Preview: Motorola Lapdock 100 for the future of webtop enabled phones

First look

Motorola announces a Lapdock 100 webtop application to view contents of Moto smartphones on a large screen. The Motorola webtop application that we first heard of when the company launched Atrix 4G early this year is a laptop shell with a 10.1-inch display, keypad, touchpad and multitouch capabilities. You can dock Motorola smartphones such as Atrix 4G, Photon 4G and Droid Bionic on Lapdock 100. The smartphone accessory will show your contents on the large screen. Thus you can feel a laptop-like experience with the contents on your smartphones. Instead of surfing the web and watching films on the crammed screen of your smartphone, you can switch over to a 10.1-inch display.

Motorola Lapdock

What’s new

We have been familiar with the Motorola webtop application for some months now. Previously it was exclusively associated with Atrix 4G and a pick of other Moto smartphones. Now Motorola aims to roll out a commercial version of the product that you can use with the most of smartphones from Motorola. Initially, only Moto smartphones on AT&T will be compatible with the Lapdock. Late this quarter, smartphones on Verizon and Sprint will also work with the webtop application.

What’s been refreshed

We are about to get Motorola Lapdock for all our Moto smartphones now. You can carry the light weight accessory in your backpack and use it whenever you feel fed up with the tiny screen of your smartphone.

Features walkthrough

Content on a big screen: You can view everything on a larger screen with Lapdock. The device supports desktop-class Mozilla Firefox, Adobe Flash, Quick Office, Google Docs, and much more. It means you can watch most of your mobile’s contents on a large screen.

Large keypad and touchpad: So like a laptop, you have a complete keyboard and touchpad on the Lapdock. You can quickly do a bit of your presentation and office works on the webtop device.

Internet everywhere: You can run Internet on Lapdock via your smartphone’s Wi-Fi or data connectivity. That is you will be accessed to the Internet everywhere with the device. If there is no Wi-Fi, you can just connect the device with the Internet using your phone’s 3G or 4G network.

Multitasking: On Motorola Lapdock, multitasking is possible. You can put a slideshow in background while checking mail updates on Firefox browser. As well, the feature helps you make a call from your phone and surf the web on the accessory.

Charge your phone: Motorola Lapdock offers five hours of battery life thanks to its built-in battery. You can use this power to charge your smartphone if it is exhausted.

Light and weight: The Motorola webtop accessory is with a dimension 268mm x 234mm x 31.6 mm and weight of 2.2 lbs. So taking the accessory in your baggage will be not a big chore, indeed.

What’s good

The Motorola Lapdock gives you a large display in form of a laptop with your smartphone. Instead of watching contents on the small screen of your smartphone, you are now free to watch images, films and surf the web on a 10.1-inch display. It is the screen size of standard tablets like Samsung Galaxy S II, Motorola Xoom and many others.

What’s not so good:

Five hour battery life is less for a device that does not mount a processor, RAM and operating system inside. Being just an extension of smartphones, Lapdock could have more battery capacity. It will help a user in two ways; to run the Lapdock for long hours and to recharge the smartphones.

Price and availability:

Motorola has not revealed the price of its Lapdock. It will be available for AT&T smartphones quite sooner. For Sprint and Verizon phones, the accessory will be available only late this quarter.

Wrap-up:

Motorola has been remaining a different smartphone maker with a number of Lapdock compatible smartphones for a while. Initially the device has been available with the smartphones like Atrix 4G and Photon 4G. Now the company is to make the accessory compatible with all its chief smartphones. Of course, it will give an extra force for the Moto smartphones in the market.