Innovation at a Price

Motorola created a flutter in the smartphone market with the announcement of Moto Z with Moto Mods - a modular phone - in June this year. It promised that adding a new feature, or module, would be as easy as snapping on a rear cover. We tested the Moto Z using the projector mod to see how it worked.

The display of the Moto Z is stunning. With its 5.5-inch display and 1,440 x 2,560 pixel resolution protected by Gorilla Glass 4, watching videos on it was a delight. It is sleek - has a thickness of 5.2 mm and weighs 136 gms only. The power and volume controls are placed on the side, and the Type C charging port is at the bottom (the 3.5-mm jack is absent). Its specifications don't disappoint - Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 processor paired with 4 GB of RAM, 64 GB of internal storage, and Android Marshmallow operating system. The 13-MP rear camera captures good images. The phone was able to handle basic tasks as well as heavy graphic games with ease.

My Moto Z review unit came with a wooden rear cover and an Insta-Share projector mod. The projector mod, made of plastic and weighing 125 gms, is like a thick cover that instantly snaps to the rear of the device. It packs in a 50 lumen projector lens that can project as far as 70 inches on any flat surface at a maximum resolution of 854x480p. The projection mod has a kick-stand that can rotate up to 180 degrees - this means it can be comfortably used to project on a wall or a ceiling. The automatic keystone adjustment setting comes handy here. Snapping the projector mod onto the phone and pressing the power key turns the projector on. There is a slider to adjust the focus of the projection.

It lived up to the claims of '70-inch projection', but the viewing experience was disappointing. While it is understandable that the clarity and the colour reproduction cannot match with that of the phone's display, the colours looked completely washed out when projected. For instance, the green colour in the video on the phone appeared greyish green when projected. The Projector mod heated up within a few minutes of projection. Instead of projecting videos, I ended up watching movies on the phone itself, using the mod as a stand (a very expensive one at that!). Motorola has packed in a 1,100mAh battery to the mod, which gives close to one hour of projection time.