Nextbit Robin First Impression – An Elegant Design You Can’t Reduce To Labels

A smartphone whose USP is cloud storage is bound to draw skeptical glances in a country like India, where Internet penetration is astonishingly low and the Internet itself is astonishingly slow. Even those with access to internet do not deem cloud storage as a viable option, save for some professional paper work, because of high data costs and low FUPs. Nextbit Robin, however, is more than just a phone which seamlessly saves stuff on Cloud.

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Nextbit Robin Specifications and Features 

Robin feels refreshing

Nextbit Robin is helluva sexy phone. There are only so many ways you can put together a rectangle. Right? And since a bunch of new handsets are launched every week, we don’t expect manufacturers to go that extra mile every single time. That results in a collection of familiar handsets following market trends, and bringing together permutations and combinations of labels like – metal side frame, metal unibody, 2.5D glass, chamfered edges… etc.

Also Read:HTC 10 First Impression – More A Matter Of Personal Taste

So, now you understand why I was smitten by the Robin, a phone that makes things work rather well with just plastic (good quality plastic). It’s a boxy handsets but subtle details like recessed front facing speakers, 4 LEDs underlying the cloud on the rear, the classy matte feel, Symmetrical elements (Camera and flash, front camera and proximity sensor) and the choice of colors used make it very appealing. The build quality is top notch too.

White on the edges are interrupted by round mint color dots of volume rocker, a mint fingerprint reader integrated with an extended power key and ports. The display which dominates the front feels well calibrated and sharp.

All said and done, the design and build is refreshing and I will be willing to throw my money on it.

Nextbit Robin Photo Gallery

Smart Storage

Smart Storage is a simple yet efficient tool which makes Robin unique. You don’t necessarily have to use it on Robin, but if you have access to WiFi through your day, Smart Storage sounds like a concept everyone could benefit from. To a degree, at least.

Apps that you don’t use frequently will be transferred to your personal and secure Nextbit Cloud space (100GB). The app data will remain on your phone. What moves to the cloud is .APK files. One fine day, when you actually need one of those app, you can tap it (grey icon on homescreen) and it will be downloaded and reinstated exactly as you left it.

So, if you are among users who like experimenting with apps, Smart storage will save you effort that (inevitably) goes into spring cleaning. If you don’t keep many apps on your phone, the .APK files won’t account for much space in the first place (unless they are gaming apps).

At some point of time most of us exhaust available storage, and in such crisis the first thing we do is delete apps we don’t need in a desperate attempt to free storage. Smart storage will help you avoid just that.

Also Read: Decoding Smartphone Storage – All About Internal and External Memory

You can always pin apps by sliding app icon down on home screen, and that shall prevent them from leaving your phone. You can also choose to upload apps to cloud only while on WiFi or while charging. Also, you can push music, images and other media on the cloud storage space as well.

Performance expectations

Nextbit Robin employs Snapdragon 808 hexa-core processor, which isn’t latest or greatest, but is still a pretty sweet deal for 19,999 INR. From what we hear, the software is well optimized with the hardware. We don’t expect performance to be an issue with the Robin, but surely have our doubts about the modest 2680 mAh battery.

In our initial testing, the Fingerprint sensor felt fast and accurate. The 13MP camera too felt adequate for the price, but we are nowhere close to giving our final verdict.

Conclusion

The Nextbit Robin casts a solid first impression and is something we are excited about. Personally, I don’t particularly like living on the Cloud. Only stuff I keep on Cloud is google docs and images, but the Robin still sounds like something I might choose. We will further examine it closely to know if the software and performance lives up to the expectation and will update you with our findings in our full review.