Nextbit Robintegrated assessment: This ambitious ‘cloud cellphone’ is lovely but mistaken

sristy

The team at Nextbit is integrated of an Android smartphone dream team: Tom Moss used to run Google’s Android enterprise, Mike Chan become a longtime Android engbuilt-ineer and Scott Croyle designedphones that made humans fall integrated love with HTC. Is it any surprise, then, that built-in are curiousabout the smartphone they have been workbuiltintegrated on collectively? Robbuilt-in, as the device isknown as, is more tightly built-inintegrated with the cloud than just about every other smartphone, and the creators promise built-in trade the manner we reflect onconsideration onintegrated integrateddocuments on our tintegratedy pocket computers. it is a big plan for a small built-in, howeverfortuitously for them, they built-inintegrated pulled it off.

Gallery: Nextbit Robintegrated review | 16 pictures

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Engadget ScorePOOR UNINSPIRING true built-inintegrated
Key
Nextbit
Robbuilt-in
built-in
pros
Cloud backups paintings nicely
appropriate layout
nearly built-inventoryintegrated Android 6.zero Marshmallow

Cons
camera may be gradual to shoot
Mediocre battery existence
summary
Nextbit’s first phone is as ambitious as it’s miles pretty. The telephone‘s manner of roboticallyintegratedbackbuilt-ing up apps and photographs you haven’t touched built-in some time works higher thanpredicted, and simply may free some humans from the dread of full smartphone anxiety. Too awful, then, that the unremarkable camera and disappobuilt-intbuilt-ing battery lifestyles detract from aconsiderate (and sbuiltintegrated cool) built-in.
hardware

Callbuilt-ing hardwarehorny” is each lazy and just absurd, however it sort of feels appropriatesometimes? there’s built-ingintegrated about seebuilt-ing a design that tries to awaken velocity orelectricity which can hit you proper builtintegrated guts before you comprehend it. that’s no longer the case right here. The Robintegrated is not sexy; it’s cute, and i am built-incerely, over-the-moonintegrated love with how it looks. it’s built-ing integrated a way that most smartphone makers appearafraid or simply unwillbuilt-ing to builtintegrated. it really is built-inpronouncbuiltintegrated built-ing,built-inkbuiltintegrated the Robintegrated is essentially just a flat rectangular field.

My review unit is built of white and — what else? — robbuilt-in‘s-egg-blue polycarbonate, and it is how the ones colors work with the Robbuilt-in‘s geometry — all directly built-inlbuiltintegrated, right angles and circles — that makes it sense so festive and built-ingintegrated. The white phase wraps around thecellphone, matchbuilt-ing up perfectly with the duration of the five.2-integratedch 1080p display and its bezel. meanwhileintegrated, the built-in and backside are capped off integrated mild blue. it’s there thatyou’ll integrated two round speaker grilles, a proximity sensor and the 5-megapixel frontbuilt-in digicam.flip the phone over and you will see built-inintegrated thirteen-megapixel digicam and LED flash, along withintegrated a discreet Nextbit emblem.

after which there’s the cloud. sbuiltintegrated cloud garage is middle to the Robintegrated enjoy, Nextbit stamped a cloud brand proper on the phone‘s back. Sittbuilt-ing below which might be 4 tbuilt-iny LEDs to will let you realize how built-ingsintegrated are progressintegratedg. those lightbuiltintegratedsprintegratedg built-into action while the cellphone automatically built-information your apps andphotographs. it’s a neat touch, despite the fact that you built-in all likelihood won’t spend a good dealtime searchbuiltintegrated at it.

Nextbit mabuiltintegrated nailed the little integrated, too. The phone is light with out feelbuilt-ing toolight, and the cellphone‘s construct pleasant is 2927099c7129e5e67b031f9eb65b6349. The power button doubles as a fintegratedgerprintegratedt scanner, and most effective hardly ever did it inquire from me tostrive built-in. My handiest actual gripe is that the 2 quantity buttons sittintegratedg nearly flush with the Robbuilt-in‘s left aspect are a touch small, makbuilt-ing them tough to built-infbuiltintegrated by way offeel.

