In some ways, I wish my smartphone had looked more like the Rabbit R1. Instead of having to sift through dozens of different apps to do a task, you can simply use your voice to say commands and have the AI agent do everything for you. That's the promise of R1, but does it live up to the hype?
Rabbit R1 is available to order now for $199. I've spent a few hours with the device so far, and this cute retro orange gadget certainly has its charm. You can use it to search, play music, order rideshares and food, and even generate AI images on the fly. Additionally, you can use Rabbit R1 for note-taking and translation.
However, it's clear that R1 is in its early stages of development, and not all features work as advertised. It doesn't work, at least not yet. And there are some things I wish I had been here on the first day. Here are my impressions of Rabbit R1 so far. Stay tuned for the full review.
Sleek retro design, some strange UI choices
The Rabbit R1 is much lighter than I expected, despite having a decent-sized 2.88-inch touch display. This is a big advantage over the Humane AI Pin, which sticks out in your hand as an interface and can be manipulated. A monthly subscription of $20 is even more expensive at $699.
There's also an analog scroll wheel on the right side and a push-to-talk button for chatting with R1. Interacting with Rabbit R1 takes some getting used to. For example, even if you have a touchscreen, you often use the call button by pressing it to the side to make a selection.
When you turn the R1 horizontally, you can use the built-in keyboard for things like entering Wi-Fi passwords, but the keys are so small that the Enter button sometimes didn't work.
There also doesn't seem to be a way to control the volume when playing music. You can also go to settings or press the call button to lower or increase the volume, but that's not ideal.
Search is fast and up-to-date
Rabbit R1 processes voice search queries faster than expected. Simply press the push-to-talk button, type in your question, and Rabbit will answer it for you through the Perplexity AI engine.
For example, when I asked, “What's the latest on TikTok bans?” R1 responded with some pretty up-to-date information in audio and written form. It announced that the bill to ban TikTok has passed the Senate and is being sent to President Biden for his signature, and also provided some background on the issue.
I also asked, “What were the NBA scores last night?” R1 quickly returned results for Mavericks vs. Clippers, Suns vs. Timberwolves, and Pacers vs. Bucks, but I wish it had included the team logos instead of just the scores.
When I asked about the weather forecast for Freehold, New Jersey, the R1 was kind enough to pull up some weather icons and show me the hourly temperature and chance of precipitation.
Vision works (fairly) well
@mspoonyg ♬ Cocktail – Joystock
One of Rabbit R1's best features is Vision, which leverages the built-in camera to identify objects and perform actions. Press the push-to-talk button twice to activate the rotating camera.
In our first test, we simply asked, “What iPhone is this?” While pointing R1 at iPhone 14 Pro Max. Unfortunately, the Rabbit R1 said it had moved to brighter lighting since I have an iPhone 12. I was then told that I had the “newest iPhone”, the iPhone 13 Pro. Well, that's wrong on two counts.
Good luck struck when I pointed Rabbit R1 at a houseplant and asked what it was. R1 could not provide a specific species, but gave a good answer overall: “This looks like a succulent, probably some kind of aloe or agave.'' This plant has long, thick, fleshy green leaves, which are characteristic of succulents and grow in close clusters, typical of many succulents.
I decided to have a little fun with R1, so I pointed my camera at the home bar and asked, “What kind of cocktails can I make with this?'' R1 responded that he could see mixers such as gin, vodka, rum, whisky, liqueurs such as Baileys and Cointreau, and tonic his water. Cocktails such as gin and tonics, mojitos, and negronis were also suggested.
Uber and DoorDash orders: definitely on the way
Imagine what it would be like to be able to order your favorite foods using just your voice, without opening an app or touching your phone. This is the idea behind connecting services like DoorDash to Rabbit R1.
Rabbit does not connect to a service's API. Instead, the company's large-scale action model is trained on his DoorDash app and interface, allowing it to place orders on your behalf while still using your account credentials. You'll need to enter a username and password to set up Rabbit, but the company claims it doesn't store any data.
Anyway, I asked, “Can I get you a Chapter House BBQ burger?” (local restaurant) and I waited. And waited. (To be fair, R1 warns you that this process will take some time). After 47 seconds, several nearby burger options appeared, but not the restaurant I specified. Then, when I selected one of the recommendations, an error occurred when trying to access the menu. not good.
Next, I ordered an Uber from my home to a nearby Starbucks. A friendly female voice went to work and seemed to find me a ride, but when I went to check, the request was unsuccessful. This happened on multiple attempts.
A new iPod?
With a built-in scroll wheel and access to Spotify, it's hard not to think of the Rabbit R1 as a modern-day iPod. It's great when you say, “Play Taylor Swift's new album,” and it starts playing right away. At first I couldn't figure out how to pause playback, but it's as simple as double-tapping the press-to-speak button.
However, it's safe to say that Spotify's integration is basic. Rabbit R1 can't access playlists and when I say “skip track” the assistant says I need to enter the artist or song name.
Introducing our new meeting assistant
Sure, Google Meet can already do this, not to mention many other apps, but it's good to know that Rabbit can record meetings and provide an AI summary generated.
As a test, I had Rabbit R1 record Kristen Wiig's interview with Jimmy Fallon, and the summary worked well. This, along with all other interactions with Rabbit Eye vision, will be saved online under Rabbit's journal on his website.
It was certainly a discussion about “exchanging lists of classic movies you've never seen before and guessing the plot based on reputation and bits of information shared.” – “The Notebook” In the example, the plot involves a farmer falling in love with a rich woman. ..”
It's a shame that you can't get a transcription of the conversation like you can with other services. At least you get some nifty retro tape recorder graphics while recording.
Generative AI is fun but a bit of a dead end
Rabbit R1 works with Midjourney, so you can have Rabbit R1 generate images on the fly. As a dog lover, I asked Midjohnny to create an image of a Golden Retriever playing Frisbee on the beach, and after about a minute and 10 seconds it produced a pretty realistic result.
However, I hope you can do something with these images. I asked Rabbit R1 to send an email to one of them, but was told that neither emails nor files could be sent. You can also go to Discored/Midjourney and download it yourself, but that's extra work.
Rabbit R1 outlook
There are a lot of things I haven't tried yet with Rabbit R1. Includes translations, travel planning, and cool productivity techniques that Rabbit CEO Jesse Lyu showed off on stage during the R1 launch event (like scanning and digitizing paper spreadsheets). and move things.
I also haven't yet tested how much time R1 actually saves me on multiple tasks at once. But I keep coming back to the same question. Why would I need another device when I can do many of the things the Rabbit R1 does on my phone? And what Apple is doing with iOS 18 and Siri 2.0, even though I can't do it on my phone. I don't think it will take long until we catch up. And of course, Google is making a very strong push into AI with Gemini on his best Android smartphones.
I'm also concerned about the R1's battery life. It seems to lose charge pretty quickly, going from 100% to 38% in 6 hours. I noticed that the camera consumes more power while using it. Therefore, you may need to charge it several times a day.
For now, I think the Rabbit R1 is an interesting piece of the future of AI with a pocket-friendly design, but I'd like to see more features work seamlessly before I recommend someone spend $200. I think.