TechMinds Review: Motorola Atrix 4G and Laptop Dock

 

From Engadget to Slashgear there are dozens of great reviews for this unique smartphone/laptop hybrid online right now.  So instead of retreading ground which was covered by those consumer oriented reviews we ran the latest and greatest from Motorola through its paces for two weeks as our primary business device.  What we found was an interesting mix of amazing moments, and downright frustration using what is truly a groundbreaking product.

Hardware

 For a while now we've been saying that 4" screens are almost the perfect compromise between size and pocketability for a smartphone.  The Atrix has a beautifully readable 4" display and we had no trouble using it outdoors in bright sunlight.  For the time being it also has the highest screen resolution available on an Android smartphone at qHD (960x540).  This directly translates into more (and better readable) screen real-estate when compared to the average Android phone.  While it's an entirely plastic device the build quality is solid, and when combined with the Gorilla Glass display we were never once worried about damaging the phone under normal conditions.  Be warned, while Corning's Gorilla Glass is fantastically scratch resistant but if dropped from more than a few feet it's still likely to crack.

The rest of the specs are equally impressive.  Powered by a Dual-Core Tegra 2 SoC with 1GB of RAM and capable of recording (promised as an update by Motorola) and playing back 1080p video the Motorola Atrix is a beast of a phone.  Also included are a front facing camera for video chat and a fingerprint sensor for secure logins without typing in a password. Judged on its own merit and the (thankfully) subdued version of Motorola Blur running on top of Android 2.2 this phone is easily the most capable smartphone available on any carrier.  However, - as we'll get to a little later - the beautiful hardware from Motorola and Software from Google are seriously hampered by AT&T's network.

The Laptop Dock is almost as impressive an engineering feat.  It's extremely thin (13.9mm), has a high resolution 1366x768 11.6" Screen, fairly comfortable chiclet style keyboard, and oversized touchpad.  That last item should be a selling point, but the large touchpad space is wasted on software which is incapable of multi-touch gestures and sub-par finger tracking.  Complicating matters are left and right mouse buttons directly under the touchpad which are so stiff as to be mostly useless.  In fact, the buttons are so bad they should be labeled carpel-tunnel generators instead. The only saving grace on that front is that using the phones built-in Bluetooth or one of the two included USB ports on the dock you can use a wireless mouse to better control this unique phone/laptop hybrid.  A subtle touch which we thought was the best feature of the laptop dock is an extended life battery included by Motorola into the thin chassis.  We've been testing now for almost two weeks and it consistently provides enough power to run the laptop dock for two to three days while also charging the phone.  For mobile professionals this is an invaluable feature given the normally lackluster battery life offered by modern smartphones.

Software

  On the phone itself you'll find the now typical Android fare, seven homescreens which you can customize with widgets and application shortcuts.  Normally we hate Motorola's custom widgets and color scheme (called "Blur"), but the speed of the Atrix and accuracy of the touchscreen make this version tolerable.  Of course, if Blur gets in the way of your productivity you can always install a third-party home screen application such as ADW Launcher or Launcher Pro. However, if you're able to stick it out with the default home screen settings you'll find some nice widgets included.  Our favorites are the Calendar widget which takes up very little space while showing off our next three appointments, and some very customizable contact shortcuts which save home screen real estate while still being very effective.

  With access to around 150,000 applications (many of them free) the Android platform is truly growing at an impressive rate.  The Atrix sports the world first qHD resolution display so we fully expected to have applications malfunction on occasion.  Color us surprised then, as we didn't experience any application compatibility issues during our testing.  It's worth noting that we don't really use these devices for games, so it's very possible that someone who does may run into more issues. 

As a business tool

  This is where things start to get a little inconsistent.  On paper both the Atrix 4G and Laptop Dock are pretty impressive devices.  They promise a world in which your phone acts as your computer, always connected to the internet and much more portable than the laptop/phone combination most business power users carry today.  Unfortunately, - as is often the case in life - reality doesn't quite match up to expectations.  We're going to break down this part of the review into very specific tasks which are universal to business users.

Email

 The built-in GMail application is truly best in class for business which have made the switch to Google Apps.  However, many companies use Microsoft Exchange as the technology behind their email, contacts, and calendar so it's important that some kind of software is in place on the phone to accomodate. In that regard Motorola should be commended.  There is a "Corporate Sync" wizard which will walk users through connecting to their corporate email in just a few steps, and it worked just fine in our testing.

  Where email really shines is after you plug the phone into the laptop dock.  While almost every mobile operating system advertises its "multitasking" ability, what they really mean is you can have one application open at a time and switch between them quickly.  What makes the Atrix and Laptop Dock different is real multitasking.  When plugged into the dock this is what you see.

 Using email as an example, the power of this combination is very tangible.  You can very easily manage your email on the left while working in nearly any web application in the full version of FireFox 3.6 on the right.  This is in pretty stark contrast to tablets (like the Motorola Xoom or iPad 2) which only allow you to use - and see - one application at a time.

  Of course the advantages to real multi-tasking aren't limited to managing your email.  Any application loaded on your phone can be run in this view with complete control over screen rotation and even the size of window.  That last item brings us directly to the next corporate priority, remote desktop.

