Motorola ATRIX and Lapdock

First of all, the Atrix 4G is one of the most powerful smartphones on the market. It includes a dual-core Nvidia Tegra CPU running at 1GHz and 1GB of regular DDR2 computer RAM memory. On top of that it has 16GB of built-in flash memory and a micro-SD slot that may provide an additional 32GB. It runs Android 2.2 and comes with all the bells and whistles that you are used to from today's most capable smartphones, and then some. These components make it sufficiently powerful to work as a regular PC, albeit not a very powerful one.

So, this phone has enough power to act as a PC, so why not let it do just that? Apparently that's what the engineers at Motorola also asked themselves, so they came up with the Lapdock to give you just that. What actually happens is that the phone starts up an app called Webtop, which fires up on the screen of the Lapdock. Lapdock has no separate operating system; Android is at the core but it runs through the Webtop app, which included a desktop-style Firefox 3.6 browser with support for Adobe Flash.

In effect, you get a (more or less) full-fledged computer that can manage the same things as an average netbook. Other than just browsing the web, you can watch movies and do other things you would expect from a typical low-end laptop. According to a few early reviews it does exactly what it's supposed to; web pages download fast, movies run without lag, and the experience on the whole is perceived as using a standard mini notebook.

It's worth noting that the Lapdock has its own battery, so you do not have to drain the phone battery to power the display. When the Lapdock is connected to the power grid it will charge your phone simultaneously.

The unit is relatively large - not significantly smaller than the average netbook or ultraportable laptop. It weighs just over 1 kg and is nearly 1.4 cm thick. The screen is 11.6 inches and the resolution 1366 x 768 pixels. Its included battery will stay alive for 8 to 10 hours. There are also a couple of stereo speakers and two USB ports included.

It you happen to receive a phone call while you the Motorola Atrix 4G is connected to Lapdock you can answer the call without removing the phone. When you subsequently disconnect the phone, the Webtop app will save the state your virtual computer is in - once you connect your phone again it will continue where you left off.

One of the best parts with the Laptop is that you get a full-size keyboard to work with. Also, it is apparently backlit and somewhat reminiscent of Apple's keyboards in terms of design. Beneath the keyboard is a regular trackpad to control the mouse pointer. This one supports multi-touch so you can scroll down the pages by dragging two fingers across it.

The Wetop user interface looks a lot like Mac OS X with animated program icons at the bottom of the screen. It also has regular application windows that you're used to from a PC, Mac or desktop Linux distribution. An additional feature is that even if the phone is docked on the back of the screen you can still use it via a program called mobile view. This is simply the screen on your phone but with full access to all the features.

It should be quite obvious that the Lapdock cannot and will not replace a regular laptop or desktop PC (but your netbook is officially obsolete). Although it is about the same size as a sleek ultraportable it is not as capable. It is nevertheless an amazing concept that shows off the power of the Motorola Atrix and the Linux-powered Android operating system.

Unfortunately the Lapdock is not included with the Atrix but costs almost as much - or much more if you consider that the Atrix 4G price is low if you purchase it with a plan or extension. That way this inventive solution has an obvious weakness.

Hopefully the price will come down eventually, because it's a great concept. It's a clever way to exploit the increasingly powerful mobile phones with fast processors and real RAM. Eventually, Motorola plans to include the Webtop app with more of their their high-end smartphones, so it seems that the manufacturer believes in the concept and will continue to develop it. Keep tabs of the latest prices over at Smartphone Deal and let's hope that it comes out on the cheap soon enough.