Moose, your conclusions are the same as mine. I really worked hard at
not biasing my review with that perspective. I wanted to review it for
what it is, not what the alternatives are. I slipped it in on one
sentence in an oblique way.
Given the dearth of reviews of this product, and what ones are there
are not much more than "sell sheets", I felt it important to give a
real-world review. However, in all honesty, I didn't get too deep with
my testing because it didn't take long to discover just how behind the
sensor was in comparison to the built-in camera of the cellphone
itself. I figured the sample shots were really all that was needed to
illustrate what I felt were the biggest failings and the biggest
strengths.
I really do like the concept of the moto mods. I think the biggest
single failure of it is the lack of a proper bump-and-drop protection
of an Otterbox that also allows for instant access to the backside. I
tried carrying around the phone+camera without the Otterbox and the
slipperiness is just too much and it's always sliding around without a
bit of rubber surface. If Motorola were to have a decent edge-only
(rim) bumper "case" for the phone that left the back open, it would be
a game-changer. Can you say "design fail"?
Honestly, it isn't a bad unit at all. What they did well, they did
really well. I would use it for some applications. And compared to
"digital zoom" of nearly all cellphones, it's a huge step up. But
compared to a real camera? Not so much.
Back to the case for a second. All the cellphone manufacturers think
that they make the most beautiful slabs around and who in their right
mind would gunk it up with a protective case? Well, try nearly
everybody. Those slabs usually have sharp edges, are slippery as a bar
of wet soap and die horrible deaths when dropped on the garage floor.
When spending $700 on a phone, I'd like to keep it around long enough
to amortize out OR have it preserved in good enough shape that I can
get trade-in value. Who can deny that an iPhone is an attractive
device? But attractive or not, without some grippiness, it's worthless
for most of us who keep our phones longer than three weeks.
Which brings me to something else. The rubber grip of the camera unit
is fantastic. It really is. If the rim of the cellphone itself had the
same rubber grip surface, I would risk life without a protective case
for the phone and just pay the monthly insurance. Just that little
extra bit of rubber surface and I would be happy AND would have
purchased the camera. Simple as that.
AG Schnzoz
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