Motorola Atrix 4G vs. Samsung Galaxy S 4G
Motorola Atrix 4G vs. Samsung Galaxy S 4G
5:19

Motorola Atrix 4G vs. Samsung Galaxy S 4G

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-What's up, Prizefight fans? I'm Brian Tong and this week, it's a 4G face off between two feature-rich phones. It's a Prizefight punch out between the Motorola Atrix 4G on AT&T and the Samsung Galaxy S 4G on T-Mobile. Our judges for this fight are: Senior Editor Bonnie "The Boom" Cha; Senior Editor Kent "I'm Actually" German; and you know who, Brian "Ling Long Ting" Tong. Now, we'll take all 3 judges' scores and average them out to the nearest 10th each round. The final Prizefight score will be an average of all rounds using the same decimal system. Let's get this party started. First round is design. Both phones have adopted an iPhone-nesque exterior, and it works. Motorala's Atrix 4G is a real clean and smooth design with its high resolution, sharp qHD display. There's a nice weight to it, but an awkward power button on the top of its back side. Now, Samsung's Galaxy S 4G is a sharp and sleek design with a silver matte finish. From the front, this looks like an iPhone. It's slightly longer and wider to hold, and it's lighter in weight. Its AMOLED screen looks great but, it's just not as clean as the competition. Motorola's Atrix 4G just gets the edge in the first round with a 4.3, and Samsung's Galaxy S gets a 4. Next round is controls and user interface. Both phones are running Android 2.2, so you could almost call this a draw with its voice commands and turn-by-turn maps, until you get to their custom Android interfaces. Motorola forces you to sign up for a MOTOBLUR account to use the phone. To use the phone! Now, MOTOBLUR has improved and it's less intrusive, but this phone also doesn't include the Swype writing feature. See in my home screen as tiles is cool, but it can't make up for its shortcomings. Samsung brings their TouchWiz interface and it's really simplified the Android experience. Purists will complain it looks too much like iOS, but it retains Android's myriad of features. You'll get Swype functionality, and I'm a big fan of quick access to the services in the notifications drop down. The Galaxy S 4G gets a perfect 5, and the Atrix 4G gets a 4. So, after averaging 2 rounds, the Galaxy S leads by 3/10 of a point. Round 3 is features. The Atrix 4G instantly shows off with its dual-core processor that makes for a snappier experience. There's 16 gigs of on-board storage with an SD card slot for up to 32 gigs more. It has an HDMI port for video out, and even if you won't use them, it's compatible with its laptop dock, a stand alone mouse and keyboard, and a media dock. This guy is a jack of all trades. Now, the Samsung Galaxy S 4G is no chump with a 1 gigahertz processor that still feels pretty speedy. It has only 185 megs of on-board storage with a card slot that supports up to 32 gigs more. Both phones support Wi-Fi hotspot capabilities, but the Atrix is one of the most versatile phones we've ever seen, and it takes this round with a perfect 5 of its own, and Samsung gets a 4. Round 4 is Web browsing and multimedia. The Web browsers are pretty much a push here, and many Android users are using other browsers anyways. The Atrix 4G's higher resolution screen makes for a more enjoyable Web experience, but we were all let down by its slower data speeds that AT&T locked down for the time being without telling customers. Now, it brings a 5-megapixel camera with a dual LED flash that will support up to 1080p video capture, and its media player is the standard Android one, so there's nothing really to be impressed by there. The Galaxy S 4G has the same Web browser features, but I do like its more visual multiple browser windows, and its data speeds were excellent. It features a 5-megapixel camera with 720p video support, a variety of settings within the camera app, and it delivers better image quality compared to the Atrix 4G. Plus, it comes with an ecosystem with its media hub ready to deliver movies and TV shows directly to the device. The Galaxy S 4G takes this round with a 4.7, and the Atrix 4G gets a 3.7. So, after averaging 4 rounds, Samsung leads by just 1/10 of a point. The final round that decides its all is call quality and performance. The Atrix brings solid call quality on both sides. Bonnie found a few garbles, but its dual-core processing makes a difference, and it was able to squeeze up to 10 hours of talk time in our test. Plus, you could feel the speed and fast don't lie. Now the Galaxy S had excellent call quality that was cleaner compared to the Atrix 4G. Our labs were able to crank out 9 hours of talk time, but we did come across a few moments where it had some slight performance lag. It's too close to call, and the judges are calling this round a tie at 4 points a piece. So, let's average out all 5 rounds. And in a battle where both phones won 2 rounds a piece and tied the last, the Samsung Galaxy S 4G just barely, barely edges the Motorola Atrix 4G, 4.3 to 4.2, and is your Prizefight winner. With a cat fight this close, you can't go wrong with either phone, but it's the Galaxy S 4G's interface, Web browsing, and multimedia that prove to be the difference makers today. I'm Bring Tong. Thanks for watching and we'll catch you guys next time on another Prizefight.

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