Project Ara presentation offers up new details on the modular smartphone

The tech savvy of you out there are probably pretty interested in Project Ara, I know I am. Fortunately the developers are very forthcoming with details about how the project works and what their future plans are, and now we can take a closer look than ever at some of Project Ara’s finer details.

A couple of weeks ago, Jason Calacanis was hosting his LAUNCH conference, where a pretty substantial Project Ara demonstration took place, shortly after Google gave an announcement about its development conference for the project this coming April. The video included below is pretty lengthy, but only the first half an hour will be of interest to those looking for some insight into Project Ara.

One of Ara’s greatest strengths is that any company could come along and develop a module for the device with their own speakers, camera, or even different antennas for people who spend a lot of time moving between countries. Each module is shown to be held into place with magnets and each part can be placed anywhere on the chassis, offering up a huge range of options for important components, such as the battery. There’s even a battery in the chassis to keep things ticking over whilst components are replaced.

Impressively, the device is expected to cost just $50 for the default “grey phone”, which comes with the all-important battery, WiFi, and a budget SoC, to get you up and running. The talk also discusses three different device sizes, ranging from a medium sized phone, the larger phone shown in the video, and a phablet sized option for those of you looking for a bigger display.

If you’re interested in Project Ara’s origins, video below offers up a brief history of project’s development, interviews some of its key personnel, and delves into what the development team has planned for the future.

Are you excited about what Project Ara is bringing to the mobile space?