Rabbit R1 assessment: 24-hour real-life take a look at

By now, you’ve most likely seen the Rabbit R1 — the $199, vivid orange, AI-powered companion gadget — everywhere in the web. It’s been making waves for its retro-inspired design, fairly approachable price ticket (with one colossal asterisk), and its vaunted capacity to shortly reply easy questions. Sadly, you’ve most likely additionally seen virtually each reviewer underneath the solar roasting the Teenage Engineering-designed companion for its restricted set of day-one options, app integrations that solely work with a wholesome dose of luck, and its tendency to get the extra sophisticated queries fully fallacious.

So, which model of the Rabbit R1 is actual, and which might vanish when put right into a magician’s hat? Is it a succesful AI companion powered by a cloud-based “Massive Motion Mannequin,” or is it simply specialised {hardware} for a platform that ought to be an app (and, in some methods, provably already is)? Let’s discover out!

Reasonably than a standard assessment, I needed to attempt one thing somewhat completely different: doc a single day of testing to see how the Rabbit R1 dealt with my queries and wishes as a would-be trusty AI companion.

Earlier than we soar into my lengthy day, we must always most likely set some floor guidelines. In any case, it’s laborious to check a tool that — as Rabbit has been very eager to level out within the pre-launch advertising and marketing and interviews — will not be meant to switch your cellphone, but does lots of the similar belongings you anticipate your cellphone to do. So, with that in thoughts, I gave myself a number of pointers to direct my testing.

The primary is that I’d begin my day by pulling the R1 off its charger within the morning, giving it a full battery in hopes of it lasting all day lengthy. I must also point out that I did my testing following the primary official OTA replace, which promised to make the R1’s battery life 5 occasions higher (if you happen to can imagine it).

Subsequent, I’d deal with the R1 as my major gadget for the day, reaching for it over my cellphone in any scenario the place it might be useful. Meaning asking questions, taking part in music, and utilizing particular apps would all be run by means of the R1 and counting on the Massive Motion Mannequin that acts as principally the guts of the whole lot the R1 does. This takes your inputs — both verbal or written — and interprets them into actions utilizing digital cloud-based environments. Primarily, the LAM is meant to behave like your private butler, interfacing with apps and companies so that you just don’t need to. I’ll do my greatest to make use of each voice instructions and sort out questions on the R1 utilizing Terminal Mode — the world’s tiniest keyboard and the one time the R1’s contact display truly helps, effectively, touching.

The third, and maybe most difficult, limitation I set for myself is that I wouldn’t have a SIM card in my Rabbit R1. In any case, CEO Jesse Lyu and crew make an enormous deal about the truth that you need to use the R1 with none subscription payment, so I’ll do exactly that. After all, I’d nonetheless have to attach the R1 to my cellphone’s hotspot to make use of information whereas away from a Wi-Fi connection… which remains to be sort of like paying a subscription payment simply to my service as a substitute of to Rabbit itself.

With that, let’s head down the rabbit gap.

As promised, I began my day by taking the R1 off a USB-C charger. You don’t get a cable or a charger bundled along with your R1, simply the companion and a transparent plastic carrying case modeled off outdated cassette containers, so I offered my very own.

I figured I’d give the R1 a fairly straightforward begin to my day as I headed all the way down to my condominium gymnasium for a exercise… solely there’s not a lot the companion can do whereas I’m there. Positive, I might pair Bluetooth headphones and stream Spotify, however I already use my cellphone to handle exercises, so I must carry two pairs of headphones or swap my pairing from one to the opposite midway by means of. It’s 8:00 AM, and the R1 has already given me a headache.

As an alternative, I left the companion on my kitchen counter to control its post-update passive battery drain, which is far improved — it dropped 3% throughout my hour on the gymnasium, much better than the earlier 10 to 12% per hour charge I and plenty of others noticed earlier than the primary software program patch dropped.

After my exercise, I nonetheless needed to check out the R1’s Spotify chops, so I requested the album Sam’s City by The Killers as I hopped within the bathe. It began effectively sufficient, taking part in the title observe, however the R1 didn’t appear to know that I needed the whole album, instantly leaping to different artists as a substitute. Oh, and the one solution to management the R1 is by way of the multifunction button and analog scroll wheel, which isn’t actually doable whilst you’re within the bathe. Additional, if you happen to select to attach a pair of Bluetooth headphones, regardless of how good they’re, the R1 solely helps mono playback and, in my expertise, stutters fairly badly when making an attempt to stream to headphones.

