Nextbit Robin, the cloud-first smartphone based on Android, started shipping to Kickstarter backers in the third week of February, 2016. However, the company did not receive regulatory approval in some markets like India, so Nextbit couldn’t ship them to its backers on time in those countries. The company has now announced that it has received regulatory approval in India.
The Nextbit Robin will be shipped to all Kickstarter backers from India starting next week. The Robin features a 5.2-inch 1080p IPS LCD display, front-facing stereo speakers with individual amplifiers, a 13-megapixel primary camera with phase-detection autofocus and dual-LED flash, and a 5-megapixel secondary camera. It is powered by Snapdragon 808 processor, 3GB RAM, 32GB internal storage, but lacks a microSD card slot.
Big news, India. We received regulatory approval! Robins from Kickstarter will ship next week. No general sale yet. pic.twitter.com/Oc2Frfq7aj
— Nextbit (@nextbitsys) May 6, 2016
The Nextbit Robin was recently updated to Android 6.0.1 Marshmallow along with bug fixes and performance improvements. The company is also working with Cyanogen Inc. to release a fully working CM13 ROM for the Robin. Apart from 32GB of internal storage, users will also get 100GB of cloud storage, which would be used to offload apps, app data, media, and other files that are not being used.
India has become the second largest smartphone market in the world, and every smartphone vendor wants a piece of the pie. If the Nextbit Robin launches in India, it would compete with the likes of the Xiaomi Mi 5, Samsung Galaxy A5 (2016), and OnePlus 2. The device is now being sold for just $299 in the US through Amazon.
