While I hesitate to call the Rabbit R1 AI companion device useless, I would not describe it as useful. This is a cute, orange gadget that has spent much of its brief time in my pocket. I have little to reason to pull it out. And why would I? It does nothing better than my iPhone 15 Pro Max and the dozens of apps I have on it. It's not even a better AI device than a smartphone with Gemini, Copilot, or ChatGPT.
Even the design, which gets points for solid construction and cute, retro looks, fails to inspire. The touch-screen, physical scroll wheel navigation is one of the worst system interaction strategies I've ever encountered. RabbitOS's incredibly linear navigation only exacerbates the problem. I can't remember the last mobile piece of consumer electronics that didn't know to return to a home screen if you weren't using it. I'd argue the developers took the "rabbit hole" metaphor a little too seriously and designed an operating system that is nothing but rabbit holes and the only way you get out of them is by carefully backing up.
