Motorola Atrix 4G

This Tegra 2-powered Android smart phone and its innovative dock make it possible to leave the laptop at home.

Can you use your phone as your PC? Motorola's Atrix 4G makes the case. While the phone itself is impressive--a high-resolution qHD screen, Tegra 2 processor, 1GB of RAM--when it's paired with the Laptop Dock, the real future of smart phones is seen. Sporting an 11-inch display, keyboard, and touchpad, the Dock not only lets you use the phone's Android apps, but also has a full Flash-enabled browser to watch Hulu videos, stream music, and type in Google Docs, to boot. Sure, it's innovative, but how well does the Atrix 4G work?

Design

As a handset, the Atrix 4G is thin and light, measuring just 4.6 x 2.5 x 0.43 inches. Despite weighing a scant 4.76 ounces and being less that half an inch thick, the slate-style phone makes room for a big 4-inch qHD (Quarter High Definition) display with an ultra-sharp resolution of 960 x 540 pixels.

Sculpted from black plastic, the Atrix feels almost weightless in your hand but doesn't feel as sturdy as the unibody aluminum construction on the HTC Inspire 4G. Above the Atrix' screen is a front-facing VGA camera. Four capacitive keys below--Menu, Home, Back and Search--are backlit in white and handle the usual Android tasks. On the back of the phone is the 5-megapixel camera and a flash, with a speaker occupying the bottom edge. You'll find the SIM and microSD card slot tucked away behind the battery cover, which is pretty easy to pry off.

When holding the Atrix 4G in portrait mode, microUSB and mini HDMI ports sit along the lower left side. On the right are volume controls, while on top is a headphone jack and a fingerprint reader that doubles as the power button. There's no dedicated camera button. The fingerprint reader/power button is a little hard to press, but this does ward against accidental activation.

Display

While it's not quite as hi-res as the iPhone 4's Retina display (960 x 640 pixels), the Atrix 4G's qHD screen is very bright and crisp. Web pages displayed sharp images while hi-res YouTube videos possessed lots of brightness and vivid colors. Viewing angles are on a par with other big-screened devices such as the Evo 4G and the Droid X, with image quality deteriorating as you angle the display away.