The Motorola Atrix 4G has a lot on its plate, given that a core part of its job description is that it must interface with other gadgets, including a webtop computer made specially for the occasion, known as the "lapdock." Like many other recent smartphones, the Atrix also has an available media dock accessory that will allow it to (eventually) stream HD video in all its 1080p glory to any display that takes HDMI input or has DLNA support.

While we were very excited about the concept of a phone that could by turns wear three hats (webtop, large-scale media device, phone) it turns out that we liked the Atrix best when it was working alone, for better and for worse. We put the Atrix, the lapdock, the media dock, and all possible combinations thereof through our rigorous review process, and found that while we like—even love—the phone and the idea of the webtop, the execution of the latter isn't quite there yet.

The Motorola Atrix 4G: the best hat is the one you're comfortable in

The Atrix is one of the phones trying to reel itself in from approaching tablet sizes— the screen measures 4 inches, and has a gorgeous quarter-HD resolution of 960x540 that approaches the iPhone's retina display. The colors are bright, saturated, and make the phone pleasant to look at. In their teardown of the Atrix, iFixit also noted that the actual LCD is separable from the Gorilla Glass front panel. For the screen-shatter-prone, this means there may be impact cases where the front glass shatters but the LCD is unharmed. A panel of Gorilla Glass is cheaper to replace than the entire front assembly, as must be done with other smartphones, so that's a move of mercy.







Physical buttons are kept to an absolute minimum on the Atrix— the four standard Android buttons that sit along the bottom are part of the capacitive touchscreen, and there's a volume rocker on the right edge. The sleep/power button has a slightly unusual placement, centered where the top edge of the phone curves into the back. The location isn't as bad as it sounds, and is convenient for either index finger when you're picking it up with one hand. Unfortunately, the button is flush with the surface inside a recession and doesn't have much of a tactile response, so it can be hard to feel if you're pressing it hard enough.





