Atrix or Inspire (dont get mad :-).....)

[gunderscorewil]

My Curve is the pits and ATT has agreed to allow me to early upgrade (after only 10 months) since ive already gone through 3 warranty replacements. So heres my needs/wants (note: im a senior at University):

RECEPTION
Email
Text
Fluid/Fast UI (My Curve gives me an hourglass if it senses me thinking about it)
Phone
Web Browsing (main gripe with the Curve besides trackpad)
Music
Everything Else

*Pretty much in that order*


Im currently leaning towards the Inspire mostly because of Sense (music player, ease of use, the awesome features and the fact that i used to own a Backflip) and the better camera. The speaker problem sort of bothers me tho.

I like the atrix because of the Tegra2, the bigger battery and the speaker. Lowkey, the ffc is a non-issue for me. I am shying from the Atrix because i have no experience with Rooting and I know for a FACT that MotoBlur will last maybe a week before I want to take the Li-Ion Battery out, cut it open and consume the contents.

So your anecdotal experiences and suggestions will (might) help my decision.

 

[roadkizzle]

Just wondering, what are your problems with Motoblur? I have heard there were definitely quite a few problems with the Backflip itself as a phone although I didn't know Android existed when it was actually out and used (which probably made the experience with Motoblur horrible).

My first Android phone has been the Motorola Bravo, and now my wife has that phone and I've gone to the Atrix. I have loved both phones, with some caveats. I do have a twitter account, but I only have it set to update once a day and don't have it synced with Motoblur, because I strictly only use it to keep up with a variety of local business'. I don't have any other social account synced with Motoblur, and only keep my Corporate email and calendar updated.

I personally like the homescreen dock and how the phone and contacts icons are prominent, because the phone needs to be a phone first. I do dislike that I personally the green and blue looks a little tacky on a more mature/darker themed phone.

I know that HTC makes wonderful phones, but personally at the moment, 4.3" screens feel way to big for me to use comfortably with one hand and the battery used in the inspire has much to small of a capacity to keep the phone up and running for the time I need it to.


Edit: If you just dislike the overall user interface that Motoblur uses, then feel free to use any of the number of alternate homescreen launcher replacements, such as Launcher Pro, ADW.Launcher, a 2.3 stock launcher, or Launcher EX. Also, the Atrix is expected to be upgraded to Gingerbread 2.3 by the end of the summer, which should drastically change the feel of the homescreens, including using four app shortcuts on the bottom of the screen, instead of strictly the dailer, app screen, and contacts.

 

[gunderscorewil]

Just wondering, what are your problems with Motoblur? I have heard there were definitely quite a few problems with the Backflip itself as a phone although I didn't know Android existed when it was actually out and used (which probably made the experience with Motoblur horrible).





Edit: If you just dislike the overall user interface that Motoblur uses, then feel free to use any of the number of alternate homescreen launcher replacements, such as Launcher Pro, ADW.Launcher, a 2.3 stock launcher, or Launcher EX. Also, the Atrix is expected to be upgraded to Gingerbread 2.3 by the end of the summer, which should drastically change the feel of the homescreens, including using four app shortcuts on the bottom of the screen, instead of strictly the dailer, app screen, and contacts.

Yea Android was out for about 1.5 years before the Backflip. And yea it was a low-spec phone but MotoBlur only made it worse. It was very buggy and from the reviews ive read/watched it is the same on the Atrix...But you are saying your experience is different, so I will definitely take that into account.



My question on the Launchers is "Do you have to root to use them?" Also, i hope that the 2.3 update will help with the MotoBlur experience but honestly Motorola (esp in the US) has not been historically quick with updates. I mean GB has been out since 2010 and the DX is about the only phone tha currently has it.

Thanks for your reply

 

[roadkizzle]

I'm not denying that Motoblur worsened the problems with the Backflip, it probably did. I've heard that there were some tweaks to the programming by the time the Bravo and Defy came out, and my Bravo was wonderful, with no glitches or lag, although after the 2.2 update to that phone there were more issues.

I will be honest, I have only had the Atrix for a week now, but I have never seen any hiccups in the system, and it's been running as smooth as butter ever since I bought it. But, I will say that I don't have my social networks synced with the phone, because I did not care about that functionality at all to begin with and I hear that most of the problems with Motoblur came from the phone constantly talking with the social networks and updating the phone.

I'm not sure if my experience from this phone is coming from updated Motoblur, or just the power and RAM smooths the interface out, but I am happy with it regardless.

As to your question, you can play around with different launchers at will, and they should all work with your stock phone, with no rooting required at all. I haven't myself, although I probably will root after the 2.3 update, especially if we can get unlockable bootloaders by the end of the year.

Oh, yes the updates come extremely slowly to these phones, but that is par for the course with all OEMs on Android. The only way you will get the updates within any reasonable time frame is if you buy a Nexus device out of contract.

 

[aci78]

or root your phone, download the latest version of android built even BETTER for your device at XDA, then install it. It's not hard.