Hardware

To answer that last question, the answer is simply, yes, it can. It doesn’t necessarily stand alone, but it should make the shortlist for anyone narrowing down what top-of-the-line smartphone to get themselves or their loved one this holiday season. The unibody design that we saw on the One X is the same as what we’re seeing on the One X+. Thanks to the polycarbonate housing, the handset is pretty light and also really thin, and the soft-touch finish allows for a firm grip on the device, but our black version was quite a finger smudge magnet. However, despite the large 4.7-inch Super LCD 2 720p display, the entire device doesn’t feel overwhelming to hold at all, unlike other 4.7-inch handsets that I’ve played around with.

Since it’s a unibody device, there’s not a lot of things that you can take apart easily. There’s no battery cover, which means you can’t replace the battery with a bigger one or use a spare, but that also means it’s a lot sleeker than non-unibody handsets. On the top, there’s a headphone jack along with the ambient noise sensor, with the power button on the right. On the left side, there’s the microUSB port, with the volume rocker sitting on the right side. On the bottom, there’s just the microphone. And finally, on the front, you have the three capacitive soft buttons — Back, Home, and Recent Apps — as well as the typical elongated earpiece that HTC is known for, with a notification light hidden within.

There’s a bit more happening on the back of the One X+, though. The 8MP camera protrudes just a tad from the surface, and there’s a single LED flash to accompany the camera. Also on the back is the microSIM card slot. It’s not necessarily situated on the back of the phone, but it’s also not really situated at the top — it’s mostly located in between on the curve, which is almost an odd place for it, but it actually works. The speaker is also located on the back towards the bottom, as well as the five small gold contacts for docking purposes.

On the inside is where all the real changes occur, though. The HTC One X+ trades in the dual-core Qualcomm S4 Snapdragon processor of the One X for a NVIDIA Tegra 3 chipset that pairs a quad-core ARM Cortex-A9 processor clocked at 1.7GHz with GeForce ULP graphics. The device also comes with 1GB of RAM and a whopping 64GB of internal storage. While there’s no microSD card slot, we think the 64GB of storage is plenty of space for any user.

The 4.7-inch display has a resolution of 1280×720, giving it a pixel density of 312ppi, which pegs it right up against the Samsung Galaxy S III and the LG Optimus G. It’s the same display in the One X, which arguably has one of the best displays on the smartphone market (before the DROID DNA came along). It’s super crisp and clear, and it provides an excellent viewing experience with text and images showing up extremely sharp and bright.

Software

The HTC One X+ runs Android 4.1.1 Jelly Bean right out of the box, with HTC’s Sense 4+ UI running on top. If you’re already familiar with HTC’s user interface, you won’t see many surprises in Sense 4+ other than the new Jelly Bean features like Google Now and Project Butter. Of course, if you’re looking for a device that offers a pure Android experience, you may not like HTC’s excessive skinning, but it adds a lot of nice features that many users will take advantage of. While HTC is sometimes accused of over-skinning, they actually left a couple of Jelly Bean features alone. For instance, they didn’t implement their own speech recognition tool over Google’s own solution. Instead, you’ll be greeted with pure Google Now and Voice Search on the One X+.

A lot of the differences between Sense 4.1 (on the One X) and 4+ are mostly behind the scenes and very subtle. The update claims smoother navigation, improved performance, and better battery life. HTC also seemed to remove shadows and embossments from text and replaced them with sharper effects in order to make text easier to read, although that may just be my mind playing tricks on me, but I did notice that text seemed a little crisper compared to other HTC devices I’ve played around with. Infinite scrolling has made a return as well, after being removed on the One X. This allows you to jump from the furthest left home screen to the furthest right, and vice versa.

As far as a possible update to Android 4.2, we wouldn’t be surprised if the One X+ eventually received it. It’s a new-enough device and a powerhouse of a smartphone for HTC and AT&T to definitely consider giving one of its best handsets an update to the latest Android version. Plus, an update to Android 4.2 would make the handset just that much more appealing to buyers who are wanting a future-proof device.

Benchmarks & Performance

With the HTC One X being an excellent smartphone, we knew going into it that the One X+ would only be an improvement, and that benchmarks would be a little better. However, the benchmarks showed that the One X+ provides quite the performance boost over the One X. In AnTuTu, the One X+ scored just over 16,200, which is right on par with Samsung’s Galaxy S III, but not quite up to snuff with the LG Optimus G or the Nexus 4. Of course, though, the difference is most likely negligible. Compared to the One X, which scores as high as 11,000, the One X+ is certainly quite a bit faster.

In Quadrant, the One X+ scored a 7,400, which is over double of what our scores were with the One X (3,400). It also does better than the Galaxy S III, which scored 6,000 during our testing, and performed just slightly better than the Optimus G. Of course, benchmarks aren’t everything, and what truly matters is if users will be happy with the performance of the phone and its user interface. Thanks to Project Butter that was introduced in Android 4.1 Jelly Bean, the One X+ is both snappy and smooth. Navigating through different screens and switching between apps was really quick. Surprisingly, playing a little bit of Asphalt 7 was a less-than-stellar experience, though — it was really laggy and framerates were disgustingly low. However, Mass Effect: Infiltrator played much smoother and provided better performance all around, which makes us think that Asphalt 7 may be an isolated issue.

Camera

The One X+ has an 8MP rear camera with a 1.6MP front-facing shooter. It’s essentially the same camera found in the One X, but with a slightly improved sensor that’s capable of recording 1080p video at 30fps instead of 24fps in the One X. The front-facing camera has also been upgraded to 1.6MP from the 1.3MP on the One X.

Overall, I really like the camera app’s user interface. It’s really easy to access all of the settings, and there’s even two shutter buttons, one for taking photos and the other for taking videos. This is extremely handy, since there’s no need to have to wait a few seconds in order to switch between the two.

Photo quality varies depending on the situation. With enough lighting, images can appear really crisp and sharp, but low-light conditions offer a different experience. Taking pictures in low light adds a ton of noise, almost to the point where images appear blotchy. Of course, you can manually adjust the ISO in the settings, but lowering it when you want to take a picture of a night scene opens the door for blurry photos, which is arguably worse than just having a lot of noise. Contrast and saturation is a bit too high as well, and sometimes exposure isn’t perfect at times, but with HDR mode turned on, photos get exposed a lot better. However, a lot of users won’t even bother with HDR mode anyway, since it’s a lot slower than just the automatic setting.

As far as different features, there’s Panorama mode and the aforementioned HDR mode, as well as a built-in Slow Motion mode. These aren’t anything new, as we’re already used to seeing these in the HTC One series. There are also a handful of color effects that you can choose from and apply them to photos and videos in real time — sort of like Instagram, but not quite as comprehensive.

As far as video quality goes, it was slightly above average, but it wasn’t without its faults. The increase to 30fps is certainly something that we don’t mind, but the difference from 24fps is negligible. Most videophiles will be able to tell the difference, of course, but casual videographers won’t care too much. Exposure changes going from dimly-lit areas to well-lit areas and vice versa is quick, and continuous autofocus works fairly well too, although there were times when it took a bit of time to refocus.

Battery

The HTC One X+ now comes with a larger 2100mAh battery compared to the One X’s 1800mAh battery. This is always a good thing, of course, but with the internal hardware enhancements, the 300 extra mAhs may have been required rather than just an amenity for picky users. Plus, the unibody design means that you won’t be able crack open the device in order to change out the battery for a spare or larger alternative.

However, we couldn’t find anything to complain about as far as battery life is concerned. HTC has certainly improved on the battery life of devices of yesteryear, and it seems the company is even advocating longer battery life in the software as well, with a permanent and easy-to-get-to “power saver” toggle in the notification tray. I ended up going all day long and well into the evening before I had to plug the One X+ into the wall. This was after I started the day on a full charge and with moderate to heavy usage, such as running benchmarks, playing games, and streaming Netflix at various times throughout the day.

