what about this Atrix phone?

[Dinsdale]

First, on a sidenote -- what an epic failure "4G" is. Was supposed to be an industry standard, and cure all sorts of ills. It's done no such thing, there is no standard, and it's the same shit on a different frequency.

Imagine that -- the big telecom companies lied to us to increase their political clout and make money.

Anyhoo JSC, you're the one who is by far the best qualified to decide which is better for you -- a smart phone, or a phone/netbook/tablet combo.

But many newer phones also double as a mobile wireless access point (aka "hotspot"). While speeds are often far from blazing, they generally suffice. The advantage to using a hotspot-capable phone is that many models allow you to make multiple client connections, so friends/coworkers/family can also hook up the lappy/netbook/tablet at the same time.


For myself, I have big clumsy fingers, and when you combine this with my ever-strengthening desire to not be "That Guy" who apparently couldn't leave his house before the advent of the smartphone, it leaves me with three mobile requirements:


Does it get incoming calls?

Does it make outgoing calls?

Does it have voicemail?

Then it's perfect for me.

Maybe a little different for me from most, since I live in the Wireless Capital of the Universe (it helps that Intel decreed that Portland will always be the flagship wireless city, if they have their way), and if I pull out a laptop (which I don't even own at current, but got one coming -- us computer dorks (part time for me) rarely seem to ever want to pay money for computers... anyhoo, I can pretty much get a wireless signal anywhere, at any time around here (except at my house, of course... asshole neighbors securing their shit... and I have the class to not hack their WEP key), so I don't really worry about mobile access.


Smartphone:

Advantages -- you're going to have a phone on you anyway, might as well have it do everything. Makes a great coversation piece, so long as it's the latest and greatest.

Disadvantages -- shitty sound (for playing away from the ear), shitty video, and is pretty much shitty at everything it does -- it just does all those things.


Laptop/mobile access point:

Advantages -- does everything, and does it very well. Lots of computing power and storage capacity.

Disadvantages: Bulk.


Netbook:

Advantages -- great compromise between a smartphone and a laptop. Very portable, and has enough power to do most things you'd want to do away from home/office -- could serve as a primary PC if you're not a "hardcore" user. Can use any USB peripheral that the laptop can (although you don't get a CD/DVD or floppy built in... and if you still use floppies, eject from this thread).

Disadvantages -- small screen for aging eyeballs, not as powerful as a laptop. But overall, very few disadvantages.


Again, only JSC can decide what's best for JSC.

[ElTaco]

Well I would say that 4G could still pull out. We'll see where we stand in the next 5 years. I have heard that even Sprint, who is currently going with Wimax hasn't ruled out with going with LTE, of course that may just be an attempt to scare Clearwire, their wimax provider.

As far as the Atrix goes, it is one of the best phones that is coming out. When it was announced the, the blog-sphere went nuts talking about it. The specs are fairly awesome: Dual core Tegra chip and 1 Gb of Ram. A lot of the phones coming out still don't have that combination.
While the hardware does not necessarily make a phone, having good specs does ensure that you will hopefully have less issues with lagging software and such.

As far as what to have, phone vs tablet vs laptops/PCs, my opinion is that a good phone is essential, but I will also say that I think a tablet can easily replace a laptop when it comes to regular every day usage. I would gladly replace my laptop with a tablet to be truthful. Clearly a laptop can do way more, but it is my opinion that most people do not even get close to using their laptops or PCs to the fullest. They may play some online games, check email and browse the web. Hell on most average nights, that is all I do. Gaming is done my consoles these days and I just don't have time to do too much else.

As far as the laptop dock goes, it is most definitely a neat option, but I'm not sure it is as useful as they make it out to be. I think a good tablet would be a lot more useful.

[ElTaco]

Something new to consider:
http://www.engadget.com/2011/02/28/moto ... -from-jun/

Motorola is saying that all of their higher end phones will support webtop, which is what is used on the laptop dock to browse the web. Just some info to add to the fuel. Hope my Droid X will get it. Would be fun to take the laptop dock to work and watch youtube on it.

[PSUFAN]

One thing for certain - smartphones that you use as wifi hotspots consume battery energy really fast. If you want to sit and get any significant work done, basically the phone will have to be plugged in...which limits things a bit. Personally, rather than expect more out of (but be faced with the limitations of) my phone, I will continue to expect more out of a laptop (or maybe a tablet). With Google Talk, I can place calls with my laptop microphone in the rare cases where email or SMS doesn't answer better.

[Dinsdale]

One thing for certain - smartphones that you use as wifi hotspots consume battery energy really fast. If you want to sit and get any significant work done, basically the phone will have to be plugged in...which limits things a bit.

