Reviews for Sphero by Orbotix

My kids play non-stop. Awesome for family gatherings when all the kiddos need something to do. Love it.

I'm a 3D artist and love high tech stuff. My only experience with robotics was building a HeathKit Hero one robot. I truly enjoyed doing it, but hadn't looked at robots since. This year I decided to buy myself a Christmas present, and since I already have an AR Drone 2.0, I thought Sphero would be interesting. Well, as it turns out I will probably be returning mine soon. I had read somewhere that it was an autonomous robot. It seems more like a remote controlled ball than anything else. Kind of expensive at $129.95. I thought an autonomous robot should be able to determine where it is and react to it's environment. Sphero just seems to do what you tell it to much more like a remote controlled car. I know it has a lot of sensors compass, accelerometer, and gyro, but I don't see it doing anything with them to really interact with it's environment on it's own. Please if I'm missing something here please correct me. I like Macrolab the best out of all the Apps. It would really be cool if Sphero could interact with it's environment, then make it's own decisions based on the data it obtains. I think the idea is cool, but needs more actual robotic brains. Have you seen Romo the iPhone robot? Now That is more like what I thought Sphero would be. Please tell me what I'm missing. The device works great, and seems to be a very polished product, but after rolling it around a few times it gets really boring. As for using it to control apps, seems like it's much easier to just use the accelerometer built into the iPhone itself. Just saying.

its realy fun i love it the only problem is : you have to charge it 3 hours till you can play for only 1 hour i love it do

Best toy ever worth the price.

I'll start by saying that I really wanted to love this product. I have had my eye on it for quite some time. I bought it with the hopes of entertaining my energetic 12 pound dog when I didn't feel like moving off the couch. The price was steep but if he enjoyed it and got his energy out chasing it around it would be worth it. The device took about 6-7 attempts to pair. It kept saying "unsuccessful" - eventually it paired.

The controls were decent. I tried a few apps. My favorite being sphero drive.

My dog was afraid at first and then just apathetic. He just jumped on the couch to get away and watched me roll it around the room. I tried to entice him but he didn't have any interest in chasing it.

Your dog my be different but I chose to return it. Too expensive of a toy to just sit around.

My only other comment is the controls aren't very sharp. It doesn't turn around on a dime when you go from forwards to backwards. It more does a wide U turn. I probably would've gotten better with practice but since the dog wasn't interested I didn't play with it much more.

i really wanted to like this toy and i did ONLY when it connected. i had it for a full week, played with it for 4 days total and on the 7th day it no longer connected. many connection complaints on other websites and forums. this doesnt seem to be an isolated incident. its a fun office toy that everyone wanted to play with. it really is cool and so are the apps, especially macrolab. i just cant justify spending $140 after taxes for it to have problems like it does. im going to return it before my 14 days are up. i would definitely buy again (and want to) if they fix these issues and drop the price (even down to $99). the charger is awesome and the build quality is good. doesnt feel cheap. its a shame because i would have given it 4 stars (-1 star for price).

Sphero is pretty cool. Controlling it took a minute to get used to, but after I got the hang of it it was pretty easy. Love that it's waterproof. Love that you can change colors. The Chromo app is fun...want more apps like that where Sphero is like a joystick. Still trying to figure out MacroLab, but seems like it could be cool to program stuff. Overall I'm really happy I got it...Just want some more apps!

I purchased and played with Sphero out at Apple's Developer Conference. As a developer I love what this device can do - I personally can sit down and write games to this ball. How cool is that? You can play driving, table top and controller games.

The guy that rated this a 1 star is nuts...don't believe it!

I originally bought this as a present for my dad to play with in his office. But our dog, and my niece have quickly figured out how cool it is. It's truly a gaming device for all ages! With all the available apps, you never get sick of just one game! Not to mention the future of apps still to come - it will seem like a new toy each time a new app is developed. Don't forget to take it for a swim, when they say waterproof, they mean it!