Robin, a new phone by Nextbit.

Jelle1880

I was looking at reddit and saw that the owners of Nextbit, a new company are doing an AMA regarding their phone that they will release in February.

They have doubled their Kickstarter amount already (with 14 days to go) and it looks really nice to me.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/nextbit/robin-the-smarter-smartphone

https://www.reddit.com/r/Android/comments/3l3hir/we_are_nextbit_the_developers_of_robin_the/

It's basically a phone with 32GB internal storage and a linked 100GB storage online (hence their whole cloud thing).

• Processor: Snapdragon 808
• Memory: 3GB RAM / 32 GB onboard / 100 GB online
• Screen: 5.2” IPS LCD 1080p, Gorilla Glass 4
• Rear Camera: 13MP with phase detection autofocus, dual tone flash
• Front camera: 5MP
• Battery: 2680 mAh
• Dual front facing stereo speakers
• Fingerprint sensor
• NFC
• Quick charging
• Bluetooth 4.0 LE
• WiFi A/B/G/N/AC
• GSM 850/900/1800/1900
• WCDMA 850/900/1800/1900/2100
• LTE Bands 1/2/3/4/5/7/8/12/17/20/28
• Dimensions: 149mm x 72mm x 7mm
• Weight: Approx. 150g
• GPS enabled

What I really like is that it comes with an unlocked bootloader, so you're free to load any ROM on it without voiding the warranty (although I can imagine they will limit it to the more well known ones like Cyanogen).


The people involved all have a long history of working at Google, HTC,... so have relevant experience it seems.


Plus, imo they just look gorgeous, especially the Midnight version:

Squeeonline

I wonder if you load another rom, do you lose the features that you buy this phone for i.e. the cloud integration?

Also, none of this would be an issue if more phones had microSD card slots, and proper dev support for them. Hopefully that will come with Marshmallow update.

super_furry

$95 for shipping?

maximoose

Interesting design, battery seems a bit lightweight though compared to what similar specced phones are launching with now.

Jelle1880

maximoose wrote: »

Interesting design, battery seems a bit lightweight though compared to what similar specced phones are launching with now.

That was one of the first questions they got

https://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/3l726c/we_are_nextbit_the_developers_of_the_robin/

Great questions abechung!
Like other OEMs we do power tuning on drivers and hardware configurations. One big takeaway from my days on Android working on Power Management was that it was not enough to just focus on the device. You have to optimizing the full end-to-end system, which includes the device and servers. We're doing this at Nextbit, and designing our syncing solution from day one to be power efficient.
We hear your concerns about battery life, and its an area we want to tackle in the future!
I would expect benchmarks around early Jan.
-mc

Guess we will see in january what the battery is like.

They also said that while you can put whatever ROM you want on the device, the cloud service only works with the original ROM. Alternative launchers like Nova however will still work.

ED E

3k units a dev community does not make. Even at 10k you'll only have a small community around the device, and TBH I'd be skeptical of good FW support from any smaller enterprise like this. Sure even OPO/CM had their issues.

Jelle1880

They're supposedly being backed by Foxconn for hardware, they have investment from Google Ventures,...
I think support will be decent enough, but that remains to be seen of course.

Where do you see 3000 units ?

heebusjeebus

I like the look of it. It would definately turn heads.
Don't think I could justify paying $444 (€400) for it.

jesseps

Now the wait.

ED E

Bought one today for $99. Total impulse purchase :pac:

drunkmonkey

ED E wrote: »

Bought one today for $99. Total impulse purchase :pac:

Ah here did you not see it’s Big bad brother launching next week.
https://wccftech.com/review/the-hardware-review-razer-phone/amp/

ED E

ED E wrote: »

Bought one today for $99. Total impulse purchase :pac:

drunkmonkey wrote: »

Ah here did you not see it’s Big bad brother launching next week.
https://wccftech.com/review/the-hardware-review-razer-phone/amp/

...

The Razer Phone has been priced at $699

drunkmonkey

For $99 you couldn’t really go wrong. Nice to see someone rocking a phone with a bit of colour.
Make sure and get a non bendy cover for it : )

CiDeRmAn

Is this worth it?
I've been on the look out for something a little different that'll work well for a year.
This might be just the ticket.

Edit: feck it, bought it....

ED E

808 is old but top tier. Batt mediocre, storage fine. CAT4 LTE with full band support - No benefits of 4.1G but thats almost non existent here anyways.


