How does the Motorola Atrix 4G laptop dock compare to a laptop?

One of the most eye-opening, attention-grabbing pieces of future tech to hitCES 2011 was the Motorola Atrix 4G--not so much because of the phone itself, now because of its bold laptop dock, which promises a seamless transformation of smartphone into Netbook. Who needs a laptop, all things considered, when your phone can be both? So then, you've read Bonnie Cha's review of the phone. I'm interested, as a laptop reviewer, in how the Atrix functions as...then, a laptop.

A laptop, without the laptopWhat the laptop dock is, really, is an in the extreme well-constructed dock for the Atrix phone, adding a long-life battery, a keyboard, a large touch pad, two USB ports, and a pair of stereo speakers, and with a few neat tricks up its sleeve. It looks like the Cr-48 Chrome OS laptop, and or even a sleek thin-and-light. Now it's not a standalone machine: the Atrix needs to be plugged in for the laptop dock to work. The good news is that the transformation is seamless and hot-swappable: plug it in and the dock boots up. Unplug and the phone's back in your hand, ready to go.

The Motorola operating environment once the dock is running feels a lot like the Splashtop "quick-start" OS environments found on some laptops and Netbooks: a pared-down launchpad for a few key applications and a Web browser. The actual phone screen is replicated in the dock's 11.5-inch display, as a pixel-perfect window. Buttons can be virtually pressed using the touch pad's mouse cursor, now since the laptop dock's screen doesn't have touch capability, you can't use the same multitouch gestures as you would on the phone. The screen can be flipped horizontally or vertically with the click of a software button, or even blown up to nearly full screen, in much the same way that theiPad pixel-doublesiPhone apps for large-screen viewing.

A separate set of launch-button hot keys will bring up contacts or the Atrix phone dialer, and, yes, you can make phone calls during the Atrix is docked, even over Bluetooth. Clearly, on a laptop you can do the same with Skype, VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol), or Google Voice, and on an iPad there are solutions, too.

The funny part

No Chrome Here's the funny part, meanwhile to me: though this is an Android phone, the baked-in browser on the Motorola dock is Firefox. Herein lies the sense of disconnect. In a future world where devices seamlessly sync and transform function, the top-to-bottom OS functionality here should remain Google-based. If this dock were able to run Chrome OS and Chrome apps, or at the very least a Chrome browser, and even seamlessly integrate Android and Chrome functionality, we'd as a matter of fact be touching the future. Instead, the dock's Motorola OS feels clever nevertheless tacked on. Firefox is capable of playing Flash-based sites and videos, and did a decent yet not great job of full-screen Hulu playback--comparable with what you'd get on a Netbook. It's as well, based on anecdotal office use over our standard Wi-Fi, considerably slower than other laptops. Writing in Google Docs became a sluggish affair, and afterwards a during it felt like we'd be more productive simply undocking the phone.

The laptop dock does have a few neat tricks up its sleeve. A built-in HD media playback app works a bit like an Apple TV interface, playing full-screen movies, photos, and music. An HD video shot on the Atrix looked great on the 11.5-inch screen, accompanied by crisp audio from the side-mounted built-in stereo speakers on the back of the dock. Unfortunately, this media player doesn't play files in the background. Play some music and exit the player, and the program hard exits and leaves you tuneless.

Crouching laptop, hidden phoneWhile the Atrix is plugged into the back of the dock, it recharges off the dock's integrated battery. This is a nice touch, however the Atrix remains out of sight during the laptop dock is open. A more sensible idea, to me, would have been to dock the Atrix in the bottom of the keyboard deck, flat, so that you could nevertheless operate the touch screen like a second screen.

So, who is this laptop dock for? It's unclear right but, nevertheless probably no one you know. It's truly fascinating research and an eye-catching demonstration, yet app support, a faster browsing experience, and a more competitive price are where phone/laptop hybrids need to go then. It's a compelling concept, and one we're certain to see revived in future smartphones. For nevertheless, I'd say skip the dock, but in any case check out the Atrix phone.

The TouchPad

HP introduces the TouchPad, a WebOS-powered tablet, along with two new WebOS phones--the Veer and a follow-up to the Pre. The company as well announced that WebOS would be headed to PCs.

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