Tech - A surprise from Motorola

At the recently concluded Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas, one of the hottest (odd isn't it sometimes people use coolest) gadgets to be reviewed was the Motorola Atrix 4G smartphone.

Specifications
The phone itself is quite powerful. It's one of the next generation of smartphones with a dual core processor (NVIDIA Tegra 2). This is the same processor powering the Adam tablet from Notion Ink. This chip is a new class of chips called SOC (System On Chip) where there are dedicated processors to handle CPU, video, audio etc. More about it here. The RAM will be 1 GB. The screen is a 4" HD screen. And the other usual suspects such as GPS, Bluetooth, WiFi, you get the drift. When it ships out, expect minimum Android 2.2 or perhaps 3.0 (if it is ready by then). I think the phone may start shipping out by either the 1st / 2nd quarter of this year.

Killer Feature
All the above features already are getting it rave reviews. Added to this is the really cool feature (there I go again, switching from hot) of a desktop / laptop dock. These docks are different in the sense that the desktop / laptop docks are like an empty shell. All they have is trackpad, keyboard and screen. You can dock their phone to the laptop dock and the laptop comes "alive". It is powered by the CPU, RAM, storage, 3G/Wifi network of the phone! The laptop starts running Android (in a landscape mode of course). I think this device should be called a "smabook" (smartphone+notebook) or whatever!

Benefits
This means that you no longer have to sync data etc. When you are at home / work, you can dock the phone and use your laptop for all your regular tasks like browsing, email, etc. And, when you step out, you just pull the phone out. If Motorola adds a miniature projector to the laptop shell, this will be the perfect weapon for the road warriors out there. I definitely wouldn't mind buying one.

Conclusion
This device and the optional concept of the dock was definitely a surprise from Motorola. Just when everyone thought other companies such as HTC and Samsung were taking the lead on Android phones. It will be interesting to see what the pricing will be. On the contrary, there are already millions of Android smartphone floating around. Perhaps someone might manufacture just the laptop docks (with connectors for the different phones). you know what they say, if you can't beat 'em, join 'em.

If 2010 saw the proliferation of the various Android versions, I think 2011 is going to see the same happening to the different types of mobile devices running Android. For the consumer, the more the merrier.

For more details, check the following links


My earlier post on CES.

Update (31-Jan-2011): Yesterday, I saw the NDTV Gadget Guru show where they showed highlights from the CES show. Guess what, the Motorola Atrix was billed as the no. 1 gadget by them too!

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