ZTE announced the ECO-MOBIUS modular phone concept last year, even before the Motorola Project Ara . It even won Red Dot 2013 award for the best concept design. We got a to check out the ZTE ECO-MOBIUS at the CES 2014. The ECO-MOBIUS concept divides the phone into four independent modules – display, core, battery, and camera. These modules can be replaced or assembled easily via sliding tracks.
The core module, the CPU, RAM and the camera module are fixed by magnets so that you can replace it easily. ZTE believes that ECO-MOBIUS would be most useful for easy upgrading at a cheaper cost, instead of replacing the whole phone. It would also reduce environmental pressure on wasting and pollution since this uses easily replaceable components.
As you can see from the image above, the ECO-Mobius has a core module on the top, which has CPU, GPU, Camera, RAM and ROM. This connects to the the LCD module. On the back, you have the battery module, which is protected by a battery cover. You can remove this cover to replace the internal components easily.
As you can see from the press image of the concept ECO-MOBIUS in the assembled form, with the battery cover open. Since this is still in concept state, it is not clear when we can see the smartphone in the market.
Image credits to Varun