In itself, at 4.9mm thin, Tecno’s modular phone concept barely resembles a smartphone. It’s got a screen, a basic camera module, four low-profile pogo-pin connectors, and that’s about it. From there, you can create your concept phone however you want.
At its booth at MWC 2026, Tecno had two families of modular components in two different colors, which is surprising at this concept stage. The chunky telephoto lens and housing weighs three times as much as the base phone, which adds 20x zoom capabilities, even if it felt a little fiddly in my hands. The barrel also offers manual focus, which is always a nice touch. However, the lens itself is pretty big, making even Vivo’s latest 400mm telephoto lens peripheral look puny by comparison.
There are more subtle camera modules, including an ultrawide option and a more streamlined periscope telephoto. There’s also an action cam that can connect via Wi-Fi and be used on its own. Depending on the module, transmission is done via Bluetooth and even mmWave. One module has an antenna that folds up, turning the phone into a walkie-talkie messenger… something that can communicate without cell service or Wi-Fi. There were also lanyard connectors, grip clips, and a number of other things I probably forgot. Sadly the game controller mod wasn’t on the stand, although I’m not sure how you’d use it blindly backwards.
It’s a lot of fun to replace modules and even stack them, most of which were functionally working. There are a lot of questions left to answer, and I’m concerned about how stiff the magnetic connection will be when repeatedly taking this type of phone out of your pocket. Besides, who would carry a briefcase case filled with all these things?
Who doesn’t love Ariel? (Image by Matt Smith for Engadget)
Naturally, due to its thickness, the phone has a small battery cell (I don’t know the capacity), but you can add a 3,000mAh battery pack on the back. And second. And yet another one, with a capacity of around 10,000 mAh, beating the capacity of most mainstream smartphones. That’s when I realized it lacked any traditional USB-C charging port. Instead, a charging module can be attached to either of the two pairs of connectors. (And you can add more modules on top of that.)
Techno often has exciting concepts and unique devices at trade shows, so we can’t guarantee that it will eventually reach consumers. Selling modular phones is a difficult task, as they can often lose the efficiency you get from integrated components. Google ended its Project Ara modular concept 10 years ago, while Motorola’s Moto Mods weren’t very good and even I have a hard time remembering LG’s G5 module.
Furthermore, the company also rarely sells its phones in Western Europe and the US. Given the steps taken by other Chinese phone makers in the past year, this may be changing.
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