Here on my desk we have the Nextbit robin.
While this phone is not near as popular as the iPhone or Samsung, It is definitely unique.
The main selling point behind the robin is instead of having a ton of internal storage
on the phone, it just backs up everything to the cloud.
My first issue with that is that you'll most likely need a pretty constant data connection
if you use a lot of apps, and secondly, all a 'cloud' really is, is just someone elses
computer.
But it is an interesting business model.
The phone is very light weight, and surprisingly bigger than I had anticipated.
Its pretty much the same size as my Galaxy S7 Edge.
I do durability tests on phones.
I've tested over 25 phones now, and most of them survive my tests.
Only 3 so far have catastrophically failed.
Lets start with the scratch test.
The Nextbit robin has Gorilla Glass 4.
These picks will tell me where the screen falls on Mohs Scale of Hardness.
No surprise that the screen starts to scratch at a level 6.
This is definitely the norm for smart phones these days.
Especially with Gorilla Glass.
Unless it has a plastic screen like the Droid turbo 2 and the Galaxy s7 active.
The 5 mega pixel front facing camera sits flush with the blue top.
And it is made of glass, along with its black circular counterpart on the left.
The flush lens design can be dangerous for glass, but at least it wont scratch easy like
some plastic lenses we find on the Blackberry Priv.
The blue top and blue bottom pieces are made of pure plastic.
The rear 13 megapixel camera lens is also made of glass, and the dual tone flash diffuser
is made of plastic.
Both of these also sit very flush with the plastic housing.
But the glass lens will not scratch easy with use, and that is the important part.
The main portion of the back panel is also made of plastic, Give me a thumbs up if you
are glad this is my phone and not yours... if we move along to the volume buttons we
see that they are plastic as well, along with the power button slash fingerprint scanner,
and the sim card trey.
This phone does not have an SD card slot because of that cloud thing they got goin' on.
Now for the burn test on this 5.2 inch IPS LCD display.
This phone lasted 11 seconds with the flame directly applied to the screen.
Then the pixels turned off.
But as the phone cooled down, the pixels recovered, turned back on, and were fully functional
again.
Not every phone recovers.
The Galaxy S7 edge that you saw previously in this video has a permanent burn mark on
the screen after the flame test.
The phone screen is cool to the touch within seconds.
Remember that I have tested over 25 phones now, and only 3 have catastrophically failed.
Lets move on to the bend test.
This robin did not make it very far from the nest.
Even budget phones normally survive this bend test.
Lets open up the Nextbit robin and analyze this build quality.
The problem with the Nexus 6p, was that there was plastic integrated into metal with a very
weak dovetail joint.
The problem with the Nextbit robin is that there is no metal at all inside the phone.
The entire thing is pure plastic.
Even the motherboard is screwed into the plastic.
I imagine this cut down on manufacturing costs by an astronomical amount.
But...
it does leave the phone very weak.
Plastic is nothing compared to metal.
Minor bends wont matter very much, plastic is relatively flexible and resilient.
But make sure and keep your phone out of any extreme situations... because this phone is
not likely to survive.
Don t get me wrong, this does not mean its a bad phone at all.
There are so many variables to pick from when buying a phone.
Durability is just one.
Just make sure you don't stick it in your back pocket.... especially if you are American.
I have ordered the OnePlus 3.
That'll be here very soon, Make sure you are subscribed so you are first to know if the
build quality of that phone is as good as the other OnePlus phones that I have tested.
Now If you'll excuse me, I have some glass to clean up.
Ill just put the robin on my 'shelf of shame', next to the Nexus 6p, the Mi 5, and HTC m9.
Behind the scenes can always be found on my twitter and Instagram!
Thanks a ton for watching!
Hope to see you around.