, just like the Captivate, the draw of the specs and beautiful screen might be too hard to resist.
June iPhone 5 launch isn't too far away, either. But the problem with both of these, is I don't know if ATT will let me get a brand new-just-released device, you know?
I also considered getting the iPhone 4 and just living with the Apple nonsense world until this summer- and selling it (iPhone fanboys pay crazy money for those devices, I could flip it easily).
But even with the retina display, I don't know if I could live with an LCD display. ???????
Ideas?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You won't see the iPhone 5 in June lol.
-Sent from my Galaxy Tab
After two weeks of experience with the atrix and a few months with the captivate I can say this:
The atrix has a better build quality,awesome fingerprint scanner (no one can use my phone/log into my bank account but me and I'm too lazy to type a code or dawing shapes everytime I want to use it) ,amazing GPS reception (works even indoors!, sometimes I get 1meter accuracy!) a better battery and a better performance (twice the ram the cappy has (great for multitasking and battery juice), dual core cpu (less noticeable at this time), etc)
The Captivate has amazing screen colors but lower res (it took me a few days to get used to the atrix, I sure would give up on qhd for led) More games support it at this time,thicker&lighter,neat camera (way better than the atrix, at least at day light) looks better (from my point of view) and much more customizable (due to unlocked bootloader - endless roms, kernels, etc)
Horrible GPS reception and annoying build quality (I heard "clicks" when texting) made me dump the cappy and buying the atrix.
If you don't use GPS much (I use it all the time) and you don't care about
build quality (acceptable on the atrix but far from being htc) you can
stick with your GalaxyS, overall, it is a pretty good phone.
Bottom line is, from my point of view, is that the atrix is for more mature and professional usage/business, and the GalaxyS is better for teens/early 20's (better multimedia capabilities) - Since I just turned 26 I changed it
Both phones have terrible laggy home screens so I didn't consider using touchwiz nor motoblur and I didn't even took it as a feature (gde with
odestrian/launcherpro will make your handset happy)
Me, after having I7500 and Captivate, I'm done with Samsung, at least for now, looks like I'm gonna stick with my atrix for at least two years (but who knows..)
I prefer to the qHD resolution. Color on Atrix is not that bad it is acceptable. I also have a Samsung Wave with Super Amoled and i can still live with Atrix's screen. It is not that biggie as many people are telling. First time i looked at Samsung Wave's screen i fell in love with it and bought it. Then i showed it to friends and they were impressed and jealous. But now i even forget i have a Super Amoled to watch photos and play games. Many people look at my Wave dont show their impress even though they have never used any better than an LCD phone.
So, with the Captivate, an unlocked bootloader means we can custom ROM it and strip the crappy UI out and use whatever we want (and also do things like Voodoo).
That does not exist on the Atrix. That's part of my worry??? Are you content with just using Launcher Pro?
Let me ask this, I'd definitely consider the iPhone 4's to be the best looking LCD out there right now in a phone, how does the Atrix compare to it?
Design Gears dumped the Atrix, eh? That isn't too reassuring, lol.
I took my atrix back. Couldn't stand the screen, horrible viewing angles horrible color and the phone overall imo was junk. I had too many freezups and had to do 3 master resets on it in a matter of 2 weeks. 1 of those weeks it sat in its box on the fridge.
I would wait for something else to come along. It won't be much longer before new phones hit the market. I would stay away from iphone also unless if you don't mind eating spaghetti every day.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I897 using XDA Premium App
TexUs said:
So, with the Captivate, an unlocked bootloader means we can custom ROM it and strip the crappy UI out and use whatever we want (and also do things like Voodoo).
That does not exist on the Atrix. That's part of my worry??? Are you content with just using Launcher Pro?
Let me ask this, I'd definitely consider the iPhone 4's to be the best looking LCD out there right now in a phone, how does the Atrix compare to it?
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I came from a Nexus One where it seemed like I flashed a new ROM every week. I now have an Atrix and have been very happy with it. Locked bootloader... doesn't bother me. Everything I have wanted to do with it have been possible with root access and Launcher Pro Plus. IMHO, the screen is fantastic (both resolution and colors) (it took a few day of getting used to the colors), motoblur does not slow the phone down (from a skinning standpoint, it's ugly but I have fixed that with custom icons/widgets (screenshot), and I will be keeping this phone for a while now.
edit: oh, and the phone is crazy fast!
Well I went and bought the nexus S and the Atrix 4g to see which of these two phones will make me jump the apple bandwagon and go android.
