Motorola Atrix
The Motorola Atrix, the company's first dual-core handset, is a chunky affair that feels a mite heavy at 135g but includes a sensitive 4in touch screen offering 960 x 540-pixel resolution from behind toughened Gorilla glass. It runs on the not-quite-latest Android 2.2 though an upgrade to 2.3 is apparently on the way and despite its 1GHz processor (the other dual-cores here have 1.2GHz) it’s a very fast phone in use. The 5Mp camera is okay rather than outstanding, but is capable of recording 1080p HD video. There’s also a feast of accessories available from Motorola, including the Lapdock screen and keyboard, which allows you to use your phone’s memory and processor exactly like a PC, though you’ll have to pay extra for the privilege. Other pluses include a biometric fingerprint security pad (with password backup), mini HDMI output and better than usual battery life.
Reg Rating 85%
Price £500
More Info Motorola
Samsung Galaxy Ace GT-S5830
Trailing the flagship Galaxy S II by a considerable margin, the next phone down in Samsung’s Android range still has plenty to recommend it, such as its portable Wi-Fi hotspot feature, DLNA networking and Social Hub. The black plastic casing with metal trim has an iPhone-style air to it, but it’s a little on the short side and sports a 3.5in touch screen with 320 x 240-pixel resolution – a serious notch down from the Super AMOLED type available on Samsung’s best. The 5Mp camera is noticeably below the standards of the best but can still produce some good pics and offers a decent range of features. You can also bump the storage up to 32GB with a microSD card. Despite running Android 2.2, there’s no Flash support on the browser and the relatively low-powered, but still decently nippy 800MHz processor probably helps save on battery power, since it easily outlasted all the other phones here. In truth, the Ace barely scrambles a place at the table with these premium handsets, but makes a case for itself with its classy casework, compact size and excellent battery life.
Reg Rating 65%
Price £300
More Info Samsung
Next page: Samsung Galaxy S II
COMMENTS
Am I being too picky?
All of my friends, every single last one of them, thinks my continued use of Nokia phones is now an unhealthy obsession. And while they all admit that an iPhone is a little on the basic side for me they all continuously push various high end Android phones at me. And with this article I thought I would finally be able to see which ones could be in line to replace my N8 if I give in and jump ship. But. What on earth is going on with these camera's? I had assumed that by now that most of the device makers would of struck deals with Carl Zeiss or someone similar to build them some proper phone camera's. OK so some of them record video at higher resolutions than on my N8 but I'm much more interested in the stills quality, and as far as I'm concerned the video quality from my N8 is not in anyway shape or form bad. I'm not exactly a professional photographer but I do really like having my N8 with me and being able to trust in it's camera abilities. My second point. HDMI out. Does any Android phone come with a standard HDMI mini output socket? What about an adapter to link said socket to a full size HDMI cable in the box? Why no mention of USB on the go features? How many of these support this? I have a 16GB card inside my N8 with music etc. but as far as movies, TV series and podcasts go I have those on a pair of 64GB USB memory sticks. And it's such a boon being able to play whatever I feel like off of one of these. Even when out and about it makes for a commendable entertainment hub. It seems as if everyone has a 2mm Nokia charger in their house, and as the HDMI out also pumps out Dolby Surrond sound up to 5.1 out, my N8 has been plugged into several amp's, plug in either a memory stick, or a powered external HDD and give it a charge and off you go! And don't get me started on Ovi Maps. Although I will now concede that Sports Tracker is out for Android as well now.
Many of my friends say I'm not "getting" the whole point of Android. But I thought the whole point of getting one of these high end devices was that as well as making phone calls and sending text messages etc they also offered all the latest advances in terms of hardware. Or am I really not getting the whole point of Android?
Exactly the same.
Came from a Desire to the S2, and I'm seeing better battery life. The screen's got a lot to do with that I think, no power to the black areas and all that. It's an amazing phone.
Wonder what'll be available...
...when it finally comes time to replace my Nexus One? I think I've probably got at least another year's good use out of it before it's retirement time. I hope by then Google have returned to asking HTC to make their flagship phones.
I really hate the design of all the Samsung models - they're ugly, and feel cheap and flimsy. I rather like HTC phones, but hate Sense. And of course I want to be sure to get OS updates as soon as Google release them, as I've become accustomed to on my N1.
If you are going to list that many phones...
...then we need a chart listing all with frequencies, CPU, RAM, SD Card size, battery life (talk and standby), screen res, etc. Half those phones will not work on my network and I need to know those things to make an informed choice.
I travel a lot and need a "World" phone. From your review I have no idea which ones will fulfill that.
It's not THAT bad
"Meanwhile my antique candybar Nokia 2310 will last the full week, and even makes those, you know, phonecall things..."
If you use a smartphone only for calls and texts it will also last much longer than one or two days. They are not all the same with standby power needs and background apps sucking power but basically these things run down their batteries that fast because you do so much more with them.
