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Going to the Atrix 4g training 2/2/2011!!

I have two questions that are audio related and one hardware.


  • Does the Atrix have SRS WOW, Dolby audio, or something similar available
  • Attaching to an aftermarket car unit via USB will I be able to play music off of the Atrix
  • How powerful is the antenna compared to other android smartphones, basically how is the signal strength.

I currently have a captivate and my car unit cannot read any music off of it, unless I use bluetooth. I have read that some android phones can connect to my car unit via usb just fine. I have a Pioneer Avic x920bt, if specifics are helpful.

I live in a moderate coverage area, AT&T is only provider that has any coverage where I live, and my captivate gets 1 bar at my house. Should I expect the same with an Atrix? My guess would be yes, but fingers are crossed.

Still going to pick up an Atrix either way, but these would be big pluses for me. Thank you for your help in acquiring any information that you are able to.
 
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Ok so I have some time to kill now so here we go (pictures will be posted when I get home) Some of the stuff might be stuff we already know but was news to me to bare with me:


First off,

The battery life is impressive. The rep played 1080p trailers through hmdi out (not the dock, the actual port on the phone) and downloaded apps, showed up a ton of stuff, and after an hour of use the phone was still at full charge which is a good sign. He uses the phone as a personal phone and said he makes it through an entire day of heavy use (he hasnt gotten to low battery yet) (this is also partly because of the laptop dock but we will talk about that in a little bit)

You guys will be happy to hear that while in the dock or in webtop mode, the phone did not heat up at all which I think was something some people were worried about.

Qik is pre installed and will be the primary video chat app however Tango and Fring were tested and work well with the front facing camera.

The screen is an interesting one ill tell you that. The colors were accurate and text was sharp but the biggest thing was the brightness! It was extremely bright. I feel like its a good mix between the retina display and the Super amoled. While it does not have the pixel density the retina display has, or the color saturation that the Super Amoled has, it finds its place right in between with a high resolution and above average brightness.

(sorry if it sounds like im jumping around im going off the list of notes i wrote)

There will be a wireless keyboard available aside from the laptop dock and its really nice! i felt it was on par with the mac book style keyboards and it also has all the buttons you would need to control media on the phone (volume, play etc)

Webtop mode will feature not just internet apps, but cloud based computing. You can upload stuff to your motoblur account and access them from the cloud anywhere you are which i thought was a pretty cool feature. From the rep told me, there might be a special SDK released to develop apps from webtop, but i feel like cloud/web browser computing is where it will remain.

The fingerprint reader worked very well. It was quick, almost instant, and accurate. Everytime i tried to unlock the phone, it said finger not recognized but every time the rep swiped it, it unlocked instantly, no lag. And for extra security, you can still have a password or unlock pattern in addition to the finger print reader.

the only gripe i have with the reader/unlock button is that it was kind of awkward to use due to its location and shape, but i got used to it pretty quickly.

The phone will be running moto blur 1.5, and if you want to use another launcher, the motoblur apps will not work quite right.

HDMI and Dock out were fast. They loaded and played content instantly with no lag, no heating, no hick ups.

The camera quality is good. Pictures looked great on the TV he was connect to and showed clear vivid detail with average to good color representation.

HSPA + in our area was good, although he did say that it isnt fully launched in the bay area yet so speeds were hindered. With 2-3 bars/5 of service, we were getting 3-4 mb/s down which i feel is good enough, but the rep said it will go up in the next coming weeks.

Hulu was blocked on both the phone and webtop mode, didnt get a chance to try netflix.

Qhd screen has 16:9 aspect ratio and is 35% more battery efficient than a Super Amoled.

Rated talk time: 9 hours

Laptop dock lasts for about 6 hours with constant media playing.

Screen is gorilla glass

It took 15 sec from cold boot for the webtop mode to launch on the laptop dock, and was nearly instant to load after that .

There was no sign of lag in webtop mode with 4 windows open while streaming flash based ESPN content.

The laptop dock is extremely sturdy and is all metal. It feels like a real quality item. though the viewing angles on it were not impressive at all. It does come with decent speakers built in though!~

I asked the rep to compare it to the Bionic. He said its a different phone even though people think its in the same family. He said that the Atrix can do webtop mode because of AT&T's gsm network. (voice and data at the same time). The bionic will not have motoblur though.

