Joe Maring / Digital Trends
This preceding January , a company address Rabbit took CES 2024 by storm . coney used CES to declare its unexampled gadget — the Rabbit R1 — and it was immediately captivating . With a retro blueprint , bright orange rouge occupation , and lovely rabbit logo , it was difficult not to get excited about the R1 … even if it was n’t immediately clearwhatit was hypothesise to do .
I ’ve now spent the past four days living with the Rabbit R1 . While I get laid its intention , unapologetically orange color , and the bouncing rabbit on its show , almost everything else about the R1 has been , to put it nicely , a mess .
Joe Maring / Digital Trends
What the Rabbit R1 is supposed to do
The Rabbit R1 is not a smartphone , and it ’s not attempting to put back your smartphone ( despite the original press release suggest that it would ) . Instead , the upright way to think about the Rabbit R1 is as a fellow traveller gadget to your headphone .
The pitch behind the Rabbit R1 is for it to be “ the simplest computer ” at your disposition . You press the button on the side of the Rabbit R1 , ask a enquiry / give it a bid , and that ’s the extent of how you get things done . There are n’t any apps to beguile , discombobulate menus to pilot through , etc . You hold down a clitoris , talk of the town , and the Rabbit R1 handle it .
The Rabbit R1 is suppose to be “ the simplest figurer ” at your disposal .
The melodic theme is that you could postulate the Rabbit R1 just about anything . What ’s the livestock Leontyne Price of Apple ? Who played the lead function inOppenheimer ? What ’s the weather condition like today ? What ’s a 25 % steer for a $ 65 bank note ? Any random questions that make out to you throughout the day , the Rabbit R1 is theorise to handle .
Where the Rabbit R1 gets really exciting ( at least in possibility ) is its “ connection ” feature . In short , you’re able to connect your logins to various apps / services to your coney bill , allowing the R1 to do thing in these apps on your behalf . Again , all this is done using just your vocalisation . From ordain nutrient on DoorDash to calling an Uber to playing a Spotify playlist , Rabbit need the R1 to do it all in a dissolute , simpler style than what ’s possible on your phone .
The Rabbit R1 works well … until it doesn’t
That ’s all what the Rabbit R1 issupposedto do . In practice , at least during my first four Clarence Day with the gadget , it ’s been a slightly different experience .
For canonic questions — thing I would normally perform a Google Search for on my earpiece — the Rabbit R1 can be quite helpful . When asked if J.J. McCarthy was picked in the NFL Draft , the R1 correctly ( and chop-chop ) tell me that McCarthy was selected by the Minnesota Vikings as the 10th overall pick . It even allow setting that the Vikings traded with the Jets for that selection .
Questions like this are where the Rabbit R1 is at its best — but only sometimes . One night , I inquire the R1 who won the most late Super Bowl . It evidence me the winner of the 2023 Super Bowl . I asked the same question again just a second later , and it aright told me the 2024 succeeder . likewise , when ask , “ When is the NFL draught ? ” the R1 give me the dates of the 2022 Draft . I asked the exact same question again and was tell the date of the 2023 potation . I ’ve mark that this inconsistency materialize alotwith the Rabbit R1 , with no apparent rhyme or intellect for it .
And that ’s just the tip of the berg of the R1 ’s issue . ask it about the weather — one of the most canonic questions for any estimator — often return hilariously bad results .
When I first got the Rabbit R1 and asked about the weather , it aright told me the atmospheric condition for my metropolis in Michigan . Later that good afternoon , it would show me the forecast for Edmonds , Washington . It eventually sorted itself out and remembered I live in Michigan … until the next twenty-four hour period , when it started give me the prognosis for Houston . The worst part ? There ’s no way to manually set your emplacement on the R1 — you have to hope its GPS is work , and it often is n’t .
Similarly , the R1 straight-out refuses to show me the weather for anything other than the current twenty-four hours . No matter how many times I postulate about the weather “ tomorrow ” or any day in the future , the display shows me the forecast for today . The expectant bug happen on Thursday , April 25 . I require the R1 to show me the weather condition for the next day . The speaker assure me the weather for April 27 , while the screen showed the prognosis for the 25th . Thank you , AI . Very good .
Oh , and the prison term you see on the R1 in all of these pictures ? It ’s showing me the clip for Pacific Time even though I live in an area that ’s in Eastern Time — and there ’s no way to alter it .
So many missing features
Even more frustrating than the Rabbit R1 fumbling its current functionality is thelonglist of missing features from the gadget . There ’s so much the R1 simply can not do right now , and it ’s a act idea - boggling . Here ’s a list of some of the biggest missing feature :
Rabbit is design to add many of these thing this summer and later on throughout the year , but that does n’t make their absence today any less dissatisfactory . This is supposed to be a simpler familiar to my telephone , yet the R1 often distinguish me to practice my phone when asking it to do the most basic of tasks . So why should I bother with it in the first place ?
My journey with the R1 continues
This is not a full review of the Rabbit R1 . At the fourth dimension of publication , I have only had the gimmick for four days , and there ’s alotI still necessitate to do — such as testing the R1 ’s battery lifespan , tie in my DoorDash and Spotify accounts , and further exploring its Vision mode ( where you’re able to point the R1 ’s television camera at anything and ask it to allow for entropy about what it sees ) .
But I strongly believe first impression matter , and in the case of the Rabbit R1 , it does n’t make a proficient one . It has its moments of being a great search engine equipment , but for all the example I can provide of accurate and commodious answer , I have just as many model of the R1 totally fumbling what I asked of it . And that ’s not to note everything it ’s instantaneously incapable of right now . The Rabbit R1 is suppose to be a simple and more commodious elbow room of getting stuff done compare to using my headphone , but almost every time I render to use the R1 for something , I get baffle by its half - baked design and I reach for my telephone instead .
I ’m go to quit writing now so I can continue using the Rabbit R1 , and I ’ll describe back soon with my final thinking in a proper limited review . But if the last four day are indicative of how the rest of my time with the Rabbit R1 is go to go , I ’m buckle myself in for a bumpy drive .
