It's a very nice looking phone but what makes it so special over, say, the HTC EVO 4G in its hey day?
If you say the docking machine, I can understand the enthusiasm and think it's really cool but I also think the feature is borderline useless. Why?
- The Laptop docking part still has to contain battery, keyboard, and display, and most likely not that cheap nor light. If it's not that cheap nor light, why would you want to carry around a very limited laptop?
- The desktop docking station is even more puzzling. You have a nice computer if you are a type who gets an expensive smartphone like this. Why would you sit in front of a desk for a very limited desktop experience? You still have to grab the monitor and input devices somewhere as well as carrying the dock around.
- The only reason I can think of is the fact you can have all your data on one device. However a big part of Google's attraction with Android is the on-cloud service. If you have a smartphone with a data plan, why would you want to limit yourself into a very limited laptop/desktop instead of relying on online sync services?
- Possibly worst of all, and I haven't seen it mentioned yet, is what happens to the OS update with this thing? I doubt Google has much to do with the docking station part and all this customized software means it's much harder to get a clean custom ROM for the thing. Do you trust Motorola enough on the upgrade front?
I really like the concept of it and think it's very cool, but I can't help but wonder it's just too geeky for its own good and doesn't really solve any problem nor open up a new market. For some it surely will, and it's an attention getter for Motorola and AT&T, but I think the practicality is rather limited.
