I was really blown away with the Motorola Atrix when it debuted at CES 2011. It was billed as the World's most powerful Smartphone. One glance at the spec sheet of the device and I certainly couldn't argue. But Motorola didn't stop with the phone. They included a laptop dock that basically uses the phone as the engine and turns it into a tiny laptop. And then, a further accessory that is a dock to use an HD display to send all information from the phone to your monitor or your Television. This introduced a whole new segment in smartphone computing! I immediately started plotting to purchase the Atrix and it's laptop dock. Afterall, who would really need a tablet when you could easily turn your phone into a tablet/laptop?
But this week, pricing was revealed. The Atrix Phone by itself is right in line with other top end Android based devices. AT&T is listing the device for $199 with a two year contract. I consider that very reasonable. But then things really start to get crazy as far as I'm concerned. The first bundle – which will cost $499 after a $100 mail-in rebate – includes the Atrix 4G handset and the Laptop Dock accessory, but does require a tethering add on and a subscription to AT&T’s Data Pro smartphone plan. In case you don't know that's $25 for the Data Pro Plan + $20 for the Tethering plan. Now you are paying $45 per month for data. But let's just say you want to purchase the phone and pick up the laptop dock a few months later . . You can do that, but that dock is still going to cost you $499. How crazy is that?
OK, so let's just go for the phone and HD dock then. Then you will want to go with the 2nd bundle that AT&T will offer up, which will cost you $189.99 and comes with a Motorola HD Multimedia Dock, a Bluetooth keyboard and mouse and a remote control. If you’d prefer to buy the HD dock separately, it will cost you $129.99. Much more reasonable, in price, but still not what I would consider a bargain, for what it is.
Just a thought here. If AT&T is going to charge $500 for an accessory that is useless without the Atrix, I think I'm going to reconsider this purchase. $500 will buy a full fledged laptop after all! And what about the Xoom with a Verizon data plan? Or what about the sea of coming Tablets that will be WiFi only that I can already tether to with my Nexus One? Yea, the Atrix by itself looks to be an incredible device! In my opinion the only thing against it when it debuts is the fact that it's running Android 2.2 Froyo, instead of 2.3 Gingerbread. And this should change sometime before the end of this year. But the accessories costs and the extra gouging from AT&T eliminate them as options in my wallet.
Are you considering an Atrix? Has this recent news changed your mind?
Buds who Blog