Motorola Atrix 4G HD Dock (a quick hands on)

For those of you who simply might not get why the Motorola Atrix 4G is such a big deal this time of the year, it’s because of the docks which were announced with it. The Motorola Atrix 4G HD dock will allow you to connect your device to the dock and start charging it while giving you tons of connectors to plug in whatever you might feel necessary to make your life just a touch easier.

Atrix’s HD dock comes with three USB ports as well as a 3.5 mm stereo audio output, HDMI and the obvious by now power outlet. This dock will allow you to connect a wired keyboard and a mouse through the USB ports but a set of wireless keyboard and mouse will work just as well for your device. Once connected to the HD dock your Motorola Atrix 4G will transform your user interface into the Motorola Webtop UI which will allow it to work as a HDTV (by connecting it to a larger screen as a 4 inch display wouldn’t do that much justice now would it).

Once the Motorola Atrix 4G gets into the dock you’ll also get access to an Entertainment Center user interface which you can browse through using an included infrared remote control. To better understand how this works, just think of the physical version of the controller seen on the screen when your device is using a direct HDMI connection. The peripherals which come with the Motorola Atrix 4G if you opt to buy them of course work really well. The Bluetooth keyboard and mouse work great and connection between them and the Android phone doesn’t pause as long as you’ve still got power running into it. I enjoyed the keyboard because you will find some Android application shortcuts as well as playing around with a full sized keyboard feeling.

All in all I feel that if you are planning on getting this $199.99 Android smartphone with a 2 year subscription to AT&T you might consider on throwing another $189.99 for the “Entertainment Center/ Webtop Access Kit” which include the HD dock, the Bluetooth Keyboard and the mouse. It does seem rather steep but in case you have a full HD TV hanging around your house and would like to make the charging of your phone a touch more enjoyable by playing around with the device while its charging on a full screen TV with a full sized QWERTY keyboard, a mouse and a remote, I’d say you’ve got yourself a deal. If you just want the phone or if you want just the dock to set your device up with a wired keyboard and mouse you can get that for $129.99 which is pretty decent value for money considering you get a “charging” station and some ports so that you can use some more of that unharnessed power the Motorola Atrix 4G comes with.

Considering I already own a netbook, this wouldn’t really justify an investment for me as I have all my HD needs here and considering  that I’m not exactly a sucker for wireless technologies (I just feel I need that wire hanging out to make sure it works the way I wish it to) I’m not exactly sold on this setup. But once price drops I might consider on getting the HD dock for myself and not for playing around with purposes. Until next time, reach into your pocket and get one of these if you want an infrared remote!

Images via Android Community!1

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