(AT&T) Galaxy S2 vs Atrix 2 ?

[thistransition]

So if the rumors are right about the Nexus Prime, it won't be coming to AT&T for at least a few months, and I'm in need of a new phone.

Which new phone should I pick up? The Galaxy S2 or the Atrix 2? I realize it's tough to say since the Atrix 2 isn't out yet, but it doesn't seem like the GSII is worth the extra $100. Thoughts?

Specs below.

AT&T Samsung Galaxy S II Specifications

4G

 

[chicknlil]

This won't be much help, but I think it'll come down to your personal preference.

I'd suggest going into the store and comparing the two side-by-side. The GS2 has the Super AMOLED + screen, which some people totally swear by. The Atrix 2 gets rid of the Pentile screen that the original Atrix had, but I'm not sure how that'll compare with the GS2 screen.

 

[BigCiX]

Depending on what phone you have now I'd hold off for the nexus. Me personally I'm giving my Thrill to my son and upgrading his regular phone with the Nexus. I'm tired of waiting on updates. Nexus gets them first!

 

[AhmadCentral]

I wouldn't call this the Atrix 2, It's more like the Atrix S, or Atrix HD or something. Plus it has 8GB memory and a smaller battery at 1750Mah which is kind of dissapointing seeing how the original atrix had the largest battery on any smartphone. Plus the fingerprint scanner has gone.

Don't get me wrong, it's still a great phone, but they really shouldn't call it the atrix 2. It should have just had a new name,

 

[BigCiX]

Right now there's no phone that can compete with the SG2 as far as benchmarks besides the iPhone 4s (I'm guessing). Once ice cream comes out it'll make devices run a bit faster. Like someone mentioned above. Your better off going to the store and messing with them side by side.

 

[asjdwf]

I am in the same boat, kind of. LOL. I have returned my SGS2 on AT&T three times for screen defects and I'm just tired of doing it. Atrix 2 is out today and I 'm wondering why these so called benchmarks are so much better on the Samsung SGS2? When reading about both phones they seem to have exactly the same thing inside.

 

[mrvirginia]

I am in the same boat, kind of. LOL. I have returned my SGS2 on AT&T three times for screen defects and I'm just tired of doing it. Atrix 2 is out today and I 'm wondering why these so called benchmarks are so much better on the Samsung SGS2? When reading about both phones they seem to have exactly the same thing inside.

benchmarks are better on the SGS2 for several reasons:

1. 1.2Ghz dual in the SGS2 versus 1Ghz dual in the Moto Atrix 2
2. SGS2 has a 400x800 res versus the 540x960 in Moto Atrix 2 (highger res means the GPU is working harder to pump more out)
3. not only are the CPU's at different clocks, but they're different SoC's

and unless the Nexus Prime is running a newer Exynos clocked a little higher, you can be sure that the SGS2 will beat that in benchmarks as well. with that one you'll have a 720x1280 res which will make the SoC work even more.

 

[asjdwf]

So I got the ATRIX 2. Must say I'm pretty impressed with the snappiness of the phone so far. It seems to fit the hand a lot better than the sgs2 at least to me. No lag at all. I can't tell any differences between sgs2 and this phone speed wise.

 

[BigCiX]

So I got the ATRIX 2. Must say I'm pretty impressed with the snappiness of the phone so far. It seems to fit the hand a lot better than the sgs2 at least to me. No lag at all. I can't tell any differences between sgs2 and this phone speed wise.

when did the atrix 2 come out?

 

[Hydrated]

when did the atrix 2 come out?

Today. Got one.

 

[thistransition]

Is it true that SGSII has LTE but the Atrix 2 doesn't?

 

[kilasix9]

Is it true that SGSII has LTE but the Atrix 2 doesn't?

False. Neither have LTE technology.

 

[BigCiX]

Even if it was LTE......at&t's LTE is limited to about five cities right now. Atlanta, Chicago, Dallas, Houston and San Antonio.

