Project Ara by Google is known for its modular smartphone will be debuting sometime later this year. Google has announced at its Ara Developer Conference that the Market Pilot for Ara will be launched in Puerto Rico soon. It has been noted by Google that it chose Puerto Rico owing to its high level of mobile engagement.
Around 77 percent of the users access Internet using their mobile devices and there are both American and Latin American carriers operating in Puerto Rico. The devices will be available via couple of carriers based in the region such as OpenMobile and Claro and they will be sold via food truck style stores.
These trucks which will be located at various popular locations throughout Puerto Rico. These will house 3D printers and dye sublimation printers, so that the consumers can customise their new Ara smartphone right then and there.
The highlight of Project Ara is that it lets users to upgrade the components of a device such as battery, screen, camera and others individually instead of buying a new phone. For instance, if a user wants a device with a long lasting battery, the battery of the device can be replaced with a new one that is beefier. As of now, Google has come up with 11 modules and it has claimed that the number will rise to 20 or 30 by the end of this year.
Furthermore, Project Ara will be getting a dedicated application called Ara Configurator App that will let users to see how the phone will look like before buying it. Users can preview the phone after buying it as well. This application is built in adherence to Material Design and it lets to ping the screen to move between the three distinct layers of customization.
Lastly, the first Project Ara module phone called Spiral 2 was also announced at the conference and it appears to feature low end specs as compared to the flagship smartphones that are unveiled these days. Well, the screen resolution is still at HD 1280 x 720 pixels and the device uses dual application processors such as Marvell PXA1928 and NVIDIA Tegra K1.
Furthermore, there is a 5MP primary snapper onboard the Sprial 2 and connectivity aspects such as WiFi, Bluetooth and 3G. The battery is claimed to provide 20 to 30 percent less capacity than an average battery of a smartphone. According to Google, the next Project Ara prototype, Spiral 3, will come with support for LTE connectivity and better battery life.
To be updated...