Josh Hendrickson
Quibi, the long-promised mobile-first streaming service, is available starting now. At under $10 a month, it promises to bring your entertainment in “Quick Bites” (that is less than 10 minutes) and always look good in portrait or landscape mode. You can download it for Android and iOS—that is if you want to give yet another streaming service a try.
And if you do, Quibi is offering a 90-day free trial until the end of April. After the trial expires, you’ll pay either $4.99 with ads or $7.99 without ads. The service already boasts 50 shows and promises to have 175 by the end of the year.
And for now, Quibi says it will release 25 new episodes across those shows every single day. But again, considering the average is 10 minutes or less, that boast is a little less impressive than it seems at first.
Quibi is betting on a simple concept—you don’t have time for long episodes or drawn-out news. So keeping everything short should fit your lifestyle better. Or maybe it knows you really watch Netflix on the can. If that’s true, you might appreciate its “Turnstyle” tech that reformats the show to fill your phone’s display no matter how you hold it. The video should look good in portrait or landscape mode. You can get some entertainment in and leave the throne room with feeling in your legs.
Quibi is rolling out all the stops and has convinced some significant names to sign on to direct and star in shows. You’ll see content from Steven Spielberg, Guillermo del Toro, Will Smith, Kevin Hart, Tyra Banks, Zac Efron, Bill Murray, Idris Elba, and more. But the real question is, do you even want the service in any form?
If only watching news and entertainment on the go from your phone sounds appealing, then the rest of the answer likely lies in whether the apps and content live up the names attached.
To that extent, early reviews are already out. The Verge calls the Quibi apps a “version 1.0” freshman effort. And Ars Technica says the phone-based service “isn’t that bad.” Not exactly high praise, but not terrible either.
But Engadget’s review says what likely many of us have been thinking all along: “Quit trying to make Quibi a thing.” We certainly suggest you check out all the reviews, and maybe even give the 90-day trial a go, before forking money over to Quibi. But if you can read just one—we suggest you start with Engadget.
