Rabbit R1 – AI devices as an alternative to a smartphone?

Artificial intelligence is becoming increasingly important. We've known this at least since US company OpenAI introduced its AI-powered chatbot ChatGPT. Until now, we have primarily known this AI as software – whether in the form of a chatbot or an image generator. But there are always attempts by many manufacturers to sell AI not just as software. On the one hand, there's Humane's Ai Pin, which packs AI into hardware. On the other hand, it comes to you first Recently introduced Rabbit R1 come to mind. This device is manufactured by the American company Rabbit.

R1 rabbit design

The device can also be described as an AI-enabled smartphone. Like any regular smartphone, the Rabbit R1 also has one an offerOne camera And even one SIM card slot. However, the scene is far from reminiscent of a smartphone. While smartphones are becoming increasingly stylish and more and more high-quality materials are used, this is a “plastic bomber”. The orange plastic device looks more like a toy Designed in collaboration with Teenage Engineering. Teenage Engineering is known for its high-quality designs for music and audio equipment such as mixers and recorders.

In the introduction we find A 2.88 inch TFT screen Which is surrounded by thick black edges. Next to it is a wide orange stripe 8 megapixel camera, Which can be rotated 360. In theory, you can use this to take portraits and landscape photos. There's a type underneath mouse wheel, Which allows you to scroll through lists. While the underside is completely blank, there is what is called the right side of the case Push to talk button., which would allow you to quickly communicate with the device via voice. The microphones required for this are installed at the top. Finally, on the left we find the USB-C port and the SIM slot. There is a speaker on the back below the scroll wheel. Dimensions are 7.8 x 7.8 x 1.3cm The device weighs 115 grams.

Technical information

There's one working under the hood Mediatek Helio P35 With a maximum clock frequency of 2.3GHz. The processor won't be enough for today's smartphones, but the hardware is clearly enough for the R1's activities. The advantage here is that most of the procedures are done anyway via servers He is executed. But only tests can show accurate answers.

Stand up for internet connection Wi-Fi and 4G available. 5G is probably too much at this point. Unfortunately, Rabbit does not specify which WLAN technology is supported. But we go from here Wi-Fi 5 Out of place. With the Bluetooth version, you can also operate it Version 5.0.

Battery measurements 1000 mAh It is charged via USB-C. Unfortunately, Rabbit doesn't specify how fast charging is possible. We're also in the dark when it comes to battery life. Unfortunately, it's not specified how long a single charge will last. Internal memory is 128 GB And the processor from 4 GB of RAM supports.

What is Rabbit R1

The Rabbit R1 is not just software, it is an AI-powered tool. Google also introduced the Pixel 8 series as AI smartphones, and Samsung introduced the S24 series (for advertisement) recently announced the era of artificial intelligence phones. So what is the difference between these smartphones and the Rabbit R1 – to be more precise: what does the R1 do for me? The main difference is that the rabbit devices It does not depend on the application As is the case with smartphones. Rather, the device relies on a business model that can perform actions.

RabbitOS

The operating system is called Rabbit OS and is based on the aforementioned business model. While language helpers like Gogle Bard or ChatGPT use the Large Language Model (LLM), Rabbit calls its own model Large Action Model (LAM). This model is the backbone of the device and aims to learn how to understand and act on human intentions. At first glance, this is a bit reminiscent of well-known assistants (Google Assistant, Alexa, etc.) – but the LAM is much deeper. This is what the device is supposed to do, among other things Book flights independently He can also implement things that previous assistants failed to do.

The function of pointing the camera at the refrigerator is also interesting. The device recognizes food and makes recipe suggestions. This already works with ChatGPT, but here you have to insert the foods yourself.

Rabbit hole

The rabbit hole is one Web interface, through which Rabbit R1 can be taught various actions. For example, you can record a specific action in an app or on a website and Rabbit R1 will be able to record these actions in the future To implement it independently. Here it is also possible to store your login details for specific applications. Data protection naturally plays a key role at this stage.

Data protection with Rabbit R1

When it comes to data protection, Rabbit assures us, Where one It does not store any passwords for third party apps like Spotify, if it is deposited down the rabbit hole. Additionally, each device gets its own LAM, which is hosted on Rabbit cloud servers, and encapsulated from other LAMs. But you also confirm to the service providers that you are not creating spam accounts, but rather using existing user accounts.

People are open about working with partners to further develop linguistic intelligence. The main goal here is that none of the participants have access to personal data (name, email address, phone number). In this context, we also undertake not to sell this data to third parties under any circumstances and only with the express permission of the user. In our opinion, this should also be self-evident.

In the first place, the data should not even reach the company itself, but should only be stored on Rabbit R1 and in the Rabbit Hole. It is difficult to say to what extent this is true. But the truth is that Rabbit is trying to be transparent.

Our review of the Rabbit R1

Will the Rabbit R1 replace the smartphone now? No, it is one extension. The Rabbit R1 is an interesting new introduction, but for various reasons it will not be possible to replace the smartphone at the moment. What's great is that you have the option to insert a SIM card and the functionality looks promising. However, this alone cannot replace a smartphone because any type of entertainment (video streaming, gaming, social media) is not supported or simply not attractive on the screen. So now the device only works as a stand Smart companion in addition to your smartphone.

It remains to be seen how it will ultimately prevail. Because Google is also said to be working on extending Assistant with Bard or replacing it with Bard. The question also arises as to why the functionality of the Rabbit R1 cannot simply be integrated into a smartphone app. How unique the Rabbit R1's capabilities will remain in the long term is still unknown.

It also remains to be seen how the devices will perform in everyday life and whether the (relatively low) investment is worth it 185 euros ($199) Worth it. If you're interested in a review, leave us a comment. However, at the moment only pre-orders are possible. Shipping will begin in March at the earliest in the US. There is no specific date given for global delivery. Another advantage is that you only have to pay once. There is no subscription and there will be no subscription in the future.