Rabbit R1 Review: Strong Hardware, Uneven Early Software

Matthew Berman reviews the Rabbit R1 in April 2024, saying Rabbit did not sponsor his review and that he is offering his personal impressions rather than a formal technology assessment. The video also contains a separate paid Careerist segment. His findings describe one early unit and the software available at the time.

Berman likes the R1 as a standalone device, arguing that its physical form makes it feel personal in a way an app might not. He recognizes that whether the product could instead be an app is debatable, and treats his preference for the dedicated form as subjective.

He praises the small, light body, screen and solid construction, and notes that Teenage Engineering collaborated on the design. He likes the tactile button and scroll wheel, the speaker and the rotating camera, which can face either direction for vision requests.

The device has USB-C charging, a SIM slot, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth. A single button and scroll wheel provide physical input, while voice is the primary interaction. At the time of the review, Berman cites a roughly $199 price without a required device subscription.

Battery life is his main hardware complaint. He says his unit lost around one percent every five to ten minutes while idle and that mobile service appeared to drain it quickly, so he turned cellular connectivity off at home. He cannot tell whether his particular battery is defective; this is an informal observation, not a standardized battery-life result.

He says the device charges quickly, reaching full in under an hour in his experience. The home screen shows time, battery and an animated rabbit; holding the button opens voice input. A question about making Snake in Python produces spoken steps, which he stops partway through.

Berman is impressed by the response speed, saying answers generally arrive within a few seconds in his tests. He also asks about reviews of the film Civil War and plays the device’s response. His examples illustrate the interaction rather than proving the speed or accuracy of every answer.

For vision, he double-taps the button to open the camera and asks it to identify a processor in his hand. The R1 identifies it as a CPU. Berman praises the speed and compares it favorably to complaints he had heard about the Humane AI Pin, without offering a controlled side-by-side measurement.

He shows that shaking the R1 opens settings for brightness, volume, Bluetooth, networking and other functions. Holding the button while using the wheel adjusts brightness. He likes these interaction choices but finds scrolling through the menu slower than he would prefer.

Berman says the speaker is adequate for spoken responses but less satisfying for music. Bluetooth provides an alternative through headphones or earbuds, which he says paired easily in his experience.

Setup begins with an account in rabbithole, Rabbit’s web portal. Berman shows its journal of prior questions and vision interactions, then the connections page. At the time of his review, it offered Spotify, DoorDash, Uber and Midjourney; he connected the first two and notes that Midjourney required a paid account.

Berman describes Rabbit’s idea of agents operating services on a user’s behalf and characterizes the integration as clicking through apps rather than using APIs. Rabbit’s own contemporaneous description says its agents operate services through cloud sessions; the video does not establish the implementation of every integration or prove that no APIs are involved.

He asks the R1 to play Daft Punk and reports that Spotify begins playing quickly, with cover art displayed. He mutes or covers the music in the video for copyright reasons. The successful request is a single example, not a comprehensive test of the integration.

DoorDash is a different experience. Berman asks it to assemble a sushi order and encounters a warning that loading may take time and availability varies by region. He says it often takes roughly 30 seconds or longer to load in his attempts.

Once the ordering interface opens, he is unsure whether to use voice or the controls. Holding the voice button appears to leave the flow and start loading again, so he switches to the wheel and button. He questions why this process would be preferable to using the DoorDash phone app.

Berman would prefer to say how many people need food, hear a proposed order, refine it conversationally and then approve it. Instead he navigates a custom menu and cart manually. He calls the interface slow and unintuitive, while recognizing that he may have missed something in the workflow.

At checkout he is unsure whether pressing the control has placed an order or whether a password will be needed. He gets out of the screen and checks: no order was placed. The uncertainty is part of his criticism of the interface; it does not demonstrate that an unauthorized order occurred.

He then tries to adjust volume and switch off Bluetooth by voice. The R1 directs him to its physical controls and settings instead. Berman considers voice control of the device itself an obvious improvement, and adds that the glossy exterior attracts fingerprints despite being easy to wipe clean.

His overall assessment remains positive about the compact, solid hardware, aside from battery life. The software, however, gives him frequent Rabbit OS or Wi-Fi connection warnings, and the agent features do not yet work as smoothly as he hoped. He considers Spotify a useful proof of concept but finds DoorDash much weaker.

For quick spoken questions, Berman finds the R1 faster and more useful than his experience with Siri or searching the web. He values conversational follow-up questions and context. His favorable accuracy and speed claims are personal impressions rather than measured comparisons across a representative set of tasks.

At $199 and without a required subscription at the time, he considers the device worthwhile for himself and potentially appealing to people who enjoy trying new technology or want fast voice access to AI. He does not recommend it as a mature tool for automating tasks on the user’s behalf.

Berman looks forward to updates but repeats the principle that a device should not be bought solely on promised future features. He is pleased that Rabbit shipped a real hardware product, and invites viewers to share their own experiences as the software evolves.