AT&T is getting ready to debut an army of Android smart phones during the next few weeks, with the most talked about one being the Motorola ATRIX 4G that is run by an NVIDIA Tegra 2 chipset that has a 2 x 1GHz processor.
AndroidCentral announced that Motorola’s new flagship showed up for a short while for sale on Amazon with an unlocked price of $600 – that is $70 more than the unlocked Nexus S single-core phone. If you add on a two-year AT&T contract, though, you can get it at Amazon for as cheap as $150. Costco appears to be expecting to offer the ATRIX 4G for $150 if users also add on a new two-year AT&T contract.
Along with the dual-core processor, the ATRIX 4G will have 1GB RAM, 1930 mAh battery, 4-inch qHD touchscreen, 16GB internal memory, the Android 2.2 operating system, a front-facing VGA camera, and a five-megapixel rear-facing camera with a LED flash and HD video recording.
The ATRIX 4G records 720p HD video at 30 fps, however, 1080p HD video recording will be supported using a software upgrade after it comes out. Motorola has not released the information on a specific upgrade schedule, but has said an upgrade to Android 2.3 will occur sometime later on in 2011.
The ATRIX 4G made lots of news during CES 2011 this year, when it showed up to show off its unique Webtop mode, which can run a full Mozilla 3.6.13 browser. The Webtop mode is turned on as soon as the smart phone is put into a laptop or multimedia dock. Docks are going to be offered separately, however, it hasn’t been said yet if they too will debut in February. One source said that the laptop doc is going to be available for about $150.
That same person announced that Best Buy is going to get the ATRIX 4G first, and that it will come out before the Samsung Infuse 4G and the HTC Inspire 4G. Since Motorola said earlier that the ATRIX 4G was due out later in February, it’s probably that the two will be released later on in March. Recently, the Inspire 4G showed up for a short period on Amazon too, which shows that the online marketplace intends to offer it for as cheap as $99 as long as users also get a new two-year AT&T contract.
The HTC Inspire 4G is a single-core phone, which shows that you will be required to shell out an extra $50 extra to get a hold of the NVIDIA Tegra 2 power of the ATRIX 4G. Motorola’s CEO said earlier that there were some uncertainties about Motorola’s financial performance going forward, and this is more than likely due to them placing their hopes on dual-core products like ATRIX 4G, Droid Bionic and Xoom. It will be very fascinating to find out how these items will do in this year’s digital marketplace.
Motorola also said earlier that they plan to put out a 4G LTE-enabled XOOM tablet for Verizon Wireless in the middle of 2011, which is about the same time frame they plan to put out the Droid Bionic, which is supposed to come out later on in the second quarter. Fascinatingly, the 3G version of the XOOM that is coming out in late February or early March is expected to cost either $700 or $800 if it is unlocked. Considering the ATRIX 4G is expected to cost $600 if it is unlocked, it is probably that the predictions on the XOOM price is pretty close.