 

[iliketech]

Well,
I've got the sgs2 and want to get an Atrix2 to compare them not in the store but at home and determine which one i like. I did look at them in the store and the Atrix has a way brighter screen. Although it has moboblur which i felt got in the way... I do like the samsung gs2 but it feels boxy in my hand and the only reason right now would be feel in my hand and assuming it would perform just as fast as the Samsung gs2 I think I would like the feel in my hand better...
What about anybody with the Atrix 2 how does it perform...?
This is my first Android phone that I have actually kept longer than one week... I've been using the competition. The Samsung Galaxy S2 is a nice phone and very responsive with NO lag whatsoever. I did have a problem with the Google Navigator app and Not Getting a GPS signal...
I do like it but don't know if I may like the Atrix better...

 

[JaxDomino]

I have both phones right now and the yes the SGII scores better on benchmark tests, the Atrix 2 just FEELS better. Not faster, just better. The A2 is a nice improvement over the Atrix which I also had and my 2 kids have it. The Atrix was the best phone out there until the the GSII, but I think the A2 killed the fingerprint reader because of ICS having face unlock. Just swapping one biometric scanner for another. So the conspiracy theorist and optimist in me thinks the A2 gets the ICS pretty quick. Blur isn't even mentioned on the A2 and it doesn't require you to setup a Blur account. I actually do like the tracking ability of Blur for my kids. Over all the A2 did not lose anything with the "smaller" battery, which is very flexible (physically) for a battery. Never before seen this behavior. The phone feels great in the hand. The SGII is like holding a small text book in your hand. Face-to-face the A2 and the SGII are very similar in size, so it's kind of weird. I guess the round edges help the A2. For $99, you can't find a better phone than the A2, oh I forgot the camera, the A2 has a GREAT camera in video mode and stills. The SGII is no slacker either, but it can't do zooming when recording full HD where the A2 can.

 

[JaxDomino]

Well,
I've got the sgs2 and want to get an Atrix2 to compare them not in the store but at home and determine which one i like. I did look at them in the store and the Atrix has a way brighter screen. Although it has moboblur which i felt got in the way... I do like the samsung gs2 but it feels boxy in my hand and the only reason right now would be feel in my hand and assuming it would perform just as fast as the Samsung gs2 I think I would like the feel in my hand better...
What about anybody with the Atrix 2 how does it perform...?
This is my first Android phone that I have actually kept longer than one week... I've been using the competition. The Samsung Galaxy S2 is a nice phone and very responsive with NO lag whatsoever. I did have a problem with the Google Navigator app and Not Getting a GPS signal...
I do like it but don't know if I may like the Atrix better...

Not sure where you are seeing MotoBlur on the Atrix 2 cause the A2 have VERY minimal customizations. There isn't even a way to signup for a Blur account on the phone. Maybe in the Market. The interface looks more like Honeycomb, which is nice since I have the Galaxy Tab 10.1. Also, the GPS just works better on the A2. Samsung always have had issues with GPS. The GSII is a bit better, but it still has issues. I have not seen any GPS issues on the A2. Also, the performance of the A2 is almost the same as the SGII, I think the A2 implements Android better and that makes it FEEL better than the Apple-esque SGII and Touchwiz.

 

[thistransition]

I guess the moral of the story is get the Atrix 2 if you really need a new phone ($49.99 at Best Buy/price match with AT&T) or wait until the HTC Holiday or other LTE device is released. Either way you can't really go wrong.

 

[916x10]

I'm gonna hit up Best Buy this evening and check the A2 out. We're needing to add a line to our family plan for my daughter so if it works out I think I'll let her take over my X10 and I'll get the A2 from AT&T w/BB price match. Although there is no root for it just yet, I like that they allow most of the stock apps to be removed natively. I hope root is on it's way though cause I have a feeling i'm gonna miss some stuff by not having root. But aside from having a stock phone, i'm imagining it's gonna be a nice upgrade from a device with a 4" display, single core cpu, with just 384mb ram to one with a 4.3" qHD display, dual core cpu, 1gb ram, better speaker and highly likely upgrade to ICS coming down the pipe. And all this for just $49.99, if I like what I see/feel at Best Buy tonight i'm gonna be getting it.