Unless your phone charges off a USB cable -- in which care you're robbing Peter's laptop battery to pay Paul's phone battery. But laptops have a bunch more amp-hours available to spare.

[ElTaco]

So another option is to look at a tablet. So it doesn't help as far as a phone, but, check out the new ASUS Eee Pad Tranformer. You can get a nice droid phone and than pick up the Eee pad for $400 (wifi) and the laptop cradle.

Now here is the difference. Your phone is un-affected so you just find the phone you like the best and that is in your price range. Than you pick up the Eee Pad. Here is why this works out a little better than a iPad or than the Atrix.

The Eee pad comes as a full on Android tablet that can work as a laptop + be used for an additional 8 hours of juice. In other words instead of using a phone as a laptop, you get the full tablet/laptop with everything. Motorola is basically offering a browser in a laptop form. The only advantage is that you get to use your phone for its internet connection, but at least with ATT, you still need to pay the extra $$$ to use it, which is dumb. Personally, when I do get a tablet later this year, I'll probably opt for a wifi only (to save $$$) so if I end up going with the Asus Eee Pad Transformer, I could definitely see it being used at work as well as at home.

I will also say that I'm interested in the HTC flyer and although for now its only being offered in the 7" size, some of the capabilities that HTC built into it would be welcome for work.

[Go Coogs']

First, on a sidenote -- what an epic failure "4G" is. Was supposed to be an industry standard, and cure all sorts of ills. It's done no such thing, there is no standard, and it's the same shit on a different frequency.

Imagine that -- the big telecom companies lied to us to increase their political clout and make money.

I'm not sure where you got your information from, but this couldn't be further from the truth when it comes to LTE (verizon)

Processor could have some to do with it, but I downloaded an app on the new Thunderbolt w/ 4G and downloaded the same app on my 3G Droid. The 4g took half the time to do it. Shit is fast. Like cable modem fast.

[Dinsdale]

OK, I'll elaborate...

4G offers better bandwidth, depending on carrier, location, and a bunch of other things.


But, as I said -- the telecom companies were granted a new frequency range, which the FCC authorized because of the obvious benefit to the American consumer.

Once they got the OK, they threw everything that the FCC laid out for them, and they all started doing their own thing, "industry standard" be damned.

What we see as 4G is a drop in the bucket of the functionality that could be, and is the telecoms thumbing their nose at the FCC (a rare federal agency that actually does a good job).


Not sure about everywhere else, but here in Portland (home of the world's first 4G network, thankyouverymuch, been around a few years), Sprint doesn't even use modern cellular technology (as El Taco mentioned), it's essentially a tiny PC that hooks up to Clear's WiMax network (which I believe the 5gig range of WiMax has better long-term potential than the competitor's LTE networks, but WiMax coverage is pretty much confined to the more dense urban areas).


So, yes -- current 4G is a joke.

[ElTaco]

Well, I'll agree to a few points and say that we all know that Spring's 4G technology was rushed and more importantly Clearwire and Sprint are not really working together and finally, clearwire is being investigated for lying on just exactly what they cover. Also, because they rushed to market, the current version of WiMax can only do 3 to 5mpbs. This will soon change with the new version rolling out, and Clearwire does have decent coverage, but in my opinion, Wimax was really created for data and really doesn't play that well into the mobile industry.
LTE is the future of mobile service. It is being adopted world wide, which means that it will be easier to roll out phones, even for Verizon, that will be functional in other countries, even though I believe that ATT and Verizon are using different frequencies here in the US. Also, LTE does have capabilities that aren't yet available on the Verizon network but could be enabled in the future, such as simultaneous voice and data usage, a lot higher speed and such. As 3G is slowly killed off, and 4G becomes the standard (vs the current 3G offerings), I would expect that ATT and Verizon will keep trying to trump each other on speed and bandwidth as well as features.

I guess in other words, I am still cautiously optimistic about the future of LTE.

[Dinsdale]

Also, because they rushed to market, the current version of WiMax can only do 3 to 5mpbs. This will soon change with the new version rolling out, and Clearwire does have decent coverage, but in my opinion, Wimax was really created for data and really doesn't play that well into the mobile industry.

First, I'd say you're $$$$, as per usualm.

But to clarify, Clear (which also started here in Portland, no big shocker, since they kind of mask the fact it's Intel's foray into internet service) has very good home internet service. A couple of years ago, my "home away from home" had Clear (3meg package back then, I guess they offer unlimited on all packages now, which like you said, goes about 5 meg).

While it was subnetted and you didn't get a public IP, it performed flawlessly. Was cheap, too.