With typical usage, I ended up getting well over a day and a half out of the battery, doing things like checking email, surfing social media, browsing the web, and keeping up with sports scores throughout the day. However, any hardcore gaming for an extended amount of time, as well as GPS navigation will certainly drain the battery faster than a water pipe can drain water, but that’s obviously to be expected, and we would hope that anyone who ended up playing mobile games on the One X+, or even have navigation up for an hour or two at a time would most likely have an outlet or car charger nearby.

Wrap-Up

The design and looks of the One X+ haven’t changed a whole lot since the One X, so if you were hoping for a cosmetic change of some sort with this updated model, you’ll be sorely disappointed. However, the real upgrades are on the inside, and while they may not be extremely significant (think Apple upgrading from 3G to 3GS, or 4 to 4S), they’re compelling enough that we’d easily recommend the One X+ if you don’t already have a HTC One device.

The presence of LTE alone can make this phone a viable competitor against the Nexus 4, even if it is just a slightly faster handset than the One X+. Other devices, like the Galaxy S III and the Optimus G are powerhouses, but if you’re not a big fan of their user interfaces, you wouldn’t be sacrificing a lot performance-wise if you ended up going with the One X+, except maybe the removable battery if that’s a concern for you. Other than the company’s flagship DROID DNA, the One X+ is certainly one of HTC’s best devices on the market right now.

Hardware

The One X is a big device, there’s no escaping it. Still, at 134.36 x 69.9 x 8.9 mm and 130g it’s surprisingly lightweight considering the fact you get a 4.7-inch 1280 x 720 display. Build quality of the polycarbonate chassis feels slightly cheaper than the metal-bodied Sensation-series devices of last year, but the upshot is a more pocket-friendly device. It’s creak- and flex-free, too, though the downside to that is the non-user-accessible battery. Beyond a microSIM slot – complete with an HTC branded tray-opening pin, no less – the casing is a solid lump.

HTC has used a Super LCD panel on the One X, and it’s an excellent screen. Bright and crisp, with great viewing angles and escaping the sometimes over-saturated colors you find on AMOLED screens, it floats nicely in the inset Gorilla Glass panel. Our main complaint is the banding visible on graduated graphics, noticeable in Android’s many screens with shades of grey. The curved glass edges are reminiscent of Nokia’s Lumia 800, too, catching the light and leaving the handset feeling more organic and tactile.

HTC One X video review:

The polycarbonate itself – available in black or white – is bowed in cross-section though the glass itself is flat. That gives a little of the Galaxy Nexus’ profile, though it’s a fleeting optical illusion. Also unlike the Nexus are the dedicated buttons beneath the screen, HTC not following Google’s own Ice Cream Sandwich implementation and instead insisting on touch-sensitive back, home and app-switcher keys. Despite accommodating them, the HTC is actually roughly the same length – though broader – than the Samsung, thanks to a narrower earpiece section.

Still, there’s enough room for a 1.3-megapixel front-facing camera and a double-row of drilled speaker perforations; behind lurks a notification LED. On the left edge is the microUSB port while the volume rocker is on the right; the power/lock button is on the top edge, and thanks to the length of the One X can be tricky to reach at times. You also get a 3.5mm headphone jack and a row of five pins on the lower right hand corner of the rear panel for use with the optional docking cradle.

The back also plays host to a Beats Audio logo above a small but reasonably loud speaker. The One X has two microphones, one on top and the other on the bottom edge, for noise-reduction during calls and stereo audio recording in video clips. Finally, there’s the camera, an 8-megapixel unit which protrudes slightly in a silver nub, and which packs autofocus, an F2.0 aperture, 28mm lens, a backside-illuminated sensor, “smart” LED flash and support for 1080p HD video recording.

Inside, this European One X packs NVIDIA’s 1.5GHz quadcore Tegra 3 chipset, paired with 1GB of RAM and 32GB of non-expandable storage. It’s an ambitious chip, especially given the non-accessible 1,800 mAh battery, though NVIDIA insists that its 4+1 core design means performance won’t outweigh longevity.

Connectivity includes WiFi a/b/g/n, Bluetooth 4.0 with aptX high-quality audio support, NFC and, in the European model, quadband HSPA/WCDMA (850/900/1900/2100) and quadband GSM?EDGE. The microUSB port supports MHL-HDMI with the appropriate – and not included – adapter – while there’s the usual GPS, gyroscope, digital compass, proximity and ambient light sensors, and G-Sensor.

In the US, the One X will be sold on AT&T as an LTE version, ditching Tegra 3 in favor of a Qualcomm-supplied dualcore chipset but gaining high-speed 4G mobile connectivity.

Software and Performance

The One Series is the first of HTC’s devices to run Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich out of the box, woven through with the latest iteration of Sense. HTC’s custom interface and apps suite had become over-stylized and unnecessarily hefty in its latter versions, and there’s been a conscious move to pare it back to basics which is obvious from the start.

Gone are the eye-catching but GPU-sapping 3D homescreen widgets of last year, replaced with cleaner range more in keeping with Ice Cream Sandwich. You wouldn’t necessarily realize Google’s newest version is under the hood, with the app launcher controls and other buttons redesigned, and even the app-switcher UI has been replaced, a CoverFlow-style carousel of running software instead of the basic thumbnail previews of the Galaxy Nexus.

Some of HTC’s changes work better than Google’s own design decisions. Tapping and holding on the homescreen opens up the widgets panel, a more common-sense placement than as an addendum to the app launcher. Up to nine homescreen panes can be live – shown in a scrolling bar across the top of the widgets organizer – with the various sizes of widget themselves underneath. You can either side-swipe to see each preview, or select from a drop-down list. Tabs along the bottom of the screen offer app icons and shortcuts, the latter for things like Direct Dial contacts, bookmarks, Gmail labels, Dropbox folders – the cloud storage service now being baked into HTC phones – and music playlists. A pinch-gesture shows all of the homescreen panes in thumbnails from the desktop.

The app menu itself is now split into three sections – all apps, those frequently accessed and those downloaded – with search and Play Shop shortcuts at the top. However you can also choose to remove and rearrange these tabs, though even if you get rid of all categories bar “all apps” the same number of icons are shown on-screen.

HTC has a number of new widgets, including radio apps – which require the headphones to be plugged in and act as the antenna – and a selection of useful calculators. They look great, though they’re all oversized: most of the widgets take up half or more of each homescreen pane, when even the calculators could be smaller and still usable.

The new HTC Music hub pulls together shortcuts for all of the audio services – though not the FM radio, at least by default – and more third-party options can be added in. It’s more like a launcher than a true unified media system, however. There’s no way to combine tracks from different services into a single playlist, for instance, so your local tracks will always be separate from your Spotify streaming.

HTC has made a few modifications to the standard browser, adding a Flash Player toggle to the contextual menu alongside the option to force the desktop version of sites. There’s also an incognito tab option next to the new tab button in the window switcher, making it more straightforward to browse without leaving a trail in the history. Panning, scrolling, pinch-zooming and Flash playback is all as smooth as you’d hope from a high-end phone.

NVIDIA’s Tegra 3 is a mainstay in recent Android tablets, but it’s a rarer thing in smartphones. With 4+1 cores – the latter responsible, so NVIDIA says, for low-level tasks that might otherwise demand the main cores light up and consume more power – there’s certainly no shortage of grunt for games and multimedia playback, both being smooth. However, the performance is also noticeable in day to day use, such as in the speed that a heavy Gmail inbox is ready for use. We ran Geekbench Advanced, and the One X scored an admirable 3399.

