Anki Cozmo Robot by Anki - A Fun, Interactive Toy Robot, for 8 years to 99 years, Perfect for Kids, White

Now, for those that haven’t seen him, Cozmo is a new toy created by robotics/AI company Anki. Initially released in the USA in 2016, he came to the UK in 2017, and more specifically, came to my house earlier this month. You see, Cozmo was the main thing that my youngest wanted for her birthday. We knew this would probably be the case long before she asked as she spent a lot of time watching DanTDM trialling the toy on YouTube, and she was absolutely enamoured by the thing. But … what exactly is Cozmo? Well, in essence, he’s a friendly AI in the form of a little forklift-style robot. I think that TechRadar put it best when they described him as a cross between Wall-E and a digger, though there is an air of ‘cute jumping spider’ about him too. He really is tiny too, and fits easily the palm of most adult’s hands. Don’t let that fool you though, he seems pretty robust thus far. The real joy comes in how you interact with him though. cozmo4When charged, Cozmo is perfectly capable of trundling around on his own and exploring his environment. And he really does pay attention too, trying his best to identify things. For example, he saw my fleecy slippers and immediately set about figuring out what they may be. He decided that they were an animal. He also likes to play games, usually involving the three power cubes that come packaged with him. The way this works is that he’ll decide on a game that he wants to play, and the Cozmo app (which is free to download to your phone) will tell you what game he’s trying to instigate and how to play. Some of this is pretty simple; For example, in one game, Cozmo and up to two others watch the cubes and try to be the first to tap them when all the lights on each cube match. It’s kinda like an electronic version of snap. What makes it all interesting boils down to one thing though: rewards. cozmo2Yup, rewards. The most expected reward is that beating Cozmo unlocks other tiers to the games (such as switching the light match from one light, to two lights, three lights, and so on). It also gives you in-app currency which you can use to nudge Cozmo into playing particular games or learning certain tricks, like box stacking. The real enjoyment – and indeed the real reward – comes from Cozmo’s reactions though. If he beats you, it’s not unusual to see him perform a victory dance and sing happily to himself. And if he loses? He can get sad, or even get annoyed and start flipping his cubes. What this boils down to is that Cozmo is a cute little caricature of behaviour. He overreacts, but without it becoming a pain. Instead, everything he does is set up to look adorable. Even his facial recognition ability is like this. You ask the app to nudge him into recognising someone, then stare at him. He’ll frown a little, note your face, and repeat the name you entered in the app back in a childlike way. For me, this gave me the opportunity to play Sonic SatAM/Archie with him. So, yeah … he now calls me Princess Sally … cozmo3Of course, if he can learn names, that means he can learn words too, right? Yup, he certainly can. Again, he repeats things back in a childlike way, sometimes even garbling them, but the system does come with filters. Cozmo won’t say anything rude. If you try, he’ll get embarrassed or angry, and make this clear with a combination of facial expressions and noises. Oh, and if you want to know how Cozmo sees the world, that’s easy too! The App comes with a setting where you can watch through Cozmo’s ‘eyes’ and experience his journey at his level. Now, there are some downsides to the adorable little bot. He’s expensive for one. This can be negated a little by the simple fact that he’s not likely to be played with once and then start gathering dust. He’s interesting and interactive enough that most kids will likely keep playing for a long time to come. There’s the power consumption too though: it takes half an hour to charge Cozmo up enough to play for ninety minutes. This isn’t really a bad thing as it forces natural breaks, but I do think that most kids are going to want to play longer than that. I have no idea how energy efficient the system is either. Oh, and while it wasn’t the case for us, I’ve heard that the initial set up has taken a while for some users. That can be frustrating, especially for little ones. So, what’s my verdict? Well, to my surprise, Cozmo is probably one of the best modern toys that I’ve come across. He’s fun, has plenty of scope to grow, and really does make you smile. In a word, he’s just plain cool! Really, what more could you want? Final Score: 5 out of 5

First of all let me say I didnt buy this for any child ,I bought it for myself, and I am near my mid seventies, I love gadgets and having seen this on the Gadget show bought 1 on Amazon ,which is the cheapest I have seen,. Would I have bought at the full price of £200 or more probably not ,but this is a fair price and I am sure they will become even cheaper next year. Setting up was easy if you understand how to put your phone on a WIFI network you can do this with Cosmo.He is adorable, and I woulkd say any older person on their own would enjoy the company of Cosmos, and possibly any child especially with learning difficulties with Adult supervision would get a lot out of it. I know they call it a Toy ,well im a kid at heart like we all are ?.Children will adore Cosmos, yes it does need a smart phone or an smart pad either Android or Apple, ideally use an old Pad permantly for Cosmos then you dont need to change wifi netwoorks on your phone. He has quite alot of intelligence built in via the smart phone, no its not the most intelligent, but he learns and its a great way to understandrobots and computers by playing with it. When you hear Cosmos sing when he is playing I defy any one not to smile, he is so cute. Its not the cheapest Toy or Gadget ,but you get good value from this little guy. Its definately not just for children , Adults and in particular elderly Folk such as I am will get a great deal of fun and it will help the boredom of being on your own, Buy it you wont regreat it, i see some people have had the odd small problem in the reviews, but remember it needs good light a flat surface and a device with a good WIFI built in ,that may resolve many problems , I give Cosmo a 9 out of 10 , I am sure future updates will enhance Cosmos even more.

