Motorola Atrix: Half Smartphone, Half PC From CES 2011

The Motorola Atrix aims to be more than just another fancy smartphone. It's a laptop too.

While we've seen combination tablet/laptops before, the Atrix is one of the first smartphone/PCs, largely made possible by NVIDA's dual-core Tegra 2 chip, which lives inside.

PC magazine calls it "an entirely new approach to computing."

The key to the Atrix's abilities lies in it's ability to run two operating systems, Google's Android 2.2 and a customized version of Linux. When plugged into a dock the Atrix can virtually become a desktop PC (attached to a monitor). Motorola is also releasing a Laptop Dock, which the phone plugs into, that's almost as thin as a MacBook Air, according to PC Magazine.

Now for the specs. The Atrix makes such a good computer because it's almost built like one. With 802.11n wireless networking, HSPA+ 4G capabilities, 1GB ram, 16GB of storage space and a MicroSD slot, it virtually is a computer in your pocket.

Perhaps most enticingly, Firefox (one of the Linux system's three apps) supports Flash and other plug-ins. According to Motorola's press release, while in laptop or PC mode Android applications can also be run in a separate window.

Comments

[JasonMcl]

11:21 AM on 01/10/2011

I really like the concept of this. Imagine this scenario...

You wake up, check the news and do everything else you normally do on a morning before work. And when it is time to shuffle out the door, you reach into your desktop, which is just a small cube, and press the eject button.

Your PC shuts off and your smartphone pops out. It has all of your vital data backed up on a local hard drive and alternatively in cloud storage and has a fresh charge from sitting in your desktop machine overnight.

You take it to work, plug it into your office desktop and everything you had open previously is still there ready to go.

This is a great concept, but like others have said below, the 1gb RAM may not be enough to a desktop unless either the linux customization is amazingly efficient or it is able to quickly swap to the SD card.

I still love this concept though. I think it would be better overall to just build the docking up from Android itself rather than try to use linux.

[xtiangodloki]

10:06 AM on 01/10/2011

The specs make this device sound more like a phone/netbook than a phone/pc.

[Lucille]

01:39 AM on 01/10/2011

I don't trust anything with 1gb of ram even with an SD card slot. I recently returned a netbook that although had a duel core Atom processor, the 1gb or ram was not nearly enough to run the programs it came with much less add anymore. From what I've read the new tablets have at least 2gb ram including an SD card slot which seems preferable.

I'm not a computer expert just a user of them for many years and I would not accept 1gb of anything even if it came from Apple. Even my iPod has at least 2gb of ram.

[JasonMcl]

11:04 AM on 01/10/2011

The newest and greatest iPod touch only has 256mb of ram, that is 0.25 gigs.

I think you are confusing ram with storage space. RAM is temporary storage where programs are kept when they are "loaded". More ram means you can keep more programs open.

While running windows or OSX, 1gb of ram would not be enough at all. This phone, however, uses a customized and stripped down version of linux which requires much fewer resources than windows or OSX.

Some people confuse RAM with storage space such as a hard drive or SD card. This phone has 16 gigs of storage with another 32 gigs possible via a SD card expansion. Since it also runs linux it will be able to connect to large external hard drives of about 3,000 gigs.

[Lucille]

05:58 PM on 01/10/2011

I'll latch on to the part where you wrote "running windows or OSX, 1gb of ram would not be enough at all" as I found that out for myself regarding the netbook I returned. So you’ve confirmed for me that anything running Windows or OSX with 1gb of ram is worthless, thank you.

As for what it takes to run this or any phone I'll take your word for it, but I'm most concerned with what runs a tablet as I want to buy one and I've read the newer ones (run on Android's system) will be at least 2gb of ran. I recently purchased a Pandigital that I’ve subsequently returned as well because it had 1gb of Ram and I found it pretty useless too.