We’re had our eye on the aptX Bluetooth stereo audio profile for some years now, but it’s only now that the technology is turning up in more consumer hardware. Replacing the default audio codec – in devices that support it – it promises “true hi-fi quality”; in practice, with a set of Sennheiser PX-210 headphones, we found improved bass and treble clarity along with a reduction in background hiss. Of course, if you only have regular Bluetooth accessories then you won’t see the aptX improvement.

Camera

HTC is particularly proud of its camera technology in the One Series; according to the company’s research the camera is the number one deciding factor when a buyer eyes up their next phone. The One X gets an 8-megapixel CMOS with a backside-illuminated (BSI) sensor for improved low-light performance, along with an F2.0 aperture, 28mm lens and a dedicated imaging chip.

As well as 8-megapixel images, the One X can record Full HD 1080p video. In fact, the phone can shoot still images at the same time as recording footage: both the video recording and the shutter release button are on-screen at all times, along with a new effects control with a range of the image tweaking options.

There’s also an LED flash. We’ve generally been unimpressed with LED photo-lights on smartphones – they usually have a narrow sweet-spot outside of which images are either washed out or hopelessly under-illuminated – but HTC’s flash can automatically adjust between multiple levels of brightness according to the proximity of the subject.

The extent to which it works is tricky to see; low-light images are still something of a pot-luck. Supply decent lighting, however, and the One X is capable of some very good stills, with accurate colors rather than the over-exaggerated hues some phones err toward, and crispness in all but the closest macros. Hold down the camera button and the One X automatically goes into continuous shooting mode, capturing up to 99 shots in a row; let go, and you see a timeline of the images so as to pick out the best, optionally deleting the remainder.

1080p Full HD video, meanwhile, shows some jerking in fast pans, though the picture quality itself is relatively strong. We also noticed an occasional jitteriness during the first few seconds of recording at times, though that’s easy enough to trim out of the final clip. A camera button shown during playback allows 1920 x 1080 stills to be grabbed too.

Phone & Battery

The One X is a large phone, and making voice calls can be a little unwieldy; still, the end result is clear audio, thanks to the dual microphones and noise reduction system. The Beats Audio tuning is available to all media apps, not just HTC’s own as in 2011 Beats-branded phones, and does its usual job of boosting bass frequencies.

By opting for a unibody design, HTC has been forced to make the 1,800 mAh battery non-user-accessible. It’s larger than what’s inside many handsets, but with a quadcore processor that seems something of a necessity.

Still, we’ve been pleasantly surprised by the One X’s runtimes. From a full charge, with push email turned on and a mixture of heavy browsing, messaging, Google Maps and some media playback, as well as use of the camera and a few voice calls, the One X lasted nearly 12 hours.

That’s under somewhat extreme conditions; with more typical use, we managed a day before recharging was needed, and that “+1″ Tegra 3 core seemed to justify its inclusion with low standby drain even with push services active. Turn to CPU- and GPU-intensive gaming and it’s possible to drain the One X in relatively short order, unsurprisingly, but it’s good to have the option of either hardcore performance or regular speed.

Wrap-Up

HTC has a lot to prove. Whether it was down to resting on its collective laurels, misreading the market, or simply getting its 2011 product line wrong, last year turned out to be something of an annus horribilis all round. Rivals accelerated past, Apple broadened its iPhone range across price points, and in contrast HTC phones looked derivative and lumpen.

They’re not accusations that could easily be levelled against the HTC One X. The new flagship is distinctively designed and well constructed, has an admirable camera and a solid screen. The Tegra 3 chipset is capable of both speed and endurance depending on what’s demanded of it, particularly gaming and HD video, though the non-expandable storage could prove limiting if your connection isn’t up to streaming from cloud storage such as Dropbox.

Is the One X enough to inure HTC against the incoming threat of the Galaxy S III or the iPhone 5? Both devices are shaping up to be worthy contenders, and HTC’s 2011 range struggled to compete with their predecessors, but the One X is leagues ahead of where the Sensation series left off. It’ll take more than good looks and a fast chip to make the One X an automatic success, but it’s is a capable phone and, perhaps more importantly, a sign that HTC has finally turned a corner in its strategy and products.

Hardware

This device features a 4-inch Super AMOLED display, meaning it’ll be very very bright and has 480 x 800 pixel resolution. This crushes the mid-range competition for brightness and in most cases for resolution as well, but doesn’t quite match the Galaxy S II for either energy efficiency or, again, brightness. Thus is the difference between Super AMOLED and Super AMOLED Plus – though you won’t likely notice it unless you’ve got both phones in your hands at once.

This device has a relatively solid construction throughout, but when you do handle the phone often you’ll notice the slide-out action happening a little TOO readily, the power button’s placement on the side of the device making a strange bit of accidental flipping happening for your humble narrator more than once. Similarly there is a bit of a downfall on the back cover as it’s easily the thinnest piece of plastic Samsung has ever produced for a smartphone. Once it’s on though, you may well forget about how light it is. This device won’t win any awards for perfect toughness, let’s just say that.

The keyboard is OK, certainly not on the same level that HTC has gotten to with such hits as the recent T-Mobile MyTouch 4G Slide, but not quite as tightly knit and difficult to type with as the Motorola DROID 3. It lights up for nighttime typing, and as with all extendable keyboards, the whole unit becomes much easier to play racing games with – racing games such as the greatest racing game available for the mobile platform today, Asphault 6, and what do you know – there it is pre-installed!

Software

While the fact that this device does have a pretty decent display and a keyboard for those of you not quite ready to take the plunge with on-screen keyboards just yet, the real power lies in the fact that this handset employs the NVIDIA Tegra 2 dual-core processor. While this processor may seem less powerful than some of its competitors as it is clocked in at 1GHz per CPU core, you’ll see the results in these benchmarks say otherwise.

The Tegra 2 processor also affords you access to an elite set of games otherwise not available to those without said processor. These games can be found in the NVIDIA Tegra Zone as seen both online and on device as well. This means you’ll be able to play Zen Pinball when its eventually released – yes!

As for the user interface, you’re using one of the newest versions of Samsung’s TouchWiz as introduced back when the Galaxy S II lineup was revealed for the USA. This is Samsung’s finest user interface over Android 2.3.5 Gingerbread yet, and your humble narrator has no complaints. Software is your usual set of Samsung and AT&T added applications as well as the Google standard fare including the Android Market, Gmail, and of course Maps.

Pro-tip: as with essentially all recent Samsung handsets, you can take a screenshot by holding down your home key and tapping your power key. Slick!

Camera

The camera is 8 megapixels powerful and capable of 720p video, and while it doesn’t have the massive amount of editing software built-in like HTC devices do, it does get the job done with some lovely results. Have a peek at a photo or two below and some 720p video as well, and mind the Target:

Battery

This device has a 1650 mAh sized battery inside and hasn’t lasted any less than 10 hours on a single charge for me thus far while using the device for email, web surfing, and playing the occasional game. Playing streaming videos fares not nearly so well at 4-6 hours, but you’ll likely be doing so with your MHL/HDMI converter cord (that you do have to buy separately) to output to your HDTV. That will have you charging at the same time as playing, so no worries!

Wrap-up

This device is surprisingly high quality. There were only two moments when I had my doubts, one of them being when I put the battery in for the first time since the back cover is so very very thin, and the other when I first started to hit the power button and realized I’d have to find a new way to hold the handset because the slide-out keyboard wasn’t held nearly as tight as it was on other recent keyboard phone models from other manufacturers. That said, once I got going, it all went well.

This certainly isn’t the Galaxy S II, but it’s pretty darn nice. Take a look at the brief comparisons in the videos above to other devices on AT&T right this moment, then see if you’ve got any other questions you’d like to ask and ask them in the comments below – we’ll be sure to answer!

We’ll start with my hands-on unboxing video so everyone can get a feel for the ELECTRIFY and what it’s all about, then I’ll get into the nitty gritty here shortly.

