Another day, another… oh wait, what’s this? The Modu phone has been an enigmatic figure in the mobile world, treading the precipice of vaporware for a while before finally launching in its home market of Israel last year and in a few more places around the world since then. Aiming to shake up the apparently stale mobile market, this minimalist take on the phone is no larger than the standard battery in your modern smartphone and gets its name from the modular “jackets” it can slip into. They furnish it with added functionality and buttons, while also sprinkling a bit of extra style on top as well. Slide past the break to learn more about this handset, the Modu 1, together with a few teasers about the upcoming touchscreen-based Modu 2.
Unfortunately, both of the aforementioned cases cost just under £50 a piece, while the frame sets you back £80, and the Modu itself is a not so wallet-friendly £130. The Modu will be exclusively available via the Purely Gadgets online store, where bundling the phone with a jacket will net you a discount, but we’re still struggling to justify the expense. Ultimately it all feels more like you’ve stuck a cell radio inside a kids’ toy rather than advanced the mobile race in some useful manner. Most of the cases at the moment are just showy pieces of plastic, though we must note that pairing between them and the phone is a very snappy affair. We’d be willing to forgive the Modu’s limitations and just learn to love its colorful exteriors if it weren’t for one major downfall — its screen can be measured in thumbnails (1) instead of inches. Honestly, you put your thumb over it and the entire thing’s obscured. How that’s supposed to fly in a messaging-obsessed world, we’re not really sure. Perhaps the idea is that you use this teeny tiny handset purely for calls and grab yourself a 5- or 7-inch tablet to sate your other communication needs.
Then again, we like to stick to one mobile device if at all possible, which is why we were intrigued to hear about plans for the Modu 2. It’ll come with 3G connectivity and a jacket collection of its own (we’dpreviously heard that that would include a QWERTY-packing case), and we’re being told to expect it by the end of 2010. We in this case meaning the United Kingdom — there are still no plans to deliver either Modu handset to American hands. The final tidbit of interest we were able to obtain was word that Modu won’t be authoring the touchscreen interface on its second phone, though the company of course remains mum on who will. Given the way current mobile winds are blowing, we wouldn’t be too surprised to see some version of Android sidling up to this modular party, but we’ll just have to wait and see
