The most recent leak of Motorola's upcoming Moto X refresh had everyone wondering what those unusual holes on the back panel were for. We speculated about the possibility of modular accessories, and a new report from VentureBeat supports that. In addition, this weekend's leak actually shows two different phones, both of which will be sold under the Moto X brand.

In the image above, the phone on the left is supposedly called the Vertex, and on the right is the Vector Thin. You can think of the Vertex as a follow-up to the Moto X Play in some ways. It's a more modestly specced phone with a big battery. Meanwhile, the Vector Thin has more impressive internals and a smaller battery (maybe too small). The Vertex will have a Snapdragon 625 with configurations of 16GB storage with 2GB RAM and 32GB storage with 3GB RAM. The 13MP camera will have OIS and laser autofocus. The 7mm-thick frame houses a sizable 3500mAh battery as well.

The Vector Thin looks like a more traditional flagship phone on paper, powered by a Snapdragon 820 with 32GB of storage and either 3 or 4GB of RAM. The 16MP camera includes OIS, laser autofocus, and phase-detect autofocus. This phone is considerably thinner than the Vertex at just 5.2mm. That's neat and all, but it means the battery capacity is only 2600mAh. That seems like a bad idea.

Both phones have 5.5-inch AMOLED displays, with the Vertex topping out at 1080p and the Vector Thin going to 1440p. The similar form factors mean that both phones will work with Motorola's new system of modular accessories. That's what the 16 pins on the rear of the phones are for. The modules will be called "Amps," and won't require you to shut the phone off to swap like the G5.


Motorola apparently plans to have at least six modules ready at launch. One will be a simple colored back panel that will ship with both phones. The more interesting ones will cost extra (pricing unclear) and will include stereo speakers, a battery pack, a camera with flash and optical zoom (separate from the built-in camera sensor, sort of like the Sony lens cameras), a pico projector, and a rugged cover with wide angle camera lens. When a module is docked, the huge camera hump should sit flush with the surface.

So when will we know all the details? Looking at Lenovo's wording for the Tech World event, they said "Watch Moto transform mobile in a snap." Could that be a reference to snapping on modular accessories? Quite possibly. Keep an eye out June 9th.