Top positive review
5.0 out of 5 starsBest STEM Robotic Device on the market
Reviewed in the United States on October 27, 2017
(Bought this for a 5 year old) Absolutely OUTSTANDING product. As both a creative lead and tech developer, my personal standards for these types of devices is quite high and this little thing has not only met every expectation and promise, but exceeded them. In a world flooded with mediocre (or outright horrible) iterations of educational scientific / tech / STEM toys, it is incredibly satisfying to land on a product so well designed and constructed in every aspect of its envelope. MAJOR props to the teams behind the Dash. I cannot recommend it enough, both my 5 year old and myself find the device challenging and fun to use; a very difficult thing to accomplish.
PROS:
- Slick product design and very solid / sturdy construction.
- Powerful, smooth and responsive motors, will not get stuck on simple objects in its path and can truck over changes in terrain such (rugs clothing) with little effort. It can also avoid obstacles. Motors have a very smooth motion.
- Great battery life, and quick charging. I have not tested the full discharge, but you can easily get over an hour's worth of play-time out a partial charge (probably more).
- Nearly infinite configurability. I am simply blown away by the number of pre-defined nodes you can pull up and program into the system, as well as the simplicity of adding your own. the result is a ridiculously vast ability to configure different programs and interactions.
- FANTASTIC companion application, BRILLIANT UX/UI. I cannot overstate how incredibly well designed and implemented the robot and application are. The application It is one probably the best I have ever seen for a toy like this and easily the one thing that sets this above the rest. It is intuitive, responsive, and the education / tutoring progression section is phenomenal. My child has a blast going through the progression and enjoys the feel of the presentation. It does an excellent job of conveying basic and advanced principles and getting the user to not only execute those principles, but QA them.
SUPER PRO
- NO account sign up. NO user info. NO data tracking. In a world where every damned thing wants to siphon personal info through a sign up, subscription to a news letter, liking of a Facebook post, submission of a credit check and donation blood... for the honor of using it, this device has NONE of that nonsense. THANK YOU DASH!
SUPER DUPER PRO
- Price. I have seen a plethora of far inferior toys for double the cost (or more). This thing is a no-brainer at this price, especially when compared to the garbage out there.
CON / ROOM FOR IMPROVEMENT
- I had to struggle with a CON, so this really more of an improvement request. A better way to export / view the actual code which the application is running, so the user can see a comparison between the node layout and the code used to execute the commend. This is minor though, as the current structure does an EXCELLENT job of introducing programing concepts, workflows and troubleshooting.
Just get it. You will not at all be disappointed.