Motorola ELECTRIFY hands-on video

Hardware

Outlined nicely in the video above is just about all you need to know about this well rounded smartphone. If you remember the Motorola PHOTON 4G or saw our detailed review then you know everything about the ELECTRIFY already as they are identical twins. The ELECTRIFY is the US Cellular version of the PHOTON 4G — without the WiMAX.

What we have is a powerhouse 4.3″ qHD (Quarter High Defenition) display with a 960 x 540 resolution, Android 2.3.4 Gingerbread and the popular NVIDIA Tegra 2 dual-core 1.0 GHz processor under the hood. Topped off with 1GB of RAM, 16GB internal storage and additional micro-SD slot for extra storage, an 8MP camera on the rear with dual LED flash and VGA front for video conference. The camera is capable of full 720p video capture that can then be streamed via the micro-HDMI out on the side of the phone.

Oh and we can’t forget the sweet sweet kickstand on this bad boy either. I wish all phones had such luxury but sadly they do not.

Now for a quick photo tour of the hardware I’ll start with the left side. We have a nice aluminum bezel around the entire frame of the phone and on the left edge we have the micro-HDMI and micro-USB for charging and that is all. Ports are neatly labeled and they feel very sturdy.

Following the aluminum bezel around to the top we have the power and wake button, then to the right we have the volume up/down rocker and a dedicated camera button. These have a unique and rigid texture to them almost like a file or something. I’m not sure if I like this but you wont have a hard time finding the volume rocker that is for sure. It’s actually a nice touch just different than what we are familiar with.

Around back we have that all important kickstand and our 8 MP camera. The kickstand has the same rigid texture as the other buttons only its not on the part that swings out, just seems backwards to me but this isn’t a con or anything. Just would make more sense because the end that flips out you’d touch, thus needing the texture like the other hardware buttons. Nicely branded with Motorola and US Cellular and covered with a soft coated matte backing that is simple to hold and extremely scratch resistant.

Software

Along with stellar hardware we have Android 2.3.4 Gingerbread and one of the latest builds of Motorola’s Blur UI. Motorola has made a few small changes visually to Gingerbread but nothing too drastic. We have custom icons and widgets, the menu’s look different but everything is basically just themed. Nothing crazy like HTC does and I really like the simple design Motorola’s been using as of late. The software runs quick, fluid and stable thanks to the dual-core processor and while we do have some bloatware most are applications users would install on their own.

Most of the bundled applications can be seen above. We have Amazon App store, Amazon MP3, Asphalt 5 racing, Daily Perks (deals app), quick office and that is about it for pre-installed bloatware. They’ve also added a Mobile TV application and once signed up you can stream movies on the ELECTRIFY and even send it out via the HDMI-out port to your HDTV. Moving around the widgets is a little choppy but that is thanks to Motorola’s UI, other then that everything else was as smooth as butter.

Performance

As usual we’ve ran a few benchmark tests for everyone and just as we expected the ELECTRIFY performs quite well. The dual-core processor and 1GB of RAM keep this device running strong. Below is our Quadrant results as it is most popular. Then followed by Vellamo that tests the overall performance of everything from web browsing, graphic rendering, and even network performance and the device performed decently here. Although it did fall behind the EVO 3D and Sensation 4G they have a slightly faster 1.2 GHz processor than the ELECTRIFY and its NVIDIA Tegra 2. We also quickly ran a few speedtest results and while the ELECTRIFY isn’t running on any sort of 4G or LTE spectrum it received decent speeds across the board. Fairly decent for 3G speeds and about as expected.

Battery life and Camera

Just like the PHOTON 4G the Motorola ELECTRIFY features a modest 1700 mAh battery that should last all day. Whether this is a con or not for users the US Cellular ELECTRIFY doesn’t feature 4G WiMAX but the benefit of that is better battery life than that of the PHOTON. Over the past few days we’ve experienced average battery life that seems to be better than most. I’ve been using the ELECTRIFY today for about 8 hours and between a few phone calls, web browsing and multiple benchmark tests I’m still rocking a little over 60%. It’s safe to say the ELECTRIFY will last most moderate users through an entire day with the possible need for a top off in the evening. If you play Angry Birds all day don’t blame me when your battery lasts 5 hours though.

Camera being 8 MP it takes great photos although low light could use some improvement. The shutter speed and autofocus is much quicker than the Bionic and I found taking a quick photo fairly easy with consistent results. Here are a few below

Wrap-Up

To sum things up nicely this is a great all around smartphone. With enough internal storage to last through most users needs no matter how many apps they install, a powerful dual-core processor, top of the line camera all with a bright and brilliant 4.3″ display the choice is clear for those on US Cellular. While you may be able to debate if this is one of the best phones around compared to the Bionic or the Galaxy S II (and they are pretty comparable) the choice for US Cellular customers are a clear one. The Motorola ELECTRIFY is hands down the best phone on that carrier regarding Android. Being their top of the line offering and being the only newly released phone with Android 2.3 Gingerbread on US Cellular looking over their phone selection this would be my first and only choice. While a few have been updated to Gingerbread, none are as powerful or as nice as the ELECTRIFY.

The Motorola ELECTRIFY will rival almost any phone on the market and has every feature you could possibly want regarding what is currently available other than maybe 4G LTE and a faster processor. Whether you are a first time smartphone buyer or a long time member of US Cellular this is the phone to choose. Yes it could be a little thinner, and the design is unique and different than most devices on the market this is still a tier 1 smartphone that will make any user happy. It is available today starting at just $199 so head on down to your nearest US Cellular store and snag one up, then come back and tell us what you think in the comment section below. Enjoy the remaining photo’s in the gallery below.

To get this review started I’ll post the hands-on and unboxing first so you get a feel for the device then continue with the details and photos below so start right here with the video.

Motorola PHOTON 4G Hands-on and Unbox

Hardware

From first glance there is nothing that really stands out as far as a weakness with this phone. To remind you of all the details it features a dual-core 1 Ghz NVIDIA Tegra 2 CPU, 1GB RAM, comes with 16GB internal storage, VGA front facing camera with a 720p capable 8MP rear camera with dual LED flash, a nifty kickstand for hands-free usage as well as HDMI-out. The display is a 4.3″ qHD high-res 540×960 resolution and looks vivid and crisp. It might not be as thin as the Galaxy S II but it does have 4G WiMax speeds as well to help out when needed.

On the left side you have the micro USB for charging and docking right next to the HDMI-Out while the rest of the goods are on the right side.

The PHOTON has a dedicated camera button as well as volume rockers on the right side. They have an aluminum finish and a weird texture of lines to them but they are so close together I feel like I could file my fingernails with them (if I did that sort of thing). Then your usual headphone jack and power/wake button up top.

The hardware is definitely a different approach than Motorola is used to, it doesn’t look or feel anything like any of the Droid devices but it does have a similar style to its older brother the Motorola Atrix. We reviewed the Atrix and you can see that here, a large part of the design and options for the PHOTON came right from the Atrix so if you’ve seen its dock or webtop power you’ve already seen what the Photon can do.

Overall I’m a fan of the hardware as it has great build quality and feels extremely solid in the hand. My thumb keeps getting caught on the texture from the volume rockers but other than that its clean, and beautifully designed and even is pretty lightweight. It is lighter than the EVO 3D but weights more than other 4.3″ dual-core phones.

Software & Performance

The PHOTON comes with Android 2.3.4 Gingerbread which is the latest iteration of Android and along with it comes Motorola’s user interface changes but were not supposed to call it Moto Blur anymore — it’s just UI enhancements they call it. It is a nice touch although I feel the widgets could use some work. The dual-core processor keeps things speeding along and overall the user experience is seamless and fast.

