[LINK] Phone as laptop

[stephen at melbpc.org.au]

Maybe soon another trend .. your phone as your personal computer ..

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Atrix 4G: Faux Laptop With a Phone For Brains

FEBRUARY 17, 2011  The Wall Street Journal  http://online.wsj.com


Today's best smartphones are really hand-held computers. 

They run a vast variety of applications, from productivity programs to 
games, that mimic what laptops do. 

Their biggest limitations for serious work, gaming, Web surfing and 
multimedia are their small screens, cramped keyboards and tinny speakers.

So, what if you could use the brains and connectivity of such a hand-held 
computer to drive a laptop-size screen, keyboard and speakers, thus 
overcoming these limitations? 

Well, Motorola Mobility has devised a new phone and accessory that aim to 
do just that: to make the phone the only computer you need.

I've been testing this new phone, the Atrix 4G, an Android device that 
will cost $200 with a two-year contract and will run on AT&T's network. 

I've also been testing its unusual and clever accessory called the laptop 
dock, which looks like a netbook, with an 11.6-inch screen, full 
keyboard, touch pad, and stereo speakers. 

This dock has no processor, no file storage and no connectivity of its 
own. It's dormant until you plug the Atrix into a slot behind the screen.

When you dock the phone, the faux laptop comes alive. 

It duplicates the phone's screen on its larger display and lets you use 
its connectivity and apps. It also charges the phone. 

The image of the phone's screen, and any of its apps you run, can be 
actual size, or blown up to use the dock's larger screen.

Full-Screen Firefox

Even more interestingly, the dock gives you access to a full, and full-
screen, PC version of the Firefox Web browser. 

Firefox is tucked away inside the Atrix but is available only when the 
phone is plugged into the laptop dock.

The laptop dock costs $500, but AT&T will knock the price down to $300, 
after rebates, if you buy it at the same time you buy the phone. That 
brings the combined price of both devices to $500 - the same as the 
separate price for the dock.

In my tests, the Atrix and the laptop dock performed mostly as 
advertised. The phone had no trouble driving the larger screen or the 
full Firefox browser. 

I was even able to insert a flash drive into one of the dock's two USB 
ports and copy songs, photos, videos and documents into the phone's 
internal memory using the keyboard and touch pad. 

I edited and wrote text in an app called Quickoffice on the phone using 
the laptop dock's keyboard, and ran various other apps, including the 
popular game Angry Birds, on the larger screen.

The Firefox browser worked as normal, using either the phone's cellular 
or Wi-Fi connections to access the Internet. And both the phone itself 
and Firefox can run Flash videos, which mostly played fine.

But the combination of the phone and dock wasn't as fast, smooth or 
versatile as having a real laptop. Many apps on the phone aren't as 
polished or powerful as typical PC apps, and I found them clumsier to use 
with the keyboard and touch pad, as opposed to the touch screen for which 
they were designed. 

Installation Issue

Also, other than Firefox, you can't install PC programs. You can use Web 
apps inside Firefox, such as Google Docs or the stripped-down Web 
versions of Microsoft's Office apps. 

For email, you can either use the program based in the phone or any Web-
based program via the Firefox browser, such as Gmail or Yahoo Mail. But 
you can't, say, install iTunes, or PC-based games, or the full versions 
of Outlook or Microsoft Word. 

And there is only a primitive file system, limited to the capacity of the 
phone, which is just 16 gigabytes, with an option to expand to 48 
gigabytes.

Despite the drawbacks, some folks will surely be attracted to this 
innovative combination. 

If you mostly do your computing tasks on a phone, or a PC Web browser, 
storing files in the cloud and using phone or Web-based apps, Motorola 
has you covered. 

And the fact that the dock can charge the phone is a big plus.

The Phone Side

What about the phone itself? 

Well, it's one of the nicest smartphones I've tested. Its processor makes 
it fast, and it has a 4-inch, high-resolution screen—almost as high as 
the iPhone 4's, though not quite as sharp to my eye. It runs an older 
version of Android, but Motorola is promising an upgrade.

The phone also has good battery life. It lasted a full day while I was 
testing it and Motorola claims up to nine hours of talk time. Photos and 
videos I took with the phone were sharp, and it has a front camera for 
video calls.

The Atrix also has two other notable features. 

First, it can take advantage of AT&T's souped-up 3G network, which the 
carrier calls 4G because it can supposedly achieve 4G data speeds. 

In my tests, in the D.C. and New York areas, the speed wasn't especially 
impressive, averaging just a bit better than 3G speeds on other AT&T 
phones I'd tested.

There is also a fingerprint sensor built into the phone, which you can 
use instead of a pass code to secure the phone. It worked fine for me.

Overall, this is a very nice Android phone that can imitate a limited 
version of a laptop. That may be enough for some folks, but fall short 
for others.  Write to Walter S. Mossberg at walt.mossberg at wsj.com 

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Cheers,
Stephen