Moto Atrix: What Do You Think?

[Kevin OQuinn]

I'm not bitter at all. I can easily get any of these phones that come out. The problem is that the hardware advances so fast that the software can't even catch up, and the phones aren't even out for very long. Once Tegra 2 is about 3 months old HTC and Samsung will come out with a dual core 1.2/1.5Ghz processor and new screen technology. It's crazy. Next year we will be hitting quad cores in phones.

I was kidding. But seriously qualcomm already has a dual core snapdragon with each core running at 1.2ghz with an Adreno 220 GPU. It's in the 7" ASUS tablet. And I've heard rumbling of a dual core TI OMAP4 also, and yes I agree that Samsung will have a dual core Hummingbird anytime now. The good news is that if you get a Tegra 2 phone you can bet that it will be focal point for developers (and hopefully Google) to optimize for.

 

[blopez24]

That's exactly what I'm saying. And 5 or 8 mp won't make a difference. Still capable of high def video.

I went from 8 to 5 and don't notice a difference.

Sent from my myTouch 4G

You sold me sir! I will be getting this phone when it comes out.

 

[AndroidFTFW]

waiting for the orion dual core processor..im gonna get the atrix, but as soon as the orions come out im there...you dont **** with the orions lol

 

[Kevin OQuinn]

waiting for the orion dual core processor..im gonna get the atrix, but as soon as the orions come out im there...you dont **** with the orions lol

Orion? Do you know something the rest of us don't?

 

[Lord_Micron]

Orion? Do you know something the rest of us don't?

Orion is the CPU/GPU combo that Samsung has been touting for a little over 5 months...

It's the Cortex A9 w/ Mali 400 quad-core graphics

When you pair it up against the Tegra 2, which is the A9 w/ GeForce octo-core graphics, you're kinda left scratching your head as to what the poster who brought Orion up is getting at; since the purported specs don't offer anything that the Tegra 2 can't already do...

 

[makav3ll1]

Definetly a + for att, the android phones they have are poopoo.

 

[mc511]

I love everything i have seen so far. My only concern is the price. I think $250 with a new 2 year contract will be fine, but motorola said it will be priced competitively. So hopefully $200 like most other high end phones. If not then i may be getting the HTC. dont have the money for anything higher than $250.

 

[renegade37918]

ok i'm on at&t grandfather with unlimited data so this is the droid i want? if we can get a release date..

 

[renegade37918]

i think its time to get rid of my ole trusted berry

 

[LiquidAppo]

My body is ready.

 

[Auzo]

This is what I have gathered while scouring the internets for info about mobile dual cores.

First off Tegra 2 will hold up extremely well for the majority of this year and this is why: (I will focus on CPU and GPU portions of the SoCs)

Tegra 2 uses the ARM A9 architecture which is about 20-30% faster clock for clock against the ARM A8 (pretty much all current phones) in addition the gpu has been shown to be even faster than the SGX540 (in the Samsung SoC) which is already insanely fast.
NVIDIA Introduces dual Cortex A9 based Tegra 2 - AnandTech :: Your Source for Hardware Analysis and News
Nvidia Tegra 2 - Graphics Performance Update - AnandTech :: Your Source for Hardware Analysis and News

Now onto the competition.
Qualcomm has two chips that I should mention, the MSM 8x60 which should be out anytime now and the MSM 8960 which realistically wont be seen until the end of the year.
The 8660/8260 (cdma/gsm versions) will be dual core procs based on the A8 architecture. So even at 1.2 GHz compared to the 1 GHz tegra it at best will be on par and at worse a bit slower. It will also have the Adreno 220. Now this is speculation on my part but I expect it to be better than the SGX 540 which puts it in the same league as the Nvidia solution. So to me the 8X60 and Tegra 2 are on par with each other but Nvidia is out in phones now!

The 8960 will be a gen above Tegra 2 imo. It will be based on the A9 architecture and on the 28nm process (more efficient with potential for higher clocks) And the Adreno 300 series will also be a great deal better. PS3/XBOX360 levels of performance if their marketing team is to be believed. The only problem is that it wont show up till next year or very late this year.

The Samsung Orion imo will be on par with the Qualcomm 8960 with potentially a more powerful GPU but just like the 8960 it wont be out until earliest late this year. (very little info about this guy that I could find but supposedly ridiculous GPU)

And lastly I believe the laggard here is TI. There OMAP 4series wont be showing up until mid this year and unfortunately for them they will be on par with tegra 2. Options for higher clocked cpu but a possibly worse GPU (using sgx 540 with highest end parts bumping up clock a bit) but their DSP portions will surely shine which is there only plus.

 

[anon(27512)]

I'm really not feeling the atrix. To me it looks similar to the Bravo. I doubt I would ever even use that laptop docking thing. Maybe if this had VZW's version of blur, a 4.3" screen and the droid x's style I would be interested.

That said, I really wish the Atrix's specs were inside the Inspire. I will probably end up leaving my iphone 4 for the Inspire or Infuse. I can't wait to be back on a android phone!

 

[cckgz4]

I really want this phone

 

[BlackPrince310]

This is what I have gathered while scouring the internets for info about mobile dual cores.