As far as pre-installed apps or bloatware some might like to call it, they really didn’t include too much so that is a plus. We have a game center, Nascar, Quick Office, TeleNav GPS, and then a webtop connector app for when using the HD Dock. That is about it then you have your suite of Google Apps and Facebook etc.

Next on the list is performance so I’ve done a few benchmarks to test things out and first on the block is Quadrant. I ran a few tests and the PHOTON scored pretty high in Quadrant and it was actually a few hundred higher than other Tegra 2 dual-core phones like the LG G2x or the Droid X. They score around 2100-2200 stock while the PHOTON 4G scored over 2400.

Next I ran a new benchmark called Vellamo and you can read all about it here. Vellamo tests the overall performance of the device based on browsing. From websites, to rendering, javascript, HTML5, canvas and image scrolling as well as network performance for input/output like when loading a webpage. The results are pretty interesting as the PHOTON scores barely above the myTouch 4G (single core phone) and is beat by both the Sensation 4G and the EVO 3D. Network speeds could be part to blame as it scored pretty low with network performance.

Also since we have a 4G device in our hands I ran a few speedtest results just to see what types of 4G performance we could get, maybe the dual-core would help things out and this is Motorola’s first 4G device powered by WiMax. Sadly it scored fairly low and my old Nexus One with 3G performs better. I’m not sure if 4G is lacking in Vegas but I tried at home and at the store with similar results.

For comparison I get over triple the download speeds on my 4G T-Mobile device, just thought I’d mention that.

Camera & Battery

Now the PHOTON 4G has an 8 MP camera with dual LED flash and the camera performed just as I expected it to, with low light indoors it took great shots and the shutter speed was faster than a lot of phones I’ve used in the past. I took a few pictures of my faithful puppy taking a nap but I don’t think he was happy with me for waking him.

Yes the pocket on the pool table is missing in the photo, again he is a puppy and that is what they do. Trust me I covered it daily for a year after that incident and it never happened again thankfully.

Here is a close up for some detail, this is natural lighting without flash and the 8MP camera does a great job again.

On the rear of the phone it says HD VIDEO like it’s all special, but it actually only records in 720p and not 1080 like most other Tegra 2 phones have the power to do, so I didn’t do a video sample because 720p is nothing new. If it were 1080p I’d have gave it a test run.

The battery is larger than most phones on the market other than maybe the EVO 3D and it comes in packing 1640 mAh and it has lasted me all day since 8 AM in the morning til late night. I’ve taken photo’s, recorded video, sent a few emails and placed multiple phone calls. Not to mention running a few benchmarks and playing Angry Birds for about 45 minutes. For those wondering I’m expecting the battery to last longer than that of the HTC EVO after this initial few days of testing.

HD Dock

The HD Dock is a step up from many other docks that phones have been released with in the past, but its nothing like the Laptop dock the Atrix came with. The HD dock features rubbery feet so it wont slide around while trying to install the device. It has HDMI-Out for feeding the screen to your HDTV or a computer monitor. It also has 3 USB ports for using keyboards, mice and anything else you’d need.

Now this is important because the Webtop App and User Interface allows you to plug your phone into the dock and view your desktop, market, video’s and more all over HDMI to your TV or basically make the phone into a personal portable computer.

Bundled with the HD Dock is an infrared remote so you can control everything wireless. No keyboard or mouse needed, you have media controls and volume. It also features the menu, back, home, and search buttons just as most Android phones do so you can basically access everything without touching the device. The HD Dock is $129 but makes your phone into a desktop PC.

Motorola was also nice enough to send us the car dock that will also be available at launch for those interested. Although it might not be build extremely durable like the HD Dock it still was sturdy and held the phone very securely. There is a latch on top that closes down and secures the phone to the car dock, from there you can rotate or move it as you see fit without fear of it falling or dropping.

The car dock came with a car charger, USB cable and a 3.5mm audio cord so you can stream music or navigation instructions to your car stereo. With extra sticky pads for the dash or windshield they have you completely covered. I’ve never been a fan of or used car docks in the past, but for those that must have one or use it for a trip the Motorola Photon car dock is a pretty good buy and will secure your phone through anyone’s crazy driving.

Wrap-Up

For what you pay for this is an extremely powerful and versatile phone. You can do a lot more than just text and play Angry Birds with this. You can browse the web and watch movies on your 56″ HDTV, use it for an alarm clock with that fancy kickstand and more. With a slightly unique design it will stand out in the crowd and you’ll love showing it off. Once you set up the HD Dock and get everything dialed in everything works pretty great, and there is no shortage of geek appeal.

Aside from having mediocre at best 4G performance, the phone runs great and is a solid device. Any EVO users would be happy with it aside from no HTC Sense UI. While other phones may offer the same dual-core performance they don’t have the webtop abilities and the kickstand all at the same time. Making this right up there as a top tier Android offering.

Don’t forget to click on all the images below to see them full size for your enjoyment.

Hardware

Powered-off and side-by-side with the original DROID X, and beyond the color – dark gray initially, now black – you’d be hard-pressed to tell the difference between it and the DROID X2 at a casual glance. Measuring the same 5.02 x 2.58 x 0.39 inches and weighing the same 5.47 ounces, the soft-touch black chassis follows Motorola’s “blunt and aggressive” school of design and looks good for it. We could do without the bloated camera section on the back, though, which protrudes a little more than is comfortable.

Turned on, and the DROID X2′s first advance is clear. As on the HTC Sensation, Motorola has used a qHD 4.3-inch panel running at 960 x 540 resolution, versus the 854 x 480 of the DROID X. It’s a regular LCD panel rather than anything fancy like Super AMOLED, but it’s bright and clear nonetheless, only coming unstuck in direct sunlight outside.

Underneath there are four physical buttons – menu, home, back and search – while above are proximity and ambient light sensors. No front-facing camera, though, leaving you with just the 8-megapixel autofocus camera (with dual-LED flash) on the back. Oddly, Motorola has deleted the dedicated camera shortcut button. Despite the extra grunt from the dual-core processor, as on the original DROID X, the X2 can only shoot 720p, rather than 1080p Full HD.

As in the ATRIX 4G, Motorola has turned to NVIDIA and the 1GHz Tegra 2 to keep the DROID X2 ticking, pairing the chip with 512MB of RAM. That’s the same as in the original version, but half of what the ATRIX gets. Connectivity falls short too: there’s EVDO Rev.A but no LTE to take advantage of Verizon’s speedy 4G network. Similarly absent is Global Roaming support, which means the DROID X2 is limited to CDMA networks and can’t use the GSM/HSPA networks common in Europe and Asia. Still, you get WiFi b/g/n and Bluetooth, both microUSB and microHDMI ports – the latter offering screen mirroring on your HDTV – and a microSD card slot to augment the 8GB of internal storage.

Software and Performance

Motorola updated the original DROID X to Android 2.2 back in September 2010, and it seems the company isn’t willing to give up Froyo quite yet. The DROID X2 launches running the outdated version of Android – rival phones are shipping with Gingerbread – along with the custom MOTOBLUR-inspired UI.

That’s been tweaked a little since we saw it last, with the addition of categories in the applications menu – All Apps, Downloaded and Recent – as well as the ability to create your own to group together themed apps. There’s also a helicopter view of all seven homescreens just like in HTC Sense. The resizable widgets are carried over, and there’s a persistent four-icon launcher along the bottom of the homescreen (which can obviously be customized).

Social networking is catered for with a pair of homescreen widgets and a standalone app, pulling in Facebook and Twitter updates and allowing you to set your own status on both simultaneously. Verizon preloads its V CAST Music and VZ Navigator apps, along with the Blockbuster movie rental apps, while Motorola adds the Kindle app, Skype, Slacker and Quickoffice. Need for Speed Shift and Let’s Golf 2 make an appearance in trial form, as on other Tegra 2 devices we’ve seen.

