Motorola Atrix2

Mobile Phone review, Motorola Atrix2

Motorola Atrix2 Review

Hello boys and girls! Today I am going to review the first smartphone that I have ever bought. The Motorola Atrix2.

I got this phone for my birthday about a year and a half ago. It works ok, as the smartphone technology has greatly improved since this model has come out.
For the price of $199 plus a 2 year contract from my local HTC, Horry Telephone Cooperative.

They utilize the AT&T Network which is at best, patchy! I live in a semi rural setting and the signal is intermittent at best. One second service is good, you do not move at all and then suddenly out of the blue bam, no service. But good news is wait a minute and service is back again. So yea the AT&T network pretty much stinks in my opinion. But hey its what I got! Works Ok for me.

Enough about the network. Now to the mobile device, or phone whatever you want to call it.

The Good

• Big 3.75" screen. When I first got this mobile phone and showed it to my friends who own iPhone, they were amazed at how big the screen was. Definitely a plus. Good color and pics look vivid. Video playback is good and clear, but sometimes laggy and choppy. But for a basic smart phone it gets the job done.
• Size is good also just over 5" in length and 1/2" wide is just enough to fit in your pocket without being too bulky. 
• Dual Core Processor, hey 2 is better then one right? The Android platform which is descent and somewhat user friendly. Although from time to time it is slower as the phone gets older. Make sure there are not too many processes running in the background, or the processor will get laggy. You can close processes running in the background from the settings menu.
• 8mp camera with 1080p HD video recording is good for a phone. I remember buying a 5mp camera just years ago and that was good quality. 
• The actual phone voice quality is not too shabby either. Motorola has been around for years and prizes themselves on voice connectivity. But who really talks on the phone now anyways? Don't we usually just text each other.
• On board storage is 8gb with an upgradeable to 32gb with micro sd card. That's alot of pics, video, and music.
• Music playback is good as well. Has on board equalizer and bass boost. I use this phone as my main mp3 player when I want to use headphones for working out or just washing the car. I can create playlists and download music or transfer from my PC. Sounds quality is great with my Sennheiser MX 270 ear bud headphones (we will cover these headphones review later).
• Has a nice USB cord and charger with a thick rugged cable that won't break on you.

The Bad

• Texting at times can be slow. It takes a while for the text program to load and send from the home screen. The keyboard is very small and has swype capabilities. It also has text voice recognition witch allows hands free texting. I like this feature although I have said one thing and it types another. If you accidentally send something that you didn't want to say and it sends the wrong message... it can be very embarrassing.
• Lots of application errors. I can't tell you how many times playing angry birds or another game that the phone has stopped working or forced close the application I was running because of programming errors. Very frustrating indeed. 
• Camera takes a long time to load. Ever wanted a really fast pic taken of your spouse doing something crazy? Well make sure you open your camera about 20 seconds before hand or you will lose the shot.
• Battery life is not what it once was when it was new. I only get about 6-8 hours tops on a full charge of average usage, before I get the dreaded red dead battery symbol. I know it depends on usage but still not too shabby for a year and a half old battery. 
• Cheap plastic, but what isn't made of plastic now?
• Purchased the Otterbox for protection when I got this phone. It protected the phone well from drops, however it is so big, bulky, and heavy. I ended up taking off the Otterbox in lieu of a lightweight silicone sleeve from cellphoneshop.net. I was getting too much water underneath the Otterbox cover while wearing it working out from the dripping sweat down here in the South Carolina humid summers. I find the sleeve does just fine. And protects the phone too I have dropped it before and no breakage! Just don't smash the darn thing.

Overall

The Motorola Atrix2 is not a bad entry level smartphone if you can get one dirt cheap. If you pay more then $50 for it now a days I say go for a better brand like Samsung or HTC for only a few dollars more. But for an entry level smartphone its not too shabby. 

Happy smartphoning? How did we ever live without them?

The GURU!

All images are copyrights of their respective owners.