Motorola Atrix HD (AT&T)

Motorola's third-generation Atrix HD ($99.99 direct) is a solid smartphone and a significant upgrade from last year's Atrix 2 (4 stars). Sadly, Webtop, Motorola's nifty OS that debuted on the Atrix and let it work with laptop-like peripherals, is dead. But most consumers just want a good smartphone, which the Atrix HD certainly is. It doesn't top the Samsung Galaxy S III ($199.99, 4.5 stars), but at a hundred bucks less, it doesn't have to.

Design, Controls, and Screen
The Atrix HD measures 5.26 by 2.75 by 0.33 inches (HWD) and weighs 4.9 ounces. That depth figure is deceptive; while it's a hundredth of an inch thinner than the Samsung Galaxy S III, there's a considerably thicker portion near the top that houses the camera sensor and flash. Plus, it's two tenths of an ounce heavier, and feels top-heavy when you hold it, whereas the Galaxy S III feels thinner and more balanced. These are minor points; just know that there's more going on here than the numbers claim.

Motorola says the Atrix HD features a "high-tech, invisible nano-coating" that acts as a splash guard for the plastic housing and internal electronics. Our loaner model was in pearl white, with a dark gray, soft touch, textured back panel, and a tapered design from top to bottom; you can also get one that's entirely in dark gray. The look is a little busy, with a black accent stripe around the edges, chrome Volume and Power buttons, and a hinged plastic door that covers the microSD and micro SIM slots.

For the moment, Motorola is throwing in a free vehicle dock, which consists of a three-piece windshield mount and an adhesive disc, should you live in a state like California, where it's illegal to mount anything on the windshield (or if you just prefer it that way).

The 4.5-inch, 1,280-by-720-pixel display looks quite nice, and is a significant jump over the Atrix 2's 4.3-inch, 960-by-540-pixel screen. It doesn't have the deepest blacks of an AMOLED display, but colors are still vibrant, and the pixel density is sharp enough that you can't see jagged lines in fonts. Typing in both portrait and landscape mode was fast and fluid.

Connectivity and Call Quality
The Atrix HD is a quad-band EDGE (850/900/1800/1900 MHz), quad-band WCDMA (850/900/1700/2100 MHz), dual-band HSPA+ 14.4 (850/1900 MHz), and single band LTE (700MHz) device with 802.11a/b/g/n Wi-Fi. Like all AT&T LTE phones, the Atrix HD screamed on our data tests, with download speeds averaging 16 to 19Mbps, and uploads even exceeding that slightly, at 17 to 19Mbps. As we found in our?Fastest Mobile Networks?survey, AT&T LTE can exceed Verizon LTE speeds, but it's not as consistent, and there's not as much coverage nationwide yet.

Call quality was excellent, with a full, warm tone in both directions. Outside on a Manhattan street, my voice was easily understandable, although there was a slight hiss in the background, and you could hear a considerable amount of background noise. I'd still call it a very good sounding phone; only the Samsung Galaxy S III exceeds the Atrix HD's voice quality, thanks to Samsung's new EQ customization feature.

Calls sounded fine through a Jawbone Era Bluetooth headset ($129, 4 stars), and the Atrix HD's voice dialing worked perfectly over Bluetooth. You can send text messages or email messages, check voicemail, or even check things like signal strength and missed calls, all from voice commands through the headset, which is great. The speakerphone was just okay, with a balanced tone but not quite enough volume to use outdoors. The Atrix HD's 1780mAh battery was good for an impressive 9 hours 39 minutes of talk time.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ziffdavis/pcmag/~3/wP3Fn34rY3M/0,2817,2407163,00.asp

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