Say hello to the newest Moto Mods

As part of Motorola's Mobile World Congress keynote, it unveiled a number of new Moto Mods for its Z series smartphones. 

For those not familiar with the term, Moto Mods are ostensibly hot-swappable accessories that can add features to Z series phones. Initial Mods included battery packs, a zoom camera, and a portable projector. 

Five of these newly revealed Mods should be out within the next two quarters, and in the longer term, Motorola is planning on launching four in-house mods per quarter. 

The first of these, the Power Pack, is a new clip on battery pack that will be out in March in multiple colours. While a Z series compatible battery pack has been on the market through Incipio, Motorola's will only charge the attached phone when it is most efficient to so. 

Second is the Turbo Charger, another clip on battery. Rather than keeping this one attached constantly, it's designed to be used whenever you need a quick top up. 15 minutes of charge is said to add eight hours of battery life. 

Third is a Wireless Charging Mod that - as the name suggests - gives the connected phone wireless charging capabilities. It's roughly as thin as one of Motorola's Style Cap mods. 

Fourth is the GamePad - which is well, a gamepad - and has two analogue sticks, shoulder buttons, speakers, a d-pad, four face buttons, internal storage, and will come pre-loaded with games. 

Lastly, Motorola unveiled a charging adapter, which isn't quite a Mod, but a magnetic charger for topping up Mods. 

Pricing for these is coming soon. 

In addition, Motorola showcased a few Moto Mods without set release dates. These included a portable printer, a multi-SIM Mod that simultaneously supports four SIM cards, a tablet you can dock a phone into for a bigger screen experience, and a Mod that would seemingly enable compatibility with Lego Mindstorms. 

While Mods may seem a bit gimmicky, Motorola Product Manager Danny Adamopoulos told WhitleOut that the accessories have resonated with an audience, with 50% of Z series owners owning at least Mod. Interestingly, popularity of Mods varies drastically between country. In Australia, a speaker is the best selling mod, in Japan, the zoom camera, and in Europe, the battery pack. 

Adamopoulos says this data proves "you really can't make a phone for everyone".

More importantly, Motorola isn't planning to abandon the idea of a modular phone anytime soon. 

"We'll guarantee that [Moto Mods] will be backwards and forward compatible for three generations of products,"  said Adamopoulos. 

Between Motorola and its partners, there are currently at least 40 new Moto Mods in the pipeline. 

You can read our review of the Moto Z here.

Motorola Australia contributed funding toward WhistleOut's trip to Barcelona for Mobile World Congress

Alex Choros

Managing Editor + Group Telco Editor | X | Instagram | Threads | LinkedIn

Alex Choros is the Managing Editor of WhistleOut Australia and an award-winning journalist. He's been writing about consumer technology for over a decade and is an expert on the Australian telco sector, to the point where he knows far too many phone and internet plans by heart. In addition to leading the WhistleOut editorial team, Alex is responsible for ruining the office Sonos with his troubled taste in music.

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