If you've been part of the Android camp for a while now, you have likely learned that accessory options are rather sparse for Android-powered phones. This is mainly because so many of them release so often that it's nearly impossible for case designers and manufacturers to keep up with the perpetual onslaught. Sure, you can find a few in brick and mortar locations if you know where to look, and carrier stores always stock a handful of accessories for particular devices. But even while looking online, the majority of accessories for a specific device are going to be cheap cases and screen protectors.
Motorola aims to fix this by offering a variety of accessories for their Android devices.
Earlier this week, Motorola CEO Sanjay Jha took stage in New York to unveil their latest product, the DROID RAZR. The RAZR, which not only brings back fond memories of a high time in Motorola's long mobile history, sports some of the best specifications we've yet to see in a smartphone, alongside a rather awe-inspiring design. It touts a 4.3-inch qHD display, a 1.2GHz dual-core processor and a LTE radio, all packaged in the slimmest chassis to date – only 7.1mm.
While design and thinness are an undeniable high point for the RAZR, that's not the only trick Moto has up its sleeve. During the event, Jha quickly touched on some of the accessories that would be available upon launch.
First up, the Lapdocks are nothing new. The first one was introduced along with the Atrix 4G in April, which allowed you to dock and charge your phone while handling a little heavier workload than you normally could from a 4.3-inch screen. The RAZR will work with the Lapdock 100. With a full version of Mozilla Firefox, a full desktop view, true multitasking, the ability to text and answer calls from the desktop and more, Lapdocks make Moto-made Android devices just that much more enticing.
On top of that, there are some self-explanatory accessories like the portable power pack and media docks, which give you extra juice while on the go and allow you to easily dock your phone and connect it to an HDMI-compatible television. There are also car mounts and Bluetooth keyboards available. But another interesting and very unique accessory is the Smart Controller (also referred to as Touchpad). While your phone is docked to an HDMI television, you can use the Smart Controller to ... well, control your phone remotely. You can pinch zoom, rotate and flick scroll through content, answer and make calls and even control your phone via voice commands.
I've written about the future of phones and how I believe the smartphone will eventually become the brain of all of your different devices. Motorola's various accessories only give credence to that – a dock to quickly connect your smartphone to your television, and a dock to quickly turn your phone into a virtual PC. It's stuff like this that makes me wonder why other popular OEMs – particularly Samsung and Google with the Nexus line – haven't done this, or even dabbled in the area.
It's worth noting that Korean company KT has also shown their interest in the extended capabilites of smartphones, and ASUS has, too, with the Transformer (ugh, I miss mine so bad) and Padfone. But none of this (with the exception of the Transformer) has come to fruition yet. I would love nothing more than to see laptop docks become more widely available and more universal.
As an accessory junkie (I often go out of my way just to look at new cases and accessories), this is the part of Motorola's latest line of phones that really piques my interest. I'm not a fan of Motorola Applications Platform, nor am I particularly fond of their choice in displays and other hardware. But the ability to take your phone to the next level with the aid of accessories is a major benefit, especially for someone like yours truly, who only needs a full browser and a keyboard to get all of their work done.
What say you, ladies and gents? Do these accessories sway you in the direction of Motorola? Do you even care about aftermarket accessories for your phone? Would you like to see a more universal Lapdock that would work with all HDMI-capable Android phones?
Image via Engadget
