14 DAY TRIAL // Project Ara represents one of Google’s more daring initiatives. The tech behemoth is aiming to create a hardware platform capable of sustaining modular smartphones.
The first phone to go on sale under the Project Ara banner has already been announced as the Spiral 2, but Google plans to market it in Puerto Rico as a preliminary experiment. So the question is, when is the rest of the world going to see Project Ara?
Project Ara might see the light of day next month
According to the folks over at STJS Gadgets, we won’t have to wait very long to be able to do so. Sources familiar with the matter seem to indicate that Google might end up showcasing Project Ara devices along with their components at the Mobile World Congress, which starts next month in Barcelona.
For the time being, Google isn't willing to tie Project Ara to any key players in the tech industry such as Samsung, HTC or Motorola and will be using the services of lesser known companies such as Yezz to push out the first handsets.
We've also heard rumors about Toshiba and EinfoChips (based in Gujarat/India) being involved in the scheme of things.
It is expected that the search behemoth will have more than 50 different Ara components ready to showcase in time for MWC 2015. All of them are up and running so a small demonstration of Project Ara is probably also warranted.
Will we see the Spiral 2?
We can’t know for sure right now, but it’s possible that Google also has plans of showcasing the Spiral 2, their first smartphone expected to land in retail in Puerto Rico sometime later this year.
According to the information we have so far, the Spiral 2 is outfitted with 11 working modules. As for specs, the device is not all that impressive so we’re pretty curious to see if Google has something more promising in that area.
The handset boasts 1280 x 720 pixel resolution (screen size is uncertain for now) and two applications processors from Marvell and NVIDIA, more specifically the PXA 1928 and Tegra K1).
Other specs include light and proximity sensors, a 5MP rear camera, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, 3G modem and Band 2 antenna, Band 5 antenna, microUSB port, battery and speaker.
