Are Moto Mods the answer to smartphone stagnation?

Motorola released new interchangeable snap-on accessories called Moto Mods with its flagship devices—the Moto Z Droid and the Moto Z Force Droid, both exclusive to Verizon. Sara Snyder

Moto Z Force Droid(Photo: Motorola)

NEW YORK—Smartphone innovation has been stagnating. It's going to take more than a few extra megapixels in the camera or a modestly zippier processor to persuade you to upgrade.

Motorola's attempt to disrupt the status quo comes in the form of interchangeable snap-on accessory backs it calls Moto Mods that are meant to change the style and/or add to the function of the phones that they're compatible with—converting such handsets into portable movie projectors or mini-stereo boom boxes, for example.

I've had a chance to try out a few of the Mods, along with the first phones they work on, the Moto Z Droid and the Moto Z Force Droid flagships, that go on presale Thursday and that arrive one week later. The two phones are for now exclusive to Verizon Wireless, though Motorola, which is owned by Lenovo, is planning to bring out an unlocked version that will work on other networks.

A Kate Spade Moto Mod (Photo: Motorola)

I like the new Droids and some of the Mods I snapped on them a lot, but the phones are costly—$624 (or $26 a month) for the Moto Z; $720 (or $30 per month) for the Force model--and same goes for the Mods. (Verizon will offer credits up to $300 for your old phone.)

Motorola hopes to build an ecosystem around Moto Mods and is encouraging developers to produce their own. It joins LG and Google in trying a modular approach.

Now that innovation thing? Smartphone accessories are nothing new of course but by developing a simple, consistent system for swapping add-ons, Motorola's pitch is that you can keep your handset fresh and supply new features only if and when you need them. If Motorola or its rivals are successful with this approach, that engenders brand loyalty.

But the first batch of Moto Mods, however capable, speak more to the potential of the modular concept rather than by any immediate necessity to own any.

Of course, before you can even begin to judge whether such an ecosystem is worth buying into, you've got to evaluate the Droid's on their own merits. Fortunately, the two Android handsets check off most of the boxes.

QUALITY PHONES

These are snappy, metal slabs, with superb cameras, long-lasting batteries with fast charging, fingerprint sensors, and lovely 5.5-inch Quad HD displays. You can get them with 32GB or 64GB of storage and expand those totals via optional SD memory cards.

Motorola says the Moto Z is the thinnest premium smartphone on the market, something to consider since Moto Mods will add to the thickness. The Moto Z Force is already a thicker device, but what you get in return is an even better camera (21 megapixels versus 13), even longer battery (up to 40 hours versus 30 according to Motorola) and a shatterproof screen. I intentionally dropped the Force to verify that claim.

The phones also exploit the USB Type C connector that's not in widespread use yet. There is no headphone jack either, so you must rely on a supplied dongle if you're not using a wireless Bluetooth headset. That's a bummer.

MOTO MODS

For this review, though, I'm concentrating mainly on the Moto Mod experience. First the good news: You can easily snap on Mods without removing the handset's battery, or turning the phone on or off. The Mods are held firmly in place by magnets, but not so firmly that you can't pry them off when you're ready to try another.

The tradeoff: you can only snap on one Moto Mod at a time. They're small enough to fit into a bag or backpack and I found if you do carry more than one, you can snap them together via their magnets.

To dress up the phones, you can buy what are called Style Shells made from wood, leather or other materials for between $20 and $25.

And you can buy $60 to $90 packs that are meant to combine fashion and extra battery life, from the likes of Kate Spade and Tumi. I snapped on a far less fashionable Incipio Offgrid Power Pack.

While the phones do boast excellent battery life on their own—and I was able to juice up a Moto Z from zero to a 25% charge after plugging the phone in for just 15 minutes—I suppose you can never have enough power.

This Moto Mod can turn the phone into a mini-boombox (Photo: Motorola)

The JBL SoundBoost Speaker from Harman fetches about $80, though I was pleasantly surprised by how good it sounded. The battery life for the speaker is rated at 10 hours.

Meantime, the Moto Insta-Share Projector, which can project whatever is on the screen of your phone onto a wall—up to about 70-inches--goes for around $300.

Motorola appears to be off to a more promising start than rival LG, which introduced optional camera and high-res audio modules for the its own G5 smartphone this past winter. Moto Mods also come ahead of the Project Ara modular phones that Google is developing with industry partners and that may finally show up next year.

For its part, Motorola says that the Mods coming out now will remain compatible on its next generation of phones. So in theory anyway, you don't have to worry about obsolescence.

Of course, if you can change a phone's functionality by adding to the sum of its (removable) parts, you may not have to upgrade so often.

Email: ebaig@usatoday.com; Follow USA TODAY Personal Tech Columnist @edbaig in Twitter

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