The speaker was clear, but the volume was average. He played some music through it and while we could hear it with no distort at full volume, i feel like it could use a volume hack.

Side loading is blocked, but the rep would not comment on the bootloader (sorry hackers)

The phone did not stutter. I can describe the experience as extremely snappy. I would have liked to see some nice subtle transition effects to really demo the snappiness and smoothness but its nothing launcher pro cant take care of.

unfortunately I couldnt try out phone calls so i dont know what the call quality is like.

Anyways, thats about it...ill have some blurry ninja pictures for you guys tonight when i get to my computer.


but to sum it up:
motorola will be getting a lot of my money!


if i missed one of your questions let me know, i might have forgotten to write the answer!

EDIT: about the release date:

So the rep wouldnt comment about the release date saying he still hasnt been given a concrete date but has an idea but he wouldnt share. From what it sounds like, the 14th still is a good day to expect it, but it definitely looks like a febuary launch because it looks like he was using a final release model. but there is no date for sure yet!!!!!!! so everything is still speculation!!
 
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The phone will be running moto blur 1.5, and if you want to use another launcher, the motoblur apps will not work quite right.

...

I would have liked to see some nice subtle transition effects to really demo the snappiness and smoothness but its nothing launcher pro cant take care of.


Just got in from my run, and get this terrific post! Woot!


The two items I quoted jumped out at me. Are you saying running a 3rd party launcher is sketchy (since you mentioned LP would fix up the UI), or that the Motoblur Widgets won't run (or run correctly) under a 3rd party. If it's the latter, that's the same thing as the Captivate/TW, and no loss :)
 
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Just got in from my run, and get this terrific post! Woot!


The two items I quoted jumped out at me. Are you saying running a 3rd party launcher is sketchy (since you mentioned LP would fix up the UI), or that the Motoblur Widgets won't run (or run correctly) under a 3rd party. If it's the latter, that's the same thing as the Captivate/TW, and no loss :)

there is nothing with the UI itself, it is very fast (especially for moto blur) but i was pointing out that it could use a little spicing up with effects such as senses where it looks like you over shoot a bit each screen transition (if that makes sense)

If you use launcher pro, the moto blur widgets might not work correctly is what i was saying (the latter)
 
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Thanks for all the info. Sucks about sideloading being blocked but I don't think anyone really thought it wouldn't be. Besides root and the sideload wonder machine will fix that. It sounds like the phone may be able to live up to all the hype.

there are always ways around side loading so its not that bad...i actually prefer it as an employee because im sure people at verizon get a ton of customers who install stuff that ruins their phones from third party vendors. Smart people like you, me, and the androidforums/XDA can easily get around it
 
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Hey guys,

My regional stopped by the store today and told me some really good things:

The atrix 4g will be released the 14th of febuary (no pricing yet)
The inspire will also be released on the 14th for $99 w/2 year up/acto

this goes pretty well with all the rumors running around

anyways, Ill keep your questions in mind when I go to the training...you guys gave me a lot of good stuff to look for that i didnt even think of!

Seriously?!

Like, you are 100% sure?!

I don't mean to doubt you, I'm just so excited! :D
 
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So taking everything into account. After getting to see the phone in action did it increase or decrease your excitement level for the phone?

In terms of build quality, the phone is solid but plastic. It feels good but metal would have been great though. Ill probably otter box mine anyways.

As for excitement, im pretty excited about the phone. I feel like the accessoires make the phone and for me its a closr tie between the inspire and atrix and if the atrix comes out soon ill probably get the inspire, try it, and return it for the atrix unless the inspire wins me over.

Onnce again


I whore myself out to phones
 
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Thanks for the great info Marc! I am definitely buying one of these the moment they are available. I've been using a defy on the ATT network for the last month, and I could do without the motoblur crap, but I'm sure we'll manage to get around most of the bs they always try to force on us.

The question that is on my mind though is when the heck is powermat (or anyone else) going to have a decent replacement battery/cover/case so we can have a real & useful way to inductively charge our atrix!?!?!? Too bad these things aren't already QI compliant.
 
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What about Build Quality, how is it in person? Have that premeuim quality feel?


its not really a "premium" feel as much as it is a solid feel. I feel like if the back had a more metallic feel, it would feel premium but right now, it kind of feels plasticy. Solid unlike the galaxy s series (they felt a little flimsy to me) but still plastic.
 
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