Motorola Atrix 2 review

A sleek and dockable Android smartphone

Motorola Atrix 2
An 8MP camera and lapdock are big draws for this Android smartphone

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Motorola atrix 2 review

The Motorola Atrix 2 isn't going to set the world on fire with any brilliant new calling features. In fact, the interface and functions for making calls and organising contacts work about the same here as they did on the original Atrix.

Motorola atrix 2

For some reason, the Motorola Atrix 2 took a good two minutes to add social networking accounts. It took a couple of tries per account to add them. And finding where to add these accounts is a bit challenging - you can wade through the social networking widget, press Menu in the Contacts app and select Accounts, or go through Settings. We'd prefer an even more obvious route - maybe by adding an obvious "Add social network account" link on the main page.

There's a handy way to manage contacts between phones. You can import and export contacts to or from a SIM card or an SD card. The search field for contacts works quickly, which is handy when you have hundreds of Facebook contacts. Just type a few letters, such as Alan, and anyone with that name comes up after a short pause.

For every contact, there is a Contact History that shows your messaging history with that person. Adding contacts is easy - you just press a green plus icon.

Calls on the Motorola Atrix 2 sounded brilliantly clear and without the typical distortion of a lower-quality smartphone or feature phone. In a dozen calls, our caller reported no problems hearing us, both when using the phone normally and in speakerphone mode. We had no dropped calls either.

Haptic feedback - the slight buzz you feel when you press on the screen - helped to make phone dialling easier and faster. The Motorola Atrix 2 has a satisfying "thud" feel when you press digits on the screen, acknowledging your finger presses so you can dial faster and more accurately.

John Brandon
Contributor

John Brandon has covered gadgets and cars for the past 12 years having published over 12,000 articles and tested nearly 8,000 products. He's nothing if not prolific. Before starting his writing career, he led an Information Design practice at a large consumer electronics retailer in the US. His hobbies include deep sea exploration, complaining about the weather, and engineering a vast multiverse conspiracy.