Arguably the most talked-about phone at the recent CES 2011 event, the Motorola Atrix 4G, now has a price tag. AT&T has announced in a press release that the phone will be available on pre-order from February 13, and will be available for $199 with a two-year service agreement for AT&T customers. The phone itself is expected to be in select retail stores by March 6. The Atrix 4G, which was hyped by Motorola as “the world’s most powerful smartphone” at CES packs powerful specs such as a dual core processor with each core providing 1 GHz of processing power, a 4 inch qHD (960 x 540) display, 1 GB of RAM, upto 48 GB of storage space, dual cameras, a biometric fingerprint reader, and most interestingly of all, the ability to connect to a notebook-like dock, giving users a bigger (11.6 inch) screen, full QWERTY keyboard and a full Firefox browser to browse the Net.
Alas, speculation that the laptop dock would be available for as little as $150 appears to have been way off the mark. Although AT&T does have a package in which the ATRIX 4G and the Motorola Laptop Dock are offered for “a promotional price” of $499.99 after a two-year service contract and $100 mail-in-rebate after subscription to Data Pro smartphone data plan and tethering add on, those who want to buy the Motorola Laptop Dock separately will have to shell out around as much as they would have for the 16GB Wi-Fi only iPad – $499.99. Honestly, we think it would make more sense to buy that iPad and tether it to the Atrix 4G (which runs Froyo and can therefore be converted into a Wi-Fi hotspot) at that price!
There is also an offer of an Entertainment Access Kit for ATRIX customers which includes the Motorola HD Multimedia Dock, a Bluetooth keyboard and mouse, and a remote control for $189.99. Any which way, you look at it, the world’s best smartphone does not come cheap!
