Moto mods: details about all four interchangeable modules for Moto Z and Z Play smartphones
Hello friends! Today is our Moto mods day. Recall that these are very convenient removable modules that are quickly and easily attached to the Moto Z and Moto Z Play smartphones. At the moment, there are four “mods”: a charger, a speaker system, a projector and a camera. Under the cut you will find a detailed story about each of them - rather click on the button!
Before moving on to the details, we very quickly recall how the “fashion” is attached to the Moto smartphones. For the user, the process is incredibly simple.
First, there are special magnetic contacts on the phone case and on the modules themselves.
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Secondly, on all accessories there is either a recess or a round hole for Moto and Moto Z lenses. They slightly protrude from the body of smartphones in order to serve as the second point of support when fixing the “mods”. The result is a very reliable connection. Modules do not fall off and do not stagger.
Battery life is the weak side of any smartphone. Even record holders of long-livers like our Lenovo P2 can barely last more than 3-4 days without recharging, and this is considered to be an incredibly long time. So an external battery for recharging gadgets in case of emergency is not just a useful thing, but sometimes it is absolutely necessary.
Instead of carrying a power bank, Moto Z and Moto Z Play users can add an Incipio offGRID to their arsenal. The principle of this “fashion” is exactly the same as that of any other battery case. With two important amendments: it is much more compact and you don’t need to connect it to the smartphone’s USB port.
By the way, this is generally the easiest Moto mod of all available today: the “battery” weighs only 83.3 grams with a thickness of 6.2 mm. A great addition to the ultra-thin Moto Z and completely burdensome burden for Moto Z Play.
However, the mod can be taken out of the bag or backpack only if necessary, and it will still be more convenient than the unreliable design of the power bank, cable and smartphone. And, yes, with Incipio offGRID, you can forget the USB Type-C cable at home as many times as you need, because you simply don’t need it to connect to the phone.
The capacity of the built-in battery is 2200 mAh. In the settings there are two power modes. In the economical, both the charge of the smartphone and the charge offGRID are consumed at the same time - the phone will work the longest. In intensive mode, the offGRID charge is first spent, and only then the charge of the Moto Z or Moto Z Play battery.
We tested Incipio offGRID in a pair with Moto Z Play in the second scenario, in order to get more visual statistics. In the video playback mode in Full HD at maximum brightness, the accessory was discharged after about 10 hours, in the game mode, a full battery charge lasted for 4 hours. If we recall similar measurements for Moto Z Play without an additional battery (25 hours of video and 8 hours of games), we get a gain of 40 and 50%, respectively!
The next Moto mod is made specifically for party lovers at home and in nature, as well as for those who simply prefer not to part with their favorite music for a long time. The JBL Soundboost speaker system is a compact speaker, inside which are hidden two 27 mm speakers with a power of 3 watts each.
This is the largest of all four modules. First, minimizing the speakers is not conducive to improving sound quality. Secondly, JBL Soundboost has its own 1000 mAh battery and even a separate Type-C connector for charging it.
The accessory weighs 147.3 grams with a thickness of 13 mm. You can’t put it in your pocket with a connected speaker, but this is not required. The best place for Soundboost is a backpack or bag from which you solemnly get acoustics when decide to friends or listen to music alone.
Sound quality is a parameter for which each person has his own assessment. But there is no doubt that a big room in an apartment or a small office of JBL Soundboost can “shake up”. At the same time, the sound remains clear and balanced, even at loudness values ​​closely approaching the maximum.
As for the time of work, then the claimed 10 hours can be obtained at low volume. If you like when “shakes”, then you should be guided for 3-4 hours. This, of course, is about the discharge of the speaker's own battery, but there is also a smartphone battery.
Finally a couple of words about convenience. It is clear that putting a smartphone with a screen on the table so that the speaker would give out music “upwards” is not very convenient. That is why between the two speakers there is a retractable leg, which allows you to accurately place the entire structure on any hard and more or less flat surface.
Now we come to the most unusual: Insta-Share module with a built-in projector. Even the mere idea that this small module can project a picture with a diagonal up to 70 inches onto the wall is already impressive. But when you see a projector in action, there is nothing special to say except “wow”. Well, at least for the very first time for sure. Checked on colleagues in the office - the effect is exactly that.
Then it is appropriate to add a few words about the technical parameters. The first is brightness and contrast. Of course, by the standards of “large” projectors, 50 lumens and 400: 1 are modest, but do not forget about the size. Our device is so compact that it fits easily into a pocket.
We will not lie: in bright daylight the image will be “lost”, but if you lower the blinds or pull the curtains, you can watch movies or presentations almost without difficulty. At night and in the dark, everything is altogether wonderful - film screenings can be arranged even on the street, displaying video on the wall of a country house. The main thing is that there are no powerful sources of artificial light nearby.
