The Motorola ATRIX, one of the more innovative smartphones on the market, is coming soon to Singapore with a recommended retail price of S$988. Available on all three operators, the Android 2.2 phone will land on the 10th of June.
The ATRIX is a futuristic device which can be docked on to two specially-designed docks. The first is called a “Lapdock”, and once you dock your phone on it, the Webtop application fires up, transforming the ATRIX into a pretend-netbook with a file manager and full-fledged Mozilla Firefox browser. A full office suite is also available, and you can even make calls and send text messages when docked.
The lapdock has an 11.6-inch screen with a full-sized keyboard, a trackpad, and stereo speakers. Motorola also squeezed a three-cell battery into the dock, which reportedly lasts up to 8 hours. All these add an additional 1.1kg to the weight of your phone, and will cost you S$1288 as a bundle with the phone.
Motorola ATRIX lapdock
The second dock is a more traditional HD Multimedia Dock, which has an HDMI port and three USB ports. Just add a keyboard, and you’ll be browsing the web on your HDTV. Or, if you prefer, connect three other 1TB drives and watch movies on your TV through your phone. If you’re not trembling with excitement at this point, you’re probably not a true techie!
Motorola ATRIX HD Multimedia dock
All that functionality comes with serious computing power. Powered by a 1GHz dual-core processor and a whooping 1GB of RAM, the ATRIX also features a qHD display (960 x 540) that looks pretty darn amazing after all those 800 x 480 phones in the market. 16GB of onboard storage, couple with microSD expansion of up to 32GB, ensures plenty of room for your multimedia content.
Other features include a 5-megapixel camera with LED flash and a front camera for video calls, and, a fingerprint reader, just in case you’re wary of forgetting your passcode or gesture locks. The phone will come with Android 2.2, with a promised upgrade to 2.3. But this is Motorola we’re talking about, so there could be a long wait in store for buyers.
The only downside I can think of is MotoBlur, which I’ve tried and disliked. In my opinion, MotoBlur is one of the worst custom Android skins out there, but this is just a personal opinion. Regardless, it’s easy to get a home screen replacement for Android phones, so this isn’t a big issue.
All in all, the ATRIX is truly a compelling device, and is likely the next step in the convergence of our mobile devices, with strong features for both work and play. The fingerprint reader could be a potential killer feature for corporate users who deal with sensitive information on their phones. Plus, the added productivity features of the Lapdock certainly sweeten the deal in this direction.
And with the Multimedia Dock, this is also a good replacement for a living room player. DLNA compatibility means streaming your favourite shows and the generous storage options means a lot of movies in your phone.
Or is the phone trying to do too much? Let us know in the comments!
if your understanding of motoblur is that its a just skin only, then you need to do better homework.