Samsung Galaxy S3 vs Motorola Atrix 4G: Will AT&T's Flagship Device Outshine Samsung's Best?

The Atrix 4G from Motorola is the flagship smartphone in AT&T's Android lineup and packs both speed and power. Motorola's Atrix 4G is part of the new breed of Android handsets that was introduced at the 2011 Consumer Electronics Show (CES). Samsung's Infuse 4G and the HTC Inspire 4G were the other two handsets unveiled at the same event. At the time of its launch, AT&T billed the Atrix 4G as the "world's most powerful smartphone". The Atrix is designed to support a laptop dock with the necessary software pre-installed to enable PC-like experience for users while accessing smartphone content.

The Samsung Galaxy S3, on the other hand, needs no introduction, holding as it does, top spot in sales in the Android market

Check out how the two leading smartphones stack up against each other:

Dimensions and Weight: Following the increasing popularity of ultra-slim smartphones, the S3 has a strikingly stylish design and sleek form-factor. It measures 136.6 x 70.6 x 8.6 mm and weighs 133g. The S3 is thinner than the iPhone 4S (9.3mm) and the Galaxy Nexus (8.9mm).

The Atrix 4G, on the other hand, feels a bit bulky measuring 11mm in thickness. It weighs nearly as much as the Galaxy S3 at 135g.

Display: The Galaxy S3 sports a massive 4.8in Super AMOLED display with a capacitive touchscreen running at 720p (720 x 1280 pixels) resolution and a pixel density of 306 pixels per inch (ppi). The S3 adds the second-generation damage resistant Corning Gorilla Glass protection for its display.

By comparison, the Motorola phone ships with a smaller 4in TFT capacitive touchscreen running at native 540 x 960 pixels resolution and a pixel density of 275ppi. Unlike the S3, the Atrix 4G sports a first-generation Corning Gorilla Glass that protects its display from damage and scratches.

Processor: The S3 boasts a powerful quad-core 1.4 GHz Cortex-A9 processor based on the Exynos 4 quad chipset and a Mali-400MP GPU for graphics applications, which is suitable for high-performance computing like gaming and multi-tasking. The Atrix 4G features a dual-core 1GHz Cortex-A9 processor coupled with Adreno 205 GPU. The main processor is based on the famed Nvidia Tegra 2 chipset and is ideal for multitasking and gaming.

Memory and Storage: Both the Atrix 4G and the Galaxy S3 ship with 1GB of RAM. The latter supports three versions of internal storage - 16/32/64 GB - while the former offers a single 16GB internal storage model. The S3 adds microSD expansion support up to 64GB while the Motorola phone supports only up to 32GB.

Operating System: The Atrix 4G comes with Android 2.2 (Froyo). In comparison, the Galaxy S3 ships with Android 4.0.4 (the latest version of Ice Cream Sandwich) factory-installed.

Camera: The Galaxy S3 has a powerful eight megapixel rear camera with special functions such as simultaneous HD video and image recording besides touch focus, face and smile detection. The Atrix 4G has only a five megapixel main camera but both smartphones have a few common traits such as auto-focus, LED flash, geo-tagging and image stabilisation. The S3 supports 1080p video recording capability at 30fps (frames per second) while the Atrix 4G offers 720p video recording at 30fps (however, 1080p is supported by future updates). The S3 features a decent 1.9 megapixel front-facing camera for video calls, while the Motorola phone features a low-powered VGA camera.

Connectivity: The Galaxy S3 offers Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n, DLNA, Wi-Fi Direct, Wi-Fi hotspot, Bluetooth v4.0 with A2DP, EDR and NFC (Near Field Communication). Its 4G connectivity speeds are HSDPA 21Mbps and HSUPA 5.76Mbps. The Motorola Atrix 4G has similar connectivity options, with Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n, DLNA, Bluetooth v2.1 with A2DP and EDR. The only exception is the lack of NFC. It offers 3G download connectivity speeds up to 14.4Mbps on HSDPA and upload speeds up to 5.76Mbps on HSUPA network bands.

Battery: The Galaxy S3 is powered by a massive 2100mAh Li-Ion battery that is rated to deliver up to 590 hours of standby time on 2G and up to 790 hours on 3G networks. The battery also delivers an impressive talk time of approximately 22 hours on 2G and 12 hours on 3G networks. The Motorola smartphone, in comparison, features a weaker Li-Ion 1930 mAh battery rated to provide up to 400 hours of standby time or nearly nine hours of talk time over 2G and up to 350 hours of standby time or up to nine hours of talk time over 3G.