The Enabot EBO Air 2 has the look of those robots of the future that they’ve been promising us for decades… but it’s not quite as smart as it is cute.
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| Cute design | Expensive |
| Tracks enable it to run across most floor surfaces | Intermittently loses Wi-Fi connectivity |
| Inbuilt laser pointer and sounds to amuse cats… | … if your cats aren’t in fact terrified of it. |
Score: 2/5
In this review
Enabot EBO Air 2 Specifications
Enabot EBO Air 2 Design
Enabot EBO Air 2 Performance
Enabot EBO Air 2 Conclusion
Ethical disclaimer: The Enabot EBO Air 2 used in this review was sent to me by Enabot for the purposes of this review – which is to say, I didn’t pay for it. That gets it reviewed, nothing more, nothing less as is the usual policy here at ART.
Enabot has had no editorial input into this review, which is as it should be.
Yes, ethical disclosures are not exciting to read, but with the massive surge of AI slop out there masquerading as reviews along with so many ethically compromised “reviewers”, I feel that they’re more vital than ever before. For more on ART’s Ethics policy, click here.
Design
The Enabot EBO Air 2 is a small, very deliberately “cute” mostly spherical robot that measures in at 95x95x89.2mm with a carrying weight of 282g.
It’s available in Dove White, Robin Pink or Jay Blue finishes, and it’s the latter that Enabot sent my way for review.
The front of the Enabot EBO Air 2 houses its 2K capable camera sitting within a dark black reflective band that wraps around its body. At the back there’s a tiny fin, almost certainly just an aesthetic touch rather than a serious attempt at streamlining it for speed, because even at top whack this isn’t that fast a robot.
It gets around on twin rubber tyre tracks with tiny little paw prints embedded into it, which does rather give away the Enabot EBO Air 2’s primary market segment.
While you could – just about – use it as a home security camera (more on this later), it’s primarily pitched as a fun toy robot for you and your pets to enjoy. That’s a big market segment, because people do love their pets – me included – and are willing to spend quite a lot of money on them each and every year.
Outside the robot itself, it ships with a simple recharging dock and wall plug. My one complaint here is that the connecting cable between the dock and the plug – which uses a standard USB A type socket – is fixed into the recharging base. It would be slightly better if the cable was removable, simply because it would enable replacement if it frays or breaks later on.
Performance
Setting up the Enabot EBO Air 2 involves using the companion EBO Home app for iOS or Android, because that’s how you control it. This involves – as so many smart home gadgets do – setting up an account with Enabot, waiting for confirmation codes to verify your email address and looping the app and robot into your home’s Wi-Fi system.
This presented something of a problem for me, because while the app at first accepted my Wi-Fi – and it does support both 2.4GHz and 5GHz Wi-Fi, unlike some other iOT consumer-facing devices I’ve tested in the past which tend to cheap out by only supporting 2.4GHz – I found that when trying to use the Enabot EBO Air 2, it would often complain of losing Wi-Fi connectivity, even in areas where every other gadget around it got a good, strong signal.
It may be a limitation of its inbuilt Wi-Fi antenna, but I did have problems at first getting it to function every time I wanted it to.
Switching to another smaller location saw those problems reduce markedly, so I’m certainly willing to believe that it may just be a range function… but when other devices aren’t having those range problems, that’s not a good look for a device at this price.
Setup is also just a little noisy, but that’s because part of the EBO Air 2’s charm is meant to be in the variety of noises and “expressions” its digital matrix eyes can express. These are customisable, as are routines for making specific motions across the floor or noises to engage your cats.
So of course I had to test that with my cats.
The Enabot EBO Air 2 wants to love my cats… but will they love it?
I have three cats, but in the time I’ve been testing the Enabot EBO Air 2, I’ve only been able to get one of them to particularly interact with it, and even then only if I really sprang it on him as a surprise.
Cats can and do vary, but mine… absolutely hate the Enabot EBO Air 2, even though it’s capable of making cat-like sounds that are meant to entice them.
I don’t know, I don’t speak cat, but whatever it’s saying with its cat noises is enough to make my cats run away from it, every single time. Its other silly noises might be fun as a party piece, however.
Its other trick for enticing moggies is an inbuilt laser pointer which bounces around the floor in that classic cat-entertaining way. I do already own a basic laser pointer that’s been a constant cat toy for a number of generations of family cats that my current mob of moggies absolutely love, so I had high hopes here that it might allow for some fun indoor cat play times.
Not so much for a laser pointer embedded in the Enabot EBO Air 2, sadly. Again, whether it’s the basic motion of the robot, or the sound it makes, or its reflective face I can’t truly say, but if I was using the EBO Home app to drive it, my cats wanted nothing more than to leave the room at a rapid pace.
I could get them to chase its laser pointer beam if I switched it on in the app and held the robot up in the air in my hands, but at that point I’m spending $349 for a simple laser pointer, which doesn’t feel like great value.
The Enabot EBO Air 2 is, as its name suggests, Enabot’s second EBO Air robot; I’ve never tested the former unit but it appears one of the primary upgrades here is in the camera quality, with a 2K capable 137° camera that saves files to a microSD card that slots into the back of the unit.
Recording quality is reasonable if the Enabot EBO Air 2 isn’t moving, but it does struggle in motion depending on the surface that you’re driving it on. While it might be technically feasible to use it as a home security camera system, I’d argue you’d be better off with a dedicated fixed unit – or at this price, maybe even a couple of fixed units.
The one area where I expected the Enabot EBO Air 2 to struggle was in motion, because its thin little tracks don’t look like they’d be up to much across multiple floor surface types.
Here I was pleasantly surprised, with it able to make its way across hard wood floor, tiles and lower-level carpets with few issues. Even a back verandah test across slats that looked like they might snag a tread wasn’t a big challenge for it.
This isn’t a remote controlled buggy, however, so speeds are limited, and that’s for the best as getting your brain in line with its directional pad, which always thinks in the direction that it is “looking” at can take some getting used to.
The Enabot EBO Air 2 is meant to be able to return to its base if its battery gets low, or when commanded to from the EBO Home app, but this was challenging for it unless I placed its base in pretty much a direct line of sight of the robot. It’s not like it’s that bulky to pick up and drop there if it does become lost, but it wasn’t entirely impressive how often that happened during testing.
Enabot EBO Air 2: Alex’s Verdict
I like the idea of what the Enabot EBO Air 2 is trying to do, because I do recognise that there’s a lot of pet owners who like the concept of looking in on their pets while they’re stuck at work, or being able to lightly play with them during their lunch break via a remote controlled intelligent robot.
However, the issues I hit with the Enabot EBO Air 2 didn’t impress upon me the value of spending $349 on one.
It may just be that I have very particular cats (aren’t they all somewhat particular?) that didn’t relate well to its shape, sound or laser pointer.
But combining that with slightly shaky Wi-Fi connectivity even in areas of good coverage and a camera that becomes something of a shuddery mess when moving leaves me with the impression of a product that’s maybe better picking up once it’s been refined and improved just a little bit more. The Enabot EBO Air 3, perhaps?
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Enabot EBO Air 2: Pricing and availability
The Enabot EBO Air 2 retails in Australia for $349.
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