The Motorola Atrix 4G, billed as "the world's most powerful smartphone," arrives with 2 gigahertz of processing power--the kind you're more likely to find on a laptop than a phone.
That's notable because there's an optional laptop dock, which makes the phone function as, well, a laptop.
The Atrix is available now for pre-order from AT&T Inc and will begin selling March 6. It costs $200 with a two-year contract. But if you buy it with the dock, it will cost $500 after rebate, and you'll have to get a more expensive data plan.
On its own, the Atrix is a speedy phone, though not necessarily eye-catching. With the skinny, light dock, the Atrix is a Web surfing and e-mailing champ, which could make it a good travel buddy. For heavy-duty computing, though, I'd still stick with my full-featured laptop.
The Atrix's black slab exterior makes it look like other smart phones, but start poking around and the difference is clear: This is a fast handset. With tasks that don't require a wireless network, such as taking photos or playing games, the Atrix opened menus and applications without hesitation.
The camera seemed to start up faster than those on other smart phones I've used, and I could scroll through applications and contacts on its 4-inch screen with ease.
Considering its processing power, I was miffed to see the Atrix is currently running version 2.2 of Google Inc's Android operating system, Froyo, rather than the newer Gingerbread version, whose faster performance and better on-screen keyboard would match well with the Atrix.
The Atrix works on AT&T's upgraded 3G network, HSPA+, so to try it out I walked to AT&T Park, where the San Francisco Giants play. There, the phone streamed videos as flawlessly as if I were on my home Wi-Fi network. At my office or home I wouldn't even attempt to stream content over AT&T's network as service is unreliable.