It all works, but we’d gladly sacrifice MOTOBLUR for stock Android 2.3.3. Motorola has said a Gingerbread update is in the pipeline, but not committed to a release timetable as yet. As the Android Market continues to grow, and the core OS itself gains more abilities, manufacturers need to offer more than token modifications to make a good argument for customizing software. We’ve a strong suspicion that most DROID X2 owners will end up bypassing Motorola’s Twitter and Facebook support in favor of more functional third-party alternatives, for instance.

As for performance, we’re used to seeing decent benchmarking figures from the Tegra 2 and the DROID X2 follows suit. In Quadrant Advanced, it scored 2743 overall (with 7241 in CPU and 2846 in I/O), more than double the DROID X’s 1353. SmartBench 2011 brought in scores of 2775 for the X2 and 844 for the X; impressive, but still lagging behind the overclocked 1.2GHz goodness of the Galaxy S II, which managed 3830. Finally, in the SunSpider JavaScript test, the DROID X2 came in at 4182.2ms versus the DROID X’s 7596.5ms (lower is better).

Camera

Motorola promises faster camera performance with shots being grabbed faster on the X2 than on the original DROID X, even without the dedicated shortcut key. In practice we noticed things were a little more responsive, but only as long as you had decent lighting. Once things got a little darker, the lag between tapping the screen and the frame being captured increased, resulting in some underwhelming photos that lacked the crisp focus we were hoping for. Colors were bland and stills often grainy; the dual-LED flash is one of the more powerful we’ve seen, though.

As for video, just like the ATRIX 4G, Motorola has limited the DROID X2 to 720p rather than Full HD recording, despite the Tegra 2 being capable of the higher resolution. Footage is good, as long as you move the phone smoothly to avoid tearing on faster pans. Exposure adjustments are swift and there’s plenty of detail, though occasionally we noticed some hiccups in the eventual clip as if the DROID X2 was having issues writing to memory. You can play back clips directly via the HDMI connection, or upload them from the phone to YouTube for online sharing.

Phone and Battery

With many smartphones seemingly forgetting that users do still make voice calls rather than just game, browse and message, we were pleasantly surprised by the DROID X2′s in-call audio performance. Background noise was minimal and neither we nor the people we spoke to had any problems with glitchiness or audio artifacts, thanks to Motorola’s triple microphone array and DSP. The speakerphone was also solid, with plenty of volume without breaking up into boominess or noise.

The obvious omission is 4G, disappointing given how impressed we’ve been with Verizon’s LTE network so far. Data speeds were solid for a 3G-only device, but nothing outstanding, a shame given the browser is responsive and the high-resolution display so well suited to streaming video and showing full webpages.

Motorola claims up to 480 minutes of talktime or 220 hours of standby from a full charge of the DROID X2′s 1,540 mAh battery. In practice, we made it through a full day with some judicious tweaking of the four battery profile modes (Maximum, Nighttime, Performance and Custom) to adjust data use.

Wrap-Up

The original DROID X shifted the Android game forward; we even suggested that, with Android 2.2 in place, it could be the Google phone to beat. Unfortunately it seems Motorola has let that kudos go to its head in designing the DROID X2. The higher-resolution display is nice, and the dual-core processor welcome, but other elements of the smartphone fall short: the camera is still patchy unless you’re blessed with the brightest of lighting, the 720p HD limitation is frustrating, and Motorola’s decision to stick with Froyo unfathomable.

The DROID X2 has improved, but the Android marketplace – and the smartphone segment in general – has advanced more. The DROID Charge may run at WVGA but its Super AMOLED Plus display is brilliant and its LTE connectivity a real advantage; if it’s dual-core performance you’re after, the T-Mobile G2x delivers on Tegra 2′s 1080p HD video promise, while the upcoming T-Mobile Sensation 4G and Samsung Galaxy S II are even faster.

Motorola hasn’t made a bad phone, but it hasn’t made an outstanding one either, and right now that’s what it takes to stand out in the Android marketplace. With heavy hitters offering greater performance, better cameras and fresher software, it’s tough for the DROID X2 to raise its head above the crowd. Devotees of the original DROID X will find plenty to like in this incremental update, but this isn’t the class-leading smartphone it once was.

Droid X2 Unboxing and hardware walkthrough

Hardware

Long and lean is a good way to describe the G2x. Like its European LG Optimus 2X counterpart, it measures in at 4.88 x 2.48 x 0.43 inches and 5oz, fronted with a 4-inch WVGA TFT LCD touchscreen. The entire fascia is flush-fitting Gorilla Glass, though it does have a somewhat oversized capacitive button area at the bottom – with the usual menu, home, back and search keys – which could do with being smaller. Above the display is a 1.3-megapixel front camera while an 8-megapixel camera with autofocus and an LED flash are on the back.

While at first glance the battery cover looks like, as with the T-Mobile G-Slate by LG, there’s a flip-out kickstand, in actual fact the silver strip is merely decorative. It leads up to a protruding camera bump and bears the “with Google” legend that lets you know LG and T-Mobile have held off from tampering with the OS. Around the edges there are volume keys, a microUSB port and twin speaker grilles on the bottom, and a headphone jack and power/standby button on the top. You also get a micro HDMI port for hooking the G2x up to a TV and playing back the 1080p Full HD video Tegra 2 is capable of churning through.

Inside there’s quadband GSM and quadband HSPA+ 4G, along with WiFi b/g/n, Bluetooth 2.1+EDR and GPS.

512MB of RAM and 8GB of internal storage are joined by a microSD card slot under the battery cover (though not under the battery itself). The usual arrays of sensors – accelerometer, ambient light, gyroscope, digital compass and proximity – are included.

Build construction is solid, though the G2x feels overly long in the hand. Audio quality is high from the dual speakers, while the touchscreen responds swiftly and the capacitive buttons don’t require the occasional double-taps we’ve experienced on some Android devices. We can’t help but miss the ATRIX 4G’s qHD resolution display, however, with its extra pixels.

Software and Performance

As we mentioned before, LG and T-Mobile have left the software alone, and put Android 2.2 Froyo in its untampered state on the handset. The lack of modification is something we invariably welcome, as it generally means faster updates later in the handset’s lifecycle, but not launching the G2x with the latest Android 2.3 Gingerbread is a blip on LG’s spec sheet. A Gingerbread upgrade is tipped for later on in Q2 2011, though no definitive timescale has been confirmed.

What you do get are some preloaded apps, including a demo of N.O.V.A. Near Orbit Vanguard Alliance HD and a full copy of Need for Speed SHIFT. There’s also NVIDIA Tegra Zone, for highlighting the latest and greatest software designed to run best with the 1GHz dual-core chip, T-Mobile TV (which, as on the G-Slate, won’t output via the HDMI port), the Zinio magazine app and Qik for two-way video calls. Considering Google is yet to release its own video-calling app for smartphones, that’s a sensible inclusion.

Performance from the Tegra 2 processor varies depending on which benchmarking tool you attempt to measure it with, particularly because many of them are yet to be updated to properly handle dual-core CPUs. Quadrant scored almost 2670, while Linpack spat out a result of 36.576 MFLOPS in 2.20s.

Real-world, and the T-Mobile G2x handled just about everything we asked of it. 1080p HD video played back on an external display was smooth and artifact-free, while games were responsive and showed no lag or glitches. The OS as a whole flicks past with no pauses or hiccups whatsoever.

Camera

As you might expect, the front-facing camera on the G2x is really only fit for video calls and, if pressed, the occasional vanity shot. Video and stills are blurry and demand plenty of light if they’re to be halfway useful. Happily the main camera is altogether more successful, with still shots showing accurate colors and exposure, if a tendency to over-processing to handle noise in lower light situations. The LED flash tries hard and is one of the better examples we’ve seen, though it still suffers from the usual range issues. Unfortunately there’s no dedicated camera button, which given the G2x’s imaging abilities seems an oversight.