Remote Desktop

  Our applications of choice for accessing desktop computers from the phone are TeamViewer and Xtralogic Remote Desktop.  The former is available as a free beta for now, and the latter is normally $25 on the Android Market.  Both apps give you quick control to your work PC (or Mac) and - when combined with the Laptop Dock - allow you to take your work machine with you anywhere with an internet connection.  Many organizations have accumulated software over the years which is just not feasible to port to a smartphone operating system.  For example several of our clients have specialised CRM or other software which won't even run on Windows 7, so they can forget about getting a mobile version. In theory using Remote Desktop to control their work computer can make all the difference in the world.  In practice, the slow performance and inferior touchpad make those outstanding remote desktop applications extremely difficult to use.  The touchpad is not capable of multitouch so the same gestures you use on the phone are not available when it's docked in laptop mode. This is extremely counter-productive as both TeamViewer and Remote Desktop were designed with touchscreen use in mind, and makes simple actions such as scrolling around the screen remotely an exercise in frustration. Just one of many walls we ran into while using the Atrix as a business tool for the few weeks.

Web Apps

Many businesses are relying more on web applications these days, ranging from Google Apps and its suite of document editing and sharing applications, to Microsoft's BPOS equivalent, to custom designed programs which run from a browser.  Part of the promise of an accessory like the Laptop Dock is that you can leverage a "real" web browser like Firefox 3.6 to fill in the functional gaps which normally result from exclusively using a smartphone.  It's with a heavy heart that I report on Motorola's complete failure of that dream.  While you can install nearly all of the add-ons compatible with Firefox, even out of the box the experience is sluggish.  We tested both on WiFi and over the Atrix's "4G" connection and while it was certainly less frustrating over a good WiFi connection the experience still leaves a lot to be desired.  With the awesome power behind the Tegra 2 SoC we can't help but wonder if Motorola would have put out a better product if they had used a version of Google's Chrome browser instead of a customized version of Firefox.  If you have any more than a few tabs open at a time be prepared to wait seconds for even the simplest of tasks such as switching tabs or scrolling.  Worse than that, since the touchpad is so difficult to use we found ourselves trying to avoid it at all costs.  Instead relying on the keyboard arrows for scrolling and using a bluetooth mouse whenever possible.

Office Documents and Notes

Cloud Computing has come a long way over the last few years.  Microsoft has Sharepoint and SkyDrive services for content creation and collaboration online.  Google has their Apps Suite with alternatives to Word, Excel, and PowerPoint, and there are dozens of smaller companies vying for a peice of the pie.  Unfortunately for Microsoft's competitors there is still no third party program (online or otherwise) which completely preserves the formatting of Microsoft Office files.  That's the reasoning behind Google Cloud Connect, a recently launched service which allows business that subscribe to Google Apps to get the benefit of their collaboration infrastructure while still using Microsoft Office.  It's also the reason why the Motorola Atrix and Laptop Dock cannot replace a laptop computer, for now at least.  While the are some great document viewers and editors for Android (QuickOffice is our favorite), you just can't rely on them to edit a document without unintentionally changing the formatting.  And in business that's an unacceptable risk.  This failure is mostly at the feet of Microsoft for forgetting that they are in fact a software company.  By now there should be Android, iOS, WebOS, and Windows Phone 7 versions of Microsoft Office.  However, while the Atrix 4G and Laptop dock were well intentioned Motorola should be blamed for the downright slow performance of their browser and it's inability to properly work with the aforementioned web apps.  Google Docs is slow, but mostly useable while Microsoft Office Live rarely loads correctly and even when it does the speed of the browser makes it nearly impossible to get any actual work done. About the only silver lining in this area is Dropox and Evernote.  We were able to easily add files to our Dropbox account from our laptop, pull them up on the phone through Android's Dropbox application, and then view them again through Firefox on the Laptop Dock without issue.  The same goes for Evernote as notes created on our laptop were available nearly instantaneously for editing on the go through either the Evernote Android application or the Evernote.com website on the Laptop Dock. The process was still slow, but having your "computer" so tightly integrated with your phone really gives you a taste of the future of mobile computing. 

Conclusion

In many respects the team over at Motorola hit a home run with the Atrix.  It's fast, easy to use, chock full of the latest hardware, and when AT&T gets around to upgrading their network it will be able to take advantage of some great internet connection speeds. The Laptop Dock is another story.  It's full of promise, a future in which your phone is actually your laptop is something we've waited decades for.  But this isn't it. It's slow, buggy, and every great idea (an integrated battery to charge your phone while docked) is counter-balanced by a horrible one (a giant touchpad which isn't capable of multi-touch, is very unresponsive, and difficult to use).  Now, Motorola has announced that every major Android smartphone launched this year will have their Webtop app (the brains behind the Laptop Dock) included, so we're hopeful that better version of the software and hardware are forthcoming.  In the meantime, the Motorola Atrix 4G is a fantastic phone which can easily keep employees productive away from the office. And for all its promise the Laptop Dock should be avoided for enterprise.  Because introducing technology in the workplace which makes everyday tasks difficult and frustrating is willfully sabotaging the efficiency and effectiveness of your organization.

Comments

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