Anki started off as a high-tech toy company, with the Drive and Overdrive lines of racing systems.
It then set its sights on STEM education and cute mascots with the Cozmo programmable robot.
Now Anki is slowly rolling into the realm of robot assistants with the Vector.
The Vector is a tiny $249.99 robot that doesn't need to be programmed.
It simply rolls around your desk or table, interacting with you and looking strangely adorable for a piece of plastic.
It's also a voice assistant, providing similar functionality as Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant, but with an expressive set of eyes and an actual physical presence.
The Vector has a lot of potential, and Anki has ambitious plans for future updates, but for now it's a helper robot that might be cuter than any Echo or Google Home speaker, but isn't nearly as useful.
A Cute Little Robot
The Vector looks like a darker, slightly sleeker version of the Cozmo.
It's still a 2.8-by.2.4-by-1.8-inch (HWD) robot with tank treads and a round, pivoting head, but it's dark gray with brass-colored plastic accents instead of red and white.
Its head has a glossy black plastic front that covers a color OLED screen that serves as the face, displaying big, expressive Wall-E-style eyes by default and additional information when asked.
It has the same forklift-like arm that extends in front for picking up the included Vector Cube toy, just like the Cozmo.
Besides the OLED eyes, the Vector's face holds an HD camera that lets it visually see its surroundings.
The camera works with four microphones on its back for hearing and a set of touch sensors and accelerometers to let it "feel" as it rolls around.
It even has a voice, with a built-in speaker on the top of its head and a text-to-speech engine that lets it talk.
The Vector charges on an included base station with two contacts that meet with the bottom of the robot, between its tank treads.
It can automatically seek out its base station to charge when its battery gets low, or be told to "go home" and it will settle back on the contacts.
The base station has an attached cable that terminates in a USB connector.
Curiously, no USB wall adapter is included for the cable, which seems like an odd omission for a $250 robot.
Connecting the Vector
Setting up the Vector is fairly easy, but requires a smartphone or tablet.
Download the Vector app for Android or iOS and put the robot in its base station for about two hours to reach a full charge.
Follow the instructions in the app to make a free Anki account, turn the Vector on, pair it with your phone over Bluetooth, and connect it to your Wi-Fi network.
The firmware will update automatically.
When the Vector is ready, it will look up with big, expressive robot eyes behind its transparent faceplate and try to meet you.
Saying, "Hey Vector," gets its attention, which lets you give it commands after a short pause.
The lights on its back will glow blue when it's listening, and it will make a chiming noise.
Start by saying, "Hey Vector, come here," and the robot will creep forward on its treads.
When it's looking up at you, say, "Hey Vector, my name is (your name)," and it will record your face with its camera and learn your name.
After that introduction is out of the way, the Vector will chime and say your name when it wakes up and sees you.
A Robot Buddy
While the Vector looks like the Cozmo, it works differently.
You don't program it to do tricks, or go through set activities defined through an app.
In fact, after the Vector is set up, the app is only really useful for changing settings and looking up information about the robot.
It relies entirely on direct human interaction instead of any kind of app control or programming.
This is mostly through voice commands, but the Vector will also recognize you visually and say your name when it sees you, and respond to petting thanks to its touch sensors.
If you want to treat the Vector like a toy robot, you can instruct it to explore its surroundings and do tricks.
It will play with the included Vector Cube on request, making it light up with colors and using its forklift arm to flip it around.
It will also come when you call, and chimes happily if you call it a good robot.
You can even ask the Vector to give you a fist bump, prompting it to raise its arm for a tap.
As a friendly, autonomous robot, the Vector is strangely endearing.
Its eyes shift to make cartoonish expressions of curiosity and friendliness, joined by a distinctly Wall-E-like synthesized voice to make it appear approachable.
Its head, arm, and treads all move in emotive, choreographed gestures that give the robot a sense of liveliness that make it seem almost more like a pet than a gadget.