Since I’m effectively underway with my morning routine, I figured it could be good to check Rabbit’s Massive Motion Mannequin with a number of softballs. The primary was whether or not or not my adopted hometown Baltimore Orioles received the night time earlier than (they hadn’t). Surprisingly, the R1 gave me the proper end result, opponent, and rating — in my earliest assessments, it had sometimes nailed the primary two however whiffed on the third. Provided that the LAM is supposed to know human intentions with computer systems, it’s good to see the R1 ship extra info than I explicitly requested for, however much less encouraging to see it often supply fallacious solutions.

The opposite softball query I hoped the R1 might assist me with was which espresso store is closest to my condominium. Granted, the gadget doesn’t have my precise location (or so it tells me), but it surely is aware of I’m in Baltimore, so I’d anticipate it to reply accordingly. As an alternative, it gave me a end result approach out in Towson, which is a couple of half-hour drive from me and would require me to drive previous virtually a dozen different espresso retailers. So, overlook that. I grabbed my bike, headed to a a lot nearer spot, and started working.

The Rabbit R1 hasn’t precisely caught its touchdown to this point, and we’re solely by means of the simple a part of the day. As soon as I hit my productiveness stride, I made a decision to attempt one thing more durable: ordering lunch by means of DoorDash.

I pulled up the R1 and requested it to order from an area Vietnamese place, and I used to be completely shocked when it labored the primary time. After all, it took a couple of minute and a half to load the menu, and even then, I solely had about 5 choices to select from, however DoorDash as an entire was working. I picked from my very restricted choices utilizing the analog scroll wheel and multifunction button, trusted no matter supply of cash the R1 related to my account (there’s no solution to truly select), and sat down to attend for my meals.

Whereas it’s thrilling that DoorDash labored, and my banh mi was scrumptious, it’s most likely not an awesome signal that I’m hailing this as spectacular. It’s nothing that your cellphone can’t already do, and there’s no solution to get across the extremely restricted menu that Rabbit places in entrance of you. It was additionally an anomaly — the DoorDash characteristic typically fails, and plenty of of my friends who’ve examined the gadget have by no means had a profitable meal served up by the R1.

Up subsequent was the R1’s dwell recorder characteristic. I did my testing earlier than Apple’s iPad occasion and needed some assist researching what to anticipate from the launch, so I opened a YouTube video and requested the R1 to file it and provides me a abstract. It as soon as once more caught the touchdown, giving me concise bullet factors, although I needed to go to the Rabbit Gap net portal to retrieve them. Sadly, the Rabbit Gap — the place you possibly can hyperlink apps, summon a journal of earlier requests, and handle your settings — doesn’t work on cell units, so you must boot up a laptop computer or desktop to entry its contents.

Transferring on, it’s time for what may be the R1’s least useful characteristic to this point: Imaginative and prescient Mode. The concept is you could level the 8MP rotating digicam at objects to ask about them, however I’ve but to get a solution that I couldn’t work out with my very own two eyes. For instance, I held up a number of vinyl data in entrance of the R1 and easily requested it what tracks had been on them — one thing I might discover out by flipping the data over.

At first, the R1 didn’t wish to acknowledge them as data, as a substitute calling the duvet artwork a poster, earlier than figuring out it as album artwork. Even when the R1 accurately recognized the duvet of Resort California by The Eagles as such, it couldn’t assist me out with what songs I might anticipate to listen to. Humorous sufficient, if I ask the companion what songs are on Resort California, it spits out a solution straight away, so the breakdown appears to return in once you anticipate the LAM to do some heavy lifting behind the scenes. For a mannequin based mostly round human intentions, it’s not an awesome look when the Rabbit’s eye can’t match what mine can.

Bear in mind once I defined that I wouldn’t be utilizing the Rabbit R1 with a SIM card put in as a result of I used to be counting that as a subscription payment? Nicely, that was additionally the ultimate nail within the companion’s coffin. After my busy day of labor, I headed to satisfy up with some pals at an area run membership and figured I’d have some possibilities to make use of the R1 after we logged a number of miles. It was a scorching spring day, and some of us determined to go for ice cream to chill off.

I deliberate to faucet away in Terminal Mode to ensure the ice cream store was nonetheless open for the night — one other reply I already knew. It seems that it was good I already knew the reply, as a result of I couldn’t get the R1 to hook up with my cellphone’s hotspot for the lifetime of me. I’d already linked the 2 earlier within the day whereas asking about data, so I knew it wasn’t a problem on Verizon’s finish, however there was nothing I might do to shake the R1 freed from its funk. I attempted forgetting the community and restarting the gadget to no avail.

So, that’s the place my day of testing the R1 ended — with ice cream and a wholesome dose of disappointment. Regardless of already realizing the solutions to the whole lot I requested, Rabbit’s vivid orange plastic companion discovered other ways to return up brief in nearly each situation I confronted.

And in some way, there have been options I hadn’t even touched.