I don't know anything about Apple‘s OS for any of their products however just before I started typing this reply I was watching the videos from Apple.com regarding the iPad and what it can do. The device is really impressive but I'm curious enough about the new Xoom Tablet made by Motorola which will use the Honeycomb OS from Google that I want to compare it with the new iPad 2 when it comes out. CNET named the Xoom Best in Show from the Consumer Electronic Show and their presentation was excellent (the video is on Youtube), but of course its not as slick as the iPad.

[Craigy6]

09:56 AM on 01/07/2011

Maybe they can update the phones they've ignored first before they try to put out new ones. Will never buy Motorola again and I would recommend that others don't as well. You will be happy for a little bit, but then you realize it takes Motorola 6 more months then other companies to update the Android version on their phone. They promised my a 2.1 upgrade in June 2010. Now it's January 2011 and they no longer have a planned release date. MotoFAIL!!

[JasonMcl]

11:27 AM on 01/10/2011

Which phone are you using, the old school droid?

[spytheweb]

08:50 PM on 01/06/2011

Does anyone make a phone that just makes phone calls anymore?

[EricBishop]

09:46 PM on 01/06/2011

Uhhh...like bird calls? Yeah, the National Association of Ornithologists released an app for iPhone and Android last year.

[xtiangodloki]

10:04 AM on 01/10/2011

Look for phones marketed towards old people..

[toron]

08:35 PM on 01/06/2011

how much

[norkas]

07:11 PM on 01/06/2011

None of these dummies will add my new don,t touch applicatio n to their stupid toys so who cares?

I have offered ALL of them a don,t touch feature that allows you allow someone to use your tablet , computer or phone and at your will and one push of a button they will have 500 voltage of electricit y running through their body.

If you leave your items anywhere at your convince you will click and if anyone is holding your property they will get the shock of their life and collapse.

Ask your friends to hold and view your new phone and then click the magic button teaching them a lesson for life to NEVER borrow anything from you ever again.

[amdezurik]

09:48 PM on 01/06/2011

let us know how that works out for you when you are put in jail for assault and battery

[apiazza]

08:03 AM on 01/07/2011

And broke from lawsuits.

[ProudToBeVeryLiberal]

05:52 PM on 01/06/2011

Best of both worlds:

http://www.thestar.com/news/sciencetech/technology/ces/article/916412--asus-unveils-laptop-tablet-hybrid-on-eve-of-tech-show

[rpr]

05:15 PM on 01/06/2011

Huh? Android *is* Linux. A smartphone is just as powerful as a PC a couple of years ago. All they did was add a standard Linux user environment to the fat-finger-only Android environment - something that hackers have done on rooted phones for a long time.

Yes, this is the right way to go, but it's nothing special. And we need 2GB of RAM and 32GB of builtin Flash disk, maybe a second uSDHC card, for a real PC environment.

Oh and you can download Firefox for Android from the Market.

[GabrielVH]

07:05 PM on 01/06/2011

it's probably semantics and ignorance about linux.

by the way, Android != linux, Android is a mobile OS that uses a modified linux kernel, there's more to android than just the kernel. same as any linux distribution, the GUI environment, the apps and the functionality is what sets them all apart while still being based on the same kernel.

i guess Android for when one is using the phone, the other for when one plugs it into a monitor.

[slackhaus]

09:14 PM on 01/06/2011

Linux is the kernel. You are thinking of GNU/Linux.

[Finesse17a]

04:51 PM on 01/06/2011

I wish they would stop killing our planet for this garbage. This thing really is a waste of resources. Why do not the wait until they can put out a product that lives up to its expectations. A pc? Cut it out. I think the tablet pc is going to be a thing of the past very soon. What an awkward cumbersome gadget that really does not distinguish itself by doing anything extraordinary. Tech companies are just milking teckies with this garbage. If people would not purchase these very 'cool' yet high tech functionless gadgets, it would force these companies to put out products that do help productivity, entertainment and convenience. I would love to see someone put out a fiscal quarter report produced by typing on one of those tablet pcs. Ha. That would be funny.

[drjasonmd]

05:02 PM on 01/06/2011

The vast majority of people around the world will never put out a fiscal quarter report. They use their PCs for communication and entertainment, something tablets do quite well.

