Nextbit is Kickstarting its Robin "cloud-first" smartphone. (Update: passes goal in 10 hours)

Update: Well that was fast. The Nextbit Robin has already passed its Kickstarter goal. In fact, it took just 10 hours to reach he campaign’s $500,000 target.

As a result, Nextbit has announced the first of presumably a few stretch goals. If the Kickstarter reaches the $1million mark, the company will throw in a free quick charger with every order. With 29 days still left on the campaign, I’m sure that Nextbit will surpass this target and probably more.

All of the early adopter $299 pledges have been snapped up now, but you can still pre-order a discounted $349 model (regular retail price will be $399), if you like the sound of the Robin. See below for all the details.

Original (Sept 1st):

There are a growing number of manufacturers in the Android space these days, especially in the reasonably price bracket, but the Nextbit Robin is aiming to separate itself from the crowd with its “cloud-first” focus and 100GB of free cloud storage thrown in. In the days of disappearing microSD card slots, the Nextbit Robin might find a friend in the storage heavy consumer, so long as you have a data plan that can keep pace.

The cloud storage option isn’t just a free gimmick to try and sell smartphones though, the feature is actually embedded into the software and allows for some interesting automatic features, such as offsetting rarely used apps to the cloud to save on space. This option works by backing up an APK of your unused app to the cloud and greying out the icon. If you decide that you want to use the app again some months later, it’s simply downloaded from the backup, complete with all of your old data.

The Robin will also automatically backup your pictures and videos to cloud storage when on WiFi and can also free up storage on the phone by itself. Images can also be re-downloaded at a size better suited to your phone’s display to save on extra space. The result is that data is cycled back and forth from the cloud as and when required, without the user having to worry about it.

Moving on to the hardware, the Robin is familiarly mid/high-end, although not quite at the very premium end of the market. The phone is powered by a hexa-core Snapdragon 808 SoC, 3GB of RAM, 32GB of internal storage, a 13 megapixel rear camera, 5 megapixel front camera and a 2,670mAh battery. The display measures 5.2-inches, with a resolution of 1920×1080.

The handset is also packed with extra features, including dual front facing speakers, a finger print scanner, NFC, and Quick Charge capabilities. Nextbit also ships the phone carrier unlocked and you will be covered by the warranty even if you flash other ROMs to the phone. There’s quite a lot of phone here for less than $400.

Nextbit was co-formed by one of the industrial designers behind HTC’s iconic One M7 and M8 smartphones and a Worldwide Head of Business Development and Partnerships for Android. Being a new company, Nextbit is planning to fund the phone through a Kickstarter campaign. Early backers can pre-order a Robin for just $299 and standards backers can grab one for $349. Once the smartphone goes on full sale, the retail price will rise to $399. The handset should begin landing in backers’ hands in January/February 2016.

What do you think about the Nextbit Robin?