Sphero Mini
The Sphero Mini is ideal for educators to send home for individualized learning and can be easily facilitated and guided by parents making it the perfect robot for kids. Beginner learners can drive and play STEM-inspired games with the Sphero Play App, and more experienced learners can advance to programming the Mini with Block-Based Coding or Javascript in the Sphero Edu app.
Build your mazes, obstacles, towers and other courses to navigate through the living room or kitchen!
Equipped with a gyroscope, accelerometer, and colourful LED lights, this educational robot is more than a mini robot toy. Sphero Mini is the perfect entry into robotics for beginners!
The Sphero Mini arrived in a slim plastic box. As you open it you are greeted by the setup instructions. This runs you through how to set up the Sphero Mini while it is charging. The smiley-faced plastic shell protects important insides. This shell can be replaced and changed if needed, and you have a choice of 5 colours.
Mini Features:
- LED lights that glow in various colours
- Contains gyroscope, motor encoders, and accelerometer sensors
- Interchangeable shells allow customization with several colour options available
- Recommended for ages 8+
The app is mainly where a lot of products fail, but the Sphero Mini has one of the best apps I have ever used. It’s bright and colourful, and very intuitive. I did have to learn my way around the menu a bit, as some buttons are just icons without any labels.
I was very worried about breaking the Mini, as I spun it around blind corners at full speed. Even after a couple of bumps, it has yet to show any signs of damage. I did also lose it a few times and had to keep bumping it about to try to find it. A nice addition would be a siren it can sound to try to find it.
Sphero Mini Review
I was impressed by the wide array of fun I could have with the Mini. There is a multitude of driving modes to keep the whole family busy. Face Drive allows you to drive the Sphero Mini with just your facial expressions. Though you can always use the joystick, or gyro controls on the app to drive the Mini around your living room.
You can also use the Sphero Edu app to control your Mini with the magic of Javascript. This is a separate app and helps teach you coding in an interactive way. Finally, it’s all finished off with a collection of games, including a block game. This is a fun way to interact with the Mini.
You charge the Mini via a micro-USB cable and get around 45 mins of playtime from an hour charge. Oh, how I miss USB-C! I did find that even not using the Sphero Mini meant the battery would still drain. USB-C charging or even a wireless charging dock you can leave it on.
Overall, the Sphero Mini is a fun toy for the home. If you or any little ones are interested in coding this is also quite a fun interactive way to learn.
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