Back in 2013, Motorola under Google made a major announcement of building their own fully modular smartphone. It seemed a futuristic invention back then. This would also bring into picture what the creators of Phonebloks had envisioned, a phone made different blocks/modules that would be detached and replaced when the user desired. For example, you could swap any module like speaker, camera, display, battery, ram and many others yet still retain your primary phone.
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Google took on the project from 2013 under Google ATAP and publicly announced and showcased a prototype back in 2014. The actual device was scheduled to be launched in Puerto Rico where this project was being conducted.
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Through 2015, the device proved to be a piece of work, challenge after challenge, one of which were the weak electromagnets holding modules together on one central board. The project was pushed to 2015 with further testing but no success in manufacturing a Project ARA device fit for consumers. Further improvement was made like weak electromagnets replaced by bigger magnets and project pushed to 2016, With no success, Google decide to cancel this project with no indication it would embark on it ever again.
Surprisingly, Phandroid happened to get hold of one of the latest prototypes and this indicated the phone was near completion despite it’s cancellation. The prototype indicates the phone had a Qualcomm Snapdragon 810 processor, 3GB RAM, 5.4 TFT-LCD display, 5mp/2mp cameras, 3450mAh and ran 7.0 Nougat with security patches. These are are some of the specifications that came with the modules on the phone but of course, this being a Project ARA phone most modules that came with those specifications would be replaced.
