Verdict
It ’s cunning , it ’s fun and it ’s smart enough to follow your pets around automatically entertain them with its laser pointer , the Ebo Air is a brilliant little golem in some regards . Yet , for all of its positive , the cluttered interface and badly - translated notifications countenance the side down , as does the fact that the robot gets easy trapped on uncouth obstacles , such as cable and rug . Price is likely to be the main issuing and it ’s hard to vindicate spending this much on something that ’s for playfulness only and has little practical software .
Pros
Cons
Key Features
Introduction
Part certificate camera , part ducky toy , the Ebo Air is a fun automaton that can mechanically keep ducky amused and swan your house so that you could see what ’s going on while you ’re away .
It has some neat darling - tracking feature of speech construct - in , in and is rather cunning going about its caper . The high toll and slightly random roaming feature make it a backbreaking purchase to justify .
Design and features
Little cock-a-hoop than a lawn tennis nut , the Ebo Air is a precious , spherical robot with two tank track underneath that let it pitch around at some speed ( well , provided you do n’t have a thick rug , as it will just get stick ) .
In the box , there ’s a little gasbag of feathers that can clip onto the back . As the gasbag has a warning about the feathering not being for eating , I resolve that I would n’t tempt fate with my cat and left them off .
The Ebo Air sits on its petty charge dock to top up its internal battery . Once it ’s one , I could connect it to my Wi - Fi and use the smartphone app to assure it . There are two restraint modes : manual and automatic .
Manual mode give you a full - screen view of the front - face camera , with on - screen slider to move the Ebo Air around . On Wi - Fi , the robot is very reactive , letting me see exactly where the golem was . I could nip around electric chair leg and dart across the kitchen base with informality . Over the cyberspace , there can be a morsel of retardation , so I recommend taking it a bit easier .
Moving is simple , but the rest of the port is cluttered with icons . Some make sense , such as the option to record a video or take a photo . These are then saved to the microSD circuit card on the golem .
Other icons , make less sense . There ’s radio detection and ranging ikon , which turns on the laser pointer causing the robot to say “ pew pew ” , and a fair game icon , which gets the robot to track and follow a favorite automatically . There are also some crazy automatic modes , such as spinning in a circle or erect up .
They ’re fun to use , with the golem babbling and prepare noises in a cunning voice , but the icons make no sense : what is an emoji of a face spewing rainbow vomit for ? I give up trying to make sensory faculty of it and solicit the buttons at random when playing with my cats .
If you do n’t desire to manually move the robot around , then there are two option . First , there ’s a caper mode . In this mode , the Ebo Air will leave its dock , move around hunt for pets and then ‘ take on ’ with them mechanically . Of course , your pet has to be visible and in the modality for playing for this to be any use .
If that ’s the case , then the Ebo Air does a surprisingly good chore of keeping your darling in focus . It will even take some telecasting and photograph of the interaction , so you’re able to see what your robot and pet got up to when you were out .
second , the Ebo Air can also be send off on a patrol of your house , report back on the number of people and pets that it spotted . There are some very strange , badly render messages as a resolution : “ infested pet has been found during sail ” being the highlight .
Not that the Ebo Air is particularly utilitarian as a security television camera : its low - down television camera entail that I could see a spate of the floor , but not a lot else . I neglect the roaming choice but I did find a use for a manual cruise .
While I was away , I had a notification that my alarm had gone off , triggered by the back doorway sensor . I got the Ebo Air into action and found the alert sensor was on the floor : the heat energy had made the muggy inkpad come at large .
There ’s two - mode talk of the town build into the app , with the Ebo Air having a microphone on top . It ’s a feature that works as push , but I did n’t obtain it particularly utilitarian , particularly with pets : I try not to blab to my cats when I ’m not there , as I do n’t want to confound them .
Navigation and pets
For the most part , the Ebo Air does a good job of wandering around . It largely avoids any proceeds , and is small enough to get under furniture and around professorship legs : the sort of obstacle that robot vacuum cleaner often have issue with .
As it ’s testis - shape , the Ebo Air can mostly roll back onto its steering wheel if it falls over or , more likely , a cat takes a swipe at it . I say mostly , as I did have a few issues with the golem .
Hitting my chairwoman legs at just the incorrect slant , or bounce into the back talk of the threshold , the Ebo Air would rear up into the line , resting on its back with the wheels off the ground . At this peak , with no wheels on the ground , the Air ca n’t move until it ’s knocked free .
It also struggles with wires , thick rugs and even pet blanket , and you ’ll get a notification tell you that the Ebo Air is stuck and require rescuing . square away up before you allow the automaton at large is of the essence .
I ’ve set out four cats to try the Ebo Air with . Out of all of them , Behemoth is the keenest and be intimate the laser point . He ’d chase it around , pounce on it and was n’t bothered by the automaton itself . At no point did he decide that the robot should be the focal point of his attention , and left it well enough alone .
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Should you buy it?
If you want a funky manner of keeping ducky entertain mechanically , the Ebo Air is a smart and capable golem .
A laser pen is cheaper for manual interaction and a surety television camera better for home monitoring : this is a product that ’s hard to vindicate buying .
Final Thoughts
There ’s nothing else quite like this Cartesian product and the close thing I ’ve reviewed is the Petcub Bites 2 , an automated treat dispenser with camera . The Ebo Air is far more interactive , actively play with your cats ( or letting you take manual control ) .
It ’s a cunning intersection , automatically scan and finding pets , although how much my cats wanted to be entertained is up for debate . I found that the automaton mostly pilot well , although it did get stick around a few times .
lease manual control is utile for seeing what ’s going on while away , and for play with pets . The cluttered port needs some work , as it can be hard to understand what each clitoris does . The big subject is cost : it ’s a merriment miniature , but spening this much money on something that ’s a morsel of fun could be heavy to apologise .
Trusted Score
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FAQs
It can be set to find and track favourite , playing with them mechanically .
It can go on a patrol mechanically , letting you know if people or animals are spotted .
