Nextbit's Robin is an ode to phone design (pictures)

Would you just look at the Nextbit Robin? It's been a long time since we've seen a phone as deliberately designed as this.

Everything is fresh, playful and clean.

And circles everywhere, from the small-but-effective volume buttons...

...to nearly every port.

Even the fettuccine-shaped USB-C cable and charging brick got attention.

If light blue isn't your jam, the phone also comes in "midnight."

Cloud storage is the Robin's big trick. When you run out of space on the phone, it uploads apps and photos.

The power/lock button doubles as a fingerprint reader to unlock the phone.

Unlocking and logging into the phone is one seamless action.

I especially like the slightly recessed shape that doesn't turn on in my pocket or purse.

Nuh nuh nuh. This round dished-out space is a speaker, not a home button.

The matching speaker on top makes for pretty loud audio.

Let's look at some software. The blue progress bar and flashing blue dot tell you when an app is reactivating after it's been archived.

Tap an always-there home screen icon to open the app for keeping tabs on archived apps.

This view shows them all, from active to archived, in ABC order.

You can pin apps to the home screens, which means they're high-priority and won't be archived.

Archived apps are sleeping up in the cloud, but you can download them any time. In turn, that will cause other apps to archive.

I found the Robin's slim build easy to grip, but it did slip occasionally.

Here's what cases for the Robin look like from the back.

Read all about its 100GB of online storage in my Nextbit Robin review.