Rabbit r1: Bright Orange, Mostly Empty

BENCH LOG // The r1 turned up, I charged it, and within an hour I had the back off. Old habit. If a thing lives in my pocket I want to know what is actually in there.

Teenage Engineering did the styling and it shows; the $199 unit that landed after CES in January 2024 is a lovely object. The trouble starts when you ask it to do something. The Large Action Model pitch was that it would push buttons across your apps for you. In practice I spent more time waiting on a round trip to a server than I would have spent just doing the thing on a phone that was, inconveniently, right there.

My take from the bench: a dedicated gadget has to be faster or quieter or smaller than the phone it is competing with, ideally all three. The r1 was none of those once the novelty wore off. Gorgeous paperweight. I kept it on the shelf where I keep the other gorgeous paperweights.