This AI-powered smartphone of the future has got everyone talking – and it only costs £159

The pocket-sized device could kill off your home screen and it’s clutter of apps

There’s a push-to-talk button on the side and a 360-degree rotating camera (Rabbit/iStock/The Independent)

The world’s biggest tech event has just concluded for another year. From transparent TVs to indoor smokers to toilet seats that double up as a voice-controlled bidet and butt warmer, the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) had it all, but it was the Rabbit R1 that got everyone talking.

A  red-orange square-shaped gadget that looks a little bit like the Playdate console from a couple of years ago, the R1 is a £159 AI-powered handheld device that the Santa Monica-based startup Rabbit hopes will one day replace the smartphone and its endless pages of apps.

Think of it as a voice-assisted time-saving device that can do any task that you’d ordinarily do from your smartphone when using an app, such as Uber, Deliveroo or Booking.com. Except you won’t need an app to complete those tasks.

Want to order a pizza from Uber Eats? Just press the push-to-talk button on the side and ask it to order you a 16in Hawaiian pizza, then watch as the order comes up on the screen and tap to confirm. You’ll be able to do the same for requesting an Uber, booking a hotel, adding a song to your Spotify playlist, as well as searching the web for the latest information. No apps, just one unified interface.

Rabbit opened up pre-orders on 9 January, but the first two batches of devices, which are expected to start shipping in March, sold out late last night. You can still pre-order a Rabbit R1, but it won’t arrive until May at the earliest. Here’s everything you need to know about the new device and where to pre-order it in the UK.

Rabbit R1: £159, Rabbit.tech

(Rabbit )

The Rabbit R1 is an AI-powered gadget that wants to do away with the hundreds of apps cluttering up your home screen, giving you one simple device that can do it all. Weighing 115g, the luminous orange device features a 2.9in touchscreen display and two modes of interaction.

There’s a push-to-talk button on the side and a retro analogue scroll wheel on the front, letting you navigate through the different action cards. There’s also a 360-degree rotating AI-enhanced camera that lets you make video calls. It’s wifi-enabled and supports 4G connectivity with its sim card slot. On the inside, you’ll find a MediaTek Helio P35 processor, 4GB of RAM and 128GB of storage.

The Rabbit R1 is powered by the company’s own Rabbit OS and a Large Action Model (LAM). The LAM has watched humans perform tasks on their phones and computers and learned to replicate their actions. Rabbit has already been trained to perform specific actions using apps, including Spotify, Amazon, Uber and DoorDash in the US.

To use the device, you’ll need to access Rabbit’s web portal and sign in to all your services, granting the AI permission to complete tasks on your behalf. Rabbit says that it doesn’t store the user’s credentials and that all the authentication is completed on the service’s website. It’s not something we can currently verify, so we’ll have to take the company at its word for now.

In the future, you’ll be able to teach the LAM to complete tasks yourself, just by pointing the camera at your phone or computer. The pocket-sized device costs just £159 in the UK, and the third batch of pre-ordered devices will start shipping sometime between May and June. 

Pre-order now

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