Image resolution is 854x480 pixels, the aspect ratio is 16: 9. To adjust the sharpness there is a special wheel, and for ease of installation - a wide folding leg. Projector lamp life is 10,000 hours. If we divide them into 365 days, we will get more hours (27+) than there are in a day. In reality, it is unlikely that anyone will watch the video from the projector for longer than 3-4 hours a day. With such a load, we obtain a service life of almost 7 years.
As with the acoustics of JBL Soundboost, the Insta-Share projector also has its own 1100 mAh battery and USB Type-C for recharging it. It is enough for an hour of projecting a photo or video. Together with the battery built into Moto Z Play, we have a total of about 3.5 hours.
The fourth Moto mod is Hasselblad True Zoom. The module turns Moto Z and Z Play into full-fledged compact cameras. It has its own matrix and a serious lens with a stabilizer and 10x optical zoom. At 35 mm equivalent, a focal length of 25-250 mm is obtained.
Taking pictures of genre scenes with True Zoom in your hands is easy and comfortable. People around will simply not notice you. And this is a serious advantage: no one begins to turn around frightened or rush out of the frame, so the plot remains complete and completely natural. In addition, True Zoom is a very convenient accessory for travel photography.
In a word, the “mod” turned out so interesting and convenient that we dedicated separate large material to it. If you suddenly missed it, here is the link .
By all means! We are not only working on this issue ourselves, but also trying to motivate the concept of Moto mods of talented third-party programmers. We have a ready-made platform for developing the Moto mods Development Kit, which can be purchased for $ 125.
It includes:
Recently, we just finished the contest of new Moto mods concepts. More than 700 participants from 55 countries sent their works. 12 applicants reached the final, whose projects are partly funded by us, and partly by users of crowdfunding platforms. And what new modules are waiting for us if the financial side of the issue is successfully resolved:
In addition, at the MWC 2017, we ourselves announced several upcoming Moto mods. Among them, a module with voice assistant Amazon Echo and a module with a gamepad for mobile games. So the story of the "mods" does not just continue, but becomes even more useful and more interesting.
Before moving on to the details, we very quickly recall how the “fashion” is attached to the Moto smartphones. For the user, the process is incredibly simple.
First, there are special magnetic contacts on the phone case and on the modules themselves.
')
Secondly, on all accessories there is either a recess or a round hole for Moto and Moto Z lenses. They slightly protrude from the body of smartphones in order to serve as the second point of support when fixing the “mods”. The result is a very reliable connection. Modules do not fall off and do not stagger.
Incipio charger offGRID
Battery life is the weak side of any smartphone. Even record holders of long-livers like our Lenovo P2 can barely last more than 3-4 days without recharging, and this is considered to be an incredibly long time. So an external battery for recharging gadgets in case of emergency is not just a useful thing, but sometimes it is absolutely necessary.
Instead of carrying a power bank, Moto Z and Moto Z Play users can add an Incipio offGRID to their arsenal. The principle of this “fashion” is exactly the same as that of any other battery case. With two important amendments: it is much more compact and you don’t need to connect it to the smartphone’s USB port.
By the way, this is generally the easiest Moto mod of all available today: the “battery” weighs only 83.3 grams with a thickness of 6.2 mm. A great addition to the ultra-thin Moto Z and completely burdensome burden for Moto Z Play.
However, the mod can be taken out of the bag or backpack only if necessary, and it will still be more convenient than the unreliable design of the power bank, cable and smartphone. And, yes, with Incipio offGRID, you can forget the USB Type-C cable at home as many times as you need, because you simply don’t need it to connect to the phone.
The capacity of the built-in battery is 2200 mAh. In the settings there are two power modes. In the economical, both the charge of the smartphone and the charge offGRID are consumed at the same time - the phone will work the longest. In intensive mode, the offGRID charge is first spent, and only then the charge of the Moto Z or Moto Z Play battery.
We tested Incipio offGRID in a pair with Moto Z Play in the second scenario, in order to get more visual statistics. In the video playback mode in Full HD at maximum brightness, the accessory was discharged after about 10 hours, in the game mode, a full battery charge lasted for 4 hours. If we recall similar measurements for Moto Z Play without an additional battery (25 hours of video and 8 hours of games), we get a gain of 40 and 50%, respectively!
JBL Soundboost Speaker System
The next Moto mod is made specifically for party lovers at home and in nature, as well as for those who simply prefer not to part with their favorite music for a long time. The JBL Soundboost speaker system is a compact speaker, inside which are hidden two 27 mm speakers with a power of 3 watts each.