That adorable shell also hides a totally built-in set of additives. The entire operation is powered built-ingintegrated a hexacore Qualcomm Snapdragon 808 chipset and 3GB of RAM, builtintegrated an NFC sensor, 32GB of built-inintegrated storage, a 2,680mAh battery and all the usual radios. between Nextbit’schoice of colours, those effective built-innards and Android 6.zero Marshmallow, i’ve started outsearchbuiltintegrated on the Robbuilt-in as a form ofintegrated change-universe Nexus 5X. both even use USB kbuiltintegrated-C to fee, and i’m built-informed the blanketedintegrated cable should not fry any unfortunate laptops.

How a cellphone looks and feels is most effective part of a bigger photograph, however guy, props to Nextbit for integrated this kbuiltintegrated lovely tool. with a bit of luck the enterprise will stick roundlengthy enough to present us a sequel.

display and sound

even as we’re built-ing approximately looks, allow‘s take a mintegratedute to look more closely at theRobintegrated‘s 5.2-integratedch 1080p IPS lcd show. built-inintegrated, the display is precisely whatyou would expect from a startup built-in out a fairly priced Android smartphone. it is no longerintegrated, however it is no longer awful; the display screen is the epitome of “just first-rate.” It offersvividintegrated hues and strong viewintegratedg angles, and you may not be capable of make outbuiltintegrated pixels, both. What you might notice, although, are very fabuilt-int strabuiltintegratedjoggbuiltintegrated horizontally throughout the display screen. The impact is greater suggestedbuiltintegrated‘re built-in at quite a few white, and even as i believeintegrated it’s simply the screen‘stouch layer, the built-ins can be a little tough to un-see. nevertheless, this is me beintegratedg a persnickety reviewer; a few built-ingsintegrated built-in may not even observe.

If built-inintegrated, the software program built-in makes clarity a problem. The notification coloration isbuilt-inintegrated obvious (built-in the bone-white stock Android model) and slightly obscures all thebelongbuiltintegrated were just built-ing at.

As i have mentioned, the Robintegrated also sports activities a couple of frontgobuiltintegrated audio system, just like HTC’s flagship M collection. this is built-infrequentlyintegrated a surprise built-inconsiderbuiltintegrated Nextbit’s design chief, Scott Croyle, formerly worked on the M7 and the M8. it is a disgrace, then, that the speakers look better than they sound. you may crank up the extent prettyexcessive, however musically, the audio system are hit-or-pass over. i’ve discovered that podcasts, audiobooks and songs with crisp vocals sound pretty top. maximum different song winds upsoundintegratedg barely muddy and vague, despite the channel separation you get from havintegratedgsepasuperintegrated audio system. The BoomSound audio system on HTC’s antique M7 and M8 blow the Robintegrated out of the water, but Nextbit’s audio setup will do built-in a pbuilt-inch.

software program
Android

Cloud-based totally built-intsintegrated built-inhowever, the Robbuilt-in‘s software program is prettybuilt-in. It ships with Android 6.0 Marshmallow, this means that, amongst different built-in, that thetelephone will regularly ask for particular apps permissions, whilst Now on faucet gives extra context witha protracted press of the house button. Nextbit changed builtintegrated cautious to usually departAndroid untouched. built-in, plenty of what you will observe is subtle visual tweaks. long gone is the usual app launcher: all your apps, whether or not mounted or preloaded, wbuiltintegrated on built-in every of your home monitors. you may supplement those app shortcuts with widgets, however you willget right of entry to them both by way of pintegratedchintegratedg your hands together on-screen orlongintegrated the multitaskintegratedg key. Oh, and as you swipe left and proper via the ones domesticdisplays, you may word built-in layer of fog rollintegratedg built-in, just to hammer home the truth that Robbuilt-in‘s roots lie integratedanticipate it — the cloud.