As you could have seen, I didn’t hit all the R1’s day-one options. Reasonably than modifying my day right into a makeshift historical past lesson a la David Cogen (The Unlockr), I caught to an ordinary workday schedule, which means I didn’t have to name a experience by way of Uber or generate pictures utilizing Midjourney. Had I ventured to the espresso store that the R1 initially advised, I might need tapped into Uber, however I’m not fabricated from that sort of cash when there are a number of choices inside biking distance. I didn’t faucet into Rabbit’s two-way translation characteristic, both, which additionally saves notes on to the Rabbit Gap.

There are most likely a number of different options you might need anticipated me to attempt on the R1 that your cellphone can already do, none of which I did. Not as a result of I didn’t wish to, however as a result of the R1 can’t do them. The little AI-powered companion that’s alleged to make life simpler than utilizing your cellphone can’t textual content, set alarms or timers, examine dwell sports activities scores, or place or obtain video calls. Rabbit says a few of these options may be coming ultimately, however they’re seemingly nonetheless a number of months away. But in addition, are you able to think about sending a textual content on the Rabbit R1’s tiny keyboard? I definitely can’t, it looks like typing on the Palm cellphone of yesteryear.

One of many keys to many of those upcoming options is what Rabbit calls Educate Mode. Primarily, it’s a forthcoming solution to educate the R1 tips on how to serve you higher, utilizing the Rabbit Gap to instruct the LAM tips on how to do issues like store on Amazon, as a result of when the robots take over, they’ll accomplish that utilizing our wallets. You stroll by means of the method on a digital mannequin of the R1, then the machine learns to copy the method over time by means of repeated trials, sort of like driving a motorcycle. It sounds nice, and it’s clearly the way in which to get the R1 to ship a few of its loftiest guarantees with out having to depend on additional app entry, solely there’s no concrete indication of when Educate Mode will grow to be out there, and it’s laborious to carry out hope that folks will nonetheless care concerning the R1 by the point it does.

If my day of testing didn’t already make it abundantly clear, the Rabbit R1 isn’t there but. It’s a cute little piece of {hardware} that I battle to seek out tangible causes to make use of or advocate. It felt like a blind squirrel discovering a nut — effectively, half of a nut — once I acquired it to order DoorDash, and I felt like I might solely half belief the R1 to reply questions accurately when requested. Imaginative and prescient Mode affords little info outdoors of what your eyes can see, and streaming by means of Spotify offers you little extra management than listening to the radio.

The R1’s controls aren’t precisely intuitive, both. Navigating with the scroll wheel and multifunction button feels such as you’re taking part in with a fidget toy, and the previous doesn’t supply any form of suggestions past a man-made click on to let you already know as you go up and down within the menus. Even the method of opening the settings menu is a bit foolish, requiring you to shake the R1 to entry its quantity, brightness, and present information connection. Higher but, you don’t shake to exit the menu — you utilize the multifunction button as a substitute. It’s a needlessly sophisticated set of controls when everyone seems to be already used to swipes and software-based buttons on their telephones.

On the intense facet, the Rabbit group appears decided to roll out software program updates early and infrequently. Its first OTA patch vastly improved the battery life and made the scroll wheel really feel a bit extra responsive. Over time, the R1 ought to decide up loads of new options, some by means of Educate Mode as defined above, but it surely nonetheless looks like a race in opposition to the clock that Rabbit can’t win. AI-powered options have already made their solution to Google’s Pixel lineup and Samsung’s Galaxy units, and it’s solely a matter of time earlier than Apple follows swimsuit. Premium smartphones additionally run some AI options on-device, whereas the R1 is basically a plastic conduit by means of which the cloud can move. Don’t get me fallacious; it’s a handsome piece of plastic, but it surely’s an additional factor to stuff into your pocket.

Oh, and when requested why the Rabbit R1 isn’t simply an app, effectively, it sort of is. As we revealed in our reporting, the whole interface runs by means of an APK you could arrange on one other Android gadget with way more intuitive controls. It runs on Android 13, too, and isn’t based mostly on a bespoke model of AOSP, as the corporate had advised in response to our authentic reporting. That reality alone appears to underscore the purpose that even when AI-powered companions are the long run, they positive aren’t going to appear like the Rabbit R1. Possibly they’ll appear like Humane’s Ai Pin with its Star Trek communicator design and laser interface, however the Rabbit R1 seems to be and feels prefer it desires to be a cellphone, but it surely simply doesn’t understand how.

If you happen to actually wish to purchase the Rabbit R1, you are able to do so beneath, however I’d advocate you save your $200 and use it to purchase a fairly candy Tamagotchi on eBay as a substitute — at the least, then you definately’re getting a completed product that doesn’t make guarantees it could’t maintain.