[evilmessiah]

Introduction:

The mobile phone is ubiquitous nowadays. Everyone from a CEO to a roadside hawker has one. In fact, I was once requested by a beggar while I was waiting at a red traffic light signal to pay her via Google Pay or PayTM when I gave her the excuse that I had forgotten to take my wallet. One might forget to take a water bottle or a wallet, but no one leaves home without their beloved phones. It is one step towards mankind's march to a cybernetic future.

While the pre-touch screen era had some truly innovative design elements like the camcorder shaped Nokia N93 and post introduction of the iPhone had some promise in the form of phones like the Xperia Play, the innovation factor more or less stood still when the manufacturers were content to sit on their collective backsides and take notes from Apple. Those who innovated were punished- LG is a notable example. LG had some truly great phones like the V10, V20 (which I still use today) which were actually built to last and be consumer friendly. The last swansong from LG- the Wing had came straight out of the left field. However, in the mobile phone world, I see that such extreme innovation tended to be punished (in LG's case, this was kind of justified since their software support and updates were slower than Indian government offices).

However, what I have with me today is something that seems to be forgotten in the sands of modern mobile history- a Motorola Z series phone. Starting from the original Motorola Z, the Z series phones were razor thin, svelte and solid feeling devices that promised to be more than just a smartphone. Motorola (or maybe under the stewardship of Lenovo, who were the new owners) envisioned that these would integrate into the lifestyles of its users with 'Moto Mods'. The Moto Mods were accessories that could magnetically latch on to the back of a Z series smartphone, link up to it via the pogo pins and turn the phone into something else. The notable ones were:

1) Hasselblad True Zoom Camera- turned the phone to a full blown Hasselblad branded camera with OIS and EIS for photos and videos, xenon flash and physical buttons.

2) JBL Soundboost- turned the phone to a boombox with its own kickstand.

3) Insta-Share Projector- turned the phone into a pico projector.

4) Polaroid Insta-Share Printer- turned the phone to a Polaroid camera that printed 2x3" photos

5) TurboPower Pack- latched on to the phone and added another 3500 mAh.

6) 360 Camera- had a 360 degree camera capable of shooting 4K video.

7) 5G Pack- added 5G connectivity to the phone.

8) GamePad- turned the phone into a game console with analog sticks

9) Amazon Alexa Smart Speaker- turned the phone to something like an Amazon Echo

10) Motorola Style Shell- a protective case for the phone.

There were more mods offered by third party companies.

What I have with me now is a Motorola Z4 along with some of the mods listed above. These are owned by my friend Nikhil in Delhi, but he had loaned these to me for some time. I had been using the phone along with the mods and thought that I should pen down what I thought about these.

One look at the Z4's spec sheet and the first reaction would be 'Meh. Another mid ranger. What's so special about this?' SD 675, 4GB RAM, 128GB internal storage, a 48MP camera (a garden variety 12MP camera with a quad-Bayer filter which was normal at that time) all powered by a 3600 mAh battery are nothing to be excited about- especially in late 2022. The impression doesn't change at the front either- just another 6.5 inch FHD AMOLED screen with a teardrop notch. The rear and sides tells a different story though. The aluminum frame with metal buttons look and feel good. The rear is made of frosted glass with a circular camera island that is a carry over from the original Motorola Z. Though the phone is quite thin, it doesn't feel flimsy or bend prone. The 3.5 mm jack is a welcome addition to this phone- the audio output is quite loud and clean through this as well. The main reason my friend chose the Z4 over the Z3 which had a SD835 and more RAM was that the Z4 had a bigger battery, a more efficient chipset and the 3.5 mm audio jack.

The mods are another story altogether. My friend owns the Alexa Speaker, JBL Soundboost, TurboPower and the Insta-Share projector along with the Z4.

The Z series phones aren't the first phones to have this kind of a modular setup. The old LG G5 comes to mind which also supported external accessories like a B&O Hi-Fi headphone amp. However, the integration was nowhere as smooth and seamless as the Moto Mods- the G5 needed to be rebooted every time a mod was changed.

