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Moto Z Power Pack battery mod won’t debut until later this spring

Lenovo Moto Z and Z Force
Jessica Lee Star/Digital Trends
Motorola revealed a series of upcoming and concept Moto Mods at Mobile World Congress back in February. Among them was one called the Power Pack, an extra battery similar to Incipio’s Offgrid mod that provided up to 50 percent more juice to the device. The Power Pack was billed as a smart external power source that only charged the phone when it was most efficient to do so.

Motorola said it planned to release the mod in March, but the month came and went without a whisper. Now it appears the accessory has been delayed to “later this spring,” according to Phandroid, who got word of the revised launch from a representative from the company.

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Among the mods intended for production revealed at MWC were a wireless charging back and a gamepad housing that gave the Moto Z controller inputs on either side, similar in form to the Nintendo Switch. Motorola was also working on a cable to charge mods when they weren’t connected to the device. All of these are still awaiting release.

There’s also the Transform the Smartphone Challenge, which is supposedly in its final stage now as developer pitch their campaigns at Motorola’s Chicago headquarters. The company has pledged to promote and distribute selected designs on its own website, and Lenovo has reportedly set aside $1 million to bring the best mods to the market.

Among these proposals are a multi-color lighting system for notifications, several mods that turn the Moto Z into a walkie-talkie (appropriate, considering the company helped invent them), and a wallet fashioned out of steel and carbon fiber that also includes a small external battery.

As for Motorola’s own mods, it appears we’ll have to wait a little bit longer until we see them hit the shelves. The most recently launched mods were Incipio’s Vehicle Dock and Mophie’s Juice Pack, which released back in December.

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