Vsenn is the first Project Ara modular smartphone competitor
Project Ara is one of the more exciting things that is in the works for mobile hardware; but, once the idea was out, we knew it was impossible that Google would be the only company to pursue the modular smartphone. The first competitor appears to have emerged, although right now all we have is a name - Vsenn - and a landing page.
There really isn't much to go on. The landing page says that the company has been founded by a former Nokia X Product Manager, so this does have a bit of legitimacy to it. The plan mentions modular hardware, but it seems a bit more limited than the Project Ara customizations. Vsenn will allow for design customization, but will only allow you to swap out three hardware modules: camera, battery, and processor/RAM. The hardware will be running "pure Vanilla Android with guaranteed updates for the next 4 years", though we don't know if that will include Google Apps and Play services or not. Vsenn will also have a big focus on security, with "triple layer encryption" and "free access to a VPN network and secure Cloud".
No word yet on when we might see the Vsenn hardware, or what the pricing might look like. It is interesting that the idea will be a bit more limited in customizations though. Project Ara has plans to allow full customization, including swapping the display, and various sensors, but Vsenn wants to take a more conservative approach. Which do you guys prefer?
source: Vsenn
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