Motorola Atrix – A smartphone that can transform into a desktop, laptop or media center

Motorola announced several new devices at one of the most interesting press events at the Consumer Electronics show (CES) 2011. One of the devices Motorola announced is the Motorola Atrix. Motorola claims that this is the most powerful smartphone in the market, thanks to the two cores of Cortex A9 CPU together with NVidia Tegra 2 graphics. However, the uniqueness of this device and the most interesting feature is the ability of the Atrix to work both as a phone, media center, desktop and laptop. The Atrix together with the HD dock can connect to a TV via an HDMI cable and be controlled with a remote control. The HD dock has several USB ports, so you can connect a keyboard and mouse and use the Atrix as a desktop computer. Last, Motorola introduced a laptop dock that enables to use the Atrix as 11’’ laptop. The Atrix has two apps that support the dock modes, one that provides a PC like interface and one to provide a media center interface.

The concept of using one device to perform as many devices is not new. IBM research introduced the concept of the MetaPad 10 years ago. The MetaPad is a device in the shape of a harddrive that can be docked to PDA, laptop and desktop shells. Antelope had licensed this technology on May 2002 in order to bring it to market, but with no success. More recently, MoDu introduced a phone that could change its behavior based on the sleeve it uses. MoDu T was released to the market last year, but MoDu is facing financial difficulties and is not sure if it will survive. Will the future of the Motorola Atrix will be brighter? I certainly hope so, because I tired from carrying many devices in my gadgets bag.