Nextbit, the US-based startup, has launched the Robin smartphone in India. The smartphone was manufactured by Nextbit after a successful crowdfunding campaign on Kickstarter that saw the company raise $1 million within two weeks of its campaign. The smartphone, dubbed as a “cloud-first” device, offers 100GB of free cloud storage to its users to attempt easing worries surrounding storage of content. Natively, the smartphone houses 32GB of storage space, and the additional cloud storage is aimed at providing backup space for older content that users may not wish to delete.
The smartphone is powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 808 SoC, along with 3GB of RAM. The hexa-core processor is clocked at 1.8GHz, and the Adreno 418 GPU will power the graphics performance of the smartphone. It houses a 5.2-inch IPS LCD panel display with resolution of 1080×1920 pixels and Corning Gorilla Glass 4 protection, and a 2680mAh battery pack powers the entire package. The Nextbit Robin houses a 13-megapixel primary camera with dual-LED flash and Full HD video shooting capability at 30fps, and a 5-megapixel front-facing camera. It houses a USB-C port, and dual front-firing speakers. The device is presently running on the latest Android iteration, Marshmallow v6.0. The smartphone is priced at Rs. 19,999, and will be available exclusively on Flipkart from May 30. Pre-orders for the device begin today, and the first few customers will be gifted with a complimentary case.
In terms of looks, the Nextbit Robin has elements that make it look different from the standardised chassis that we have come to expect of late. The startup is banking on the potential of cloud storage to garner user interest, and will hope to optimise data consumption between WiFi networks and mobile data to streamline the process of backing up data.
While cloud storage can solve storage issues, the amount of data consumption remains a question, and it will be interesting to see how Nextbit tackles the concerns in the data-constricted market of India.