Over the past couple of days there has been a lot of talk regarding the future of Google’s modular smartphone ambitions, the company has had to come out and calm people that Project Ara isn’t going anywhere. The company did confirm though that the planned test run for this year has been delayed and will now be conducted in 2016. Today the team confirms that it has dropped electropermanent magnets for modules.
The confirmation comes from the official Project Ara Twitter account and a reason has also been provided for dumping electropermanent magnets: they didn’t pass the drop tests.
The way this modular smartphone is supposed to work is that customers can add or remove modules as per their liking so it becomes very easy to upgrade or change crucial components very easily.
Project Ara team was using electropermanent magnets to hold the modules in place but now it will have to come up with an alternative since they don’t pass drop tests, the team hasn’t revealed precisely how these magnets failed the drop tests.
For those who are unaware electropermanent magnets don’t require power to remain magnetized but they can be switched on or off electrically, it’s possible that the connection might not have been strong enough to warrant their use in the Project Ara modular smartphone.
Filed in . Read more about Google and Project Ara.