Motorola Atrix 4G review: Enter the Atrix

Moto-blurred Froyo on top

The Atrix 4G comes with Android 2.2.1 Froyo preinstalled, which Motorola has dressed-up with its social network-integrated MOTOBLUR UI. It gives you an extra fast way to connect with people in social networks, send messages and read status updates and call friends directly through the homescreen.

The MOTOBLUR UI

The increased qHD resolution of the Motorola Atrix 4G makes the whole UI look smaller than on WVGA handsets. Unfortunately, that doesn’t mean we can’t still see the pixels.

The menu section now holds 6 rows, instead of 4 or 5. This also means that you’ll be able to fit more widgets in the same space.

Here’s a video demonstration of the MOTOBLUR UI on the Motorola Atrix 4G.

The notification area swipes down from the top, as usual. Unlike those from competing manufacturers, this one doesn’t have any quick shortcuts – that’s a bummer.

You can get a preview of all seven homescreens, from which you can quickly jump to any of those however it doesn’t work with pinching; you get to this feature by opening the homescreen context menu.

Notification area • Preview mode

Motorola hasn’t drastically changed the Android look, unlike Samsung did with the Galaxy S II. The UI feels generally the same and navigating it has remained on the same principle.

Though MOTOBLUR has distinguished the looks from the stock Android. There are many widgets, most of which are small and can be placed anywhere on any screen.

Choosing and placing a widget on the homescreen is easy as usual. When scrolling through the homescreens, a navigation bar at the bottom allows you to jump from screen to screen by swiping it with a finger. The nice vibration feedback adds an extra appeal to it.

Placing widgets on the homescreen

The custom widgets on the Atrix 4G are designed to be versatile and can be made to fit almost anywhere on the screen. There are the usual widgets and some social network-oriented ones.

Choosing a widget • Selecting a folder

Widgets can be resized freely, not to mention moved around and rearranged. All you need to do is hold a finger over a widget to get these options. Resizing a widget also changes its appearance. Depending on the widget, it can show you more or less info when resized.

Widgets can be adjusted to be bigger or smaller

For example, the weather widget can show you only the current temperature in the city you’re in. When made bigger, it will also show you the highest and lowest temperature for the day.

Expanding a widget shows you more

The same goes for the Time and date widget, which, while small, shows you the basic information, but once bigger, it gets you a whole calendar with a bigger font and view.

MOTOBLUR pioneered this solution and now even Samsung are taking cue (we’re looking at you, Samsung Galaxy S II).

Using spare room on the homescreen

You also get the full set of Android widgets available on the Atrix 4G. You can select any one of them, but you cannot resize them like the Motorola ones.