I mentioned in my last post that my Nexus One died a slow painful death. Let me clarify that it was probably only painful for me. But it was now decision time. Stay with AT&T and grab the dual core Atrix with one Gig of RAM? Or move to Verizon and grab the Thunderbolt with that killer true 4G ability?
This was really a tough decision. Both were the same price, and both offered the same discount through my employer. The Thunderbolt had a lot of pluses. A large display, real 4G abilities, an included 32 gig micro SD card, and built by a company that honestly makes some of the sexiest hardware of anyone in the business!
And if all things carried the same weight, I would have chosen the Thunderbolt. But with me, the Thunderbolt carried one very, very large negative; Battery life! Or should I say lack of any battery life! The Rumors were rampant that the several delays in releasing the device were due to last minute tweaks to try to improve the battery life. And once in reviewers hands, after praising the device for it's amazing data speeds, it was always pointed out that battery life was dismal, if at that. Many across the net were reporting that they were only getting 4 hours before the device was dead. I mean really, what does anyone expect? All this display and speed running on a 1400 mAh battery? So yea, I could have grabbed the phone and bought an extended battery, I know. I checked into that too. The 2700 mAh battery the Verizon rep showed me on his own Thunderbolt that also came with another battery cover. This added a "Bubble" on the back of the device. Now I would have had a very weird shaped device, that added considerable weight to an already heavy device, and by the way, does anyone make a decent case to fit this thing with said extended battery?
On the other hand, the Atrix comes of the box with a 1930 mAh battery. A few people might like Blur. . . I'm certianly not a fan, but one thing Motorola does include is some decent battery management ability. There are plenty of complaints about the Atrix battery life in Google Searches, none like there are for the Thunderbolt.
There are other Atrix advantages. The Atrix is thinner, lighter. AT&T includes it's typical bloatware, but to their credit, every bit of it can be uninstalled. (I'm told you can't dispose of the Verizon bloat on the Thunderbolt) I don't like the fact that AT&T have incrypted the bootloader, and right now, I can't easily install Amazon apps from the app store because of AT&T's anal policies, but they have promised access soon.
The honest truth is, I don't know if I am going to keep this device or not. But if I do, I'm probably going to buy another Battery and a charger. And if I take it back and buy another device on another Carrier, I will probably buy a battery for it too. I've never owned any smartphone that had a battery life that I was absolutely pleased with! But with how I use these devices, I HAVE to have something better than 4-5 hours!
Look for more thoughts about the Atrix as I really get to know this device through daily use. In the two days I have owned it, I have already done quite a bit of customizing and tweaking. There are things I see as better than my Nexus One, and things I miss about the Nexus. I'll save those for a future article.
Buds who Blog