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First Impressions: Sphero

By Sami Mughal

What is the Sphero? Not surprisingly, it is a ball. Wait, haven’t they been around since ages? Okay, it is a ball, but a very special ball. Fitted with an array of RGB LEDs, and some very clever motors, this is what I’d like to call a magic ball. It moves, it plays, and all this through the magic of your phone (connected via Bluetooth).

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So, do excuse my very messy desk while I tell you about this. Actually, no wait. Watch the video below:

So, now to our first impressions, and some thoughts.

So the first thing you notice is that this is quite heavy. I suppose mentally you expect it to be a bit like a tennis ball, but this is actually more like a billiard ball.

In the box is the Sphero, of course, but to add to that we have the wireless induction charger, and a Getting Started guide. The guide helps you pair this, charge this, and download/install an app and pretty much get started.

As far as getting this to work, you have a few options. There is the basic Sphero app, and then there are other apps you can download to play various games with this. We have so far downloaded the basic app, just to get a feel of what this does.

Pairing is fairly simple, and it is something you do through the app.

Once the app is up and running, you can control a lot of features. The colour it shines in, the speed it runs at, and the most magical thing of all, you can make it move, just by swiping your fingers on your smartphone. Cool, huh? Very!

In our further reviews, we’ll talk a bit more about the apps available, and how good the experience is.

We saw this first at the Gadget Show Live this year, and while we were at the stall, somebody actually asked if there was any plan to put a camera in one of these. Sadly the answer came back as ‘No’. That would be the next step I guess!

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