 

[shutterbug22]

I've been comparing the SGS2 to the Atrix 2 and trying to decide which way to go. I noticed that the Atrix 2 has 5 available 'home pages' vs. the GS2's 7. Does anyone know if there is a way to add more home pages?

Thanks!

 

[Beep13]

I have been debating for a week whether to get the Atrix 2 or the SG2.
After having used both phones I would honestly pick the Atrix 2 hands down. Friday I decided to bite the bullet and purchase the Atrix 2 and after using it all weekend couldn't be happier with my decision.
Here are a few points for the Atrix 2.

1. Build. Just the pure feel of the Atrix 2 is nicer.
The sg2 never felt very solid to me. It just seems too cheap plastic feeling. Also, if you twist the phone from corner to corner (lightly) you can feel a lot of play in the sg2 whereas the Atrix 2 feels rock solid.
I personaly just like having a phone that feels like its built rugged.

The Atrix 2 is also alot more comfortable to hold in the hand and operate.
As mentioned before, single handed operations are much easier on this phone.

The SG2 just feels like a big soft brick to me.

2. Screen. While the sg2 arguably has a more superior screen, I am not a fan of the high gloss. There was a lot of glare using this phone in daylight, and it was also not very bright. THe Atrix 2 had little glare and was extremely bright. Also, the Atrix2 has a much better resolution than the SG2. There have also been a lot of complaints and returns of the SG2 based on screen issues.

3. Speed. Although the SG2 apparently has better benchmarks, I did not notice any speed difference between the two devices. The Atrix 2 really seems to fly when loading apps, switching apps ectd. When i finally asked an ATT rep why the Atrix 2 seemed just as fast, he claimed that SG2 does not utilize dual channel processing where the Atrix 2 does. So even though the processor is a little weaker on the Atrix 2, it is optimized by the dual channel processing. Now whether or not this is true i have yet to research. What I can tell you is that I thought the SG2 was going to outperform the Atrix 2 but I could not notice any difference in speed. To me the Atrix 2 seemed to be just as fast if not more responsive than the sg2, although this could just be because I feel the UI is much better on motorola than samsung.

4. UI. I felt the overall UI and operator experience was much nicer on the Atrix 2. The SG2 wasn't bad, but the Atrix 2 just seems quite a bit smoother. (keep in mind the UI is new, not the old "blur")

5. Battery. The Atrix 2 has a larger capacity battery than the SG2. I haven't compared the battery usage on both devices but what I can tell you is that the Atrix 2 seems to go a long way with heavy use. ATT also offers an extended battery (double the battery life) for $50. This comes with a new battery door but only adds a few mm to the thickness of the phone.
Not a bad option if battery life is a major concern.

6. Price. Lets be honest, Atrix 2 is 50% of the price as SG2. So even if the SG2 is a little bit faster and the screen slightly better (though not in my opinion), is it worth double the pricetag? No to me.


Overall the Atrix 2 seems like it is better built. The battery life is also great. The UI is nice and smooth. So far the atrix 2 has handled anything i throw at it.

I have no regrets with my decision and would probably still opt to buy the Atrix 2 even if both phones were the same price. Yeah, I said it.
Either way at $99 the Atrix 2 is a steal and one hell of a phone.

 

[Marbus]

When the iPhone 4 came out I finally gave up my BB after many years and got one... it was nice, it worked and was a lot better, for work and play, than my BB.

Then last Christmas I got my sister a phone and picked up an S1 Fascinate, playing with it before wrapping it I was impressed... Then one of my sons wanted a phone for his birthday in Aug, the Atrix - which arguably had issues initially, now had Gingerbread and steller reviews and was only $49 at Best Buy. My son didn't really want an iPhone so I grabbed one. Setting it up I was more impressed...

Waiting on the iPhone 4S / 5 I was excited, running exchange, bluetooth, wi-fi etc.. my battery was usually mush by 3:00, while the screen was nice after squinting my eyes would be killing me... high hopes for a decently clocked dual core A5, at least a gig of memory and maybe a 4.3 to 4.5" screen with a giant battery that would cover me until LTE came out!

