Motorola has announced two new Moto Mods at CES 2018 this week that are coming to its lineup of snap on accessories for the Moto Z series of smartphones, which includes the new Lenovo Vital Moto Mod and the Livermorium Slider Keyboard Moto Mod. While the Vital Moto Mod might not be as obvious to some, the slider keyboard is exactly as it sounds, a snap on mod that allows you to attach a slide out QWERTY keyboard to any of the Moto Z series smartphones, which is perfect for anyone with a preference for physical keyboard instead of the digital ones that you have to use with touchscreens.
The slider keyboard is also the result from the winning entry in the Transform Your Smartphone Challenge that Motorola threw out last year, which tasked people with building and submitting their idea for a new mod accessory. The slider keyboard mod doesn’t just allow you to attach a keyboard that slides out from the bottom of the phone, but it also tilts the phone so that the screen is situated at a 60-degree angle making it easier and more comfortable to see what you’re typing on screen. This should make it so that users are able to stare directly at the phone’s display, or close to it, without having to tilt their neck downward so much or without having to hold their arms out in front of them just to put the keyboard and display directly in their line of sight.
Lenovo’s Vital Moto Mod is less about typing convenience and more about giving users a way to keep track of some important health-related information. The Vital Moto Mod will help users analyze and stay in the know about the body’s five key vital signs. In addition to measuring heart rate the mod will also measure respiratory rate, Pulse Oxygen levels, the core body temperature, and systolic and diastolic blood pressure from your finger, which, Motorola boasts is a measurement that is capable for the first time accurately. If you’re looking to pick either of these up you’ll have a little bit of a wait, as Motorola says that the keyboard mod will be available sometime during this winter for $99, though it doesn’t mention when specifically, so it could be later in January or at some point next month. The Vital Mod from Lenovo won’t be available until April and will cost $395.