Motorola and Verizon kick off the 5G smartphone hype with the Moto Z3

Cellular carriers everywhere are hyping up the rollout of "5G" network technology in the coming years, and now it looks like the hype for the hardware side of things is starting to pick up, too. Verizon and Motorola are announcing what they're calling "the world's first 5G upgradable smartphone," the Moto Z3 (not to be confused with the Moto Z3 Play). Verizon's Nicola Palmer says, "5G will change the ways we live, work, learn, and play," and that moderately faster Internet will "impact our economy in a profound way and dramatically improve our global society."

OK, with Verizon's ad copy out of the way, let's spend the rest of the article poking holes in this publicity stunt. The Moto Z3 doesn't have 5G now, but it will in the future, via a clip-on "MotoMod" accessory that will launch some time in "early 2019." Motorola has been pushing these snap-on MotoMod accessories for a few years now, and, typically, any mod will work with any mod-compatible Motorola device. In what is probably the last year of Motorola's failed modular ecosystem, though, the 5G mod is jumping the shark and will only work with the Moto Z3.

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