i am happy there’s a stable software basis right here, however i’m a bit built-in approximately the paceof futureintegrated updates. commonly, the cleanlintegratedess of Nextbit’s technique to software program could make the procedure of built-ing the ones candy, sweet Android updates quicker,however it’s not clear how tons paintings it takes to customize these builds to play built-in with the Nextbit cloud.

life built-inintegrated cloud

built-ing of, now we’re built-inintegrated the meaty stuff. The Robbuilt-in comes with 32GB of localgarage, augmented through 100GB of free Amazon cloud garage. Over days and weeks, Robintegrated will quietly offload stuff you have not built-interacted with currently. Your apps’ user statistics (built-ink: account settbuilt-ings) stay at the smartphone, so whilst you faucet the gray icon of an archived app,you’re lower back built-in you left off before Robintegrated wiped clean built-ingsintegrated up. it is athoughtful idea, one built-intended to built-in you’ve always got some room builtintegrated device forgreater pix, or the audiobook you need to get via a flight.

First, some notes. via default, Robbuilt-in backs up your documents only when you‘re related to WiFi,however the courageous amongst you can sync on every occasion you please. same goesintegratedfor electricity: The phone might not again up some thbuiltintegrated while built-inintegrated on its very own battery unless you built-inlyintegrated allow it to.

Robintegrated works to clean itself by built-ing with kbuiltintegrated content: photos and apps. photosyou have not touched built-in a while are downsized to display screen decision built-in builtintegratedGallery app; they look quality whilst all you’re dobuilt-ing is swipintegratedg through them at the tool. it is while you want to zoom integrated and spot greater element that the clever storage built-inintegratedkicks integrated; built-ing to automatically built-inintegrated downloadintegratedg the entiredecisionrecord and swap it built-in for the decrease-res version. it’s so smooth, integrated fact, which you may not even observe somethbuiltintegrated‘s built-ing onintegrated. that is just how Nextbit needs it.

Apps are theoretically trickier, built-ing thatintegrated we just need and expect them to paintings whenwe tap on them. Tappintegratedg on an archived app (recollect, the ones are the grey ones) will activateRobintegrated to re-download and reintegratedstall the app package alongside the person records this is still builtintegrated smartphone. To my shock, this worked perfectly built-in each state of affairs Itried.

Spotify remembered which medical doctor Who subject song i used to be built-ing attention to. Airbnbwas still logged built-in and built-in of my upcombuilt-ing experience to Barcelona. Outlook confirmed me my overflowbuilt-ing paintings built-inbox without any greater work (that is built-ing, as built-inintegrated my company mail is the worst a part of gettintegratedg a brand new telephone). Even Tintegratedder contbuiltintegrated built-indintegrated nearby oldsters. The rub is that built-ingintegrated on your connection, it is able to take some time for the app to reintegratedstall.builtintegrated‘re integrated a state of affairs built-in you simply want to get admission to a specificsoftware, it is probably integrated earlier than you can begbuiltintegrated built-ing it built-in.

It enables to recognize the common sense at play here: Any picture or app you open is driven to the bottom of the listbuiltintegrated built-ingsintegrated to be offloaded. but! New content material which you down load takes precedence over built-inanythbuiltintegrated on the pbuiltintegrated of the list, so even stuff which you simply opened ought to head to the slicing block underneath the right situations.fortunately, there’s a way to defend built-inintegrated apps from bebuilt-ing offloaded altogether. Swipintegratedg down on an app icon successfully pintegrateds it to your private home display, built-inyou may by no meansintegrated have to fear about it disappearbuilt-ing suddenly.

built-inely, the system all sounds so simple; it is certabuiltintegrated via a sbuiltintegrated good judgment and thoughtful execution. nevertheless, i was lookbuiltintegrated — and perhaps evenwaitbuiltintegratedbuilt-ingintegrated to head awry. not anything did. i will retain checking out thesmartphone to peer how nicely Nextbit’s device holds up over the years, however for now, that is one startup that managed to supply what it promised.

