When the crowdfunded, cloud-first Nextbit Robin smartphone started shipping early last year, I wouldn’t have guessed that the phone would be in its final days now, just a little over a year later. The specs were decent, the phone’s premise was ambitious and unique, and even its base price was affordable at $399. Just a few months post launch, the Nextbit Robin saw a permanent price drop of $100, bringing the price down to an even more affordable $299. Today, you can pick up a Nextbit Robin for an astounding $129.99.
Of course, that bargain bin price doesn’t come without its trade-offs. The reason the price is so low at this point isn’t because the device is over a year old; it’s due to the fact that the company’s assets were purchased by Razer, a brand better recognized by the PC gaming community. With the acquisition came news that Nextbit would remain a standalone operation under its own management and will “continue on its mission to push boundaries and do cool stuff in mobile,” but the company’s sole smartphone thus far, the Robin, will slowly deplete its stock as the device is no longer in production.
Although you can’t buy the Robin from Nextbit’s website anymore, you can still find it through other channels. Amazon has kept both the Midnight and Mint color variants for sale and has steadily lowered its price since news of the acquisition. The Robin has been on sale for as low as $118, but is priced at $129.99 at the time this article was written. And while the low price is likely a part of the “going out of business fire sale”, it’s also well worth it if you’re in the market for a new mid-range device. Not only do its specs hold up well, but Nextbit also promises to continue software support and security patches through 2018, and although that’s only 6 months away, it’s worth the purchase in my book.
I purchased the Robin on a whim a few weeks ago. I couldn’t resist with the price so low, and the phone had always intrigued me. After using the device for a few weeks, I definitely feel that the device was well worth the money spent.
The Robin features a 5.2-inch 1080p display, Snapdragon 808 processor, 3GB of RAM, 32GB of internal storage, 13-megapixel rear-facing camera, 5-megapixel front-facing camera, and 2,680 mAh battery. The Robin also features USB-C charging with Quick Charge 2.0 and 100GB of cloud storage and currently runs on Android version 7.1.1. The Robin only works with GSM carriers as it doesn’t feature any CDMA bands, unfortunately.
The nice thing about the Robin is the specs are modest, but good. The look and feel of the device are also modest with its 5.2-inch display, sharp corners, and soft matte material. The cameras are a little below average compared to what I’m used to, but acceptable. I’m definitely not a fan of its stock launcher, but a different launcher like Nova or Evie worked in a pinch to fix that issue. Battery life, at least on the latest 7.1.1 update, made the device last longer than my Galaxy S7. Performance with the Snapdragon 808 is snappy and responsive despite the processor’s age. I have barely touched the 32GB of onboard storage and use other cloud storage services personally, so I can’t attest to the 100GB of onboard storage. I do wish that the phone used microSD instead, but beggars can’t be choosers – especially for $118.
At the end of the day, even if you weren’t going to use the phone past its official end of life come February, the price is well worth it for a phone that still works really well for most things. There are a lot of phones out there that are appropriate for a smartphone buyer on a budget, but it’s much harder to find a brand new phone for such a low price.