First off Tegra 2 will hold up extremely well for the majority of this year and this is why: (I will focus on CPU and GPU portions of the SoCs)

Tegra 2 uses the ARM A9 architecture which is about 20-30% faster clock for clock against the ARM A8 (pretty much all current phones) in addition the gpu has been shown to be even faster than the SGX540 (in the Samsung SoC) which is already insanely fast.
NVIDIA Introduces dual Cortex A9 based Tegra 2 - AnandTech :: Your Source for Hardware Analysis and News
Nvidia Tegra 2 - Graphics Performance Update - AnandTech :: Your Source for Hardware Analysis and News

Now onto the competition.
Qualcomm has two chips that I should mention, the MSM 8x60 which should be out anytime now and the MSM 8960 which realistically wont be seen until the end of the year.
The 8660/8260 (cdma/gsm versions) will be dual core procs based on the A8 architecture. So even at 1.2 GHz compared to the 1 GHz tegra it at best will be on par and at worse a bit slower. It will also have the Adreno 220. Now this is speculation on my part but I expect it to be better than the SGX 540 which puts it in the same league as the Nvidia solution. So to me the 8X60 and Tegra 2 are on par with each other but Nvidia is out in phones now!

The 8960 will be a gen above Tegra 2 imo. It will be based on the A9 architecture and on the 28nm process (more efficient with potential for higher clocks) And the Adreno 300 series will also be a great deal better. PS3/XBOX360 levels of performance if their marketing team is to be believed. The only problem is that it wont show up till next year or very late this year.

The Samsung Orion imo will be on par with the Qualcomm 8960 with potentially a more powerful GPU but just like the 8960 it wont be out until earliest late this year. (very little info about this guy that I could find but supposedly ridiculous GPU)

And lastly I believe the laggard here is TI. There OMAP 4series wont be showing up until mid this year and unfortunately for them they will be on par with tegra 2. Options for higher clocked cpu but a possibly worse GPU (using sgx 540 with highest end parts bumping up clock a bit) but their DSP portions will surely shine which is there only plus.

The 8960 should be the same chip as the the 8660/8260 because they are part of the sane 8x60 family. I highly doubt the 8960 will be A9 and the others A8 if they're the same chip.

Everything else you said looks fairly correct. However, I believe Samsung's next gen hardware will destroy everything else if it's A9. I assumed Qualcomm's would be A9 but I guess not.

 

[Auzo]

The 8960 should be the same chip as the the 8660/8260 because they are part of the sane 8x60 family. I highly doubt the 8960 will be A9 and the others A8 if they're the same chip.

Everything else you said looks fairly correct. However, I believe Samsung's next gen hardware will destroy everything else if it's A9. I assumed Qualcomm's would be A9 but I guess not.

The MSM8X60 is a stop gap for Qualcomm until they get their next gen cpu's up and running. Its a 3rd gen snapdragon and as such its using 2 Scorpion processors (which is based on the A8 arch)
Qualcomm Products and Services - The Snapdragon™ Platform

The MSM8960 on the other hand is next gen. It will incorporate both CDMA and WCDMA (HSPA) 3G techs as well as LTE all in the same chip. That is all in addition to the other goods A9 and Adreno 3XX.
Qualcomm Reveals Next-Gen Snapdragon MSM8960: 28nm, dual-core, 5x Performance Improvement - AnandTech :: Your Source for Hardware Analysis and News

 

[Auzo]

And in case anyone is interested here are the processes used for each chip:

Nvidia Tegra2 = 40nm (Nvidia has always been on an offset process compared to the CPU guys)
Qualcomm Gen3 Snapdragon MSM8X60 = 45nm
Qualcomm MSM8960 = 28nm
TI OMAP4XXX = 45nm
Qualcomm Gen1 snapdragon = 65nm (in my poor evo )
Qualcomm Gen2 snapdragon = 45nm
Samsung Hummingbird based SoC = 45nm
Samsung Orion based SoC = 28nm (guess)

 

[BlackPrince310]

Wow, interesting stuff. So which manufacturer do you expect to have the best hardware? Qualcomm, TI, Nvidia, Samsung etc.

 

[thebizz]

But you can't forget about the tegra3 which is done but just waiting for the Tegra2 to ship. With the tegra4 in the works, so realistically by the time we see the 8960 in a device the tegra3 could be making its way to the market

 

[thebizz]

Wow, interesting stuff. So which manufacturer do you expect to have the best hardware? Qualcomm, TI, Nvidia, Samsung etc.

Honestly I think it will be a Toss up the snapdragon should provide excellent CPU cores while the nvidia chip should be excellent at gpu chores but this is all a guess

 

[Auzo]

Haha ya. Its crazy to think that the Tegra 2 (at least the tablet packaged version) has been out for over a year now. I think they announced it last CES and they were already talking about Tegra 3 then.

As for which manufacturer is the best, I don't really think there is a good answer to that. The best chip will probably change quarterly. These manufacturer's development cycles seem to all be offset so that every few months the next guys new chip is coming out.

With that said Nvidia got lucky because Google choose their chip for the reference design so I think they are the front runners... at least for this year.