Lenovo IdeaPad U1 Hybrid vs. Motorola Altrix 4

I have to confess, I'm truly impressed by the Motorola's smartphone: Motorola Atrix.
Nevertheless, the Lenovo's device, IdeaPad U1 Hybrid with LePad slate, seems to be smart as well.

I'm now thinking about something like a ThinkPhone (say) with a Motorola-like dock station (rather than about the X1xx series...)

 

Interested in the Atrix too. They need to work on Webtop a bit more to get it running smoother though, gets bogged down pretty easily by Flash (what's new).

Not interested in the U1 Hybrid at all. You don't really save all that much weight by having a screen that can be docked into a fully featured bottom half and on the whole Tablets aren't all that useful in the first place. Especially when that slate is running Android 2.2 with a skin. I think Honeycomb is going to run circles around anything Lenovo manages to come up with.

The IdeaPad slate is more interesting, supposedly under 600 with a digitizer and Intel Oaktrail. Thats much more like it

 

i think the Motorola's Atrix core concept is great, but it is badly executed in the docking system design. They could easily achieve the same effect using a wired cable or phone dock on the side of the system (rather than on the back), this will increase the portability of the machine and allow better use of the phone system itself.

But still, Motorola really have pushed the boundary of design this time, and this laptop/dock design would be great for a ultraportable laptop.

 

I totally agree, I don't get the dock in back design, it seems in the way but not accessible. I like Always Innovatings design where it docks into the tablet, or a cable would work too. I think it is a neat design but not well executed.

 

That's weird indeed. Double Teggra @1GHz should work it out.

Well, it seems that Motorola wanted to have a proprietary solution (I like it more than a cable connection, frankly saying. It is 'stylish'...).
However, it wouldn't be bad if smartphone producers established a standard (wired or direct) for a phone-webtop interface as they (finally!) did with the microUSB power suppliers.

PS
They actual offer the phone dock with USB/video ports:

 

while it is great that they want to get a custom solution for the laptop/dock, they should also consider the design from usability point of view.

Hopefully, Motorola can work this out by the next iteration.

 

Or just Lenovo: Lenovo setting up a specialist unit for tablets and smartphones -- Engadget
A smartphone dock station with "our" keyboard and a Trackpoint... :wink:

 

I love the Atrix phone. It is so awesome. But, I'd be worried about the laptop dock "hiding" the phone when it's docked and the screen is open. In public, someone could just grab it and run off, but you would know because the laptop screen would go blank. But someone could do it in airport, they would grab it, run off into a crowd, and you wouldn't know who. Oh, but you could have the laptop dock on your lap and close to you because it generates no heat.

 

I'm thinking about something like lock-if-not-ejected mode as a possible countermeasure...

 

then you'd have to eject it every time you take out the phone. I would probably forget that all the time, haha. One of the most convenient things about the Atrix was that it can be taken out of the dock and seamlessly used as a phone immediately afterwards. That was shown on Engadget's video showing off the Atrix.

 

You are right. I thought it could just be a kind of anti-theft option (an 'airport mode' say)

 

maybe I'm just paranoid but I think it could happen if the criminal was smart and knew about the Atrix. I think if I had one and the laptop dock, I would basically hold the whole thing as close as possible to me, like a baby Maybe there is a manual eject button on the front but it didn't look it from the videos.

 

"I may be paranoid but that does not mean they are not out to get me." (H. Kissinger?)

I did not think about any hardware knob or other Kensington Slot.
A simple programmatic option would make it up (based on e.g. GPS data and/or triggered by a local theft-statistics).
:wink:

 

Haha. Whatever the case, the Atrix is really impressive. I'd love to have the desktop dock KVM'd to my monitor, speakers, keyboard, and mouse, and sharing it with my Thinkpad (maybe itself getting a dock someday). I'd stick to my real laptop instead of the laptop dock, but what I'd love is if they made a mini-portable dock with 2 USB ports, a Compactflash and an SD slot. That would be killer for flash drives, camera, and camcorder memory.

What I'm disappointed about the Atrix is that it's running Android 2.2 and not 2.3. I think that was a slight mis-step, but Motorola does have a good record on updating their Android phones. I hope they also get Honeycomb up and running on the Atrix as soon as possible, possibly using the tablet interface for external monitors instead of the apparently proprietary Webtop interface they use now.