Consumer-ready Project Ara modular smartphones due in 2017

[HEXUS]

Its changed in several ways since we last saw it. Development kits ship out this autumn.

Read more.

[FifxBlacksheep]

After Half-Life 3 ... Ara project, the realease... one day ^^

[sykobee]

Ah, SoC now part of base chassis - we couldn't risk people buying a chassis once only and smartphone makers being reduced to selling modules over time!

Still, I guess even the chassis won't last more than an extra year or two over the expected lifetime of a phone, so the main advantage is buying that expensive semi-pro optical-zoom camera module once, and then taking it forward to the next chassis you buy.

[azrael-]

I present to you... THE FRANKENFONE!

Remember, you read it here first.

[lowers93]

I can't see this by nature of its design having anything other than horrendous battery life. I hope they prove me wrong.

The SoC in the skeleton makes sense though, what sorts of corrupted memory or critical failures might you experience if it was abruptly or unexpectedly removed. Also, for a lot of us around here its ok, but if someone buys this phone for their children? Nah.. If something could go wrong, it would. Best avoided.

[zaph0d]

Ah, SoC now part of base chassis - we couldn't risk people buying a chassis once only and smartphone makers being reduced to selling modules over time!

Still, I guess even the chassis won't last more than an extra year or two over the expected lifetime of a phone, so the main advantage is buying that expensive semi-pro optical-zoom camera module once, and then taking it forward to the next chassis you buy.

What's the bet that with the Endo II it's not possible to use Endo I modules due to "Incompatibilities" with the "Improved Interface Design" or some other marketing-garbage for "Yeah we want to make sure you buy everything again so we can screw every last penny out of you"

[crossy]

Ah, SoC now part of base chassis - we couldn't risk people buying a chassis once only and smartphone makers being reduced to selling modules over time!

Still, I guess even the chassis won't last more than an extra year or two over the expected lifetime of a phone, so the main advantage is buying that expensive semi-pro optical-zoom camera module once, and then taking it forward to the next chassis you buy.

What's the bet that with the Endo II it's not possible to use Endo I modules due to "Incompatibilities" with the "Improved Interface Design" or some other marketing-garbage for "Yeah we want to make sure you buy everything again so we can screw every last penny out of you"

Glad I'm not that cynical!

Actually the same criticism has been leveled at the LG G5, but I think your "mark II incompatible" is far more likely there, (one reason why I've avoided the G5). Maybe I'm being naive, but I'd assume Ara mk 2 would be far enough away that modules you buy for the 'current' one should have a decent lifetime. Certainly it's looking very interesting, but I'm just waiting for all those educated reviews that bitch about it looking amateurish compared to the Galaxy S8 or iPhone 7.

[goldcd]

What's the bet that with the Endo II it's not possible to use Endo I modules due to "Incompatibilities" with the "Improved Interface Design" or some other marketing-garbage for "Yeah we want to make sure you buy everything again so we can screw every last penny out of you"

Bit cynical - and somewhat foolhardy, as it defeats pretty much the single goal of this project..
Plus, also depends how the modules are sold. If say you can "buy a camera module from Sony" - Sony would be up in arms if they got left with a load of unshiftable modules on their shelves as they didn't work with some Endos.
It's in nobody's interest to make this stuff incompatible.

My niggle is that now "CPU, GPU, antennas, sensors, battery and display" are in the endo frame, and I'm really not quite sure this leaves enough for the modules.. erm maybe a good 'flat' camera, and a better one that protrudes a bit.. maybe an external speaker might be useful... but apart from that I'm just going to fill the damn thing with battery.

[lowers93]

Glad I'm not that cynical!

Actually the same criticism has been leveled at the LG G5, but I think your "mark II incompatible" is far more likely there, (one reason why I've avoided the G5). Maybe I'm being naive, but I'd assume Ara mk 2 would be far enough away that modules you buy for the 'current' one should have a decent lifetime. Certainly it's looking very interesting, but I'm just waiting for all those educated reviews that bitch about it looking amateurish compared to the Galaxy S8 or iPhone 7.

There is some hope from the Project Ara website itself;

"Built to Last

The Ara frame is built with durable latches and connectors to keep modules secured. Ara modules are designed around standards, allowing them to work with new generations of frames and new form factors."

[scaryjim]

.. My niggle is that now "CPU, GPU, antennas, sensors, battery and display" are in the endo frame, and I'm really not quite sure this leaves enough for the modules.. erm maybe a good 'flat' camera, and a better one that protrudes a bit.. maybe an external speaker might be useful... but apart from that I'm just going to fill the damn thing with battery.

My reading was that the battery in the endo will be minimal - just enough to swap out a drained battery module for a charged one. I imagine the sensors in the endo will be minimal, so no doubt you can bolt on a whole load of upgradeable sensors. The problem for minimal endos is that modern SoCs actually include the majority of that stuff - or at least the processing to deal with it - in one piece of silicon sp it's hard to justify not including it, then using the modules for upgraded versions if you want them. I can see sporty types wanting a high accuracy GPS, for instance (the built in one on most phones has pretty dire accuracy). High gain antennas so you get signal in remote places perhaps? A variety of IO options? Specialist sensors or camera types? Shortwave radio? Toothpick and tweezers?

[CaptainAmerica]

Sorry, but one of the bigger things that had me interested in Ara was the complete modularity. Now, there's not much point.

As some have said, what's modular now? Camera, speakers, battery maybe? Ara promised changeable RAM, SoC, storage, virtually unlimited customization. It's a shame, really.

[crossy]

Sorry, but one of the bigger things that had me interested in Ara was the complete modularity. Now, there's not much point.

As some have said, what's modular now? Camera, speakers, battery maybe? Ara promised changeable RAM, SoC, storage, virtually unlimited customization. It's a shame, really.

Problem is that, as some here have pointed out in the past, there's technical reasons why a PC-style phone is either not viable or horribly compromised. So I guess I'm okay with the cpu, graphics and memory being fixed on the backplane. Storage is easy to upgrade since adoptable storage became available.

So I wouldn't categorise Ara as a dead duck just yet. There's still much scope for way-out ideas - how about an ethernet port instead of a camera, useful for 'road warrior' sysadmins for example?

The one thing that could kill Ara stone dead is if Samsung etc decide to "improve" the devices with a load of proprietary nonsense. Although given that Ara phones are for the technoliterate, rather than the man in the street, maybe that'll reduce the temptation to fiddle.