Atrix vs Thunderbolt

[sw33ndawg]

Now that the Thunderbolt has been pushed back to presumably a date close to the Atrix release, what do you guys think about these two against eachother? The Atrix has superior hardware (yes I know dual core wont be supported until 2.4 but that release was estimated to be early April), and the Thunderbolt has superior software, that being HTC doesnt lock their phones. What do you guys think? This decision is actually a tough one for me..

 

[textiaac]

Hardware will make it more future proof, because you can always update/change/ROM the software later.

Thus said, i am getting the atrix.

 

[ka3yan]

Teh extra RAM is something you really need to consider too. Will the extra 512MB make a difference in 1-2 years? I think it will.

 

[corneliusm]

(yes I know dual core wont be supported until 2.4 but that release was estimated to be early April)

Why must people keep repeating this over and over? SMP is technically supported by the Android kernel. Yes, even 2.2 will see a performance boost with an extra core.

2.4 and 3.0 will simply bring enhancements to the Android system and Dalvik's preemptive scheduler and multicore garbage collection to work better on a multiprocessor environment. These are merely optimizations for multicore, however, and previous versions will utilize a second core as long as the kernel has been compiled properly (with SMP enabled).

If you don't believe me, look here:
LG Optimus 2X & NVIDIA Tegra 2 Review: The First Dual-Core Smartphone - AnandTech

 

[anon(41845)]

Hardware will make it more future proof, because you can always update/change/ROM the software later.

Thus said, i am getting the atrix.

Agreed. That and the more pocket friendly 4" screen size with higher resolution.

The Atrix is by far the best phone available. It is just too bad that AT&T decided to rape its customers over the contract and dock pricing.

 

[corneliusm]

Teh extra RAM is something you really need to consider too. Will the extra 512MB make a difference in 1-2 years? I think it will.

The extra 512MB will make a difference now. Think about the Android Activity lifecycle- when the OS needs more memory, it automatically kills activities that have been suspended.

More memory results in more activities remaining in memory longer, which will mean they load faster again when you bring them back. Also, the garbage collector can be run less frequently (the GC causes slowdowns), though admittedly I don't know the internal workings of DalvikVM, I'm just a Linux kernel guy.

 

[textiaac]

The extra 512MB will make a difference now. Think about the Android Activity lifecycle- when the OS needs more memory, it automatically kills activities that have been suspended.

More memory results in more activities remaining in memory longer, which will mean they load faster again when you bring them back. Also, the garbage collector can be run less frequently (the GC causes slowdowns), though admittedly I don't know the internal workings of DalvikVM, I'm just a Linux kernel guy.

Do we even know definitively if the atrix uses the full 1 gb of ram when out of webtop mode?

 

[corneliusm]

Do we even know definitively if the atrix uses the full 1 gb of ram when out of webtop mode?

Yes.

 

[sw33ndawg]

Yes.

Proof please.

 

[corneliusm]

Proof please.

The Atrix isn't the only Android device coming out soon with 1GB of ram...

 

[sw33ndawg]

The Atrix isn't the only Android device coming out soon with 1GB of ram...

that's an assumption then..

 

[textiaac]

Proof please.

+1

Can corneliusm stop talking out of his/her @$$?

 

[funguy123us]

Agreed. That and the more pocket friendly 4" screen size with higher resolution.

The Atrix is by far the best phone available. It is just too bad that AT&T decided to rape its customers over the contract and dock pricing.

What do you mean? is there different plan that you have to get with Atrix? Can't I just get $25 data plann + voice plan?

 

[corneliusm]

that's an assumption then..

It's a pretty educated assumption.

Let's take a step back and think about this logically.

Hardware-wise, its highly unlikely that the Tegra2 SOC would have any trouble addressing 1024 MB of memory. This has been illustrated by the Notion Ink Adam, which has very similar internal hardware- including the same SoC and 1GB of LPDDR2 memory (same as Atrix) and has no problems addressing 896MB of it (like I said before, 128 MB is dedicated to the GPU).

Software-wise, there's no software ceiling from preventing the system from addressing 1GB of ram. You can verify this by running a test device with 1024MB device memory in the Android Dev SDK. Now we will run into the 4GB barrier eventually (since ARMv7 ISA is 32-bit), but that's another story.

There's no reason why Android will suddenly have trouble with 1GB of ram on a device. Unless Motorola intentionally locked it, but that's just evil.

But like I said, I'm fairly certain there are no software or hardware hurdles addressing the full 896 MB.

 

[corneliusm]

+1

Can corneliusm stop talking out of his/her @$$?

You're more than welcome to ignore my responses then.

 

[textiaac]

It's a pretty educated assumption.

Let's take a step back and think about this logically.

Hardware-wise, its highly unlikely that the Tegra2 SOC would have any trouble addressing 1024 MB of memory. This has been illustrated by the Notion Ink Adam, which has very similar internal hardware- including the same SoC and 1GB of LPDDR2 memory (same as Atrix) and has no problems addressing 896MB of it (like I said before, 128 MB is dedicated to the GPU).

Software-wise, there's no software ceiling from preventing the system from addressing 1GB of ram. You can verify this by running a test device with 1024MB device memory in the Android Dev SDK. Now we will run into the 4GB barrier eventually (since ARMv7 ISA is 32-bit), but that's another story.

There's no reason why Android will suddenly have trouble with 1GB of ram on a device. Unless Motorola intentionally locked it, but that's just evil.

But like I said, I'm fairly certain there are no software or hardware hurdles addressing the full 896 MB.

I fully understand what you are saying, but this is pure speculation, although based on fact, your argument has little merit because in the end Motorola doesn't always follow what we call "common sense" or "logic".

 

[awdyo1]

Agreed. That and the more pocket friendly 4" screen size with higher resolution.

The Atrix is by far the best phone available. It is just too bad that AT&T decided to rape its customers over the contract and dock pricing.

Quick question...if I just want to use my Atrix as a Hotspot login, do I still have to pay the extra $20 a month like you have to do with the Dock?

 

[corneliusm]

Quick question...if I just want to use my Atrix as a Hotspot login, do I still have to pay the extra $20 a month like you have to do with the Dock?

Technically yes. To use Wifi hotspot, you must pay for the feature.

However, you can get around this by rooting the device and enabling tethering support in the OS (which is built-in as of 2.2+), or buying and installing PdaNet- however IIRC this is blocked from the market for devices with AT&T simcards anyway, so you'll want to root it anyway.

Keep in mind that the latter violates AT&T's terms and technically they have the right to terminate your service or add tethering to your plan if they detect that you are tethering. However, they have yet to do this...

 

[textiaac]

However, you can get around this by rooting the device and enabling tethering support in the OS (which is built-in as of 2.2+), or buying and installing PdaNet- however IIRC this is blocked from the market for devices with AT&T simcards anyway, so you'll want to root it anyway.

Someone on the forums said that, if you remove the sim card and use wifi, you should have no problem getting any app you want, i haven't tried this yet.

 

[sw33ndawg]

Someone on the forums said that, if you remove the sim card and use wifi, you should have no problem getting any app you want, i haven't tried this yet.

ive heard it doesnt work for out of market apps