Video, meanwhile, can be recorded in up to 1080p Full HD resolution, still a relative rarity on smartphones. At 24fps it’s reasonably smooth but does show a tendency to over-react to lighting changes, which can mean your clip suddenly plunges into darkness as you pan. Faster movements can lead to choppiness, too. If you don’t mind sacrificing some pixels in the name of slicker clips, the 720p HD mode offers a more balanced outcome.

Phone and Battery

T-Mobile brands the G2x as a 4G device, since it can use the carrier’s growing HSPA+ network. Unfortunately we experienced multiple issues with how the G2x handles 2G, 3G and 4G network transitions. These ranged from a general reluctance to shift from 2G to 3G/4G, to dropping calls when moving out of 4G coverage into 2G.

When the G2x finally decided what network it wanted to cling to, data speeds were fair but not outstanding, though obviously that will depend on what 3G or 4G coverage users have where they work and live.

Battery life, meanwhile, is more impressive. The G2x proved capable of making it through a full day of use – with push email turned on, some browsing, messaging and video playback – on a single charge. Like all modern smartphones you’ll be recharging nightly, but the G2x looks at least to bypass the mid-afternoon top-up some handsets demand.

Price and Value

At $199.99 with a new, two-year agreement, T-Mobile has priced the G2x much like any other high-end device. It goes up against the HTC-made G2 – which has a single-core processor and smaller screen, but a physical keyboard, and the Windows Phone based HTC HD7, which has a bigger display but a mediocre camera. It’s also a little more expensive than the $180 Samsung Galaxy S 4G (review), which has arguably a better display but falls short when it comes to camera and processor.

Round the corner, though, is the HTC Sensation 4G, with its dual-core 1.2GHz Qualcomm processor and 4.3-inch qHD display. That will run Gingerbread out of the box and has HTC’s compellingly complete Sense interface.

Wrap-Up

It’s not hard to see that the T-Mobile G2x is the best Android device in the carrier’s current line-up. No, it may not run Gingerbread (yet), but its unmodified OS means future updates shouldn’t be delayed by unnecessary manufacturer or carrier modifications. The 8-megapixel camera and 1080p HDMI output are both useful and usable, while the design is inoffensively slick.

It’s the Tegra 2 processor that’s the star of the show here, though, making the G2x a suitably future-proofed handset for the increasing demands of subsequent Android updates. Where the G2x may falter is when the T-Mobile Sensation 4G arrives later in the year, with a bigger, better display and faster CPU. Still, with no solid release date for the Sensation 4G in sight, and the LG available on the market today, those in search of a capable Android smartphone could do a lot worse than the T-Mobile G2x.

T-Mobile G2x Hands-on

Hardware

It’s tough to pick holes in the ATRIX 4G’s spec sheet; Motorola has put together a solid list of hardware that pushes several of the limits we’ve seen on recent Android devices. Build quality is solid plastic with a fair amount of heft in the hand: it’s a dense handset, at 63.5 x 117.75 x 10.95 mm and 135g, and feels reassuringly free of creaks and flex. There’s something about the fascia that reminds us of the HTC Touch HD, discrete and sober.

Under the Gorilla Glass sits one of the ATRIX 4G’s key selling points, a 4-inch qHD capacitive touchscreen. Running at 960 x 540 it’s a welcome step up from the WVGA 800 x 480 that has become the de-facto standard for Android handsets over the past twelve months or so. That adds up to a pixel density of 275ppi, short of the iPhone 4′s Retina Display, but still noticeably crisper than most other rivals. Viewing angles are broad, colors are accurate and – as long as you’re not in direct sunlight – there are few problems with brightness. Underneath are the usual touch-sensitive Android controls, for menu, home, back and search, while above there’s a VGA-resolution webcam for video calls, along with brightness and proximity sensors.

On the left edge there’s the microUSB and HDMI connectors, while the volume controls are – somewhat unusually, but still perfectly usable – on the right.

On the angled top edge there’s the 3.5mm headphone port and a power button that doubles as a fingerprint scanner.

We rarely had any issues using this, unlocking the ATRIX 4G with a quick swipe; on a few occasions it took a second pass, but generally the fingerprint system is easier than the usual Android lock screen. Happily there’s a passcode backup should you persistently encounter issues, or need to give someone else access. A speaker sits on the bottom edge, while the 5-megapixel camera with a dual-LED flash is on the distinctively patterned back.

Inside, the dual-core NVIDIA Tegra 2 takes price of place, a set of two 1GHz cores paired with a healthy 1GB of DDR2 RAM and 16GB of integrated storage.

There’s a microSD card slot for a further 32GB, and given the ATRIX 4G will shoot 720p HD video and – with its Entertainment Center – is aiming to handle your A/V requirements, that storage potential is very welcome. Connectivity includes triband HSPA+ (as per AT&T’s 4G branding) and quadband GSM/EDGE, along with WiFi b/g/n with support for both 2.4GHz and 5GHz bands, Bluetooth 2.1+EDR and the microUSB/HDMI ports. GPS, a digital compass and an accelerometer round things out.

It all adds up to one of the fastest Android handsets we’ve used to-date, blazing through webpage rendering and pinch-zooming, loading apps with barely any delay, sending Google Maps whipping across the screen and helping squeeze out some of the frustrating pauses that still leave some Android users looking enviously at the iPhone 4.

Motorola offers both the Laptop Dock and the HD Dock, along with a Bluetooth keyboard and mouse set, which we’ll cover later on in the review.

Software

Motorola’s choice of Android 2.2 Froyo is the first disappointment of the ATRIX 4G’s software experience, leaving Google’s Nexus S as the only Gingerbread smartphone currently on the market. On top, there’s the latest iteration of MOTOBLUR, less intrusive than in its early generations, but still an acquired taste (and a potential cause of delay to future Android OS updates) with its social networking integration, modified UI and resizable homescreen widgets.

AT&T introduces its own modifications and software, including the same limitation on sideloading apps (i.e. installing them from a direct download or memory card, rather than from the official Android Market) that we’ve seen on other Android handsets from the carrier. There are workarounds online, which can address that, and it does introduce a degree of protection from potentially malware-infected apps, but the sort of power users, which will be drawn to the ATRIX 4G, might not really need the carrier’s over-protection.

As for AT&T software, there’s the carrier’s Code Scanner, Family Map, Navigator, YP Mobile and My AT&T apps already installed, along with Motorola-bundled copies of Quick Office 3.0, Vlingo Voice, Blockbuster, Need for Speed and MobiTV. That’s on top of the usual suite of Google apps (Gmail in particular looks brilliant on the qHD display, with the Tegra 2 CPU slicing through any inbox delays we’ve encountered on other Android devices). Some apps can be deleted while others are fixed, though of course a custom ROM would take care of that (and the horsepower of the ATRIX 4G is already drawing plenty of attention from the homebrew Android community) if Motorola hadn’t locked that down as well. Of course, modders have already addressed that with an (unreleased) rooting method, but it’s another degree of frustration that belies Android’s generally open, mod-friendly nature.

The useful additions we’ve come to expect from smartphones, like a mobile hotspot app, are present and work fine, with the ATRIX 4G able to share its HSPA+ connection with up to five WiFi-enabled clients. There’s also DLNA support, for wirelessly streaming content to a compatible display or audio player, though Motorola really expects users to use its HDMI output or HD Dock.

Camera and Multimedia

We’ve criticized Motorola’s cameras in the past, and the ATRIX 4G is another middle-of-the-road effort from the company. At 5-megapixels – with autofocus and a dual-LED flash that doubles as a video light – it’s not the highest resolution on a recent smartphone, though there’s undoubtedly more to mobile photography than sheer pixel count.

