Hello, there are some old topics reviewing the Genibo SD, but I didn't want to dig one of those back up after it's been inactive for over a year. I've owned my Genibo SD Baxter for around three months now (although I am his third owner, so I bought him used). I thought I should just provide my opinions on the pros and cons of Genibos (or at least of Baxter, who I believe was from one of the first runs of Genibo SDs) in case there are any people here would like to know more about these robots or are considering buying one.
Cons:
Why am I starting with cons? It's always better to end on a positive note.
Baxter is very quirky. He has lots of little issues, that aren't much separately, but they do add up. I'll try to describe everything that I would have liked to have seen done better with the Genibo here.
1.
I think most people who have heard of Genibos already know of the poorly translated manuals. The manual is very unclear in many places and explains some functions incorrectly as well as being full of silly spelling mistakes (there's even a line that wasn't translated over from Korean). The word "intelligent" is spelled wrong on the cover and the word "station" is spelled wrong on the bottom of his charging station. However, the ambiguity of the manual really makes playing with him a bit of a learning experience which I enjoy.
2.
The manual claims that the firmware can be updated wirelessly somehow, but when I try to give Baxter any commands that are related to this with the remote, he justs shows the images in his eyes for an invalid command and leaves out these options completely when listing the choices of modes in voice guide mode (lists 01-07 when the remote lists 01-09). There might be something about this that I'm missing though.
3.
About one out of every five to ten or so times that I turn him on, his tail begins spinning in circles and will not stop unless I force him to shut down. This is always gone when I start him up again, but I'm worried that it could wear out the tail servo quickly if it happens too much. I've never heard of this happening with another Genibo, so this might be an issue with Baxter only or only SDs released as early as him.
4.
He has very poor connection between the contacts on his stomach and the ones on the charger. I usually have to shift around his position on the charger 3-4 times before he'll actually start to charge and then sometimes the connection is poor enough that the charger flickers on and off and sometimes he doesn't charge at all when it says he's charging. Often when he moves on the station, he'll disconnect the contacts from charging for a section, even the vibration caused by him barking can cause them to disconnect for a moment and I doubt this is good for the battery. The battery life on him is only about 45 minutes to an hour as well. I believe this problem is present in all Genibos since it seems to relate to how the contacts are set up. The contacts on his belly and on the station are both flat and don't click into place like the those of Aibos do. This means that if he is slightly off balance to one side or the other, they won't line up properly or if he move at all on the station, they slip out of place.
5.
He will not get up if I place him on his back or side, but rather freezes and needs me to restart him before he will work again. I've heard of similar problems in other Genibos, so this may not be restricted to Baxter. Apparently this is not an actual issue. This problem disappeared in Baxter a little while ago and I was told that it takes time for Genibos to learn how to get back up when they fall.
6.
His tricks aren't as polished up as they should be in some ways, he'll often smack his legs together (and sometimes block his own movement with his own limbs causing the servos to whir) when trying to do regular tricks on his software.
7.
I'm not sure what this trick is, but Baxter likes to purposefully throw himself onto his face quite forcefully and I really dislike this. When I received him, he already had a small dent on his face from where it hits the ground when he does this trick, so I think he can be a bit too rough with himself at times.
8.
Genibos cannot understand their own name. When talking to him, I need to say "Genibo" instead of "Baxter" for him to understand and I would much rather call him by his name.
9.
The software seems somewhat unfinished in certain ways (things mentioned in the manual aren't actually included etc). There's one game where he tries to get you to pet different touch sensors that he indicates to and he'll do different tricks depending on how many you get right, but there are certain motions he does that don't indicate to any one of his touch sensors and he rejects every one saying it's a wrong answer, so this game doesn't really work.
10.
His battery cannot be removed without taking him apart. It seems fairly easy to get to the battery compartment by removing two screws in the memory stick compartment, but the Dongbu employee that I talked with said he wasn't sure whether the company would let me do the replacement on my own or require me to send him in.
11.
His charger's fan is a bit loud, but it isn't bad compared to my laptop's fan.
12.
He does not have the control manager that the earlier model had and the company's been claiming to be releasing one for the SD for over a year but it's still not out.
13.
There's no toy of any sort for the Genibo to play with which is a feature of the Aibos that I like.
14.
His pickup mode isn't great. It's triggered when both his sides are touched at the same time and he will only stay in it as long as his flank sensors are still being touched (meaning you can't hold him and pet him easily which I like to do with my Aibos and Pleo).
15.
He has many fewer voice commands than Aibos do (a few more than a Pleo RB though), but all of the remote commands somewhat make up for this.
