Tegra 2 makes for a scary-fast smartphone
As far as referendums on nVidia’s new Tegra 2 processor go, Motorola’s and AT&T’s Atrix 4G is a shining success. It throws off beastly performance and also manages to greatly reduce power consumption. However, when viewed as a referendum on the ARM architecture’s potential to scale up and supplant x86 in laptops and desktops—or even run Windows—the outlook isn’t quite as promising.
Back in July 2010, Nokia announced plans to acquire most of Motorola's wireless network infrastructure assets for $1.2 billion, a move that would make Nokia second only to Ericsson. That deal was supposed to close by the end of 2010 but was delayed until the first quarter of 2011. Now Nokia is saying the deal is again on hold, only this time the company has no idea when it's expected to close.
One of the big draws of the Android operating system is that most mobile Android devices are able to be rooted, adding all kinds of additional functionality. At the same time, you usually forfeit your warranty and support when you decide to root, which makes Motorola's latest announcement particularly surprising (in a good way). Motorola said that all Xoom tablets on the Verizon Wireless network are eligible for a 4G LTE upgrade, even if you've unlocked your tablet.
We were lucky enough to get our hands on Motorola's much-touted Atrix 4G phone with the accompanying laptop accessory. At just under $500 (including a rebate and a discount for existing AT&T customers), it's a pricey bundle. But for the hardcore smartphonists, the Atrix is truly the first of its kind.
