First look at a working Project Ara, modular smartphone prototype

Yesterday Google promised that it would reveal major advancements and changes to the Project Ara modular smartphone project and now we actually have our first look at a working prototype. The video was uploaded to the Phonebloks YouTube channel, in the video you can see the phone running stock Android and fully working, although it is a little laggy.

The video also gives some insight in to the design and thought process behind making a device that users can upgrade and customize to their liking:

[yframe url='http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4qsGTXLnmKs']

The current prototype model is known as Spiral 1, it is white and boxy but at least it works and is a bit more stable than the prototype shown off at Google I/O back in June. At the moment, only half of the prototype's space is open to developers but NK Labs ensures that the next prototype, Spiral 2, will use some special Toshiba chips to open up more modular space for development functions.

As we reported yesterday, the Spiral 2 prototype will be shown off at several conferences Google has planned for January, where we will see much more of the device's progress. Google is currently aiming to have the first Project Ara devices out on the market at some point next year and at the rate it is going, it might actually happen.

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KitGuru Says: It was short but at least we got a look at Project Ara's progress, along with an actual working model. It will be interesting to see how the upcoming Spiral 2 prototype compares to the one we just saw. The Modular smartphone project is coming along nicely. Are any of you guys looking forward to seeing more of Project Ara? Would you like to be able to build and customize your own smartphone? 

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