Motorola Atrix and AT&T Pricing of Accessories

By on February 11, 2011 in Atrix 4G

Atrix Laptop Dock

Normally, I try not to complain here. However, after reading a number of articles and reading the details from AT&T about the pricing of the Atrix 4G laptop dock, I have to add a little fuel to the fire. One of the biggest hits of CES2011 this year was the Atrix and it’s myriad of docking possibilities and accessories. However, it’s since been brought down a notch by the prohibitive pricing of said accessories, most notably the laptop dock.  

Now, I haven’t personally been able to test the dock, check all it’s fine details and such, so please correct me in the comments if I’m wrong, but basically, it appears the laptop dock is a monitor, keyboard, usb port extender, battery and touchpad.  Not even a multi-touch pad from what I’ve been reading.  That’s it folks.  However, combined with the Atrix, it becomes a Tegra 2 powered Android netbook with 4G connectivity, 802.11n 5Ghz wifi, Bluetooth 2.1, 1GB RAM, and 16GB of storage.  If you buy them together, you will be charged $500 (phone and laptop dock), plus you must signup for the tethering fees through AT&T, even though you aren’t tethering your phone to anything, the phone is still what is receiving the data and using it.  The idea, from what I can tell, is that you can have access to a larger scale screen and keyboard for tapping out those long emails, surfing the web for extended periods etc.  That’s a very nice idea.  I thought it was very cool, if the price was right.  I would have guessed a price of $150 maximum.

However, that’s not going to happen.  The cheapest way to get the laptop dock is bundled with the phone, so that the dock works out to around $300 (plus the tethering fees at $20/month, which I’m not sure if you can cancel that after just one month or it’s a full 24 month ordeal).  Should you want to buy it separately it’ll ring up $500.  No word on if AT&T will require tethering at that point or not.  Great idea Motorola, poorly executed by AT&T and Motorola.  I’m not sure who’s to blame, MOTO or AT&T.

Please, if you are still considering this because of the potential to lighten your travel load, look at a netbook.  Without going into details, I know I can by a dual core powered netbook, with 1GB RAM, 250GB of storage, built in webcam, multi-touch touchpad, 13 hours of battery life and full Windows 7 support for just over $350.  It’s small enough to travel, powerful enough for what you need and if you still want the 4G connection, then pay that $20/ tethering fee and tether to the Atrix.

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  • Ronberk

    AT&T has no people with common sense — if you want people to buy your products, then price the products correctly to reflect competition in the marketplace.

  • Valid

    @ronberk, hmmm…while I don’t like the high prices either, AT&T and MOTO will get the point if people don’t buy. My guess is that they will buy. Either way, you’ll probably buy too, which is why you were reading this and which is why you are complaining below. Your comment is otherwise pointless.

  • SamIam

    In general, I’d agree that $500 for the Lapdock seems expensive — but compared to what?
    – A netbook? What netbook has a 1280 x 800 IPS-like display? What netbook will run ~10 hrs & leave your phone fully charged? What netbook starts up within 1 second, bringing you back to exactly the point you were at when you left?

    In many ways the best comparison for the Lapdock is Apples Macbook Air. Yes, that’s a bit unfair as the Lapdock + Atrix is actually thinner & lighter…but I’ll give Apple the benefit of the doubt here.

  • Dave

    The price is too high for the lap top doc. Priced a nice full windows 7 laptop today with dual processors for only 89 dollars more than what they want for the dock so forget that. Will get the phone though. Can do 90% of what I want without the dock. Drop the price of the dock and the thethering chanrge and might change my mind.

  • Dehart007

    I’m sure the Atrix will become one of AT&T’s flagship products similar to the Iphone. Were going to see tons of AT&T commercials pumping up the hype for the phone. It will only be a matter of time before a third party manufacturer decides to jump in and make additional Dock’s for the Atrix. Really all they need is a laptop dock that connects via mini hmdi and bluetooth (keyboard and mouse). Worse case scenario, go buy a netbook and mod it to connect to the ATRIX :-)

  • RB

    As mentioned above, the options available depend on the tethering. These are the questions I’ll be asking AT&T.

    Will the phone/laptop work without tethering?
    Can tethering can be canceled after one month, though signing a two year contract?

    I’m going to get the phone. No doubt about that. Whether I purchase the laptop depends on how AT&T answers the questions above. I show the pricing options below given the different answers I might get. The options do not inlclude the data plan cost.

    Option 1
    phone/laptop is $500 after rebate + $20/month tether
    If locked into a two year contract with tethering:
    $500 + $480 = $980

    Option 2
    If tethering not required (do rebate, cancel tether after 1 month):
    $500 + $20 = $520.

    Option 3
    If tethering not required (buy phone and laptop separately):
    $200 + $500 = $700

    The obvious solution is option 2. If you cannot cancel tethering, and the phone/laptop does not require tethering, option 3 is the best way to go.

    I’m curious to ask AT&T these questions and get their answers. If the phone/laptop can work without tethering, then someone did not think out the package/plans very well.

    As others said, I agree the laptop is way over priced.

  • Jeffroks

    Thank you. You know what would be great? It would be great if no one was naive enough to get the over priced dock, and AT&T and/or Motorola would be forced to price it reasonably. And while I’m dreaming, it would also be great if AT&T would not be so greedy as to impose the $50 mail in rebate so their customers would not have to jump through the idiotic rebate whoops just to get the phone they want. If we tolerate these abusive practices from one carrier, the other greedy little minions will follow. We already pay exorbitant prices for our wireless plans because the wireless providers have worked together to drive up prices. The only way sanity can be restored to this market manipulation by our wireless providers is to vote with our dollars. Just Say No to the $300.00 dock and the additional tethering fees that go with!

  • Tom

    Not buying the atrix just because of the tethering charge. Not that it matters because I’ll probably go T-Mobile instead and eventually be back with AT&T. What bothers me is the AT&T reasoning/justification for the charge is very weak and abusive. It’s an example of why justice should deny the AT&T-Mobile merger.