I can't help but be appreciative of how the Moto Mods are designed. All of the above mentioned mods that are with this phone have their own inbuilt batteries that can either be charged on their own or would charge along with the phone if they are latched on to the phone's back. This is great since this avoids the phone's main battery getting drained and in the long run lengthens the battery health. The Moto Mods section in the phone's UI provides control over the mod behavior, firmware updates, usage guides and battery levels. The integration is seamless- just slap a mod on the back, it gets connected automatically and starts working. The magnets make sure that they stay in place- no faffing about with fiddly latches that would break. The whole ecosystem is about extending longevity and not of planned obsolescence- I can tell that these are made to last for a long time. Having access to the battery levels of the mods can ensure that we take the precaution not to overcharge or discharge them completely. The mods themselves have buttons that show the rough charge levels or in some cases, if the battery is charged.

The Z4:

Plain from the front, distinctive from the sides and back. Though I'm not an AMOLED fan, this one can be quite color accurate. Just set the color profile to natural and turn on the night light and we have a very color accurate and a natural looking display.

Very thin. But not fragile or bend prone. Solid build.

Frosted back looks and feels nice.

Though the battery is 'only' 3600 mAh, the clean OS and if this phone is used as a secondary device like I did, the battery endurance is nothing to sneeze at. Just look at the 8 hour plus video playback time. Also, this thing has held charge for 5 days- it would have lasted for another half a day as well. This is without using the TurboPower battery pack mods. I had been using all the other mods since the first charge (including the projector).

A look at the mod manager screen.

The Mods:

1) TurboPower: I find that this one is more than just an ordinary power bank. There are two modes that can be accessed in the Moto Mods menu- Turbo Power charging mode and efficiency mode. The efficiency mdoe is particularly useful since it limits the phone's battery to getting charged to only 80%. This is great news for the battery longevity. My friend charges the phone only through the TurboPower mods only up to 80% and doesn't let them get discharged fully often. The mod also has power indicator leds at the back along with a button that lets us know the battery level. The icing on the cake is that even though this mod is not very thick, it adds another 3500 mAH to the existing battery of the phone. Very useful, very practical.

2) JBL Soundboost: Has two speakers at the rear. They are covered with a metal grille. There is also a metal stand that feels very solid that helps to prop up the phone and can provide an immersive viewing and listening experience. This mod has a 1100 mAh battery that lasts for around 8 to 10 hours. In terms of sound quality, there is a definite bump in the volume levels. The focus is on mid bass, mids and the lower part of the high ends. It's good for casual music listening and for watching videos. I used this mod the most. This shined when I was doing some routine work or chores around the house.

3) Amazon Alexa Smart Speaker: Similar to the JBL Soundboost in the fact that it has two 3mm drivers. The rear is covered by fabric like the Echo speakers. Though there is no kickstand, the resting angle is natural for listening to audio and watching videos. The battery life also seems to be similar to the Soundboost. However, I found that the audio was clear in the Soundboost- highs and mids especially. This one was a little more muffled. Since I hate Alexa (and all other assistants), I didn't test that part of this speaker at all.

4) Insta-Share Projector: I've saved the best for the last. This one's engineered by Motorola like the TurboPower mod. It's quite solidly built and has excellent attention to detail- just take a look at the solid aluminum stand with the rubber feet. There is a metal power button that turns this on along with a keystone adjustment wheel. There is a small fan on the bottom along with an intake vent that takes care of cooling the hot projector lamp. Tge output is around 480p and is visible even during daytime. Though this mod has a battery around 1100 mAh, it would get depleted quickly in around an hour. The other drawback is that one needs to rely on a Bluetooth speaker or the inbuilt loud speaker for sound. I have doubts about the longevity of the lamp as well- quite unsure as to how long it would last, if it could be changed or if we can get a replacement lamp at all.

My friend had the Gamepad mod, but he had sold it sometime back. He told me that it had no latency, the buttons had been tactile and the analog sticks were good. He had tried out the Hasselblad mod and had reported that the quality was nothing special at normal levels and came into life only when zoom was used. He was interested in using the Polaroid mod, but was on the fence about buying one.

Apologies: I haven't tested the camera section of this phone since I'm not into photography and am a wretched photographer as is evident from the pics in this thread.

