Do you remember the Motorola Atrix 4G and how it had that laptop dock? You know about the PadFone from Asus that has a slot in the back to take your smartphone? Well, the Exotablet is fundamentally the same idea, except for Apple iDevices.

What you get with the ExoTablet is a device that “instantly converts a smartphone into a full-size, full-power, all-singing, all-dancing very connected tablet.” You simply slide your smartphone into the ExoTablet and you get the big screen experience, all without having to resync your content or use a secondary wireless connection. It’s all powered by your smartphone, not unlike the Asus PadFone. The difference is that it is more flexible, allowing for “any smartphone to be used with any of their planned range of ExoTablets.” Apparently.

To accommodate different shapes, layouts, pin connectors, and so on, they will also introduce the ExoAdapter. Each smartphone model will have its own adapter (costing a dollar or two), making it compatible with the ExoTablet. They’re even planning a range of ExoTablets in different sizes and configurations, including the possibility of built-in SSD storage. The kicker? They say that the new version could be “very possibly for iPhones and iPads” too, working “in the same ExoTablet because they both use the same operating system.”

They’re telling us that a typical ExoTablet will cost in the $150 range and the launch is being planned for October or November of this year.  We’ll wait and see if this is just vaporware or really the next best thing since..

The post Exotablet Planning to Create iPhone 4 Smartphone Tablet Dock appeared first on Mobile Magazine.

Easily one of the biggest stars coming out of the Consumer Electronics Show earlier this year was the Motorola ATRIX Android smartphone. On the surface, it seemed like any number of other Android smartphones, but it’s that extra functionality that really looked like it was going to be a game changer. But how does that whole docking into a multimedia centre experience really pan out in real life?

Well, I’ve taken the Bell Mobility version of the Motorola Atrix 4G, which should be largely the same as other versions sold by other carriers around the world (AT&T), out for a test drive and now I have returned with my thoughts.

Feature and Spec Highlights

Much like the Samsung Galaxy S II, the Atrix comes equipped with a dual core processor and a full 1GB of RAM. As such, the performance for the Atrix should really be no slouch. The phone initially shipped with Android 2.2 Froyo, but it has since been upgraded to Gingerbread.

The capacitive touchscreen measures 4.0-inches across the diagonal and it boasts a resolution of 540 x 960 pixels, resulting in an effective pixel density of 275ppi. That puts it just shy of Retina Display territory, but most people probably won’t notice the difference. It’s also covered in Gorilla Glass to prevent scratches and other damage. Rounding out the specs are your usual wireless radios — WiFi, 3G, Bluetooth, GPS — as well as dual cameras, 16GB internal storage, microSD expansion, and the MOTOBLUR user interface with live widgets.

General Smartphone Impressions

The first thing that struck me about this phone was its plastic construction. I wouldn’t say that it feels cheap, per se, but it is distinctly plastic with quite a slippery back. This is not unlike the Nexus S that I reviewed earlier this year too, except there’s a design on the back and there’s no curved screen.

That said, this appears to be high quality and relatively robust plastic. The other thing that struck me was the placement of the power button, which doubles as a fingerprint reader. Since they wanted the fingerprint reading functionality, the power button is placed on the back toward the top. Again, I’m more accustomed to power buttons on top or on the sides, so this took a little getting used to. It does appear to be Moto’s M.O. to do this, though, since we saw a “back” power button on the Xoom tablet too.

Aside from that, the front side looks much like most other “slate” phones in that the front is mostly all screen. Below it are the four usual touch-sensitive Android buttons. One other thing worth mentioning is the MOTOBLUR UI. I’m personally not a fan of it, but I can’t really explain why. To be fair, I like the TouchWiz UI on Samsungs and that UI has its fair share of naysayers too.

The Lapdock Experience with Webtop UI

This is really what is supposed to set the Atrix apart from all the other Android phones out there. It was a groundbreaking idea when Motorola showed it off at CES. You take your phone, you plunk it into the dock, and you get a netbook-like experience via the Webtop UI.

At least that’s the idea. It’s curious that they went with a “full” build of Firefox when it may have made more sense to go with Chrome, being all Google property and all that. In essence, Webtop is almost like an app that runs from the phone and it is an instant boot Linux-based environment. Without having enough Webtop-focused apps, however, the novelty and utility start to wear off. This is especially true in the age of Android tablets as true alternatives.

Web browsing through the Firefox browser was smooth and you are able to “transfer” your browsing session back to the phone when you undock it. I did find the “island” keyboard to be less than optimal too; the keys were wide enough and had enough key travel, but their “height” (as in the size of the J key between the U and N) was too small. The large trackpad almost got in the way too, as I found my palm accidentally grazing it from time to time while typing.

The Lapdock experience is certainly novel and it is amazing how everything “runs” off the phone itself, but this concept was revealed before Honeycomb really took off. Considering the price of the dock, this proposition isn’t as intriguing anymore.

