New Motorola Droid (Z) pictured alongside MotoMod swappable rear covers

After announcing the Moto G4 family, Motorola Mobility and Lenovo are now getting ready to introduce a couple of more advanced smartphones that should be called Moto Z Style and Moto Z Play. Both these handsets will likely be officially unveiled on June 9. Later this year, Verizon Wireless is expected to introduce two new Moto-made devices, too, possibly called Moto Z Play Droid Edition and Moto Z Style Droid Edition.

It appears that Verizon's upcoming Droids will be just rebranded Moto Z handsets - or at least that's what a new leaked image is leading us to believe. Revealed by Evan Blass (whom you may know as @evleaks), this image - embedded below - shows an upcoming Droid smartphone in three color versions: black, silver, and gold. The device is only seen from the back, but it definitely resembles a previously leaked Moto Z handset, with the sole visible difference that there's a Droid logo etched below its rear camera, instead of a Moto logo. At the moment, it's not clear if this is the Moto Z Style / Z Style Droid Edition, or the Moto Z Play / Z Play Droid Edition.

Interestingly, Evan Blass also revealed a photo showing what he's calling MotoMods. These are replaceable back covers that should add various features to the new Moto / Droid handsets. We're not really sure what two of these MotoMods are for, but the one seen on the right (check out the second image included below) is obviously a camera module - a bulky one that will seemingly make the handset for which it's built resemble a standalone camera (or, why not, the legendary Nokia Lumia 1020). As previously reported, this camera module should feature optical zoom - which kind of justifies its bulkiness.

We assume that these MotoMods will be offered at extra cost (in addition to the actual prices of the upcoming Moto Z / Droid phones), much like LG's G5 modules. We're kind of intrigued by what Motorola and Lenovo are cooking up, but it remains to be seen if these modules can add functionality without compromising ergonomics.


source: Evan Blass (1), (2)