Conclusion:

This has to be one of the biggest examples of a phone that is more than a collective set of numbers on a spec sheet. The phone by itself is quite nice- well engineered, great battery life, a clean OS and seems to be designed for consumers than for planned obsolescence.
This phone along with the mods is something that integrates into a user's lifestyle in a useful and a meaningful way. The Soundboost and the Alexa speaker provided me company while I was doing mundane work or chores. The projector was a boon for sharing photos or watching videos- an amazing party trick. The Gamepad would have made this into a credible gaming phone as well. If Apple had made these for the iPhones, the world would have lost their collective marbles.

So it's a crying shame that this idea was conceptualized by Motorola and these mods were atrociously priced at launch. I think that projector was around 20K in India. As with some brilliant and innovative products, this one ended up getting overlooked by the market- as a result of the ridiculous pricing and poor marketing clout. In case of the Z4, the specs weren't doing this any favors either- 4GB RAM was outdated even back then. I don't think this phone can be daily driven as a primary phone. The hardware could choke up quickly with the addition of social networking and Google related apps. Only the connoisseurs of the weird and unusual like my friend would keep these around. It was wonderful to experience this phone along with the mods. I'm glad that there are still people who think out of the box in this world (case in point- the foldables).

[Mad Max]

Essential, the company started by Andy Rubin, was going the same way. They did have significant plans for external devices. I bought one and still have it. The design itself is very nice, all metal, very slick and running on standard Android.

You can read more about it here

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Essential_Phone

[NiInJa]

Thanks for sharing your thoughts about a product which I liked and discussed at lengths with my friends back then. I had put the Z4 in my shopping cart but took it out at the last moment. Following were some reasons, but all of them linked to the fact that it would have to stay with one phone only and also, what would happen to the mods if the phone became old after few years.

1. Power Bank: We could get a brick that would work for all phones at a cheaper price

2. Bluetooth Speakers: For the price, we could get better sounding ones and something that was more portable, not linked to one device.

3. Projector: Wasn't really a selling point but a nice party trick. Phone mirroring apps like Google Home or Samsung Smartview did much better job of projecting phone screens with better audio. It is not just the display, but also the quality and utility that mattered. Many users already had an ipad or a cheap tab that would suffice for watching movies or surfing the net.

4. Gamepad: was a little too expensive. Also, for a tech like smartphones which is not stopping at any number, be it the RAM, Space or performance scores, this mod probably would have meant that Motorola stuck to same design and formfactor for later releases of the phone to make these attachments compatible.

Having said that, I am glad that Motorola did innovate and people got a chance to enjoy something unique for that period of time. The Z4 even without the mods was a sleek device, only let down (which is still Motorola's issue) was the image processing of their camera.

[mayukh42]

I think the main issue with such "modular" phones is that the accessories are specific to the model or at most the manufacturer. Asus ROG also has it to some extent.

In order for this (which I find very innovative) to be truly successful, an ecosystem needs to be created that spans across manufacturers. This will bring down the costs too; consumers are more likely to adopt.

We have the technology for like 3-4 years now - in the form of USB C standard interface. All the companies need to do are make the phone of a standard size, place the cameras and USB C port at a standard location, the latter is already so for 99% phone models.

Most phones do not use USB C at full potential. For example, very few have USB C 3.1 (display out). There is no reason why a USB C phone should not have a display out - even without a well-done desktop mode which most manufacturers have not looked at (it is there in Android since v10), except Samsung's Dex and now Moto again with Edge 30 series.

But phones do not come with replaceable batteries or even upgradable storage these days. Adding to that, forget about the "U" in USB standing for "Universal", for controllers like Razer Kishi who have separate models for Android and iOS. So we can only dream.

[shancz]

Being a long time Motorola user and a fan of their quality and sleek design since the days of the L6, I was very excited about these Moto Mods especially the Battery, Camera and Projector. The only reason I didn't buy then was because I was already using the gorgeous X2.
A friend bought one with the battery pack and was very impressed, IIRC he still has it.

This concept needed at least three iterations for Motorola to fine tune the pricing and options but this never happened and the chance was missed. Lenovo went with a different approach leveraging their access to cheaper components and to me, Motorola, as I knew it, ceased to exist then onwards.

