New Motorola accessories hands-on

At the recent Motorola RAZR press briefing in London, Motorola announced a range of new accessories designed for the RAZR. These new accessories are designed to be compatible with other Motorola devices going forward. It is not known if these will work with older devices like the Atrix.

The first was the Multimedia Dock, which is basically a souped by cradle that allows the RAZR to be docked, charged and connect to a TV. Behind the dock resides three full size USB port, a mini HDMI out port and 3.5mm audio out port. The cradle feels weighty which is always a good thing to have on a dock, though I do find that the footprint to be a tad large.

The new Multimedia Dock can be used with a new wireless keyboard by Motorola. For those who owns a none-HDMI compatible monitor or projector, Motorola has also shown a portable HDMI to VGA adapter.

Also shown to us were two new Motorola Lapdocks. The Lapdock line of accessories were first introduced with the Motorola Atrix as an accessory for people who want to get more out of the Android phones, by turning the Atrix into a full size netbook and laptop. The Lapdock 100 features a 10.1″ display, while the Lapdock 500 features a more generous 14.1″ screen. The keyboard has a traditional none-chiclet type, so it feels comfortable to use, but on a whole the Lapdock looks like a cheap generic netbook design.

Unlike the Atrix’s Lapdock, the new Lapdocks comes equipped with a cable instead of a dock, a less elegant way of docking but at least it opens up the new Lapdocks to other Motorola Webtop enabled phones. Personally I am not keen on the idea of using a Lapdock in public with an expensive smartphone hidden at the back, only secured via a cable.

Finally, we were demonstrated the new Smart Controller, a Bluetooth remote control for your Android phone. The remote control features the four buttons that are typically found on an Android smartphone, as well as a multitouch trackpad above the buttons that mimics the touchscreen functionality.

The idea behind this accessory is to be able to connect your Android phone to a TV, but instead of having to bend forward to control the phone, a user would instead control the phone from far away using the Smart Controller. A mouse cursor will appear on the screen. Because the accessory uses the HID Bluetooth profile, it is compatible with any Android smartphones.

But the Smart Controller is more than just a simple remote controller. You can use the Smart Controller as a wireless Bluetooth phone. A speakerpiece and microphone resides on the back. Just flip it backwards and press the button to answer the call. It’s actually rather neat and I can see the Smart Controller as being a popular accessory for both home and office use.

While no availability and pricing info has been announced yet, Motorola has promised that  these accessories will be available in the next coming weeks.