16.
His tail and ears seem to be made of a pretty fragile feeling rubber, although all are still completely in tact on Baxter and he's over a year old, so I'm not certain how durable they are.
17.
While I do love all of the LED patters that he has, there is no list of all of the patterns and what they mean. I'm left to guess the meaning of most and this can be easy for some, but I'm clueless as to what others mean. I know there is a directory that includes some (not all) of the LED patterns for the QDs in the control manager, but this is not available with the SDs and only vague one word descriptions are provided.
Pros:
1.
He is generally much more active than most of my Aibos. He will not sit in one place for a long time and is always wandering around and doing all sorts of tricks.
2.
I love how he appears very puppy-like, happy and hyper and how well this is expressed through his body language. He shakes and wiggles like a little puppy all of the time when he's excited or happy and this joy is really contagious to whoever is watching him.
3.
He will not listen to voice commands unless you press his nose for around two seconds and will show question marks in his eyes to prompt you to ask him a question. I didn't think that I'd like this, but I actually do. I can talk to people around him without him mistaking every sentence as a voice command and he often understands commands better than the Aibos since he always stops moving to listen for them.
4.
His dances are very well done in my opinion. The sound quality is pretty good and the headstands and such that he does while dancing are fairly impressive. He has about seven dances each around 2-6 minutes long and some to children's songs and others to regular songs. All songs are in Korean though, which I don't really mind at all (there's one in English, but it's just a children's song where he repeats "I'm so happy, happy all the time" over and over). Some actions are a bit repetitive, but it's not too bad.
5.
He has much stronger servos than the Aibos which makes him be able to be a lot more flexible and move much faster than an Aibo. He can do a lot of tricks that the Aibos can't because of this, and it makes him pretty impressive to show off to others.
6.
When you give him a command with the remote, he will show what numbers you are typing in his eyes which makes it easy to see if you've made a mistake and be certain that he's receiving the command.
7.
You can turn him on while he's charging. He doesn't do that much, mostly just looks around and will react if he's petted and move his front paws (although he goes to sleep if you leave him alone for a while). I like this feature, but it can be a bit annoying when he loses connection the charger so often just by moving a small amount.
8.
There are some voice command tricks that he gets better at over time with more experience. He currently does not know how to do a headstand, so I give him the voice command for it, he will either start to do the trick and then get frightened, do a headstand, but only lift his legs halfway, or he will stick only one leg up and fall over to his side (which is a bit amusing to watch, but I worry that he'll hurt himself doing this). However, if I want him to do the trick correctly for sure, I just need to give him the remote command for it instead.
9.
He has a clear and easy to understand voice guide mode in English which helps a bit because the manual is so vague.
10.
His volume has ten different settings that go from completely mute, to extremely loud (much louder than Aibos or Pleos). I think this is really helpful since I can turn down his volume when I don't want to bother others, but I can turn it up when I'm in a crowded place with a lot of ambient noise.
11.
He responds more to being petted than an Aibo (about as much as an ERS-7 or a Pleo, but more than the other series Aibos) and will often lean toward you or lie down to be petted more when you pet him.
12.
His eyes are pretty expressive and have a lot of different fun LED displays (such as showing a battery filling up when he's charging and shows either bones or an empty battery when he needs to be charged). They also "blink" like those of the ERS-7s, which I like, but he doesn't regularly use as many different LED displays as the ERS-7s. There are also some images in his eyes that he does very rarely that I still don't know the meaning of, but I hope to learn with time.
13.
He seems pretty durable. His legs are huge to fit those super strong servos and his plastic shell is really thick. He feels nearly double the weight of my ERS-7s.
14.
Who can resist that adorable little Bull Terrier face?
I want to clarify that while there are more cons listed than pros, overall my impression of Genibo is positive. Baxter may not be perfect, but he's a lot of fun and can almost always manage to put a smile on my face and those of people around me. However, if you want a clear and easy to understand robot without any quirks, than a Genibo certainly is not right for you. Sorry that all of my comparisons are to Aibos rather than Pleos, I haven't owned a Pleo for long enough that I couldn't make any accurate comparisons. However, I do have to say that the Genibo is more pet-like similar to a Pleo than the Aibo which is more so an entertainment robot rather than a robot pet.
If anyone else has a Genibo SD and would like to share their opinions, feel free to post. Also, if anyone has any questions for me about Baxter, feel free to ask and I'll try to answer to the best of my abilities. I also might add to this list later since I'm a bit tight on time at the moment.