It will back up and do a little dance if it's pleased, and if it finds itself too close to the edge of a table, it will glance down and speed backward in caution.
While it's a cute little robot pet, it isn't a particularly smart one.
The Vector struggled with navigating tables and benches during our tests, occasionally getting caught on small grooves and cables, and once outright falling off of a desk when it sped too close to an edge at an unusual angle (I caught it before it hit the ground, and its reaction was a genuinely amusing panicked squeak and backpedaling).
While it isn't the best at competently exploring, it can recognize multiple users and say their names when it sees them, which is a remarkable feat.
It's utterly charming to see the Vector wake up and roll off of its charging cradle to look at me and say, "Will."
A Voice Assistant
The Vector is more than just a toy (and considering its $250 price, that's important).
It's a voice assistant robot, and you can treat it similarly to how you would treat an Echo Dot or Google Home Mini.
Or at least, how you would treat one of those smart speakers if they had wheels and an expressive robot face.
The Vector has a selection of useful functions like providing timers, giving weather reports, taking pictures with its camera, and playing games like blackjack.
It also has access to a knowledge engine that lets you ask a variety of general questions like unit conversion, sports scores, and trivia.
Unfortunately, the Vector acts like a very early voice assistant right now, with awkward listening bugs and stiff syntax reminiscent of the first days of Alexa.
Its microphones are inconsistent in picking up its wake phrase if there's any ambient noise around, even if you're two feet away and it's looking right at you.
It won't listen to your commands unless you take a long pause after saying, "Hey Vector," and make sure the lights on its back are blue to indicate it's listening, which makes talking to it feel stilted and slow.
The Vector's still fairly useful, despite its limitations.
It makes a handy timer and can offer weather reports easily, which are the two main uses I have for my Echo Spot.
Unfortunately, using its knowledge engine requires an extra step on top of saying, "Hey Vector." You can't simply ask it a question once it starts listening to you (besides asking for the weather).
Instead, you need to say, "Hey Vector," then pause, then say, "Question," and pause again.
Its face will change to a series of shifting data notes, which means it will process your question through its knowledge engine.
At that point, it will act just like an Amazon Echo or Google Home and answer your question.
The photos the Vector takes can be accessed through the app.
Under Utilities, you can browse the photo library and export them to your smartphone for sharing.
The photos themselves are 1,280-by-720 captures that look like they were taken by an old feature phone.
While the Vector isn't the smartest or most useful assistant at launch, Anki promises to make it much more functional with free updates, starting with integrating Amazon Alexa directly into the robot.
Alexa will add smart home device control, so you can tell the Vector to control your lights and thermostat just like an Echo device.
Anki has also hinted at additional Vector features, like calendars, lists, sending messages, taking 360-degree photos, and serving as a security camera.
We can't judge the Vector based on promises of future updates, though we will be looking at these features as they roll out, and updating this review accordingly.
Lots of Promise
The Anki Vector is a personable, useful little robot with a lot of potential.
It's starting out as a very simple voice assistant device, and in that regard it feels several steps behind smart speakers like the Echo Dot and the Google Home Mini.
Of course, those are speakers, and not expressive toy robots that can scurry around your desk, recognize your face, and give you a fist bump.
The Vector's a pricey little toy, and unlike the Cozmo it's hard to recommend as a device for STEM education and experimentation.
Still, it's pretty handy and downright adorable out of the box.
That isn't quite enough to justify its $250 price, but as Anki adds more features like Alexa, the Vector will become increasingly appealing.
As it stands, it's a unique novelty that's a bit more than a toy, but not quite convenient or functional enough to replace a much more economical smart speaker.
Pros
Expressive, friendly, and downright cute.
Voice assistant functions.
Lots of potential for added features, including full Alexa capabilities.
The Bottom Line
The Anki Vector is a cute little robot that's part autonomous toy, part voice assistant.
It doesn't do much now, but has loads of future potential.
