At CES this year, one of the most innovative new products was the
Motorola Atrix and its accompanying accessories.
I bought one this week to test. It was a rocky start, but I like it now.
The phone is an Android 2.2 type and has a dual core processor. It runs the MotoBlur UI on top of Android and I'm not a big fan of the UI. It's not bad and lends a little eye candy but I prefer the native Android UI.
The innovation is how the phone docks. It has a nice cradle with HDMI out so it can be used with a TV. This requires the Bluetooth Mouse and Keyboard.
The more important dock is a screen and keyboard that looks like a laptop, but has no CPU or memory. These it gets from the phone when you plug it in.
The idea is that the phone becomes your computer and you dock it at home or work in order to get a better screen and keyboard. I think it's a brilliant idea, and the Atrix set of hardware is a nice first implementation.
I had a lot of trouble getting Internet Access to work when I inserted the phone into the shell. When I called Motorola, they said I needed to buy the $45/month tethering plan even though this wasn't mentioned in the AT&T store when I bought it, and even though I had an "unlimited" data plan for the phone.
I ended up finding a way to put it on my existing data plan at no additional charge. Search for "XDA forum Atrix 4G" for more information.
I also had a pesky AT&T login attempt for a while whenever I tried to connect the phone when in the shell. This eventually disappeared.
It seems that the shell must be closed when the phone is plugged in, and that you must wait something like 10 seconds before opening it or the synchronization between the two devices fails.
I now have a nice Internet connection when using the phone in its shell dock.
Amazingly, you have the phone interface displayed as a window on the shell's screen, so you can use the phone from the "laptop". It's odd to use at first but works well.
Good article on construction:
http://www.geek.com/articles/mobile/ifixit-teardown-the-motorola-atrix-20110223/