The Nextbit Robin was an Android

smartphone A smartphone is a portable computer device that combines mobile telephone and computing functions into one unit. They are distinguished from feature phones by their stronger hardware capabilities and extensive mobile operating systems, whic ...

manufactured by Nextbit (bought by

Razer Inc. Razer Inc. is an American-Singaporean multinational technology company that designs, develops, and sells consumer electronics, financial services, and gaming hardware. Founded by Min-Liang Tan and Robert "RazerGuy" Krakoff, it is dual headqua ...

). The phone was marketed as "Cloud-first" where it utilized cloud storage to store data which wouldn't be used for a long period of time, thus saving space in the device's local storage. The product and

crowdfunding Crowdfunding is the practice of funding a project or venture by raising money from a large number of people, typically via the internet. Crowdfunding is a form of crowdsourcing and alternative finance. In 2015, over was raised worldwide by crow ...

campaign was launched on

Kickstarter Kickstarter is an American public benefit corporation based in Brooklyn, New York, that maintains a global crowdfunding platform focused on creativity. The company's stated mission is to "help bring creative projects to life". As of July 2021, ...

on September 1, 2015. Twelve hours after it was launched, the phone reached its funding goal of US$500,000, much earlier than the expected goal of 30 days, and completed its US$1 million goal within two weeks. It was launched on February 16, 2016, where 1000 units of the GSM variant was shipped to its backers on Kickstarter, and an additional 2,300 units were sold through its official website. In January 2017, Nextbit was bought by Singaporean-American videogame hardware manufacturer

Sales of the phone were halted almost immediately after the announcement. On March 1, 2018, the cloud storage feature was shut down by Nextbit. 10 months after the acquisition, in November 2017, Razer released the

Razer Phone The Razer Phone (code name: cheryl, stylized as RΛZΞR PHONE) is an Android (operating system), Android-based phablet designed and developed by Razer Inc., released on November 15, 2017. While the device was designed mainly for Mobile game, mob ...

, their first game-centric smartphone, with the overall design based on the Robin.

Specifications

Hardware

The Robin was mostly made of

polycarbonate Polycarbonates (PC) are a group of thermoplastic polymers containing carbonate groups in their chemical structures. Polycarbonates used in engineering are strong, tough materials, and some grades are optically transparent. They are easily work ...

with a matte finish and a Gorilla Glass 4 front panel. The device weighs approximately and is tall, wide, and thick. The display of the device is a

IPS LCD IPS (in-plane switching) is a screen technology for liquid-crystal displays (LCDs). In IPS, a layer of liquid crystals is sandwiched between two glass surfaces. The liquid crystal molecules are aligned parallel to those surfaces in predetermined ...

with a resolution of 1920 x 1080

pixels In digital imaging, a pixel (abbreviated px), pel, or picture element is the smallest addressable element in a raster image, or the smallest point in an all points addressable display device. In most digital display devices, pixels are the sm ...

and

pixel density Pixels per inch (ppi) and pixels per centimetre (ppcm or pixels/cm) are measurements of the pixel density of an electronic image device, such as a computer monitor or television display, or image digitizing device such as a camera or image scanner. ...

of 424 ppi. It is powered by a six-core

Qualcomm Qualcomm () is an American multinational corporation headquartered in San Diego, California, and incorporated in Delaware. It creates semiconductors, software, and services related to wireless technology. It owns patents critical to the 5G, 4 ...

Snapdragon 808 This is a list of Qualcomm Snapdragon systems on chips (SoC) made by Qualcomm for use in smartphones, tablets, laptops, 2-in-1 PCs, smartwatches, and smartbooks devices. Before Snapdragon SoC made by Qualcomm before it was renamed to Sna ...

(MSM8992), with a 2 + 4 custom processor configuration (2x 1.82

GHz The hertz (symbol: Hz) is the unit of frequency in the International System of Units (SI), equivalent to one event (or cycle) per second. The hertz is an SI derived unit whose expression in terms of SI base units is s−1, meaning that one he ...

Cortex-A57 + 4x 1.44 GHz Cortex-A53) and 3 GB of

LPDDR3 Low-Power Double Data Rate (LPDDR), also known as LPDDR SDRAM, is a type of synchronous dynamic random-access memory that consumes less power and is targeted for mobile computers and devices such as mobile phones. Older variants are also known a ...

RAM Ram, ram, or RAM may refer to: Animals * A male sheep * Ram cichlid, a freshwater tropical fish People * Ram (given name) * Ram (surname) * Ram (director) (Ramsubramaniam), an Indian Tamil film director * RAM (musician) (born 1974), Dutch * ...

Storage

The Robin comes with a built-in 32 GB of internal storage, but does not feature microSD card expansion. Instead, the smartphone utilized

cloud storage Cloud storage is a model of computer data storage in which the digital data is stored in logical pools, said to be on "the cloud". The physical storage spans multiple servers (sometimes in multiple locations), and the physical environment is t ...

. It had 100 GB of usable cloud storage offered by Nextbit out of the box, which is integrated within the phone's software as an additional "external" storage. Shortly after being purchased by

Razer Razer may refer to: * Razer (Canadian TV channel), former name of MTV2, a Canadian digital television specialty service * Razer Inc., a Singaporean-American computer peripherals manufacturer specializing in PC gaming * Razer Phone, a smartphone desi ...

, Nextbit shut down the cloud storage feature on March 1, 2018, with data accessible until April 1, 2018. When installed applications, for example, were not used by the user for a long period; the smartphone automatically detected them and archived them into the

cloud In meteorology, a cloud is an aerosol consisting of a visible mass of miniature liquid droplets, frozen crystals, or other particles suspended in the atmosphere of a planetary body or similar space. Water or various other chemicals may co ...

to reduce internal storage usage. It also adapted to the usage patterns of the user and performed the backup process whenever applicable. The smartphone also stored the user's photos in the cloud in the default resolution appropriate for upload, until the user specified the resolution.

Reception

Sales

Pre-orders after the Kickstarter campaign began in October 2015, with shipping set to start in February 2016. During the preorder period, the Nextbit Robin had estimated arrival time of February. The phone stopped being produced in January 2017, following the companies acquisition by

Known issues

The Robin had suffered performance issues upon launch, including lag and slow performance of the camera. These issues were marked as resolved by Nextbit by releasing software updates in March and April. However, issues persist for many users. The smartphone was also quite easy to bend with both hands due to its all plastic housing, as was tested by Zack Nelson on his

YouTube YouTube is a global online video platform, online video sharing and social media, social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by ...

channel ''JerryRigEverything''.Nextbit Robin Bend Test FAIL - Durability test (JerryRigEverything - YouTube)
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References

External links

Kickstarter Campaign
{{Android smartphones Android (operating system) devices Smartphones Kickstarter-funded products Mobile phones introduced in 2016 Discontinued smartphones