Use Motorola Lapdock with other phones? [yes]
The Motorola lapdock can be used with phones other than Motoroloa phones (Atrix/Photon). As a matter of fact you can use some lapdock features with popular phones like the Samsung Galaxy S III or the HTC One EVO.
The only limitation comes with the fact that most phones these days have a single micro-USB connector which can either:
- Charge the phone / transfer data
- Output HDMI via MHL
- Act as a USB host via USB OTG (on the go)
This means that with a standard MicroUSB connector that supports MHL you can use the lapdock as an external display (#2 above) or as a keyboard/touchpad (via #3 above) but not both.
Interestingly, Samsung has enabled more functionality in some of their latest phones:
11-pin MHL-HDMI adapter/dongle
The Samsung Galaxy S III and Galaxy Note II use a connector that is similar to the original 5-pin MHL-HDMI adapter/dongle, but it uses 11-pins in order to achieve a few functional improvements over the 5-pin design.
- It supports the use of USB and MHL simultaneously. (Note that the new Samsung 11-pin MHL-HDMI adapter also has a USB On-The-Goport).
- Samsung’s Galaxy S III/ Note 2 can power the MHL-HDMI adapter (when used with a non-MHL-compatible-TV). Although this can theoretically also be done with the standard 5-pin micro-USB connector, the Galaxy S III’s 11-pin connector is believed to be the first smartphone that supports this functionality.
Via 5.2 11-pin MHL-HDMI adapter/dongle – Wikipedia
Theoretically this type of 11-pin adapter should allow for the Samsung Galaxy S3 and the Galaxy Note II (GN2) to more fully utilize a Motorola Lapdock . I will be testing this shortly to see how it works.
UPDATE: it is possible to get USB host and HDMI simultaneously out via the single connector, as evidenced by the Samsung Galaxy Note 2 Smart Dock:

BONUS #1 Wireless Display Connectivity: another option for display usage it to utilize the Miracast/AllShare Cast feature on your phone and a compatible receiver to wirelessly connect to the lapdock. Here is a simple example diagram:
Samsung Galaxy S III -> wireless -> PTV3000 -> wired adapter -> Lapdock

BONUS #2 possibly use the Lapdock keyboard via Bluetooth:

Forum threads with helpful info:





To be updated as I do more testing… (in the meantime feel free to comment if you have relevant info/questions!)
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Great set of options, I wondered if you had continued your testing with the smart Dock and if you could get it to work for HDMI from the phone to the lapdock, USB from the lapdock keyboard to the phone charge the phone and power the dock all from the lapdock ?
There are two ports in LapDock, 1 micro usb like the one in Galaxy S-III, other one in HDMI MHL. So if I get a connector (has 1 HDMI in one side and Micro USB and MHL on other side), it will work? So basically I will just connect micro USB side on Samsung S-II and MHL on LapDock? Is that all I need?
Thanks for this blog.
Hi Polash,
Thank you for your question! As best I can tell, there are no commercially available single cables that will plug directly from the phone to the dock, but there are a number of multiple cable options to investiage:
http://www.jdhodges.com/blog/motorola-bionic-webtop-lapdock-cables-hacks/
Sorry to not have better news, however, I do recommend starting with this adapter:
HDMI USB OTG adapter for SIII, SIV, Note 2
(and follow the instructions from the top review)
With it and the appropriate you can at least easily test the functionality of using the S3 with the LapDock (plus it is a lot cheaper than the Samsung dock!)
Best regards,
-J.D.
PS part of the issue is supplying enough power and having the cable wired correctly, you can find some info in the comments here:
http://blog.clove.co.uk/2012/11/01/sgs3-mhl-adaptor-does-not-do-mhl-usb-otg-simultaneously/