Anki started off as a high-tech toy company, with the Drive and Overdrive lines of racing systems.
It then set its sights on STEM education and cute mascots with the Cozmo programmable robot.
Now Anki is slowly rolling into the realm of robot assistants with the Vector.
The Vector is a tiny $249.99 robot that doesn't need to be programmed.
It simply rolls around your desk or table, interacting with you and looking strangely adorable for a piece of plastic.
It's also a voice assistant, providing similar functionality as Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant, but with an expressive set of eyes and an actual physical presence.
The Vector has a lot of potential, and Anki has ambitious plans for future updates, but for now it's a helper robot that might be cuter than any Echo or Google Home speaker, but isn't nearly as useful.
A Cute Little Robot
The Vector looks like a darker, slightly sleeker version of the Cozmo.
It's still a 2.8-by.2.4-by-1.8-inch (HWD) robot with tank treads and a round, pivoting head, but it's dark gray with brass-colored plastic accents instead of red and white.
Its head has a glossy black plastic front that covers a color OLED screen that serves as the face, displaying big, expressive Wall-E-style eyes by default and additional information when asked.
It has the same forklift-like arm that extends in front for picking up the included Vector Cube toy, just like the Cozmo.
Besides the OLED eyes, the Vector's face holds an HD camera that lets it visually see its surroundings.
The camera works with four microphones on its back for hearing and a set of touch sensors and accelerometers to let it "feel" as it rolls around.
It even has a voice, with a built-in speaker on the top of its head and a text-to-speech engine that lets it talk.
The Vector charges on an included base station with two contacts that meet with the bottom of the robot, between its tank treads.
It can automatically seek out its base station to charge when its battery gets low, or be told to "go home" and it will settle back on the contacts.
The base station has an attached cable that terminates in a USB connector.
Curiously, no USB wall adapter is included for the cable, which seems like an odd omission for a $250 robot.
Connecting the Vector
Setting up the Vector is fairly easy, but requires a smartphone or tablet.
Download the Vector app for Android or iOS and put the robot in its base station for about two hours to reach a full charge.
Follow the instructions in the app to make a free Anki account, turn the Vector on, pair it with your phone over Bluetooth, and connect it to your Wi-Fi network.
The firmware will update automatically.
When the Vector is ready, it will look up with big, expressive robot eyes behind its transparent faceplate and try to meet you.
Saying, "Hey Vector," gets its attention, which lets you give it commands after a short pause.
The lights on its back will glow blue when it's listening, and it will make a chiming noise.
Start by saying, "Hey Vector, come here," and the robot will creep forward on its treads.
When it's looking up at you, say, "Hey Vector, my name is (your name)," and it will record your face with its camera and learn your name.
After that introduction is out of the way, the Vector will chime and say your name when it wakes up and sees you.
A Robot Buddy
While the Vector looks like the Cozmo, it works differently.
You don't program it to do tricks, or go through set activities defined through an app.
In fact, after the Vector is set up, the app is only really useful for changing settings and looking up information about the robot.
It relies entirely on direct human interaction instead of any kind of app control or programming.
This is mostly through voice commands, but the Vector will also recognize you visually and say your name when it sees you, and respond to petting thanks to its touch sensors.
If you want to treat the Vector like a toy robot, you can instruct it to explore its surroundings and do tricks.
It will play with the included Vector Cube on request, making it light up with colors and using its forklift arm to flip it around.
It will also come when you call, and chimes happily if you call it a good robot.
You can even ask the Vector to give you a fist bump, prompting it to raise its arm for a tap.
As a friendly, autonomous robot, the Vector is strangely endearing.
Its eyes shift to make cartoonish expressions of curiosity and friendliness, joined by a distinctly Wall-E-like synthesized voice to make it appear approachable.
Its head, arm, and treads all move in emotive, choreographed gestures that give the robot a sense of liveliness that make it seem almost more like a pet than a gadget.