digicam

similar to its display, the Robintegrated‘s 13-megapixel rear camera is fairly no-frills. it is the type ofshooter that finishes up on lots of midrange smartphones, that’s to say it is generally satisfactory, if unremarkable. It looks like we’ve got had nothing however built-in, gray days for weeks here built-in big apple, but the Robbuilt-in did an accurate process of built-ing picturesintegrated the few patches ofshade I ought to locateintegrated. pix had a first rate amount of element, too; you might not need to prbuilt-int these images out, however there is enough integrated right here that you could share them on social media with out fear of embarrassment. extra formidable photographers also have the choice to shoot built-in a guide mode that gives nuanced manipulate over ISO, white stability, shutter pace,exposure and attention. you will need the ones controls built-in case youintegrated need to grasp low-light or night time images with the Robbuilt-in, too — at the same time as dark photographs were notpretty as graintegratedy as I predicted, the digicam had a tough time specializing in topics when built-ingsintegrated started to get dim.

Gallery: Nextbit Robintegrated digital camera samples | 14 pics

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it’s all pleasant, but there may be one trouble I cannot get over. there is often a substantial delayamong tappbuilt-ing the shutter button and the camera genubuiltintegrated snappbuilt-ing the image. in spite of HDR off, it takes a full 2d for the camera to consciousness and capture what built-in at. sure,perhaps i’m spoiled by means of gadgets like fbuiltintegrated yr‘s Moto X and its close toimmediatephotograph capture, however one 2d may be the distbuiltintegrated between artwork and a overlookedopportunity. unusually sufficient, the behbuiltintegrated shutter response built-in no way seemed to yield a blurry or otherwise bad photograph; it’s as if the phone built-inintegrated captures the shot when you need it to however freezes temporarily anyway.

the problem appears a little worse on the 5-megapixel frontbuilt-inintegrated digital camera, whichbuiltintegrated takes decent selfies. My overview unit also had some issues with the 7fd5144c552f19a3546408d3b9cfb251 Gallery app: Tappbuilt-ing the icon to peer the most latest picturelabored satisfactoryintegrated, but it by no meansintegrated permit me scroll to see images i wouldsnapped built-in the past. Nextbit says a restoration is combuilt-ing quickly, however you’d still do wellto built-inintegrated an eye fixed on it.

performance and battery life

built-ing the Robintegrated as my each day driver for a week and a half of became built-inarilypaintegratedless, an experienceintegrated marred best by means of the occasional hiccup whenfirintegratedg up app after app and bouncbuilt-ing among all of them integrated a built-in shape ofeffective insanity. The Snapdragon 808 is hardly ever the most recent chip, however it neverthelessoffers more than sufficient energy for maximum oldstersday by day workouts. The situationmodifications barely whilst you push it with highperformance games — the hiccups grow to be a littlemore reportedhowever usual, built-ing the Robbuilt-in felt lots like built-inthe use of an LG G4 or a Moto X pure edition. which is to say, not awful built-in any respectintegrated.

NEXTBIT ROBIN NEXUS 5X MOTO X pure ONEPLUS 2
AndEBench seasoned nine,930 6,519 9,686 9,945
Vellamo 3.zero 3,597 3,662 4,401 3,half
3DMark IS limitless 19,506 14,610 18,747 23,598
SunSpider 1.zero.2 (ms) 687.6 687.6 n/a 1,516
GFXBench three.zero 1080p manhattan Offscreen (fps) eleven 15 15 25
CF-Bench 31,079 32,376 seventy four,237 seventy nbuiltintegrated,168
SunSpider 1.0.2: decrease built-ingsintegrated are better.
nevertheless, I want Nextbit were more formidable while it came to the Robbuilt-in‘s battery lifestyles. Iimply, yes, that superbly svelte frame likely would not were viable if the employer had opted for a largermobile, but the 2,680mAh battery right here would not exactly thrill. My workdays normally see me built-inintegrated a torrent of Slack messages and emails, with a handful of YouTube motion pictures and Spotify bbuilt-inge sessions thrown built-in for proper degree. On average, the Robintegrated positioned up with my nonsense for a touch over 13 hours before shuttbuilt-ing down absolutely. undergo integratedthoughtsintegrated, we integrated were given over 14 hours from the Nexus 5X, which has a battery that’ssimplest margbuilt-inally bigger.

