The Edge Moto Mod on Indiegogo gives your Moto Z an LED notification strip

By Christian de Looper February 7, 2017

edge moto mod x — Image used with permission by copyright holder

Looking for an easier way to see what kinds of notifications you have? If you are a Moto Z owner, you may be in luck — the latest Moto Mod to hit Indiegogo adds a strip of LED lighting around the edge of the Moto Z that pulses to tell you exactly what kinds of notifications you’re getting.

Using the Moto Mod, which is called Edge, you will be able to set the color you want for each notification type — so, for example, you can set Gmail to have red notifications, games to have green notifications, and so on.

The features on offer by the Moto Mod go beyond that, too — you will be able to set profiles for different times of day, unique lighting patterns, and more. Not only that, but the device can notify you when your battery needs charging and when it is charging, the LED light will increase in brightness to alert you to how full the battery is.

Of course, you may not need to charge the device as often as you otherwise would — the Mod also comes with a 2,000mAh battery pack or a wireless charging contact pad — so you can either opt for extra battery life or wireless charging capabilities. No matter which option you go for, the device will set you back $59. The battery pack version is called the Edge Force, while the wireless charging pad version is called the Edge Air.

The funding goal for the Indiegogo campaign is $15,000 and at the time of this writing, it had already raised more than $4,000. If it ends up reaching the goal in a month, you can expect to get yours in July. While the cheapest option, $49, has sold out, you can currently get it for $55 — although once the campaign is over it will cost the full $59.

Editors' Recommendations

Topics

Christian de Looper

Contributor

Christian’s interest in technology began as a child in Australia, when he stumbled upon a computer at a garage sale that he…

Mobile

Moto Edge X30, first Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 phone likely to launch on December 9

Motorola Edge X30

Motorola has been very active lately with launches in the mobile segment ranging from entry-level to high-end devices. Now it looks like the race for the first Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 smartphone is heating up and Motorola is trying to get the upper hand by being the first to launch a smartphone with the new chipset. The Lenovo-owned smartphone maker has confirmed that it will be announcing an Edge smartphone with Qualcomm’s latest flagship chip on December 9. This is likely to be the Moto Edge X30 (or just Motorola Edge), but there’s also a possibility of the Motorola G200 launching at the same time.

The teaser doesn’t reveal much more about the device, and a lot is still under wraps, but there are some tidbits that we can gather from the phone’s certification. For starters, its battery certification shows a 5,000mAh cell with a charging capacity of 68.2W, which is one of the highest in Motorola phones. Consumers in China are likely to have many choices in terms of storage as there are reportedly 6GB/8GB/12GB/16GB RAM and 128GB/256GB/512GB storage options. Chen Jin, Lenovo China’s head of mobile division, also revealed that the phone has Gorilla Glass protection on both sides as well as the latest My UX 3.0 software.

Mobile

Your $1,000 flagship may not have faster 5G speeds than a budget phone

Moto Edge 20 Lite, OnePlus Nord 2, Oppo Find X3 Lite, and Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 3.

After spending over $1,000 on a flagship 5G phone, you might think you're getting the fastest network speeds possible. After all, isn't that what you're paying for? But our recent network testing shows that may very well not be the case, with 5G performance on flagship phones being minimally better than budget phones, and in some cases, actually worse.

To give you some context, earlier this year, we put the 5G-capable MediaTek Dimensity 700 against the Qualcomm Snapdragon 480 in a test to see which processor delivered the best 5G performance and had the best daily user experience. Six months on, we’re going to take a look at four new 5G phones with different chips to see how they compare to answer this question: Does paying more for a smartphone with a flagship processor inside give you the fastest network connection, or is it all pumped-up marketing?
Understanding 5G
Before going into the details, we received some very interesting feedback from MediaTek after our last test, which is also relevant to this one. MediaTek contacted Digital Trends to discuss the 5G speed test results, as the Dimensity 700-powered Realme 8 5G couldn’t match the Oppo A54 5G with a Qualcomm chip inside. The company then took its own test equipment to the area where I had tested the phones, and in conversations afterwards, it gave plenty of insight into how 5G varies across phones, networks, and location.

Mobile

Motorola Edge Hands-on review: A midrange phone with flagship aspirations

Motorola Edge with screen on.

The midrange phone market is sparse in the U.S., with most phones costing closer to $1,000 or lower than $400 and very few well-known brands in between aside from the newly-launched Google Pixel 5a and the Samsung Galaxy A52. The Motorola Edge now joins this crowd, hitting the U.S. market at a $700 price point, though it’ll start at $200 off at launch.

It’s also worth pointing out that the Motorola Edge isn’t exactly a copycat of the Moto Edge 20 that’s being released in international markets alongside the Edge 20 Lite and Edge 20 Pro. While both models have lots of similarities, the two big differences from overseas markets are that the U.S. model has a 6.8-inch screen and a larger 5,000mAh battery. The logic behind this differentiation isn’t entirely clear, but it does give U.S. customers an edge in battery runtime compared to international buyers.