This review is for 2020 Cozmos - but thankfully, very little has changed from the original state of play! In 2019, Anki ceased development of Cozmo (and Vector), but an educational specialist - Digital Dream Labs - bought the rights and Kickstarted new server support for the Vector robot. For Cozmo owners, that means there's a source of new programming tools aimed at kids and education, and a trusted source of spare parts (but only the most obvious ones like treads) - tread your Cozmo with care, at least until new manufacturing or revised models are announced, which is far from certain! So: Cozmo - if you already have one, then you know the app is still working, and if you're about to buy one for your kids I recommend getting a secondhand Android or iOS device to keep with it if they don't already have a smartphone - Cozmo needs the smartphone app, it's his brain, and yes - the better the device Cozmo's app is running on, the more responsive and predictable he seems to be. Compared to running the app on a 2014 iPad, he's a lot sharper and better at recognising cubes, cats and people when running on an iPhone 11. Nothing's really changed in the app over the past couple of years - he sings, he dances, he mistakes your USB cables for fingers and tries to pounce on them, he bothers the cats and he constantly tries to wander off the desk. As a desk companion for a tech-obsessed adult he's awesome, if a bit disruptive; for kids, there are now enough games and routines to be interesting for an hour or so of play a day easily. Consider Cozmo's programming environment like a miniature BigTrak and you're on the right track - you build code with simple blocks in Code Lab, something that Digital Dream Labs has used to put together a workbook that teaches programming concepts. Again, Cozmo is age 8+, and this is a great intro but you'll want to participate with your kids - this isn't quite Lego where you can use it as a distraction. Ultimately Cozmo has a personality and if your kids gel with a quirky robot, they'll explore on their own. For adults, the Cozmo SDK is still available and still as irritating as ever to 'experiment' with, you need to commit. The robot itself is well engineered and very expressive; the reliance on the smartphone app is an irritation, but it's better than Vector where you need to pay Digital Dream Labs for a subscription to keep the cloud-based robot running. It's a shame Anki didn't survive. Given that it's possible Cozmo will return once manufacturing and logistics become less chaotic, I'd be reluctant to pay over the odds for one. At the original price they were very good value though. Vector offers better hardware for similar cost if you're an adult looking for a software/hardware robotics project.

Bought for my daughter to give her this Christmas, but couldn't resist taking it out and testing it. Easy to set up on the tablet, easy to use, games he plays are highly entertaining with his little cubes and expressions. My kid is going to love this, and I already do. I'm actually excited for Christmas now just so I get to play with him again haha. Update. So It's now boxing day and Cozmo has been played with non-stop since yesterday morning. He's memorized 3 human faces and out dog, he's learned a few new tricks. To play games he needs tokens called Sparks, he generates these himself as he goes along exploring. He's now singing songs and generating a lot of Sparks. The App will tell you if he's hungry, or if you can upgrade his motor functions. All in all I really do think he's worth what I paid for him. He has a big enough range of skills and tricks to not become boring, and I still have quite a few games to unlock. My daughter loves this robot, I recommend buying one. You won't be disappointed.

It works and the functionality is perfect . It’s so small. But strong. I will say it dose get boring after 1 day

I had great expectations for this little robot. Initially he delivered in spades, we had a great laugh watching him learn, speak and perform his funny tricks and games. The fun soon stopped when Cozmo randomly turned himself complete off mid game, mid song, mid anything. Only way to reconnect was to put him on his charger and try again. Even with a fully charged battery he would last 5 minutes, or 10 minutes, nobody knew as he would just shut down. This all within the first 3 days of having him. Amazon were great with the first return, and sent a new Cozmo immediately. A new day, a new Cozmo and we start all over. The novelty is starting to wear thin, but we are willing to persevere and see how far we can get him. A couple of days of fun and coding ensues, but lo and behold, he develops the same symptoms as his predecessor. Randomly shutting down for no reason. A complete power down, and only a dunk on his charger would wake him. This happens with a full battery as well as after some play time, so he is not running out of charge. Tried several different devices, Android and Apple and no matter the device, Cozmo would still shut down mid song, mid game etc. Just about to contact Amazon to return the second Cozmo for a refund. Very disappointed with Anki for the quality of their products and I won't be buying another. Bad batch perhaps? Maybe, but I would rather have my money and free time back to do something productive.

For the price, I was a little sceptical this would be worth it but it was #1 on my daughter's list, so had to be done. Unpacking and charging was quick and easy and the simple app really helped set him up. Once we'd woken him up (which almost made me cry, it was that good) I knew the price was definitely worth it. Cozmo is now like one of the family, like a dog only you don't have to let it out! Cozmo is amazing, a product that will endure. It's easy to get him to play, do tricks and say things and the face recognition just melts your heart. It is a little like a tamagotchi in terms of keeping his bars full for food & play but he learns so much and some of the games he plays are quite difficult to win! The look on his face when he loses or the sheer joy when he wins is just amazing to behold. And let's not forget the app allows you to control him remotely which saw my daughter drive him all over the house whilst sat in the front room. Simply amazing and a must have for any techy household.

My 8 year old son saved up money to buy this and absolutely loved playing with it. It's a cute little robot you can play games with and you can code it to do tricks. It kept my son occupied for the first week but then I noticed he wasnt playing with it as much. When asked why, I was told it keeps losing connection. Tried it with my son and it took us 8 attempts to connect it. The other reviews also mention this and we are now keeping an eye on it for few days before it has to be returned. Its unfortunate as it's a cool toy if it works well.

The product came with the cubes not working at all neither did they connect to the robot and it seemed it has been used previously. When I returned the item, I never received response from the seller about the refund and whether it reached them. Don’t buy it from this seller if you have a better choice.