This is the largest of all four modules. First, minimizing the speakers is not conducive to improving sound quality. Secondly, JBL Soundboost has its own 1000 mAh battery and even a separate Type-C connector for charging it.
The accessory weighs 147.3 grams with a thickness of 13 mm. You can’t put it in your pocket with a connected speaker, but this is not required. The best place for Soundboost is a backpack or bag from which you solemnly get acoustics when decide to friends or listen to music alone.
Sound quality is a parameter for which each person has his own assessment. But there is no doubt that a big room in an apartment or a small office of JBL Soundboost can “shake up”. At the same time, the sound remains clear and balanced, even at loudness values ​​closely approaching the maximum.
As for the time of work, then the claimed 10 hours can be obtained at low volume. If you like when “shakes”, then you should be guided for 3-4 hours. This, of course, is about the discharge of the speaker's own battery, but there is also a smartphone battery.
Finally a couple of words about convenience. It is clear that putting a smartphone with a screen on the table so that the speaker would give out music “upwards” is not very convenient. That is why between the two speakers there is a retractable leg, which allows you to accurately place the entire structure on any hard and more or less flat surface.
Insta-Share Projector
Now we come to the most unusual: Insta-Share module with a built-in projector. Even the mere idea that this small module can project a picture with a diagonal up to 70 inches onto the wall is already impressive. But when you see a projector in action, there is nothing special to say except “wow”. Well, at least for the very first time for sure. Checked on colleagues in the office - the effect is exactly that.
Then it is appropriate to add a few words about the technical parameters. The first is brightness and contrast. Of course, by the standards of “large” projectors, 50 lumens and 400: 1 are modest, but do not forget about the size. Our device is so compact that it fits easily into a pocket.
We will not lie: in bright daylight the image will be “lost”, but if you lower the blinds or pull the curtains, you can watch movies or presentations almost without difficulty. At night and in the dark, everything is altogether wonderful - film screenings can be arranged even on the street, displaying video on the wall of a country house. The main thing is that there are no powerful sources of artificial light nearby.
Image resolution is 854x480 pixels, the aspect ratio is 16: 9. To adjust the sharpness there is a special wheel, and for ease of installation - a wide folding leg. Projector lamp life is 10,000 hours. If we divide them into 365 days, we will get more hours (27+) than there are in a day. In reality, it is unlikely that anyone will watch the video from the projector for longer than 3-4 hours a day. With such a load, we obtain a service life of almost 7 years.
As with the acoustics of JBL Soundboost, the Insta-Share projector also has its own 1100 mAh battery and USB Type-C for recharging it. It is enough for an hour of projecting a photo or video. Together with the battery built into Moto Z Play, we have a total of about 3.5 hours.
Hasselblad True Zoom Camera
The fourth Moto mod is Hasselblad True Zoom. The module turns Moto Z and Z Play into full-fledged compact cameras. It has its own matrix and a serious lens with a stabilizer and 10x optical zoom. At 35 mm equivalent, a focal length of 25-250 mm is obtained.
Taking pictures of genre scenes with True Zoom in your hands is easy and comfortable. People around will simply not notice you. And this is a serious advantage: no one begins to turn around frightened or rush out of the frame, so the plot remains complete and completely natural. In addition, True Zoom is a very convenient accessory for travel photography.
In a word, the “mod” turned out so interesting and convenient that we dedicated separate large material to it. If you suddenly missed it, here is the link .
Will there be more "fashion"?
By all means! We are not only working on this issue ourselves, but also trying to motivate the concept of Moto mods of talented third-party programmers. We have a ready-made platform for developing the Moto mods Development Kit, which can be purchased for $ 125.
It includes:
- The basic "mod" with a processor, battery, power board and ports for data transmission, Debug and output of graphical information.
- Standard PCB to create new "mods".
- Printed circuit board for Raspberry Pi.
- Four additional boards to demonstrate the capabilities of the system: with a temperature module, with an interface for connecting a second screen, with an audio interface and with an additional battery.
Recently, we just finished the contest of new Moto mods concepts. More than 700 participants from 55 countries sent their works. 12 applicants reached the final, whose projects are partly funded by us, and partly by users of crowdfunding platforms. And what new modules are waiting for us if the financial side of the issue is successfully resolved:
- Module with a professional microphone
- Headset Module
- Wireless charging module with LED frame for notifications
- Synthesizer module
- Module with walkie-talkie
- Solar module
- Module with remote control home appliances and many others ...
In addition, at the MWC 2017, we ourselves announced several upcoming Moto mods. Among them, a module with voice assistant Amazon Echo and a module with a gamepad for mobile games. So the story of the "mods" does not just continue, but becomes even more useful and more interesting.
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/403169/
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