Still images are clean but uninspiring, with reasonable contrast and sharpness outdoors but a little too much noise for our liking indoors. We’ve had better luck from recent Samsungs. Color balance could be more accurate, too, though at least the camera boots quickly – even without a dedicated hardware button – and the ATRIX 4G processes and saves shots with the minimum of delay.

Video, meanwhile, is currently limited to 720p HD, rather than the 1080p HD the Tegra 2 is capable of. That will apparently be unlocked – for recording and playback – in a later firmware update, though Motorola is yet to commit to an exact release date. As it stands, though, video is more successful than stills in many cases, with plenty of detail, swift responsiveness to changes in lighting, and smooth recording despite the lack of any optical stability systems.

The qHD display is obviously great for showing off photos and video, but since the ATRIX 4G packs an HDMI output it’s also easy to hook up a nearby HDTV for direct playback. Plugged in – with the bundled mini HDMI to HDMI cable – the smartphone boots into a dedicated Entertainment Center interface, with a big-screen friendly UI for photos, video and audio playback. The ATRIX 4G itself shows a remote control for navigating, and the phone supports AAC, H.264, MP3, MPEG-4, WMA9, eAAC+, AMR NB and AAC+ formats with video playback at up to 30fps. With the 1080p update this will be even more useful, but 720p looked good nonetheless.

Phone and Battery

Motorola’s noise reduction system is in evidence on the ATRIX 4G, and it helps the Android smartphone put in a solid showing when it comes to voice call quality. Audio on both ends of the call is clear and crisp, and the speakerphone is suitably loud.

Data, unfortunately, hasn’t faired so well. The Motorola may promise 4G speeds, but performance felt more in line with regular 3G devices than other HSPA+ handsets we’ve used. We tested the ATRIX 4G in multiple locations (with HSPA+ coverage indicated) and saw on average download speeds of 1.3 Mbps to 1.6 Mbps, while upload speeds proved ponderous at between 0.12 Mbps and 0.2 Mbps. It’s unclear at this stage whether this is entirely the ATRIX 4G’s fault, the fledgling AT&T HSPA+ network, or – most likely, perhaps – a combination of the two, but the end result is that rival 4G networks deliver better raw performance if data speeds are your primary concern.

The 1,930 mAh battery Motorola supply is a considerable step up from the sort of power packs we’ve seen on other high-end devices of late, and the company expects it to push the ATRIX 4G on to up to 540 minutes of talktime or up to 400 hours of standby. In practice, with push-email turned on and the usual mixture of daily use – Google Maps, Internet browsing, some music and video playback – we’ve seen well over 13 hours of runtime from the ATRIX 4G. Yes, you’ll be charging it nightly, but that’s par for the course for a modern smartphone.

Laptop Dock

A fair amount of the excitement around the ATRIX 4G isn’t so much the handset itself, but the accessories Motorola is offering. Flagship of these is the Motorola Laptop Dock, an 11.6-inch ultraportable notebook-style clamshell with a full keyboard, trackpad and integrated battery. Alone it has no intelligence; instead, you have to dock the ATRIX 4G into a flip-up cradle at the back, upon which the Laptop Dock boots into Motorola’s Webtop system.

The Laptop Dock hardware is certainly solid, made of brushed black metal and plastic, and with strongly-sprung keys. Despite the broad width they keys themselves are a little smaller than what we’re used to from, say, the MacBook Air, and general feel is slightly less impressive than a regular notebook. The trackpad is large – though the button bar is far too stiff for our liking – but the absence of multitouch support for two-finger scrolling and other gestures is frustrating.

As for the display, that’s a 1366 x 768 panel and is bright and reasonably clear. The Webtop system is a custom Linux build, with an OS X style dock of apps – including a full version of Firefox – along the bottom of the screen and a windowed version of the ATRIX 4G’s display floating on the left.

You can boot into the Entertainment Center – more of which in the HD Dock section – or, more likely, the browser (there are shortcuts for AT&T, Facebook and Motorola, but they simply open the relevant pages in Firefox), and both the phone view and browser view can be maximized to full-screen (though the phone image is merely magnified, not upscaled, so gets relatively pixelated in the process).

Motorola is particularly proud of the full build of Firefox installed, though the actual user experience is a mixed bag. You can certainly load up Google Docs, stream content, view YouTube and Hulu, and other full webpages in various tabs, but the Tegra 2 processor falls short of the slick experience we’d hoped for. There’s noticeable sluggishness, whether you’re opening Firefox, flicking between tabs, playing Full HD content or even just working with Google Docs documents.

Still, you can handle calls and messages while the ATRIX 4G is docked, and the integrated battery – which Motorola reckons will keep the Laptop Dock running for up to 6 hours of video playback or 8-10 hours of web browsing – recharges the smartphone as you work. Hopefully some further software optimization will give Webtop a speed boost in the coming months, since right now it’s an expensive and limited alternative to a netbook.

HD Dock

Motorola’s desktop dock is a halfway house of sorts between the Laptop Dock and the basic HDMI connection the ATRIX 4G itself offers, including not only an HDMI output but three USB ports for hooking up peripherals and a 3.5mm stereo audio output. They could include a wired keyboard and mouse, though Motorola also sent us its Bluetooth keyboard/mouse set.

What you do get over and above using the onboard HDMI, however, is access to the Webtop UI, turning your ATRIX 4G and HDTV into a desktop PC. The Entertainment Center UI can be controlled by the bundled infrared remote, which is a physical version of the on-screen controller shown when you use a direct HDMI connection.

The Bluetooth keyboard and mouse work as you’d expect, pairing with the ATRIX 4G and allowing for easy navigation and text entry. The keyboard has several Android app shortcut buttons, and the chiclet keys are easier to use than the Laptop Dock’s keys.

Price and Value

The Motorola ATRIX 4G is priced in line with most other high-end smartphones, at $199.99 with a new, two-year AT&T agreement. Both voice and data plans are mandatory, but if you want to use the tethering feature then you’ll need to step up to the most expensive data package (the cheaper plans only offer on-device data) at $45 per month. With the cheapest voice plan that means you’re looking at a minimum of $84.99 per month.

Where it gets really expensive is when you take into account the accessories. The Motorola HD Dock is $129.99, while the Bluetooth keyboard alone is $69.99; AT&T will sell you an “Entertainment Center/Webtop Access Kit” including both, plus the Bluetooth mouse, for $189.99. As for the Laptop Dock, that’s $299.99 after $200 of rebates (mail-in and instant), though you’ll need to have the tethering data plan to qualify. Alone, the Laptop Dock is a hefty $499.99, which might not get you a MacBook Air but does cover quite a few netbook and notebook options (all of which are functional without a phone docked into them).

Wrap-Up

If there’s one thing the Motorola ATRIX 4G shows, it’s that there’s no shortage of innovation in the smartphone market. The Laptop Dock may be expensive – and Palm may have previewed the idea with the Folio, and Redfly even attempted to commercialize it with the Celio – but Motorola deserves some kudos for bringing it to market and to a major carrier. There’s certainly no shortage of geek appeal, and the HD Desktop Dock is similarly useful, but right now the Webtop interface falls short of what a simple, WiFi-tethered netbook would deliver. The HD Desktop Dock is good, but its core abilities are readily served with a far cheaper HDMI cable. Early adopters can probably justify one or both, but mainstream users will likely want to wait for Motorola’s engineers to finesse the experience.

Mediocre 4G data speeds aside, meanwhile, the ATRIX itself is a solid, very usable smartphone lifted from among the Android crowds by its lightning fast performance and pixel-rich display. The combination of Tegra 2 and qHD resolution add up to one of the best Android experiences to-date. Rivals will soon begin snapping at the ATRIX 4G’s heels, but in terms of as much future-proofing as you can lock-in over the course of a two-year agreement, today the Motorola offers the best starting point.

ATRIX 4G unboxing and hands-on