Atrix worth the money right now or should I wait?

[second exodous]

Well, I'm finally breaking down and getting a smart phone. I have AT&T right now and I have an upgrade and for $99 I could get an Atrix. I can wait, I've been looking at rumors but nothing seems to be coming out any time soon. I like the HDMI output on it for playing video on TV and a simple web browser on a Hotel TV and the ability to just charge through a plain mini(micro?) USB cable as I'm always forgetting my chargers. Those things are important to me on a phone. I'm tempted to wait for the iPhone5 though, but not being able to open a device makes me nervous, something that the Atrix is known for.

 

[Nintendo]

IMHO, you should wait and see what the iPhone 5 has to offer.

 

[vic20ian]

iphone......old technology and no flash maybe :rolleyes:

 

[DaMummy]

dont forget the $9000 price tag. and forget hdmi out for it

 

[gadgetoid]

Both my iPhone and iPad do HDMI out just fine. Yes, an adaptor is required; but most devices will require either a dock, or a funky cable of some sort.


I'd wait for the iPhone 5. If only because it's simply stupid not to. If you wait for it, decide it's not for you, and buy the Atrix anyway then there's no harm done.


Android phones keep tempting me. I think the iPhone 4 is good enough that I'd rather grab an Android device to compliment it than what might amount to the iPhone 4S. I skipped the 3Gs and got a Noka N900 instead, keeping my iPhone 3G handy just in case.


Edit: P.S. the Atrix dock is the dumbest piece of sh1t I've ever clapped eyes upon. And anyone using it should be slapped, hard, around the face. £280 for Firefox!? Who the hell are they kidding. I could get a whole laptop for that, which would mop the floor with the Atrix. There have been similar devices before, notably a bluetooth screen/keyboard laptop-like-thing for Windows Mobile, which failed hard.


What sort of price can you pick up a Galaxy S2 for, if at all?

 

[Jourdy288]

What sort of price can you pick up a Galaxy S2 for, if at all?

That's precisely the phone I'm after, not sure of price but it looks to be worth it.


Also, the Atrix is a pretty good phone in general, but the laptop dock isn't really worth getting. Quite frankly, I like the idea, but it's far too expensive for what amounts to seemingly intentional limited functionality.

 

[second exodous]

On the Atrix you don't need the dock to use the fast boot desktop, you can use it by just plugging in the Atrix in to a monitor/TV through HDMI.


I read on Mac Rumors Best Buy expects the iPhone5 in the first week of October so it wouldn't be that long of a wait so I'll just hold off.

 

[Exophase]

Both my iPhone and iPad do HDMI out just fine. Yes, an adaptor is required; but most devices will require either a dock, or a funky cable of some sort.

I'm going to tell you something mildly useful Gadgetoid: DaMummy is sarcastic

 

[DaMummy]

that is not true

 

[Exophase]

my words are facing great resistance

 

[Batou456]

IMHO, you should wait and see what the iPhone 5 has to offer.

?


What are you expecting that's worthy of making an issue of? There's silicon refinements on existing processes hitting market this quarter hence the OMAP 4xxx dual core Cortex A9 parts at over 1GHz coming out in various devices. There's also 28nm parts expected to be coming to market this year including the Radeon 7xxx series and follow up to Brazos by both TSMC and GlobalFoundries.

 

[Exophase]

There's always something around the corner.. but I'd be really surprised if 28nm launched in a mobile device this year. Actually I'd be kind of surprised if it launched so soon in anything, including AMD GPUs. You can buy an OMAP4430 phone now if you really want one (something like three are currently out); the 1.5GHz OMAP4460 will be out in devices later but it's positioned more as a tablet part so I don't expect it to hit phones any time soon. Note that phones take longer to get new SoCs because of all the extra time needed for validation. Hence why you saw Tegra 2 tablets way before phones.


IF iPhone 5 contains an A5 (there are rumors that it might actually contain an A4) it'll have a massive GPU advantage over everything else on the market right now, even Galaxy S2. So if 3D games are your thing I'd definitely wait and see on that.

 

[gadgetoid]

If the iPhone 5 is decent enough, it doesn't have to be the top dog, then the iOS software library pretty much makes it the obvious choice. Although lack of an out-of-the-box jailbreak is a very hard pill to swallow. I'd certainly never sell my 4 for a 5 unless the jailbreak was available.


Android is getting pretty damned good now, though. I'm liking the Motorola DEFY a lot, and it's no brag-worthy powerhouse by any stretch.

 

[hisaki]

I'm going to tell you something mildly useful Gadgetoid: DaMummy is sarcastic

People on the internet are never sarcastic. Trust me, I've done my research.

 

[Batou456]

The only meaningful advantage an Apple A5 has over an OMAP 4430 lies in the relatively massive 122mm^2 (45nm) A5 die allowing more GPU circuitry. The 4430 in tablets ala the Toshiba AT200 are being clocked at 1.2GHz, and 1 GHz for cell phones.  Given the large die and Apple choose to throttle the iPad's A5 at 1GHz there is no reason to presume it would not be downclocked for a cell phone, unless it undergoes a die shrink.


How long do you see cell phone manufacturers sticking to the 45nm node, when TSMC and Global Foundries are pushing 28nm, and chip designers have done the test silicon of their next gen on said node already, seems as how the argument is to play the wait game on the hope of getting something that might have an advantage over existing hardware in a single area? Things may not be ready for full ramp up quite yet, but it won't be that long at this point if you're already going to advocate waiting a month to a looksie at iPhone 5.

 

[Exophase]

It's like I said Jebe, if 3D games are your thing wait and see, otherwise don't. I've laid out nothing but facts, this is up to the reader to decide. Nothing, including Tegra 3 or OMAP4460, is going to match A5 in the GPU department for quite a while. That Apple achieved this GPU performance by producing a large die doesn't matter in the slightest. I don't know why you think the die size will inhibit clock speed or push them to move to a stripped down version for phones. It's not like the Cortex-A9 cores are taking up that space.


I see cell phone manufacturers sticking with 45nm until several months after 28nm chips are actually available for purchase. This isn't by choice, this is necessity. But if you think there'll be 28nm phones out this year I'll happily place a wager against you.


Note that OMAP4430 is in a larger package than A5, which makes you wonder what they're wasting all that empty space on if it's such a smaller die..