Nextbit unveils ‘cloud phone’ Robin

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Nextbit put ‘Robin’ on Kickstarter on Tuesday: a project for a phone that relies heavily on online storage, without the user being aware of it. The Robin gets 32GB on board storage and 100GB online storage.

Robin is to become an Android smartphone with an angular appearance, a 5.2″ 1080p screen, a USB-C port, a Qualcomm Snapdragon 808 hexacore and 3GB of RAM for $299. Nextbit’s project was co-started by the former head of design department at HTC, Scott Croyle.The phone should make smart use of online storage by combining it with the local storage on the phone.According to the project page, it will combine both forms of storage in such a way that a user will not notice that the storage is adjusted automatically. For that, the storage system was slightly modified. It learns which applications the user needs most and moves infrequently used apps to the online storage. In the words of Nextbit, it is: “Everything you want is somewhere, everything you need is on your phone.”

Robin automatically backs up photos and apps when the user is connected to WiFi and an adapter. After a while, the internal storage memory of the phone fills up and Robin will delete the apps and photos that have not been used for a while. The app or photo in the online storage will still be visible on the phone, but with a slightly different color. If the app is clicked, it can be reloaded directly from the online storage.

The phone comes in two colors and is built by Foxconn. The device has a 13-megapixel camera on the back and a 5-megapixel version on the front. There is also a 2680mAh battery, front speakers, a fingerprint reader on the side, NFC, Bluetooth 4.0 and 4G. Furthermore, the phone is equipped with a slightly modified Android version, a released bootloader and open source drivers.

In addition to the former HTC designer, Tom Moss, former global head of business development for Android and Mike Chan, former member of the Android power management team, are also on the team. The $299 price is for early backers. After a certain period of time, the price goes to $349.

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