Recently bought some more Motorola phones but not because they were sleek, top quality or desirable but because they were competent for the hardware and using vanilla android.
Ironically my current phone is the Motorola Edge 20 Fusion, the largest I have used till date and it doesn't fit into my older jeans/tracks. Life has come full circle indeed

[TT-S]

This thread made me smile. I am still having a 2017 Moto Z2 Force edition (SD 835, 6/64GB), but relegated to a "standby duty". I purchased it on heavy discounts from Flipkart in 2018. Used it till late 2020 when I replaced it with the Pixel 4a. It had beefy hardware specs for the time, super slim 6mm all metal body and a tough shatterproof screen that only needed a screen guard to prevent scratches.

The only moto mod that appealed to me was the instashare projector. Since prices were too high for that on Amazon, I got it from eBay US, paying 9k INR including all fees. Later I also got the Turbo battery mod for approximately 3K INR from Amazon India.

These days the only purpose of the phone is to watch movies using the projector from Netflix/Prime Video/Hotstar streaming. It works very well in a dark room up to 70 inches - Any larger and the pixels are very visible. I use it paired with Bose SoundLink Mini speaker to get a proper Mini-theater experience. Since the battery is only 2730mAh, I have to plug it into my power bank to watch anything above 1.5 hours. It is stuck on Android 9, and I am planning to use it till the streaming platforms stop supporting this version of the OS.

I think the moto mod system fared much better compared to similar tech from LG. Later the moto mod interface specs were made open and published for developers to take advantage. The limiting problem for the mods is the dimensions - to make the earlier mods usable with new phones, the same dimensions had to be retained. I think that stopped with the 4th generation of the Z series when they realized the form factor was limiting the sales.

[SmartCat]

Consumers are willing to pay even Rs. 1.5L for a device that has all the above features in-built into a sleek form factor. But they will not bite if one can 'mod' a smartphone like this - because you essentially have 3 or 4 different things to carry around.

LG G5 too had mods like the Motorola
https://www.androidcentral.com/what-...vailable-lg-g5

[srikrishna717]

Thanks for sharing these products. I was an employee of Motorola when all these products were launched and my team did work on few aspects of these products. Agree on the views about pricing etc which really killed these great innovations. Prior to these there were some amazing Docks/accessories like Lapdock which was a dummy laptop with screen and keyboard, a Moto Z docked to it would transform itself to give a PC experience!
Motorola never hesitated to experiment and come out with Wow products! But not everything was a hit in market for reasons like pricing, marketing etc.
I still use Motorola phones and the latest being the Edge Ultra 30 which is a great product in recent times!

[Mortis]

There have been a couple of concepts of totally modular phones as well but none of them materialized unfortunately.
I guess the closest tech thing we have to this is the Frameworks Laptop. Hopefully the concept will pick up and maybe percolate to phones as well

[Pam81]

Wonderful thread, thanks for appreciating some unique design intent here.

I always love Moto for it's clean UI with stock android and no bloatware of those typical ones from across our eastern border. I bought first gen Z Play with JBL sound boost mod. The phone itself was quite good, neat looking and good display size at that time (2017). JBL was perfect company, awesome sound, comparable to small soundbots from JBL, Infinity and Sony. With equalizer settings in the phone, this is quite good & loud enough for a small room, balcony, in & around car (during self maintenance etc..)

Unfortunately, the clever design & engineering of Moto never transpired into after sales service & support for customer. Due to a drop test my kid, phone got damaged and I could not fix it to my satisfaction. The display is gone and I could not replace it as the model is first gen and service is utterly hopeless of getting new parts (wait times) and cost of repair is nightmare. Now, I have the JBL soundboost but doing nothing with it, hoping that by next upgrade will get a new Moto Z.. or may be not..!

[jono213]

Originally Posted by evilmessiah

The Moto Mods were accessories that could magnetically latch on to the back of a Z series smartphone, link up to it via the pogo pins and turn the phone into something else.

Haha, I genuinely would love to own this and as many mods as i could get my hands on, seems like a practical experience. Something that comes close to this today are the new Ssus gaming phones with external coolers and gamepads, however nowhere near as customizable as this!