[rpr]

05:21 PM on 01/06/2011

These systems will take a larger and larger part of the PC market and they use fewer resources than Wintel systems. Why do you think MS has announced that Windows 8 will support ARM CPUs?

[MaxPowerXP]

09:17 PM on 01/06/2011

Hate to tell you, but you have no chance of replacing a desktop PC with one of these things.

[signinname]

04:50 PM on 01/06/2011

This is...interesting. I guess it all depends on cost.

Touting a dual core processor is pretty cool for a phone. nVidia GPUs run this sort of thing extremely well. For a phone, provided sound quality, speed, and whatnot are all up to par, this thing has pretty awesome specs.

For a PC...well, congrats, you just bought a broken PC. 1gb of ram is a joke and a 16gb harddrive (ssd) is laughable.

Phones are nowhere close to desktop or laptop PCs yet. They are computers, but you can't go around saying a phone can be an adequate computer. The whole docking station is a load too. If a phone was really going to be marketed as a PC, all it would need is a USB3 jack. Hook that to your TV and bluetooth to a keyboard/mouse.

[drjasonmd]

05:01 PM on 01/06/2011

For a Linux operating system, 1 GB of RAM is plenty and the memory can be expanded with SD RAM (the same way my smartphone does now). 32GB is plenty to install and run applications. It's not like I'm playing Call of Duty on this thing.

[slackhaus]

09:17 PM on 01/06/2011

Depends what you need your computer for. This would be a great admin tool, access to a shell from anywhere could mean a lot less downtime.

[Finesse17a]

04:38 PM on 01/06/2011

Nah. Not convinced. You need too many peripherals to make it a pc. Android cannot compare with Msoft when it comes to pc software. Do not even try it. They are light years behind MSoft. Kind of similar to MSoft trying to compete with google for search market share. This gadget is going to be on the outside of the next generation of things smart people need to carry around with them. Why would you buy this thing when you have a Blackberry and an awesome laptop?

[WhatTheHolyHeck]

08:08 PM on 01/06/2011

I can operate my printer and scanner via bluetooth right now, so what's keeping my bluetooth-enabled smartphone from adding some drivers and becoming even more functional?

I'm always wary of assuming that my current hardware configuration is the ideal. You never know when the next really smart and efficient form factor is going to appear. Keep an open mind.

[dwhuston]

09:54 AM on 01/08/2011

Blackberry? People still use those? :)

[nowpolitics]

04:32 PM on 01/06/2011

This is a pretty neat concept. If both the phone and the laptop dock will be sold at less than $900, it will be a good deal.

[jbkelly]

02:25 PM on 01/06/2011

If the cost is too high, you might as well pick up a tablet or netbook. Hell, you can built a nice PC for $300-500

[drjasonmd]

04:26 PM on 01/06/2011

But can you make calls with a PC and then put it in your pocket?

[RedRat]

04:43 PM on 01/06/2011

Well Skype does run under Linux. If phone calls and portability are your chief concerns, then stick with any one of the myriads of smartphones now available. It is a matter of cost. If the phone is pushing $1000 and a smartphone is around half that, $500 is a lot to pay for just portability. However, like all things non-Apple, the price will come down with time.

[MaxPowerXP]

09:18 PM on 01/06/2011

Depends on which pants I'm wearing that day

[eXpresso]

02:19 PM on 01/06/2011

gotta hand it to AT&T for snapping this up.
Verizon is just not that into 'cool' gadgets.
I'd love to get my hands on this, but ATT is playing its role as the perpetual-cockblocker again

[Poiks]

03:58 PM on 01/06/2011

I used to have Verizon and was constantly frustrated by their lagging on the newest phones. Finally I went to AT&T and am lucky to live in a place where service is good.

[LFCeline]

04:28 PM on 01/06/2011

I just got a Droid incredible and it is pretty good...but then again I am not a techie...first cell phone ever...but I am impressed...

[Finesse17a]

04:41 PM on 01/06/2011

Let me be the first to welcome you back, Rip.