Gadgetory

LG is trying to realize the modular smartphone dream so it's basically made its new flagship phone with different bits you can slide in and out a kind of taken apart and put it back together again design with removable bits but is that any good Jessica what I'm you know I think it's really interesting this is something that nobody's done before they've talked about it Google talked about it and that phone number came to fruition so the fact that LG has actually done this is noteworthy that doesn't necessarily mean it's good so the part that comes out is actually the battery that slides off the bottom on the chin of the phone that's the very bottom you can pull that off but the battery and something else or some of those modules have their own extended batteries and then you put them back in I think it's a really interesting idea I think you know we saw some of the extra modules and I think some of them could be useful some of them are maybe a little bit sillier but in order for this to succeed I think that we're going to have to see a lot more third-party modules that really offer some extra value in something new so one of the things I kind of liked about it is there was like a camera case that you sort of slot the phone into and and it gives you a physical shutter button and like zoom controls and stuff so that actually slots into where the battery goes is that right you sort of pulled the battery of the chin out and then the phone goes into this camera case exactly it would attach through the battery almost that's sort of the contact point and then everything else would be sort of built around it so you could really do anything with it I think as long as it is extending the value of what the phone does like in your case you take a lot of pictures Andy I do so for you being able to kind of take pictures in a different way or have those more physical controls I think would be value add for that now one thing with the module of course is that it is a pain in the you-know-what you kind of remove and put back in this isn't something that people are going to do a lot because you turn off your phone every single time you do it I think we would all praise LG for trying something different especially in a smartphone era where we're seeing loads and those are very very similar bits of technology but the real question is should Samsung be worried Andy is this a game changer yes or no no this is not I don't think this is near enough the modular dream that we've been wanting it's not the project ara that we've seen where you can swap the camera unit completely or the processor or the RAM or the storage it's it's it's a nice phone with some good accessories but that's it I'm just briefly what's your verdict it's risky I like risk I like doing something different but Samsung just has the market share they throw a lot of money at marketing and I don't know if it's going to move the needle