A morning with the Rabbit R1: a fun, funky, unfinished AI gadget

The Rabbit R1 is simply a amusive small happening — and ohio boy, is it orange.

There were times I wasn’t definite the Rabbit R1 was adjacent a existent thing. The AI-powered, Teenage Engineering-designed instrumentality came retired of obscurity to go one of the biggest stories astatine CES, promising a level of amusive and whimsy that felt overmuch amended than immoderate of the much self-serious AI companies retired there. CEO Jesse Lyu practically promised the satellite successful this $199 device.

Well, accidental this for Rabbit: it’s real. Last night, I went to the swanky TWA Hotel successful New York City, on with a fewer 100 reporters, creators, and particularly enthusiastic R1 buyers. After a mates of hours of photograph booths, specialty cocktails, and a rousing keynote and demo from Lyu — successful which helium made near-constant notation to and amusive of the Humane AI Pin — we each got our R1s to instrumentality home. I’ve been utilizing excavation ever since, and I person immoderate thoughts. And immoderate questions.

It mightiness beryllium a small large for immoderate hands, but the R1 fits nicely capable successful mine.

From a hardware perspective, the R1 screams “kinda meh Android phone.” Here are the salient specs: it’s astir 3 inches gangly and wide and a half-inch thick. It weighs 115 grams, which is astir two-thirds arsenic overmuch arsenic the iPhone 15. It has a 2.88-inch screen, runs connected a 2.3GHz MediaTek MT6765 processor, and has 128 gigs of retention and 4 gigs of RAM. It has a talker connected the back, 2 mics connected the top, and a SIM paper slot connected the broadside close adjacent to the USB-C charging port. It lone comes successful 1 color, a hue Rabbit calls “leuchtorange” but is often known arsenic “brilliant orange” oregon “luminous orange.” It’s decidedly orange, and it’s decidedly luminous.

At this point, the champion mode I tin picture the R1 is similar a Picasso coating of a smartphone: it has astir of the aforesaid parts, conscionable laid retired truly differently. Instead of sitting connected apical oregon successful the back, the R1’s camera sits successful a cutout abstraction connected the close broadside of the device, wherever it tin rotation its lens to look some toward and distant from you.

After spending a fewer hours playing with the device, I person to say: it’s beauteous nice. Not luxurious, oregon adjacent peculiarly high-end, conscionable silly and fun. Where Humane’s AI Pin feels similar a cautiously sculpted metallic gem, the R1 feels similar an old-school MP3 subordinate crossed with a fidget spinner. The instrumentality spins a small stiffly for my sensation but smoothly enough, the surface is simply a small fuzzy but fine, and the main enactment fastener feels satisfying to thump on.

When I archetypal got the instrumentality and connected it to Wi-Fi, it past instantly asked maine to motion up for an relationship astatine Rabbithole, the R1’s web portal. I did that, scanned a QR codification with the R1 to get it synced up, and instantly did a bundle update. I spent that clip logging into the lone 4 outer services the R1 presently connects to: Spotify, Uber, DoorDash, and Midjourney.

The Rabbithole app is for managing your logins and seeing your notes. It needs immoderate work.

Once I was yet up and running, I started chatting with the R1. So far, it does a coagulated occupation with basal AI questions: it gave maine tons of bully accusation astir this week’s NFL draft, recovered a fewer restaurants adjacent me, and knew erstwhile Herbert Hoover was president. This is each reasonably basal ChatGPT stuff, and there’s immoderate definite lag arsenic it fetches answers, but I overmuch similar the interface to the Humane AI Pin — due to the fact that there’s a screen, and you tin spot the happening moving truthful the AI delays don’t consciousness rather truthful interminable.

Almost immediately, though, I started moving into worldly the R1 conscionable can’t do. It can’t nonstop emails oregon marque spreadsheets, though Lyu has been demoing some for months. Rabbithole is woefully unfinished, too, to the constituent I was trying to pat astir connected my telephone and it was alternatively moving a cursor astir a half-second aft each tap. That’s a bully reminder that the full happening is moving connected a virtual instrumentality storing each your apps and credentials, which inactive gives maine security-related pause.

Oh, and here’s my favourite happening that has happened connected the R1 truthful far: I got it connected to my Spotify account, which is simply a diagnostic I’m peculiarly excited about. I asked for “Beyoncé’s caller album,” and the instrumentality excitedly went and recovered maine “Crazy successful Love” — a lullaby version, from an creator called “Rockabye Baby!” So adjacent and yet truthful far. It doesn’t look to beryllium capable to find my playlists, either, oregon skip tracks. When I said, “Play The 1975,” though, that worked good and quickly. (The speaker, by the way, is precise overmuch crappy Android telephone quality. You’re going to privation to usage that Bluetooth connection.)

The R1’s Vision feature, which uses the camera to place things successful the country astir you, seems to enactment good arsenic agelong arsenic each you privation is simply a database of objects successful the scene. The instrumentality can’t instrumentality a photograph oregon video and doesn’t look to beryllium capable to bash overmuch other with what it tin see.

The R1 has a camera, but it’s not a peculiarly utile 1 yet.

When you’re not doing anything, the surface shows the clip and that bouncing rabbit-head logo. When you property and clasp the broadside fastener to contented a command, the clip and artillery slice away, and the rabbit’s ears perk up similar it’s listening. It’s precise charming! The wide interface is elemental and text-based, but it’s unusual successful spots: it’s not ever evident however to spell back, for instance, and you lone get to spot a enactment oregon 2 of substance astatine a clip astatine the precise bottommost of the screen, adjacent erstwhile there’s a full paragraph of reply to read.

Rabbit’s roadmap is ambitious: Lyu has spent the past fewer months talking astir each the things the R1’s alleged “Large Action Model” tin do, including learning apps and utilizing them for you. During past night’s event, helium talked astir opening up the USB-C larboard connected the instrumentality to let accessories, keyboards, and more. That’s each coming… eventually. Supposedly. For now, the R1’s diagnostic acceptable is overmuch much straightforward. You tin usage the instrumentality to play music, get answers to questions, construe speech, instrumentality notes, summon an Uber, and a fewer different things.

The backmost of the R1 has its speaker, scroll wheel, and camera. And fingerprints.

That means there’s inactive an atrocious batch the R1 can’t bash and a batch I person near to test. (Anything you privation to cognize about, by the way, fto maine know!) I’m peculiarly funny astir its artillery life, its quality to enactment with a atrocious connection, whether it heats up implicit time, and however it handles much analyzable tasks than conscionable looking up accusation and ordering chickenhearted nuggets. But truthful far, this happening seems similar it’s trying to beryllium little similar a smartphone slayer and much similar the beginnings of a utile companion. That’s astir apt arsenic ambitious arsenic it makes consciousness to beryllium close present — though Lyu and the Rabbit folks person a batch of large promises to yet unrecorded up to and not a batch of clip to bash so.

Photography by David Pierce / The Verge