In some ways I wish my smartphone was more like the Rabbit R1. Instead of searching through dozens of different apps to get things done, you can just use your voice to issue commands and have AI agents do everything for you. That's the promise of the R1, but does it live up to the hype?
The Rabbit R1 is available to order now for $199. I've spent several hours with this device so far, and this cute orange gadget certainly has its charms. You can use it to search and play music, order ride-sharing and food, and even create AI photos on the go. Additionally, you can use Rabbit R1 to take notes and translate.
However, the R1 is clearly in the early stages of development, and not all features work as advertised – at least not yet. There are some things I wish were here on day one. These are my impressions of the Rabbit R1 so far. Stay tuned for our full review.
Stylish retro design, and some weird UI choices
The Rabbit R1 is a lot lighter than I thought it would be, although you do get a decent-sized 2.88-inch touchscreen, which is a big advantage over the Humane AI Pin, which pops into your hand as an interface and is. Much more expensive at $699 with a $20 monthly subscription.
You also get an analog scroll wheel on the right side and a push-to-talk button for chatting with R1. Interacting with the Rabbit R1 takes some getting used to. For example, despite having a touchscreen, you often use the side push-to-talk button to make selections.
If you flip the R1 on its side, you can use the built-in keyboard for things like entering the Wi-Fi password, but the keys are very small and sometimes the Enter button doesn't work.
There also doesn't seem to be a way to control the volume when playing music. You can go into settings or push-to-talk to turn the volume down or up, but that's not ideal.
Search is fast and up to date
The Rabbit R1 handles voice search queries faster than I expected. Simply press the push-to-talk button and submit your query, which Rabbit answers via the Perplexity AI engine.
For example, I asked “what’s the latest on the TikTok ban” and R1 gave me a verbal and written response that was fairly up to date. He told me that the TikTok ban bill had passed the Senate and was on its way to President Biden for his signature while also giving me some background on the issue.
I also asked “What were the NBA scores last night?” R1 quickly returned scores for Mavericks vs Clippers, Suns vs Timberwolves, and Pacers vs Bucks, although it would have been nice to include team logos instead of just scores.
R1 was kind enough to include some weather icons when I asked about the Freehold NJ forecast, with hour-by-hour temperatures and chance of precipitation.
Vision works (pretty) well
@mspoonyg
♬ Cocktails – JoyStock
One of the coolest features of the Rabbit R1 is Vision, which makes use of the built-in camera to identify objects and take action. You can double press the PTT button to activate the rotating camera.
In my first test, I simply asked “What is this iPhone?” While pointing the R1 at an iPhone 14 Pro Max. Unfortunately, the Rabbit R1 said I had an iPhone 12 so I switched to brighter lighting. Then he told me I have an iPhone 13 Pro which is the “newest iPhone”. Well, this is wrong in two ways.
I had better luck when I pointed the Rabbit R1 at a houseplant and asked what it was. R1 responded that he was unable to provide the specific species but the answer was generally good: “This appears to be a succulent plant, most likely a type of cactus or cactus. The plant has long, thick, fleshy green leaves. The leaves have a spiky appearance and grow in a dense cluster, which is typical of many succulent varieties.
I decided to have some fun with the R1 and pointed the camera at my home bar while asking “What cocktails can I make with this?” R1 answered that he could see gin, vodka, rum, whisky, liqueurs such as Bailey's and Cointreau, as well as some mixers such as tonic water. He also suggested some cocktails like gin and tonics, mojitos and negronis.
Ordering Ubers and DoorDash: A specific work in progress
Imagine if you could just order your favorite food items with your voice without having to open an app or touch your phone. This is the idea behind connecting services like DoorDash to Rabbit R1.
Rabbit is not connected to the service API. Instead, the company's Big Action Model is trained on the DoorDash app and interface so it can order on your behalf while using your account credentials. You need to provide your username and password when setting up your Rabbit, but the company claims it doesn't store your data.
Anyway, I asked, “Can you get me a grilled burger from Chapter House?” (local restaurant) Then I waited. And wait. (To be fair, R1 warns you that this process takes some time.) 47 seconds later, I was greeted with some nearby burger options as well as the restaurant I had selected but not. Then when I selected one of the recommendations, I got an error trying to access the menu. not good.
I then tried to hail an Uber from my house to a nearby Starbucks. The friendly female voice started up and seemed to find me a ride but when I went to confirm the order failed. This happened on several attempts.
Your new iPod?
With its built-in scroll wheel and Spotify access, it's hard not to think of the Rabbit R1 as a modern-day iPod. It's great to be able to say “play the new Taylor Swift album” and it just starts playing. I couldn't figure out how to pause playback at first but just double tap the push to talk button.
However, to say Spotify integration is basic would be an understatement. The Rabbit R1 couldn't access my playlists, and when I said “Skip track,” Assistant said I needed to provide the name of the artist or song.
Get to know your new meeting assistant
Sure, Google Meet — not to mention plenty of other apps — can already do this for me, but it's nice to know that a rabbit can record your meetings and provide an AI creative brief.
As a test, I asked Rabbit R1 to record Jimmy Fallon's interview with Kristen Wiig and he did a good job of providing a summary. It is stored within your online diary on the Rabbit website, along with all your other interactions with your Rabbit Eye vision.
It was really “a discussion about exchanging lists of never-before-seen classic films and guessing their plots based on reputation and snippets of shared information. — the example in 'The Notebook' where the plot involves a farmer who falls in love with a rich woman. . . .”
It's unfortunate that you don't get a transcript of the conversation like you do with other services. At least you get a neat tape recorder graphic during the recording itself.
Generative AI is fun but a bit of a dead end
Since Rabbit R1 works with Midjourney, you can have Rabbit R1 create images on the spot. Being a dog lover, I asked Midjoni to create an image of a golden retriever playing Frisbee on the beach, and I got some very realistic results – after about 1 minute and 10 seconds.
I hope you do something with these pictures. I asked Rabbit R1 to email me one of them and it told me it couldn't send emails or files. I could go to Discored/Midjourney and download it myself, but that's extra work.
Rabbit R1 forecast
There are still a lot of things I haven't tried with the Rabbit R1, including translation, travel plans, and some cool productivity tricks that Rabbit CEO Jesse Liu demonstrated on stage during the R1 launch event, like scanning a paper spreadsheet, digitizing it and animating The things.
I've also yet to string multiple tasks together to see how much time the R1 can really save me. But I always come back to the same question. Do we need another device when a phone can do so much more than the Rabbit R1 can do? And even with the things my phone can't do, I imagine it won't be long until Apple catches up with what it's doing with iOS 18 and Siri 2.0. And of course, Google is aggressively pushing AI with Gemini on its top Android phones.
I'm also concerned about the R1's battery life. It seemed to lose its charge very quickly, going from 100% to 38% within six hours. I noticed more power draw when the camera was in use. So you may need to charge this thing several times a day.
For now, I'd say the Rabbit R1 is an interesting slice of future AI in a pocket-friendly design, but I'd like to see more features running smoothly before I'd recommend anyone spend $200 on it.
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