It will back up and do a little dance if it's pleased, and if it finds itself too close to the edge of a table, it will glance down and speed backward in caution.
While it's a cute little robot pet, it isn't a particularly smart one.
The Vector struggled with navigating tables and benches during our tests, occasionally getting caught on small grooves and cables, and once outright falling off of a desk when it sped too close to an edge at an unusual angle (I caught it before it hit the ground, and its reaction was a genuinely amusing panicked squeak and backpedaling).
While it isn't the best at competently exploring, it can recognize multiple users and say their names when it sees them, which is a remarkable feat.
It's utterly charming to see the Vector wake up and roll off of its charging cradle to look at me and say, "Will."
A Voice Assistant
The Vector is more than just a toy (and considering its $250 price, that's important).
It's a voice assistant robot, and you can treat it similarly to how you would treat an Echo Dot or Google Home Mini.
Or at least, how you would treat one of those smart speakers if they had wheels and an expressive robot face.
The Vector has a selection of useful functions like providing timers, giving weather reports, taking pictures with its camera, and playing games like blackjack.
It also has access to a knowledge engine that lets you ask a variety of general questions like unit conversion, sports scores, and trivia.
Unfortunately, the Vector acts like a very early voice assistant right now, with awkward listening bugs and stiff syntax reminiscent of the first days of Alexa.
Its microphones are inconsistent in picking up its wake phrase if there's any ambient noise around, even if you're two feet away and it's looking right at you.
It won't listen to your commands unless you take a long pause after saying, "Hey Vector," and make sure the lights on its back are blue to indicate it's listening, which makes talking to it feel stilted and slow.
The Vector's still fairly useful, despite its limitations.
It makes a handy timer and can offer weather reports easily, which are the two main uses I have for my Echo Spot.
Unfortunately, using its knowledge engine requires an extra step on top of saying, "Hey Vector." You can't simply ask it a question once it starts listening to you (besides asking for the weather).
Instead, you need to say, "Hey Vector," then pause, then say, "Question," and pause again.
Its face will change to a series of shifting data notes, which means it will process your question through its knowledge engine.
At that point, it will act just like an Amazon Echo or Google Home and answer your question.
The photos the Vector takes can be accessed through the app.
Under Utilities, you can browse the photo library and export them to your smartphone for sharing.
The photos themselves are 1,280-by-720 captures that look like they were taken by an old feature phone.
While the Vector isn't the smartest or most useful assistant at launch, Anki promises to make it much more functional with free updates, starting with integrating Amazon Alexa directly into the robot.
Alexa will add smart home device control, so you can tell the Vector to control your lights and thermostat just like an Echo device.
Anki has also hinted at additional Vector features, like calendars, lists, sending messages, taking 360-degree photos, and serving as a security camera.
We can't judge the Vector based on promises of future updates, though we will be looking at these features as they roll out, and updating this review accordingly.
Lots of Promise
The Anki Vector is a personable, useful little robot with a lot of potential.
It's starting out as a very simple voice assistant device, and in that regard it feels several steps behind smart speakers like the Echo Dot and the Google Home Mini.
Of course, those are speakers, and not expressive toy robots that can scurry around your desk, recognize your face, and give you a fist bump.
The Vector's a pricey little toy, and unlike the Cozmo it's hard to recommend as a device for STEM education and experimentation.
Still, it's pretty handy and downright adorable out of the box.
That isn't quite enough to justify its $250 price, but as Anki adds more features like Alexa, the Vector will become increasingly appealing.
As it stands, it's a unique novelty that's a bit more than a toy, but not quite convenient or functional enough to replace a much more economical smart speaker.
Pros
Expressive, friendly, and downright cute.
Voice assistant functions.
Lots of potential for added features, including full Alexa capabilities.
The Bottom Line
The Anki Vector is a cute little robot that's part autonomous toy, part voice assistant.
It doesn't do much now, but has loads of future potential.
