Ever wanted a little robot companion that can follow you around the house and play Spotify? Or maybe even remind you of daily things like drinking enough water, important meetings, and when to take your medication?
How about a security robot that can alert you of crying children or elderly relatives falling over when you’re away at the office? The groundbreaking Enabot EBO X can do all of this and so much more.
• Take a look at the best indoor security cameras
Imagine if your Echo or Alexa speaker had eyes, and legs, and then you’ve pretty much got yourself an Enabot EBO X smart robot. Did we mention it has a 4K stabilized camera and can shoot photos and video footage on demand too?
So it’s a home security patrol robot with a camera, it can keep an eye on your pets and entertain your children, alert you of any intruders to restricted areas, answer your questions through Alexa integration, play music and podcasts, make family group calls, detect elderly falls through posture recognition, is equipped with night vision, and has two-way communication to keep everyone connected.
The one thing it can’t do (like Daleks) is climb stairs.
Why would anyone need this? Now, don’t get us wrong. The key features and tricks that this little companion robot-camera-nanny can do are super impressive, you might even say it's revolutionary in the field of smart home assistants - but for a whopping $999! (£782 / AU$ 1,470 approximately) it should at the very least be able to climb stairs and travel through rooms. Unless you live in an open-plan and spacious apartment, this might not be the robot home security device for you.
We were given the opportunity to test out the exciting new Enabot EBO X robot for ourselves, and our first impressions were a bit hit-and-miss. First of all, the review process was a little early on in the development stages of Enabot releasing EBO X to the general public via Kickstarter, so we had to download a buggy beta app to experience the full features of the robot.
The app was easy to use, although mostly in Chinese, and allowed us to remote control EBO as if it were a high-tech monster truck.
The camera quality of this robot is fantastic and we loved the ability to access and control it from absolutely anywhere - when sat in the office 50 miles away, or keeping an eye on things at home while out grocery shopping.
The predecessor to the EBO X was the Enabot EBO Air, which we reviewed back in December, and has very similar features despite being primarily marketed as an interactive remote control pet camera - as opposed to a much bigger robot security guard that could also double as an adorable Star Wars droid.
The weirdest feature of EBO X, however, is actually what the future has in store for it. Enabot says that it plans to incorporate ChatGPT into the robot device to allow users to ask EBO questions by saying "EBOEBO," which will, in turn, provide answers through what the developers are calling EboGPT. Support for this feature will be made available "soon" says Enabot in a new firmware upgrade.
Another fantastic feature of this robot is the sound system, equipped with premium Harman AudioEFX speakers that sound truly amazing (and loud). This powerful sound system is able to play whatever you want through Amazon Music and Spotify (subscriptions required) as well as local radio stations and your favorite podcasts. It can even light up and perform rhythms in time with the sounds you’re listening to.
But the best part is that the EBO X can follow you around the house while playing music as you carry out your chores for a fully immersive sound experience, all controlled through Alexa commands and facial recognition. Simply say “Alexa, set Robot to follow me” and it will! Unless you go upstairs, of course.
Many people will undoubtedly have reservations and privacy concerns about letting a robot with a camera into their home, but the EBO X has a few privacy features that might put you at ease. The pop-up camera can be tucked away simply by shutting its lid and retracting it back into the main body, and there’s a privacy button built into EBO X too that will disable the microphone, and light up red so you know when it’s switched off.
There are also toggle switches within the app that let you have complete control over when EBO is actively watching or listening, and any media captured is only saved to the removable SD card included with the robot, and not uploaded to any cloud storage or platforms. You can save photos to your smartphone if you choose.
Eager to get your hands on an EBO X? You might have to wait a while yet, as the demand is pretty high and units are only just being shipped out to the Early Bird Kickstarter supporters. Stay tuned for our full and final review of the Enabot EBO X smart home robot for a breakdown of everything it can do.
It’s unknown which retailers will stock the EBO X once it’s made available globally - but be sure to stay up to date with Enabot and join the Enabot EBO X Global User Group to keep in the loop, ask any questions, and share your experiences with other EBO X owners.
• You might also be interested in the best outdoor security cameras for keeping your property safe, as well as the best doorbell cameras for keeping an eye on your parcel deliveries.
• Discover why My dog absolutely hates this pet camera, and learn all about new upgrades to the similar Amazon Astro robot.
