The Motorola Atrix Hd is the follow-up to terminal year'southward Atrix 4G and Atrix 2 smartphones for AT&T. This year, the Atrix gains a much improved brandish, a faster processor, and better build over the older phones.

Simply the 2022 smartphone market place is very different from 2022'southward, and the Atrix HD has some seriously stiff competition in AT&T'south smartphone lineup with the Samsung Galaxy S III and the HTC I X. The Atrix Hard disk drive has almost of the specs to match the top tier Android smartphones, only does it put them together well enough to be a real competitor?

The answer to that question is a scrap of yes and a flake of no. The Atrix HD excels in certain areas, but doesn't quite hit the mark in others. Fortunately, its $99 price tag makes information technology a great value, and information technology is 1 to be considered for those who don't want to beat out upwards of $200 on a new smartphone.

Hardware

At offset glance, the Motorola Atrix HD looks similar it fell from the aforementioned tree that the Motorola Droid Razr and Droid Razr MAXX came from. The design of the phone is very similar to Motorola's Verizon flagships, but the corners have been rounded a bit and the overall look of the Atrix HD is a bit softer than that of the DROID RAZRs. Fortunately, Motorola'southward hallmark solid build quality is present and accounted for here, and the Atrix HD is certainly a well-congenital device. The seams are all very tight, and though the phone is primarily plastic, the plastics used feature a soft finish, equally opposed to the very glossy terminate that Samsung prefers for its smartphones. At 140g (4.9oz), the Atrix Hard disk isn't the lightest telephone on the market place, and that certainly helps with its solid feel.

The front of the telephone features a new 4.five-inch Hard disk ColorBoost TFT LCD display with 720 x 1280 pixels of resolution. This new display features an RGB stripe pixel layout and a pixel density of 330 PPI, besting the pixel density of almost all of the smartphones on the market today. The result of this is that images and text are very well-baked, and it is all but impossible to come across individual pixels with the naked heart.

The display itself is brilliant, and colors are punchy, if perhaps a fleck over saturated. Viewing angles are excellent, and the ColorBoost screen is usable outdoors in direct sunlight, only it's not quite every bit good every bit Nokia'due south ClearBlack displays, which set the bar for outdoor visibility.

In that location is a big black border that surrounds the screen, and it makes the Atrix Hard disk drive experience like its a fleck wider than it needs to be. At 69.9mm (two.75in), the Atrix Hard disk is nearly equally wide as the Samsung Galaxy S III, which offers a larger 4.8-inch brandish. The edge surrounding the screen on the Atrix is near twice as wide as that found on the Samsung, and it really feels like Motorola could have used a smaller border to increase one-handed usability while still keeping the four.five-inch display.

Above the screen is a well-nigh hidden multi-colour LED notification light next to a rather small earpiece. Next to that is a i megapixel forepart-facing photographic camera. The but affair beneath the brandish is a silk-screened AT&T logo, as the Atrix HD does non have any capacitive or concrete buttons on its front.

Like the RAZR line of smartphones from Motorola, the Atrix Hard disk drive is appreciably thin at simply 8.4mm (0.33in) thick. At that place is a thicker burl towards the top of the phone that houses the camera and external speaker, likewise as provides room for the 3.5mm headphone jack, micro-USB port, and micro-HDMI port. The right side of the phone is abode to a volume rocker and power/slumber/unlock key, both of which were clicky and responsive on my review unit. On the left you will find a flap that hides the micro-SIM and microSD card slots. This flap is really the simply part of the Atrix HD that I didn't similar, as it felt a bit weak. Fortunately, it's non something that almost users will accept to bother with very often.

The back of the Atrix Hard disk drive features a Kevlar fiber panel that provides strength and rigidity and only feels keen in the manus. The panel has a soft-affect terminate with a simulated carbon fiber weave, which is much better than the glossy plastics used on other smartphones. Motorola also notes that the Atrix Hard disk sports a h2o-repellent nano-coating, and so information technology can withstand the occasional splash from a liquid with no ill effects. The Atrix Hd is sealed all around, so users will non be able to admission or bandy out the 1780mAh bombardment that is inside.

Overall, the Atrix Hard disk drive offers a level of build and display quality that yous don't normally see in Android devices at this price point. The design may exist a bit uninspired, but it'southward inoffensive and generally gets the task done.