Razer is a gaming company. Or was, I guess. It’s now something… more complicated. The brand best known for its gaming peripherals and MacBook-esque slim gaming laptops just bought Nextbit, the smartphone hardware startup best known for its Robin.
The deal, where Razer acquired a majority stake in the company, actually happened earlier this month. “Nextbit will operate as a standalone business unit under its own management and apart from the ongoing business of its parent company,” Razer says, but the gaming brand will use the opportunity to dip its toes into an entirely different market.
Nextbit launched in 2013 and debuted its first phone, the Robin, in 2015 — built around a promise of a cloud-reliant version of Android that aggressively offloaded media and photos to never run out of local storage. If you’re one of the faithful that imported a Robin and you’re worried about ongoing support — don’t worry, Razer says Nextbit will continue to support the Robin with future software updates.
What does this mean for us? The Robin never officially came to Australia, and Razer has plenty of gear — like its Core graphics amplifier for modern Blade laptops — that doesn’t make it Down Under, but if there’s anything that makes it more possible, it’s a buy-out from Razer.