Atrix 4g
Positives
Very fast!
Nice hardware
Good camera
Good speakers
Negatives
Motor Blur I don't see what the big deal is about Motoblur but its ok I guess
the phone is very slipery
The High resolution has been a downer
Locked bootloader
Nexus s tmobile
Beutiful screen
Fast
Stock android
Love the way it looks
Good speakers
Negatives
GPS -takes forever to lock compared to iphone and atrix 4g and looses gps lock at times
Screen - I feel the touchscreen is a bit over sensitive
no 720p recording
Overall I was every impressed with the atrix 4g and it has all the bells and whistles but the screen although sharp with its high rez I feel for me it hinders its usability. The text is so small and sometimes i feel that everything looks a bit compressed because of the high rez. I have to constantly keep zooming in and out to find the perfect viewing view.
The nexus S wow is it nice device and I like it over the atrix 4g because it feels better in my hand then the atrix 4g even though it doesn't have the nice dual core processor its pretty fast in itself! The only thing that's holding me back is the GPS I noticed it takes a bit for it get a lock and when it does lock it sometimes looses the signal. I did not experience this problem with the atrix 4g and my Iphon4 has been flawless when it comes to gps functionality that maybe I'm spoiled on how fast it is at picking up signal. Another minor thing is the touchscreen I find it a bit over sensitive in the sense that scrolling to web pages I do slight flick up and the scroll speed is fast that i'm having a hard time to find a balance on how slow or fast i should touch the screen.
Solid review, but lack of Micro SD is kinda a deal breaker for me on the Nexus S.
Also I don't like the stock led missing and have to use hacks or noled apps.
The slippery Atrix gets better with a proper gel case.
BTW - Which phone gives you better calls and battery life? TIA!...
doug0365 said:
The nexus S wow is it nice device and I like it over the atrix 4g because it feels better in my hand then the atrix 4g even though it doesn't have the nice dual core processor its pretty fast in itself! The only thing that's holding me back is the GPS I noticed it takes a bit for it get a lock and when it does lock it sometimes looses the signal. I did not experience this problem with the atrix 4g and my Iphon4 has been flawless when it comes to gps functionality that maybe I'm spoiled on how fast it is at picking up signal. Another minor thing is the touchscreen I find it a bit over sensitive in the sense that scrolling to web pages I do slight flick up and the scroll speed is fast that i'm having a hard time to find a balance on how slow or fast i should touch the screen.
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Typical Samsung problem if you feel Nexus S' GPS giving you hard time.
Haven't experienced Nexus S as yet, no idea how much sensitive its screen really is, but overall performance and the Pure Google experience is one of the biggest advantage. I really wonder if Google releases its next Nexus phone this year, who will it go with and will it be the Fastest, Baddest phone available in the market... If so, I will be the first to buy that phone.
Anyways, back to your point, all your positives and negatives about Atrix 4G are correct more or less. Which phone you should go with is completely your own decision. But I have been using Atrix for long enough that now I can say with confident that this phone ROCKS!!! Eventhough the locked boot loader is the biggest disappointment, the Higher Res Screen doesn't attract everyone, dual-core experience is not great for a lots of users, etc., I love this phone because I have not had a single problem with this phone as far as its hardware is concerned. Yes it does lack the latest and greatest software iteration by Google, yes it does have some flaws with MotoBlur, yes it still is not thoroughly optimized and it does have a locked BootLoader, this phone simply is a beast.
Enjoy!!!
Yea pretty much the Atrix is perfect but I guess I'm not used the screen yet lol. I also love the size of it to be honest 4.3 screen a bit to big for my taste but then again it might be just getting used to it. I will keep using it and see if I get used to it before its time to return it if I don't plan to keep it.
doug0365 said:
Yea pretty much the Atrix is perfect but I guess I'm not used the screen yet lol. I also love the size of it to be honest 4.3 screen a bit to big for my taste but then again it might be just getting used to it. I will keep using it and see if I get used to it before its time to return it if I don't plan to keep it.
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Good thought. When HTC and Motorola initially started with 4" or bigger screens, I was really wondering how would it feel to hold a big slab of hardware in your hand which practically as big as your hand, and now that I have used various Android phones, I feel 4" is the perfect size... IMO...
Well, try this phone if you are not too picky about certain things, remember, as of today, this phone is the beast out there available... Its just a beginning of a new ERA...
Enjoy!!!