PSA: Doesnt have a steel frame. You sit on it, it cracks in half. A case is a decent idea.

CiDeRmAn

I'll pick up a case from eBay, but there's not much to choose from.
The storage seems funky, doubt the cloud USP will be maintained for long, leaving a buyer with a pitiful 32Gb on board.
But I use my handset less and less for more than calls, messages and browsing, so it should be fine.
Hopefully there'll be a custom rom of Oreo in the coming months too.

CiDeRmAn

ED E wrote: »

808 is old but top tier. Batt mediocre, storage fine. CAT4 LTE with full band support - No benefits of 4.1G but thats almost non existent here anyways.


PSA: Doesnt have a steel frame. You sit on it, it cracks in half. A case is a decent idea.

I ordered a rigid case for it just now, probably have it before the phone!
It's a nice mint green one, matching the phone itself.


Can one turn off the cloud storage nonsense I wonder?
I see from one review that syncing with it was generating a lot of heat in the phone.

CiDeRmAn

Mine has been shipped, now to see if customs nab it

ED E

Nov 06, 2017
05:06 pm
Shipment Received, Package Acceptance Pendingusps
MONTGOMERY VILLAGE, MD, 20886
Nov 06, 2017
12:00 am
Pre-Shipment Info Sent to USPS, USPS Awaiting Itemusps

EDIT: Its doing a tour de states at the minute. Might get it by late next week.

Kintarō Hattori

ED E wrote: »

Bought one today for $99. Total impulse purchase :pac:

Can I ask where?

ED E

Kintarō Hattori wrote: »

Can I ask where?

Ebay US:
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Nextbit-Robin-5-2-32GB-100GB-Cloud-GSM-UNLOCKED-Android-Smartphone/332208400835?
Linked via the Wire or the Verge article (cant remember which to credit)

CantGetNoSleep

Anyone know if this is dual SIM?

ED E

Its not.

CiDeRmAn

Seems to be basically a Nexus 5x with an extra gig of ram.
And that's still a grand set up.

ED E

Now with Address Pal

CiDeRmAn

Mine is sitting in a shipping partner warehouse, awaiting pickup.

Suckit

Has anybody received theirs yet? What is the screen like in daylight?

CiDeRmAn

Suckit wrote: »

Has anybody received theirs yet? What is the screen like in daylight?

No idea!

But, in other news, I now have an empty, rigid, Robin case to play with!
Go team!

In other other news, my phone is still in New York....

Suckit

I am looking at the Robin, and the 2 of the LeTV phones (Le Max 2 and Le 3 Pro) for a similar price.
One video review mentioned that the screen was not great in the daytime, but after reading a fair bit more it seems that video reviewer was terrible. Everything he mentioned was either irrelevant or fixable, and he kept wanting to plug his discount for skins on other phones. :mad:
There are some known issues with the Robin and many of the Roms seem to fix them and do a very good job of extending the battery life among other things. The OmniRom seemed to have been the best and most favourited among users earlier this year, but i do not know if that is still the case. There seems to be a few to choose from.


Edited also to ask if it got stopped for VAT + Handling.

CiDeRmAn

I'm looking at that custom ROM based on 7.1 as well, hoping that there'll be an Oreo ROM in the not too distant future.
I'm using that at the moment and it'll be hard to retreat to Nougat!
I think the battery life is concerning me, pretty lightweight battery in it, but the camera was fixed in the updates and the launcher can be easily replaced, probably with Google Now, Pixel Launcher or Lawnchair.
The usb c port means I won't have to change my charger for the car and office, which is great.

ED E

Being USB-C is a boon for me, wont go back to B after enjoying C for a while.

Suckit wrote: »

I am looking at the Robin, and the 2 of the LeTV phones (Le Max 2 and Le 3 Pro) for a similar price

If I like the robin I'll be putting the Le Max 2 in the drawer and using it. Mainly for camera AF that isn't bollox.


There are two routes to take with shipping it. TBH I think I chose the wrong one.
Direct: 99.99 + 37.99 = $138 = €118 = €145 with VAT + €10 handling = €155. OR €118 if not checked in Dublin
AddPal: 99.99 + 0 = $100 = €100 (they convert wrong reportedly!) + €16 = €116 = €142 + €10 = €152

So basically AP is significantly slower for a €2 saving but no chance of getting it for far cheaper. And its being opened by a bunch of russians in NY. Oh and they wont even store it in the PO for me like parcel motel would.