“We started with a rectangle” – new crowdfunded smartphone Robin launches

The new Nextbit Robin phone has been designed by former HTC designer Scott Croyle.

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Company Nextbit has launched its crowdfunded Robin phone, which uses the Android platform and has integrated cloud storage.

The Robin has been designed by Scott Croyle, former senior vice president of design and user experience at HTC, who joined Nextbit co-founders Tom Moss and Mike Chan – who both formerly worked at Android.

The Robin is launching to market following a successful Kickstarter campaign, which saw the team raise more than $1.3 million (£900,000) to fund the project.

“We started with a rectangle”

The Robin phone is available on pre-order at a price of $399 (£279) and comes with 32GB of phone storage and 100GB of cloud storage. It has a 5.2” screen and fingerprint-activated power button.

The Robin design team says: “ We started with a rectangle. The simplicity of the shape inspired us, and we built Robin from there.

“Clean lines, paired circles, eye-catching colours. Texture that feels great in your hand.

“Harmony and balance”

The design team adds: “Everything about the design is carefully planned to create harmony and balance – front and back, right and left, top and bottom.

“Square sides make Robin easy to grip while gently rounded edges give it comfort in hand. Robin’s weight is balanced so it always stays centred in your palm.”

Croyle, who led the design, previously worked on the HTC One M7 and M8 phones. He joined Nextbit as chief design and product officer in 2014.

Nextbit is based in San Francisco and its investors include Google Ventures and Accel Partners.

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  • Adam North February 22, 2016 at 10:18 am

    Personally I find this quite ugly! They said they started with a rectangle as inspiration… and then they stopped there by the look of it!

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