{"id":219132,"date":"2026-03-02T13:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-03-02T18:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/2026\/03\/02\/the-5-modular-android-smartphones-we-all-wanted-but-never-bought\/"},"modified":"2026-03-02T13:35:10","modified_gmt":"2026-03-02T18:35:10","slug":"the-5-modular-android-smartphones-we-all-wanted-but-never-bought","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/2026\/03\/02\/the-5-modular-android-smartphones-we-all-wanted-but-never-bought\/","title":{"rendered":"The 5 modular Android smartphones we all wanted (but never bought)"},"content":{"rendered":"

The 5 modular Android smartphones we all wanted (but never bought)<\/a><\/p>\n

https:\/\/www.howtogeek.com\/modular-android-smartphones-we-all-wanted-but-never-bought\/<\/a><\/p>\n

Publish Date: 2026-03-02 13:00:00<\/a><\/p>\n

Source Domain: www.howtogeek.com<\/a><\/p>\n

Modularity was one of the most exciting phone trends of the 2010s. It promised phones that would work like desktop PCs, allowing owners to upgrade individual components, add new functionalities, and replace broken parts with ease, improving longevity and ushering in a new, sustainable smartphone era.<\/p>\n

While its early days looked promising thanks to pioneers like Modu, which launched the first modular phone in 2008, Google’s Project Ara, and Motorola’s Moto Z lineup, the modularity dream ultimately fizzled out. But not before begetting a few exciting modular phones that captured our attention, if nothing else.<\/p>\n

\n 1 <\/span>
\n
\n Google Project Ara
\n <\/span>
\n <\/h2>\n

Credit:\u00a0Google<\/p>\n

After Google acquired modular phone-related patents from Modu, which closed its doors in 2011, Google and Motorola, which Google bought in 2011, began exploring the modular phone concept in 2012. Google Project Ara officially kicked off in 2013, with the design philosophy based on Dave Hakkens’ Phonebloks concept.<\/p>\n

The original idea was for Google\/Motorola to produce the phone’s base, the so-called “Endo” (exoskeleton) frame, with third-party vendors providing everything else, from displays to cameras to batteries. Modules would attach to the phone via an innovative magnetic mechanism with hot swap support.<\/p>\n

…
\n
Source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The 5 modular Android smartphones we all wanted (but never bought) https:\/\/www.howtogeek.com\/modular-android-smartphones-we-all-wanted-but-never-bought\/ Publish Date: 2026-03-02…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":219133,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/static0.howtogeekimages.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/top-down-view-of-various-modular-smartphones-including-the-lg-g5-essential-phone-google-project-ara-and-fairphone-on-a-blue-background.png?w=1600&h=900&fit=crop","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[46],"tags":[70,114,116],"class_list":["post-219132","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-android","tag-google","tag-moto","tag-motorola"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/219132"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=219132"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/219132\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":219134,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/219132\/revisions\/219134"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/219133"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=219132"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=219132"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=219132"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}