Review - Motorola LapDock 500 Pro

If you’re reading this, chances are you’ve either gone out and bought yourself a Motorola RAZR XT910, or have found your way here after reading our review of said phone. While the RAZR is a hell of a device, there’s only so much you can do to take advantage of all that power with just the handset itself. That’s precisely where the LapDock 500 Pro comes in.

As you may remember from our look at the ATRIX, Motorola has taken the approach of offering its customers a wide range of peripherals specifically made to wrangle every last ounce of power from their top of the range mobile phones. Given the fact that the RAZR is as powerful as many netbooks, why not go that extra mile and pick up a device that essentially turns it into one? It certainly makes sense for anyone who wants to lighten their travelling load, while still ensuring they can stay connected with the world at large while on the move.

The LapDock 500 Pro is Motorola’s top of the range device for just that purpose. By plugging your RAZR into the back of the dock, you’ll be able to use all your phone’s functionality with the comfort of a 14 inch screen. Connecting things up is a doddle; you simply pop your phone into the slide out holding tray at the back of the Dock, and connect the dual USB and HDMI cable.

As soon as everything is connected, the device will boot up to the home screen which displays your phone as well as a range of other functionality for you to make the most of. As an idea, it’s brilliant. If you like to travel light, you can do so by popping the Dock into your bag and hooking your phone up whenever you need to use it. It’s fast, efficient and makes perfect sense for anyone who does a lot of commuting.

The Dock’s keyboard is excellent, and feels every bit the premium device. The keys are well spaced, and offer a satisfying click to accompany each press. Unfortunately, the same cannot be said about the track pad. Given that this isn’t a cheap peripheral, you would have thought that Motorola would have paid a lot more attention to what is arguably the single most important feature of any laptop, but that doesn’t appear have been the case.

Rather than offering you the tactile response of an actual click when you depress one of the mouse buttons, the LapDock does… nothing. Nothing at all. You have no idea if the thing has actually registered the click until the system either does what you asked it to, or stares blankly back at you. Truth be told it’s a particularly unforgivable faux pas, however it is something that you can work around if you still need to additional features that the LapDock 500 Pro offers.

Thanks to the USB port located at the right hand side of the unit, you’ll be able to pop in your trusty old USB mouse and work away in a far more responsive manner. If you’re paying out all that money though, that’s not really a move that you should have had to take. It’s the only real disappointment in what is otherwise an excellent piece of kit though.

There is also a second USB port located at the rear of the LapDock which you can use for external storage, such as a USB hard drive, or to connect a supported device, such as an Android compatible printer. Alongside this secondary USB port you’ll also find an Ethernet port, to allow you to hook up to any wired network, as well as an additional output for a secondary monitor or projector, making it ideal for presentations or slide shows in the workplace or in the home. The right hand side of the unit also features an SD card slot and a headphone jack, to round out the whole package.

The screen is bright and offers enough real estate to be able to browse the net, stay in touch with your friends, edit documents using Google Documents or whatever cloud based editors you prefer, watch videos and play games. The only potential drawback for some users is that you’re limited to the range of applications available on the Google Marketplace for Gingerbread, and the software available on the device itself (the Firefox browser is every bit as reliable as its bigger, PC based brother, which is a real bonus). It’s not that there’s any shortage of them or anything like that, but those of you expecting to be able to boot up Microsoft Excel in order to work on your way to or from the office might find it a little awkward getting used to the required alternatives.

One of the best features of the LapDock 500 Pro is the fact that you can charge it up independently of your phone, and in turn charge your phone up from it while you’re using it, offering a great solution for those of you who are continually on the go and may not have access to an electrical outlet at all times.

If it weren’t for the utterly abysmal track pad, with its jerky response times and shambolic mouse buttons, this would’ve been an essential purchase for all you RAZR adoptees – unfortunately as it stands right now, it’s hard to recommend it unless you absolutely can’t live without it. In which case we recommend you pick up a decent USB mouse, or maybe you might want to take a look at Motorola’s other peripheral, the Smart Controller, reviewed right here.