Atrix Gingerbread review

Hey all!

I've had the Gingerbread running for a day now and I'm ready to make a quick +&- list for the new 2.3.4 Android upgrade.

Nice features:

+I am digging the "all Apps" button, bottom right of the screen, it's handy!
+The improved response time between screen switching is nice.
+New icons are a welcome change.
+New keyboard has vastly improved response and (so-far) more accurate letter choice.

Slight (and not-so-slight) irritants:

-The round settings button from the bottom middle of the home screen is gone, and getting in there is now a two-step process, as I tend to run my handset whithout data or background enabled to conserve both battery life and plan data, this is kind of a pain.
-When entering text my auto punctuate function is not working. I have disabled and rebooted, then re-enabled and rebooted - without change. I hope to find a way to fix this, as instead of punctuating, it's stuffing random "Droid thinks this is the next work you might type" words where I wanted a period. Geez.
-Biggest irritant do far? Android Marketplace! I have always been very conservatve with my data use, so I am usually only surfing the Marketplace for new apps when connected over wifi. Previously I did all my surfing on the browser, as the Marketplace app required background data enabled. The Froyo version prompted me whenever I used the browser if I wanted to use the app to open the content requested,which gave me the option to continue to use the browser, ensuring all my downloaded stuff was queued ONLY via wifi. Now, not so much. I have already hit up the peeps over at the awesome XDA Dev Forums, but since 2.3.4 is still shiny and new, I'm not holding my breath for immeadiate answers.

All things considered, I'm enjoying the new interface. I have noticed it's taking longer to charge, but that's the first time since I upgraded it. In all fairness that battery is freaking massive to start with, so I guess It takes the time it takes.

More on the newness in about a week after I've gotten to spend some quality time with Gingerbread.

I wish!

I am still working on the ultimate game-changing, subversive and disruptive technology idea to brain me in the head, sleepless at 3:27 am, allowing me to afford the lifestyle of buying any new technological goodies that come out, LIKE THIS ONE YOU LUCKY CHUMS AT REGHARDWARE. *ahem*.

Here's hoping I continue to blather loud enough about my complete love of all things tech, and somebody out there decides I'd make a decent reviewer, and sends me a box of techy delights to ooh and ahh over and gush on the internets about!

Atrix Functionality Review

Atrix - as a handset.

Motorola has clamped their own interface onto Android, and the handset does well relatively speaking in the confines of the software limitations.

Notably good: screen resolution and resizing which happens nicely through a "fuzzy" in motion snapping crisply to clear image and text when released, also good: connectivity to HSPA+/WiFi/BT is relatively quick, painless, and sticks when stuck.

Needs improvement: Onboard music application will skip to new tracks randomly at any point during playback. All music is thus far stored in internal memory, as I have not yet been able to locate a nice 32GB MicroSD locally (Though, I have my eye on a few online retailers, yes you ncix and tigerdirect!). Ditching the built-in Android app for Winamp did not fix this issue, even post-update.

Overall, the Atrix responds quickly with the exception of a few kinks that still need ironing out, keyboard sensitivity highest amongst them. Easily navigated GUI, and tight socialmedia integration with MOTOBlur, I am looking forward to the next round of the nitty-gritty of measurable down and up data rates.

Motorola Atrix - A (less-than) Generic Review

After playing the patience game as long as I could, (READ: Apple iPhone became so laggy and non-responsive) I decided I had had enough of being in the walled garden, and made the decision not only to jump handsets again, but this time carriers as well.

Having spent over 10 years with Roger$, I became fed up with their billing pratices, and seemingly constant new fees, adn value-add marketing calls and junk mail, working with many folks there was a generaly good experience, caveat : only if I was fortunate enough to be branched into their local call center, being routed into Quebec, Ontario or points west in the Roger$ support / account management infrastructure was not only a complete waste of my time, but typically ended up with me explaining my reasonable requests to four or five individuals over the phone without resolution, that is if the initial agent did not painc and just hang up, which occurred to me fairly often when trying to have issues resolved by their organization. /end_rant

So after careful research and some inquiries to g33k colleagues and friends, I opted to give Roger$ the boot in favor of BellAliant. I could name all the things that as a long-time Roger$ customer I have been annoyed or inconvienced by with BellAliant, but the simple truth is: I wanted out from under Roger$' thumb and market gouging.

Quite the preamble! On with the review !!!

While perusing what technological goodies were available on the BellAliant menu, I discovered they had announced the Motorola Atrix! I was very excited, as I was sick of the iPhone 3G application issues, lag, and not interested in jailbreaking as it can leave the handest open to exploitation by malicious code. So I asked the dude working and he confiremd the Atrix did feature the spec sheet they were advertising, over 40 Gigabytes of storage(w/MicroSD), dual-core processing, and 1GB of onboard RAM, HDMI out, and a host of other awesomeness, including a fingerprint scanner for locking/unlocking the handset(I have been fascinated by, and a huge fan of biometrics for years since my first ThinkPad featured this nifty invention)!

I made some phone calls, and did the math for what penalties I would incur by leaving Rogers, and even after tallying up the bill, I still decided to make the leap, after all, I have always been a fan of Moto handsets, and was sick of both my iPhone and Rogers, so I cancelled service and signed up for the Motorola Atrix.

IN THE BOX :

Unboxing the Atrix finds a generous helping of goodies for a change from any previous Moto products I've owned in the past: the handset, 3.5mm wired headset w/inline mic, Mini USB to USB cable, USB charging plug, MiniHDMI to HDMI cable.

The Atrix itself is a sleek phone, running Android 2.2.2 since the recent BellAliant network-prompted update package. More to come on the Atrix functionality and applications in the next post in a few hours.

Last note on the intro here: I did buy an OtterBox with the phone. I was hoping iSkin made one, but the nicest I found locally was this one :

I will admit to having been impressed thus far. It's chunky, hard to get in and out of a pants pocket, and rather more stoic than I am used to. The design was obviously to offer maximum protection fpr the handset while trying to minimize the added bulk.

Verdict OtterBox : Does EXACTLY what you expect, is among the best cases I've owned. It's basic black, pro and con there, and it does add to the size of the handset, period.