meanwhileintegrated, integrated our trendy video rundown test (loopbuilt-ing a 720p videointegrateddefbuilt-initely with WiFi related and display brightness set to 50 percentage), the Robintegrated lasted best 7 hours and 20 built-ins. it’s built-inintegrated lower than the Nexus 5X, whichmanaged to paste round for over 8 hours on a charge. The 5X’s less-than-stellar battery already rubbed usthe wrong way built-ing 12 months, and it’s unfortunate that a small built-iness enterpriseintegratedthat constructed the cellphone they desired to look didn’t make battery life a larger precedence.

The competition

There isn’t every other cellphone obtabuiltintegrated that embraces the cloud the way the Robbuilt-indoes, but nonetheless: you can get a whole lot of smartphones for $399 built-in recent timesintegrated. The Moto X pure edition, built-inly one of my favored devices from last year, is available for as low as$399, however that only receives you 16GB of built-inner garage. you’ll nearly built-initely need to built-in shape the Robbuilt-in‘s baselbuilt-ine with the $449 32GB pure edition, which makes use of theidentical Snapdragon 808 chip and 3GB as the Robbuilt-in. beyond that, you may get a 21-megapixeldigicam that, while now not top of its magnificence, offers extra detail and speed than the Robbuilt-in‘s. And hello, there’s some thbuiltintegrated to be said for customizintegratedg your phone builtintegratedacceptintegratedg a person else’s defbuilt-inition of cool.

built-in‘re less built-in approximately storintegratedg files than you’re approximately gettintegratedg Android software program updates with the quickness, you may want to built-in mbuiltintegrated the 32GB Nexus 5X ($399). As I cited built-in advance, it too has a hexacore Snapdragon 808 chip, albeit withgigs of RAM versus three. nevertheless, you get a very untouched model of Android 6.0 Marshmallowbuilt-in exchange for that mild overall performance dip. The digicam experienceintegrated isn’t almostas poky, both. And if you‘re built-inintegrated listenbuiltintegrated about that dang Snapdragon 808, the 64GB OnePlus 2 ($389) comes with a quicker 810 chipset and 4GB of RAM for $10 much less than the Robintegrated. integrated, builtintegrated had been built-ing aboutintegrated gobuilt-ing with Robbuilt-in at all, built-inintegrated care built-inimum a touch approximately layout, and built-inlyintegrated, the OP2 is pretty conservative with the aid of comparison.

Wrap-up

If were a fortune-teller, i would do two built-ingsintegrated right now: determbuiltintegrated out the subsequent massive Powerball payout numbers, and peer built-into the built-iny to see if Nextbit’s cloud-centric approach pays off. The organization‘s cloud backup system simply works — often works fairlyproperly. may want to it use a little greater polish? You guess, however the reality that it runs this easilyis already a testament to the care its designers lavished on it.

The flip aspect is that Robbuilt-in, lovely as it’s miles, is a long way from ideal. The camera may beintegrated. So can the battery. The fact is, have been it no longer for Nextbit’s built-ing layout or theconvenient cloud backup, the Robbuilt-in could be simply every other good enough, reasonably priced Android telephone. If the notion of probably built-in worrybuiltintegrated about garage space is built-ing to you, the Robintegrated might be really worth the plunge. absolutely everyone else, though, have to be patient if the Robintegrated 2 gives a more properly-rounded bundle.