Then they announced the specs... meh... basically my same 4 but with Siri. Java beanchmarks were close to the same and while it supposedly had a slightly larger battery I knew it wouldn't make a difference with the dual core processor. A couple of days later AT&T announced the Atrix2.

On iPhone Friday I went to Best Buy to see how my friend's first launch as Mgr went (it went well) and to see what the 4s was like... as expceted it was just meh... We talked about trying to decided on that or the GS2 when I mentioned the Atrix 2, they had some already but couldn't sell until Sunday. I got to take a peak though and the phone just felt right... the screen size was perfect, looked good etc... was it time to move to Android?

I thought about it the next 2 days and went back on Monday to pick one up... for $49 no less. Compared side by side with the GS2 I thought the screen was clearer, were the blacks as black? No but they were close and overall the screen just seemed brighter. The speed was on par or actually faster in some ways than the GS2, cameras were similar, walked around the store with GPS on which worked well so I made the jump.

One week later I joined the site to post this and state how much I love my phone. While the battery may be slightly smaller than the Atrix my son has, I can go longer on it than I could on my iPhone 4 and I believe longer than the Atrix as well (haven't tested because he plays games all the time on his). The motoblur is almost non existant, it was greatly reduced by the Gingerbread update on the Atrix but all but gone now.

Another plus? You can delete pretty much all the AT&T bloatware on the phone. Unlike other phones it deletes with ease, everything gone on mine except for billpay app. Speed wise seems as fast and the iphone 4 running iOS 5 and the .2 GHZ between the GS2 and Atrix 2 didn't make a difference when I tested in the store. Bluetooth works great, GPS is great, always right on target and I'm getting above 14Mbps in non congested areas...

It also doesn't get as hot as the original Atrix, speed seems a little faster but that may be because of the motoblur and bloatcode. Camera is good... images seems to turn out better on the Apple when movement is there but if you can hold it still the color and sautration is amazing on Atrix 2 and the HD video works well too.

Overall I'm very excited and loving my phone and loving the jump to Android. I have all my apps and some actually seem to work better on the Atrix 2 than the iPhone. Stopped to look for a case at the AT&T store at lunch and all they had were Defenders and were low on phones as well. Best Buys in the area seem to all be sold out of the phones and I know Amazon online is backordered for like 3 weeks now... I spent $50 for a new phone that, IMHO, is far superior than my iPhone and paid $150 less than what I would have for the iphone or the GS2. That's a win for me. My VZ friends were very jealous as LTE hasn't rolled out in the area (soon) so my AT&T was faster than their bionics and thunderbolts. As the word gets out I believe at this price point this phone is a steal, every other phone that is even close in specs and user experience is $100 to $150 more.

Can't wait to see ICS on it... hopefually in a few months!

Marb

 

[captrage]

I've been comparing the SGS2 to the Atrix 2 and trying to decide which way to go. I noticed that the Atrix 2 has 5 available 'home pages' vs. the GS2's 7. Does anyone know if there is a way to add more home pages?

Thanks!

Easy, just change the launcher. There are several to choose from on the market, and they are very customizable.

 

[thistransition]

Note that the LTE Galaxy S II has come out (known as Skyrocket), and another LTE-capable phone (HTC Vivid) are now available! Atrix 2 still seems to be a good cheaper option though.

 

[tylerdurdin]

When the iPhone 4 came out I finally gave up my BB after many years and got one... it was nice, it worked and was a lot better, for work and play, than my BB.

Then last Christmas I got my sister a phone and picked up an S1 Fascinate, playing with it before wrapping it I was impressed... Then one of my sons wanted a phone for his birthday in Aug, the Atrix - which arguably had issues initially, now had Gingerbread and steller reviews and was only $49 at Best Buy. My son didn't really want an iPhone so I grabbed one. Setting it up I was more impressed...

Waiting on the iPhone 4S / 5 I was excited, running exchange, bluetooth, wi-fi etc.. my battery was usually mush by 3:00, while the screen was nice after squinting my eyes would be killing me... high hopes for a decently clocked dual core A5, at least a gig of memory and maybe a 4.3 to 4.5" screen with a giant battery that would cover me until LTE came out!

