Moto Z2 Force hands on—Motorola bets the farm on Moto Mods, loses

Remember the Moto Z? The Lenovo-controlled redesign of Motorola's flagship smartphone bet the farm on a modular phone idea, and the modular system kind of sucked. The modules were expensive, only worked with brand-new Motorola smartphones, and didn't offer anything useful over a non-modular version of the same accessory. To limit the effect the bulky modules would have on the phone, Motorola slimmed the phone down as much as possible, resulting in the removal of the headphone jack. Motorola sacrificed a lot to make the modular phone idea work, but at the end of the day the modular system never delivered a compelling use case.

Motorola committed to the modular "Moto Mod" system for at least "two more generations" after the Moto Z, which doesn't leave the company much room to course correct. The "backpack" modular design demands an identical back shape to the Moto Z, with the same size camera bump and massive modular connector in the same place. So say hello to the Moto Z2 Force, the 2017 flagship for Motorola. It looks a lot like the Moto Z(1).