When a seemingly high end phone comes in at $99 on contract, our first thought is "something has to be missing". Yes, AT&T is very aggressive with their contract pricing, but consider the lovely Nokia Lumia 900: awesome phone, but the hardware specs aren't up there with the $199 phones. The $99 Sony Xperia Ion has an elegant metal casing, a stand-out display and a 12MP camera, but it's running Android 2.3 Gingerbread on a third rather than fourth generation CPU. So what's the story with the bargain priced Motorola Atrix HD?
Specs
The Atrix HD seems to have it all: Android 4.0 ICS, a lovely 4.5" "ColorBoost" 720p display, the same 1.5GHz fourth gen Qualcomm Snapdragon dual core CPU as the Samsung Galaxy S III and HTC One X, an 8mp rear camera that can shoot 1080p video, dual band WiFi (nice), Bluetooth 4.0 and a GPS. The only thing missing is NFC, but that isn't a huge deal (yet) on AT&T since there's no way to use it for mobile payments.
Design and Ergonomics
Despite the name, the Motorola Atrix HD is a GSM Motorola Droid RAZR rather than the reincarnation of the last two Atrix Android smartphones on AT&T. It has the beveled Gorilla Glass front and a Kevlar back with the RAZR's distinctive top cap that houses the camera, LED flash, HDMI and USB ports. It's a good looking phone with a sealed casing. That means you can't swap the 1780 mAh Lithium Ion battery since it's sealed inside. There is a microSD card slot on the side though, along with a micro SIM card slot. The Atrix HD's corners are matte and have softer curves than the Droid RAZR, and we confess to prefer the RAZR's edgier design.
The Atrix HD seems to have it all: Android 4.0 ICS, a lovely 4.5" "ColorBoost" 720p display, the same 1.5GHz fourth gen Qualcomm Snapdragon dual core CPU as the Samsung Galaxy S III and HTC One X, an 8mp rear camera that can shoot 1080p video, dual band WiFi (nice), Bluetooth 4.0 and a GPS. The only thing missing is NFC, but that isn't a huge deal (yet) on AT&T since there's no way to use it for mobile payments.
Design and Ergonomics
Despite the name, the Motorola Atrix HD is a GSM Motorola Droid RAZR rather than the reincarnation of the last two Atrix Android smartphones on AT&T. It has the beveled Gorilla Glass front and a Kevlar back with the RAZR's distinctive top cap that houses the camera, LED flash, HDMI and USB ports. It's a good looking phone with a sealed casing. That means you can't swap the 1780 mAh Lithium Ion battery since it's sealed inside. There is a microSD card slot on the side though, along with a micro SIM card slot. The Atrix HD's corners are matte and have softer curves than the Droid RAZR, and we confess to prefer the RAZR's edgier design.
4.5" smartphones aren't tiny beasts, but the 4.9 ounce Atrix HD is reasonably easy to hold. I find the hand-centric curves of the HTC One X more comfortable, but the Atrix HD is less slippery than the curvy-glossy Samsung Galaxy S III. Despite its slightly smaller screen size, the Atrix HD isn't appreciably smaller than the One X and GS III.
I confess to love the patterned Kevlar back for both looks and texture. The subtly curved Gorilla Glass edges give the phone a more polished look and the black on white stripe on our white model gives visual interest. There's a large speaker grille on the back hump, and this is indeed a loud phone with more fullness than most smartphones offer. The small power and volume controls on the right side are a bit hard to press, but we like having both micro USB and micro HDMI ports (no hunting for MHL adapters).