Then they announced the specs... meh... basically my same 4 but with Siri. Java beanchmarks were close to the same and while it supposedly had a slightly larger battery I knew it wouldn't make a difference with the dual core processor. A couple of days later AT&T announced the Atrix2.

On iPhone Friday I went to Best Buy to see how my friend's first launch as Mgr went (it went well) and to see what the 4s was like... as expceted it was just meh... We talked about trying to decided on that or the GS2 when I mentioned the Atrix 2, they had some already but couldn't sell until Sunday. I got to take a peak though and the phone just felt right... the screen size was perfect, looked good etc... was it time to move to Android?

I thought about it the next 2 days and went back on Monday to pick one up... for $49 no less. Compared side by side with the GS2 I thought the screen was clearer, were the blacks as black? No but they were close and overall the screen just seemed brighter. The speed was on par or actually faster in some ways than the GS2, cameras were similar, walked around the store with GPS on which worked well so I made the jump.

One week later I joined the site to post this and state how much I love my phone. While the battery may be slightly smaller than the Atrix my son has, I can go longer on it than I could on my iPhone 4 and I believe longer than the Atrix as well (haven't tested because he plays games all the time on his). The motoblur is almost non existant, it was greatly reduced by the Gingerbread update on the Atrix but all but gone now.

Another plus? You can delete pretty much all the AT&T bloatware on the phone. Unlike other phones it deletes with ease, everything gone on mine except for billpay app. Speed wise seems as fast and the iphone 4 running iOS 5 and the .2 GHZ between the GS2 and Atrix 2 didn't make a difference when I tested in the store. Bluetooth works great, GPS is great, always right on target and I'm getting above 14Mbps in non congested areas...

It also doesn't get as hot as the original Atrix, speed seems a little faster but that may be because of the motoblur and bloatcode. Camera is good... images seems to turn out better on the Apple when movement is there but if you can hold it still the color and sautration is amazing on Atrix 2 and the HD video works well too.

Overall I'm very excited and loving my phone and loving the jump to Android. I have all my apps and some actually seem to work better on the Atrix 2 than the iPhone. Stopped to look for a case at the AT&T store at lunch and all they had were Defenders and were low on phones as well. Best Buys in the area seem to all be sold out of the phones and I know Amazon online is backordered for like 3 weeks now... I spent $50 for a new phone that, IMHO, is far superior than my iPhone and paid $150 less than what I would have for the iphone or the GS2. That's a win for me. My VZ friends were very jealous as LTE hasn't rolled out in the area (soon) so my AT&T was faster than their bionics and thunderbolts. As the word gets out I believe at this price point this phone is a steal, every other phone that is even close in specs and user experience is $100 to $150 more.

Can't wait to see ICS on it... hopefually in a few months!

Marb

Although this is by far the most fair review I have read about these two phone I have to heavily disagree with the build quality first....This is a typical Motorola device. Secondly the video playback from any source is not as sharp or precise as the SGS2. Third I can not look past the fact that Motorola continues to lock down their phone like a Apple product. This is a huge deal breaker for ME...I know some people do not care about this aspect, but it just kills me. Agree 100% though that bang for the buck its a pretty nice phone but I definitely could not exchange my SGS for it.

 

[n1tr0]

Note that the LTE Galaxy S II has come out (known as Skyrocket), and another LTE-capable phone (HTC Vivid) are now available! Atrix 2 still seems to be a good cheaper option though.

It's just the T-mobile version and there's only a few cities that have LTE coverage.. and it doesn't drop until Sunday. The 1.5ghz processor in it isn't the same type of processor that's in the 1.2, so they clock it up to get similar performance. I was really set on getting the SG S2, but the battery performance is horrible and when I got into the store the back panel of their demo unit was falling off and the thing just felt incredibly cheap. Using the two phones side by side I couldn't 'feel' any speed difference and both cameras seemed to take decent pictures. I really like that (whenever it's back in stock) the Atrix 2 has an oem extended battery option (and better battery life to start with).
Seems to be a great phone so far and it's 1000x better then the iphone 3gs that I traded in.