HD Multimedia Dock

Fundamentally the same idea can be said about the HD Multimedia Dock. This allows for a mini-HDMI output to your HDTV or computer monitor, as well as several USB ports for the keyboards, mice, and other peripherals. You get the same Webtop UI as the laptop dock.

This is an interesting concept, to be sure, but I’m not convinced it’s terribly useful for day-to-day use. I can see how it’d be neat for your living room, using your HDTV as a giant monitor for web browsing and media viewing, but this may not be the most cost effective or simplest way to go about doing it.

Quadrant Standard Benchmark

To give the Atrix a proper performance test, I ran the Quadrant Standard Benchmark. The Atrix scored 2281 on this benchmark, putting it roughly within the same range as some other Android smartphones powered by dual core processors and full gigs of RAM. This is certainly no slouch when it comes to performance.

I also ran the Speedtest on Bell’s 3G (“4G”) network and had a ping of 99ms, a download speed of 2.01Mbps and an upload speed of 1.19Mbps. The download speed could certainly be better, but your mileage will certainly vary.

It should also be noted that this phone comes with a standard 1930mAh lithium-polymer battery, which is a larger capacity than much of its direct competition. In real world practice, I was easily able to get more than a day with moderate to heavy usage and multiple days with lighter usage. That’s pretty impressive.

Conclusion

I wanted to like the Atrix and the concept of the Webtop user interface and docking stations. I’m not saying that it’s a bad phone at all. The horsepower is impressive, the build quality is solid, and Webtop-ness adds a little extra oomph to the equation. However, I can’t be convinced to spend the kind of money on all these extra accessories when I’d rather spend that money on a separate device altogether.

While the high resolution 4-inch screen was fine, the colors felt quite muted and visibility was poor under more direct light. It’s hard to go back to a screen like this after experiencing the AMOLED, Super AMOLED, and Super AMOLED Plus displays from Samsung. Again, the display isn’t bad, but it does feel distinctly muted. I’m not a fan of the power button placement either.

If I had written this review six months ago, the Atrix may have been a bigger star and it may have earned a higher rating. However, in light of devices like the SGS2 and the pending arrival of Kal-El powered devices, it’s harder to recommend the Atrix today, especially with the price of the accessories. If the laptop dock were included with the phone, though, that’d be an entirely different proposition altogether.

The post Review: Motorola Atrix 4G with Lapdock and HD Multimedia Dock appeared first on Mobile Magazine.

And here we go with semantics all over again. Motorola recently aired a television commercial wherein it claimed that the Atrix was the “world’s most powerful smartphone.” Well, Samsung begged to differ, saying that its Galaxy S II leaves the Atrix in the dust. So, the ad has now been pulled.

This comes by way of a ruling by the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) in the United Kingdom. The ASA says the ad is misleading. In the strictest sense, it is. The Atrix is powered by a dual-core 1GHz processor, while a 1.2GHz dual core chip runs the show on the Galaxy S II. Based on that raw figure alone, you’d figure the Samsung was more powerful.

But that’s not what Motorola thinks. It says that they didn’t claim they had the phone with the fastest processor; they simply claimed it was the most powerful, thanks to its ability to power that laptop-like dock. So, just because Samsung isn’t selling a “unique computer-like accessory,” Motorola has the “most powerful” smartphone.

Semantics. It’s all semantics. Either way, both phones are going to be trumped with the Nexus Prime once its 1.5GHz processor hits the stage in a couple of months.

The post Motorola Atrix ad banned over claims of being “most powerful smartphone” appeared first on Mobile Magazine.

The comparison is undeniable and inevitable. The Compufone Smartphone, at least in concept, sounds a lot like the Motorola Atrix. It’s a smartphone, but it’s also designed to power a couple other docking devices too.

Rather than offer a Multimedia Dock like the Atrix, the Compufone has a tablet dock. Shove your smartphone in there and you get a 10-inch multi-touch tablet. Interestingly enough, the tablet comes with a Bluetooth headset, so you can keep chatting too. And again, everything is powered by the phone rather than by the dock.

To get the netbook experience, you combine the Compufone and the tablet dock with a keyboard dock. The screen from the tablet becomes the screen for your pseudo netbook.

Boasting an almost iPhone 4-esque industrial design, the Compufone itself gets a four-inch AMOLED display, Nvidia Tegra 2, 5MP camera, front-facing VGA camera, NFC, aGPS, and 16 gigs of flash memory. It’ll run on Android, but they haven’t decided on which version.

This all sounds terribly intriguing. I just hope that Kosmaz doesn’t follow Motorola’s footsteps for the accessory pricing. That, and trying to sell a device without a recognizable brand name is going to be quite the challenge. Look for the Compufone to launch in Q4.

[Read]

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