Review: NextBit Robin

Preface:
I wrote this review in the first week of January. I have not been able to publish it because of our blog's publishing schedule and because I have important things outside this blog to attend to. During this time, major changes have happened that have altered the course of this phone's manufacturer, Nextbit. They were purchased by Razer, and they are now in the process of potentially being shut down and swallowed by the larger company; Razer itself claims that NextBit will be allowed to run as their own company, but I don't see any real positive prospects. Eitherway, I am not quite clear how this affects the product as a whole, but I have updated the parts of the review where I know there will be changes to. 

On with the review.

I love this phone. A lot. As of writing, I've used it for over a month. A family member purchased this on my recommendation and they've been kind enough to let me use this as a test device. It's a phone I've slowly fallen in love with, because it's simply so unique and brilliant. I'll be going over the phone under specific titles so you can keep up with it.

First, my unboxing video:

Design & Speakers

Countless friends and acquaintances have expressed surprise at how unique and distinctive this device looks; they were always very impressed. 

The device feels so good in hand! The plastics are soft touch and have a very solid feeling; the phone has a good weight in the hand, and it feels sturdy. The materials are also very durable to drops and scratches (maybe not bending apparently- as tested by JerryRigEverything on Youtube, but not a concern for me). 

It is a shade too big in height for a 5" phone, but it's for those great speakers so it's worth it. They have great balanced sound and get quite loud. The phone's boxy retro radio shape also allows you to keep upright in most places and use it as great front facing speaker. 

Here are some photos of the device itself: 

Note the NextBit Cloud logo

NextBit Logo

Top Speaker

Bottom Speaker

Note USB C Charger to the left

The round volume up and down buttons

Headphone jack

The softtouch plastic is prone to fingerprints

Very clean and elegant front

Looks very unique; easily distinguishable

Display (1080p)

The display has a slight vintage-esque tint to it, but I like it, it doesn't interfere much with viewing anyway; it's good for reading and entertainment and doesn't strain your eyes, and the resolution is more than high enough. It's a good screen, and probably better than the rest of the screens at that price.

Original NextBit lockscreen, it looks gorgeous

Fingerprint Sensor

The fingerprint sensor is also something that almost no other phone of this price offers, it's very fast and pretty reliable. It allows upto five fingers registered and it's right side edge placement is something I love, as it's very easy to get to, while pressing the power button. Reminiscent of the Sony fingerprint sensor actually.

Note the coloration difference of the sensor itself

Software (Tested on Android Marshmallow)

I don't really like the NextBit home. It doesn't have an app tray and it's home screen interface is quite non-intuitive and very easy to clutter.

However, Pop a 3rd party launcher, as always, and you're good to go.Otherwise, the software experience is superb. It's quite close to stock android, so the experience is smooth, easy to navigate and very simple. The Cloud Storage features are the NextBit's biggest thing, but to be brutally honest, I don't really care for it. 

I find my Google Photos account and 32GB storage more than enough. Nevertheless, having it is just great extra value I guess, as I'm the person to delete many apps, and 100GB is a pretty large amount for archiving; I appreciate its presence.

Update: Android Nougat will come to the Robin in due time, and NextBit has pledged to provide updates till Feb 2018. I am not entirely sure about how the Cloud Storage thing is going to work after that, so I wouldn't recommend you depend on it.

Battery (2680mah)

Battery life is okay too, it usually lasts a working day. 

If it doesn't, it doesn't really matter because a USB C Aukey Fast Charger (which you have to buy anyway- the phone doesn't come with a charging brick) can pump it to full from 0 to 100 in less than 1 hour 45mins, and 0-50 in about half an hour. Fast charging is amazing!

Internal Hardware

The Snapdragon 808 and 3GB of RAM are a very able duo, so the Robin speeds along very well, and has not failed me in any task I've thrown at it. It is able to handle most games at a reasonable quality, and it certainly won't fail the daily stuff; my G4 with the exact same spcs is still great, after almost a year. No problems here.

Camera (13MP rear, 5MP front)

The rear camera... it isn't amazing, but it's good. I don't think you can expect LG G4 or Samsung S6 quality here, but it's okay for FaceBook sharing and the sort. The viewfinder is a tad bit annoying (it's pretty quick though) and quality suffers a lot in low light. The different quality modes aren't great but I guess they do the job. 

I'd recommend you use HDR where possible. 

Here are some shots for you to decide for yourself. So sorry about the portrait orientation of these photos, but I didn't take them! My relative took them on a trip to Sri Lanka, and let's just say they're not the most photography savvy. I did take some photos but I lost my copies....

Cropped

The front camera is good, and it does the job. It suffers from many of the same faults as the rear one, but if SnapChat and Instagram are your deal, it works.

The camera is good in broad daylight but mediocre in lowlight, but like I expressed before, it's a sacrifice I'm willing to take, because the phones other features make it up for me.

Market

The closest phone with this spec is the LG G4, which is £250. The higher resolution screen and better camera are the only trade offs for me, but in daily use they haven't made a huge difference to me (I have both). You can also look into the Moto X, which compares more or less equally to this as the G4. 

At the price of just £159 on Amazon, you don't get these specs elsewhere. You find cheap lower mid rangers with barely half the specs or pedigree of this, so it's tremendous value. Major credit for the seller and NextBit for making this device available at this price.

Major Update: Nextbit has sold itself to Razer. While this is good news for the company itself, it isn't necessarily good for the buyer. While the device itself is stunningly good value, the warranty period on the device if brought brand new has been reduced; it is only 6 months from purchase now. I am sad this had to happen, but it seems these days all the startups are being brought up and scrapped by the big companies. Hopefully, Nextbit will stand by their promises to make a great smartphone with Razer. I look forward to seeing their creation, whatever shape or form it takes.


Verdict

Overall, the Nextbit Robin is very highly recommended for someone who wants a upper-midrange phone for a lower-midrange price. It's certainly worth way more, but the reason, I think, Amazon is selling them so cheap is because NextBit needs to get rid of stock, and to gain more exposure as a brand capable of making a great phone. It's good thing for both customers and the sellers. Good job, NextBit.

I rate this device a solid 9/10.
Update: Because of the warranty and sale affair, I am reducing the overall rating to a 8/10. 

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