Gadgetory

there's been some debate internally at pocket now as to whether the Moto Z design truly represents a modular phone when we know devices like project ara are likely to start shipping the developers in a couple of months we'll leave that question up to you in a viewer poll but what we found from using the moto mods for a week this is one of the best consumer facing accessory systems we've yet seen for a phone not only does this work well but Motorola was able to get a trio of compelling options ready in time to launch with the phone which is what we'll be checking out today the JBL speaker dock the lenovo inste share projector and the Tumey battery case we had some time to play with pre-release moto mods at Lenovo tech world and not a lot has changed in the implementation moving to a release product the bottom back panel of a moto Z is adorned with 16 pins a dimple and this strip which works with the pins and magnets on each mod to snap the two together and launch applicable services at their most basic we'll see a collection of Moto mod simply to customize the look of the phone's backplate moto includes a wood panel mod with each phone to get you started given how busy and techie the Moto mod system is using at least a style mod will likely be the norm for most folks it helps tidy up the look of the phone and you'll probably want to keep all those pins clean now style is all well and good but we want to see some function with that form and these mods deliver that in spades the most basic concern people face is runtime there will be a variety of battery mods to choose from but the to me was sent along in our reviewer kit this moto mod adds an additional 20 200 milli amp power capacity which is used before draining the phone's built-in battery it's sweet delicious overkill to pair it up with AC force which already has a sizable 3500 milliamp hour battery on our first Saturday fielding a couple calls playing about an hour of Marvel future fight and keeping up with Twitter and Instagram I never touched the phone's actual battery a light 12 hour day was handled completely by the to me it's also pretty neat that we get power indicators to see if each Moto mod is charged without having to pop it on to the phone one small note though this combo does run warm when used aggressively after an hour of gameplay the phone was not throttling but it wasn't the most comfortable to hold of course sometimes just want to set your phone down and jam some audio where the JBL comes in to supercharge the phone's audio playback this mod just about triples the girth of the z-force but include substantially larger speakers and a 1000 milliamp hour battery a nice touch there's the idea that if you're slapping on a speaker dock you'll probably be engaging in some kind of multimedia activities and that extra battery helps take the edge off by powering the speakers without increasing the drain on your phone the JBL's are significantly louder than the front facing speaker on the Z and pack quite a bit more Rumble they're plenty powerful to fill a small room or hang with some beach blanket bingo sound quality is solid this is definitely a solution focused on power six suite watts of power and bass helps that audio travel especially when there are no walls to reflect off of but the mids are a little weak you on the whole though this will handily compete with many smaller Bluetooth speaker solutions lastly we get to the Lenovo insta share projector Lenovo is delivering one of the more ambitious mods of this first batch this 50 lumens projector displays a WVGA resolution image at up to a 70 inch diagonal though you'll need to keep your surroundings dark obviously handy little stands slides in the angle you need even straight up at 90 degrees long pressing the power button activates the unit which mirrors the phone display this little wheel focuses the image and the insta chair uses some pretty nifty auto Keystone adjustments to keep the image from becoming a weird trapezoid give the phone a second to scan and it should correct the image to straighten everything out this mod also packs a small battery 1,100 milliamp hours to power the output without killing your phone this should add an additional hour of video projection impressive considering that there is an active cooling fan built into this accessory for how ambitious this mod is though we do have one small issue with the fit and finish on our review unit where the bottom corner doesn't quite snap flush with the phone like other mods do a small blemish but one we can't unsee for the price in addition to the power indicators the JBL and projector mods also have their own charge ports and we're happy to see they're also USBC to share with the included chargers definitely a hardware option we'd like to see on future mods especially battery packs of course the success of a system depends on whether the novelty and convenience of these add-ons is appropriate for the pricing we are talking about features specific usage so while it might be fun to own a projector if you don't need one then the $299 launch price will probably be a turn-off the JBL speaker option will sell for $79.99 which is more expensive than competing Bluetooth options but again is more convenient than carrying around a separate audio solution the battery mods will range in price between 60 and $90 at lunch depending on capacity and branding many third-party battery case solutions might be cheaper but they won't be as sophisticated and how the phone recognizes the battery nor will they work as seamlessly or be as easy to put on or take off this is an interesting first step in creating an ecosystem of products and accessories so not only should we expect prices to slide if this idea gains traction we also wouldn't be surprised to see the system showing up on other modo lines in the future the current moto G 4 for example already closely follows the form factor of the Moto Z a moto G 5 plus next year might be a solid candidate for some moto mods as well just a bit of wild speculation to wrap up this review so there you have it folks the initial trio of moto mods we're seeing a lot of potential for the system it's easy to use and requires very little explanation we're curious what else moto might be able to accomplish with this setup a point of sale systems maybe a high quality audio interface or a project tango augmented reality add-on we've already seen some mock-ups for a camera back mod which could be really compelling the sky's the limit as always folks thanks so much for watching be sure to subscribe to this channel for our full moto Z coverage and hit that thumbs up button for a little extra positive reinforcement for pocket now I'm Juan Carlos fag now some gadget guy on Twitter and Instagram and I will catch you all on the next review