Amazon and Motorola (and therefore, Lenovo) have teamed up to bring to market a new Moto Mod for compatible modular Moto series smartphones; it's a clip-on back panle with a built-in smart speaker loaded with the Amazon Alexa AI assistant.
The official name is the "Moto Smart Speaker with Amazon Alexa", it has an RRP of $149, and pre-orders are live from today, November 7.
Motorola describes it as "the best of Alexa, right on your phone", here are the key features:
- Amazon Alexa, anytime, anywhere: Ask Alexa and get the answers you need, even when you’re not at home.
- Boombox with brains: Turn the volume way up. Alexa responds to voice commands over music without skipping a beat.
- Updates on the fly: Just ask Alexa to pull up your to-do list, calendar, weather forecast, music controls and more. No matter where you are.
- Dockable design: Make any place feel like home with the convenience of a compact, dock design.
And here are the specs:
- Dimensions: 153.2 x 73.2 x 22.8 mm
- Weight: 168 g
- Microphones: 4 far field microphones
- Speakers: 2 @ 27mm diameter, stereo sound
- Speaker power: 8W
- Frequency response range: 200 Hz - 20 kHz
- Loudness: 82 dBSPL @ 0.5m
- Speakerphone support: Yes
- Integrated battery: Yes, 1530 mAh
- Battery life: Up to 15 hours
- External charging: Yes
- Charge rate: 1.5A/7.5W rate
- Water protection: Splashproof
- Compatibility: Moto Smart Speaker with Amazon Alexa is compatible with any phone in the Moto Z family.
There is one glaring issue with this Moto Mod, however; it covers up the main camera sensor when attached. You can't use this Moto Mod and take pictures, essentially.
We should also note the $149 RRP is $100 more expensive than simply buying an Aazon Echo Dot and $50 pricier than a brand new Amazon Echo - granted you can't carry either of those out into the world, but for home use they may be a better option.
From November 13th the Amazon Alexa Moto Mod will also become available via Best Buy and Motorola’s website for non-pre-order customers. After that it will land in Verizon stores on November 16th. There's currently no word on non-US availability or pricing.
