The LG G5 looks to be a phenomenal phone. It improves on its predecessors in many ways, or at least carries over a lot of what we loved about the LG G4 to an updated design. And LG is trying many new things, from a metal unibody design that still includes a removable battery to a dual-lens camera system. But the most unique feature is one that hearkens back to an earlier era of mobile computing: swappable expansion modules. (None of us would even be here if it weren't for Visor Central.) There's just one problem: I don't think that the G5's modules are going to matter at all.

I'll give LG credit: they're always willing to try new things. The LG G2 moved the buttons onto the back; the G3 brought us laser autofocus, a QHD display and manual camera controls. And the G4 went crazy with a Quantum display, an extra-bright aperture and swappable leather backs. Verizon is offering the Pixel 4a for just $10/mo on new Unlimited lines With the G5, LG's trying more crazy things than ever before. But the craziest is without a doubt the swappable base. Pop off the bottom of the phone, slide it out with the battery, snap the battery off and attach it to a new module, and slide that whole bit back into the phone and boot back up. It's an opportunity to add new functionality to the phone without increasing the base price, as LG demonstrated with a camera controls plus extra battery module and another with improved audio chips.

Almost immediately I was struck by the similarity with something from the early days of mobile computing: Handspring's Springboard expansion slot. Introduced in 1999, the Handspring Visor wasn't the first mobile device with an expansion slot, but the Palm OS PDA was certainly the most prominent such device (you know, relatively speaking). The Springboard modules added a range of functionality to compatible Handspring PDAs, including games, reference libraries like the medical dictionaries and language translators, device backup drives, cameras, MP3 players, cellular radios, GPS navigation, and RFID and barcode scanners. It was a diverse and vibrant little ecosystem with multiple third parties producing modules for the Springboard platform. There's nowhere near as much need for physical attachments to add mobile device feaures as there was in 1999. It's clear that LG wants something similar to happen with the G5's modules (which still, we should note, lack proper branding), but there's a huge difference between today's mobile device market and that of the turn of the century. For one, there's nowhere near as much need for expanding the functionality of smartphones with physical attachments like this as there was back then. Every reference library and game Springboard module is just an app these days. We've got excellent built-in cameras on every smartphone now (two of them on the G5, actually), built-in MP3 players and GPS and more than enough internal storage, and our smartphones have built-in wireless modems and radios now. Many of the other modules — gaming controls and scanners — have been replaced with universally-compatible Bluetooth devices. The Springboard modules were also compatible with a number of devices: the Visor, Visor Deluxe, Visor Platinum, Visor Neo, and Visor Pro. The last Springboard-compatible device was the Visor Pro, released in 2001. The next year Handspring went all-in on the Treo line of smartphones and two years later was acquired by Palm. We've seen no indication from LG that the expansion modules on the LG G5 will be compatible with any future device, and we'd frankly be surprised if they were. The Handspring Springboard worked because Visor handhelds were all roughly the same size and the expansion slots were all narrower than the entire PDA and slotted into the back. With the LG G5 you're removing the bottom of the phone and attaching a different bottom in its place.