Nextbit Robin first impressions: Cool Electric color, pure Android UI, unique storage scheme

The Nextbit Robin first appeared as a Kickstarter campaign last year and I was one of the early backers. While you can order a Nextbit Robin yourself for $399 in Mint or Midnight color, Kickstarter backers voted for and had the choice to choose the Electric model. The Electric color variation mixes aspects of the Mint and Midnight scheme and looks fantastic in person.

The Nextbit Robin is unique in that it focuses on using the cloud in a dynamic manner to not only backup photos, but to also actively backup, store, and access applications. It comes with 32GB of onboard storage and 100GB of cloud storage. There's even a cloud on the back that lights up as data is being uploaded or downloaded to this online storage repository.

While you will see many other smartphones using glass and metal with rounded corners and curves, Nextbit went a bit retro with the use of plastic and a rectangular form factor. It reminds me a bit of a plastic Sony Xperia design.

Another perk for being an early backer is that I was sent a gold metal SIM card tray that adds a touch of distinction to the smartphone too.

Nextbit is consistent in the usage of circles with round front facing stereo speakers, the same round openings for the front facing camera, front sensors, headphone jack, rear camera, rear flash, and two volume buttons. There's a fingerprint scanner built into the side power button as well.

You will find Android 6.0 Marshmallow installed out of the box with a very pure Google experience on the phone. There are a few Nextbit utilities and custom apps, but the rest is much like a Nexus device.

At first it appears there is no application launcher, but you tap the three dot purple button on the home screen panel to view archived, pinned, and all apps. You can choose to have apps pinned to the device so they are not automatically placed up on the cloud storage by the intelligent algorithms of the Robin.