Interesting read — Rabbit R1 Reviews

Launched at CES 2024 as a “personal AI assistant,” Rabbit R1 sold 50,000 preorders in just 5 days and was thought to be an iPhone disruptor. The device shipped in late April, with subsequent batches scheduled through July.

The £150 AI assistant boasts 4GB of RAM, a 2.3GHz MediaTek processor, 128GB of storage, a SIM card slot, and a 360-degree rotating camera. Unlike other AI products, such as the Humane AI Pin, there's no subscription fee.

It can book an Uber, play Spotify, and order food; it can also generate AI images, identify objects, summarize conversations, and translate text. However, crucially, it can't yet connect to phones, make calls, text, or access the internet, which likely is why, “As with the Humane AI Pin, many reviewers are questioning the Rabbit R1's reason for existing, especially as it feels like everything it does, or aims to do, could be achieved using a smartphone app."

Could R1 still disrupt the market?

Let’s check out some reviews…

“When I first tried the iPhone 17 years ago, I described it as a "think-do" device.

It was a beautiful yet complex piece of technology so intuitive that it required no manual or real guidance from anyone. Somehow, in the development of the Rabbit R1 pocketable AI assistant, Rabbit missed this lesson and delivered a beautiful mess.

“Even at the relatively affordable price point of $199, I simply don't get the point of Rabbit R1. It's not replacing or augmenting my phone. It's not intuitive enough that I find comfort and satisfaction in using it. I don't see how the market can or will support a product that is so far from being ready for the mass consumer.”— TechRadar

“With the cute black-and-white rabbit icon bouncing up and down the screen surrounded by a ‘loud’ color, 

the device reminded me of my childhood obsession with '90s pocket toys like the Tamagotchi or Digimon.

“There's something very fidget spinner toy-esque about the Rabbit R1 in that the functions all operate differently, whether it's a scrolling wheel or a clicky side button…

“Rabbit's mission here is to create this all-in-one AI device. Yes, it can do what Google Lens can do, but it can also do what Spotify, ChatGPT, DoorDash, and Uber can do in one device—and with nothing but your voice.” —Mashable

“A fun, funky, unfinished AI gadget…like a Picasso painting of a smartphone:

It has most of the same parts, just laid out really differently. Instead of sitting on top or in the back, the R1’s camera sits in a cutout space on the right side of the device, where it can spin its lens to face both toward and away from you. 

“The overall interface is simple and text-based, but it’s odd in spots: it’s not always obvious how to go back, for instance, and you only get to see a line or two of text at a time at the very bottom of the screen, even when there’s a whole paragraph of answer to read.

“That means there’s still an awful lot the R1 can’t do and a lot I have left to test…I’m particularly curious about its battery life, its ability to work with a bad connection, whether it heats up over time, and how it handles more complex tasks than just looking up information and ordering chicken nuggets. But so far, this thing seems like it’s trying to be less like a smartphone killer and more like the beginnings of a useful companion. That’s probably as ambitious as it makes sense to be right now—though [Jesse Lyu, Rabbit CEO and founder] and the Rabbit folks have a lot of big promises to eventually live up to and not a lot of time to do so.”—The Verge

“Lyu is part of an early wave of AI companies that are attempting to figure out what AI hardware even means. 

I don’t think anyone can get anything down in the first try. Hardware design is super, super, super hard. And we have no intention of saying, ‘OK, this is the definitive form factor,’ says Lyu. ‘Actually, it’s quite the opposite. It’s a result of de-risking. It’s a result of giving you something that you already know.’

‘Given the rapid evolution of AI and AI hardware, it’s difficult to know exactly what the reception will be like to the Rabbit R1 in a few weeks, let alone in half a year.’

‘To be honest, I think there are other things in our mind we want to deliver. It’s just from a strategic point of view . . . AI is moving too fast,’ says Lyu. ‘So we have to come out now, when the timing is exactly right.’”—Fast Company

What do you think?

Can R1 still be the next best thing?

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(Photo: CNET)