Home cameras have become pretty commonplace lately.
From plug-in stationary cams for keeping an eye on the house from a table to solar powered remote cameras for monitoring your home’s exterior, security cameras have left the realm of complex CCTV systems only seen at businesses and are now practically as common-place in the modern American home as a vacuum.
This ubiquity has given rise to extremely specialized cameras made for very specific purposes. Doorbell cameras designed to record anyone approaching your front door, light bulb cameras designed to use a light socket as their power source so they can work in places with limited outlets, facial recognition cameras that alert you when an unknown person is in your kid’s room, the list goes on and on. With all this specialization it only stands to reason that a cottage industry of pet-related camera devices would crop up and boy did it ever! There are so many pet cameras out there I think it might be fun to do a little digging and see what we’re working with when it comes to how many ways you can spy on your animals from the office.
There are:
Smart AI enabled litterbox cameras that recognize your cats faces and tell you how often they do a dookie.
Treat turret cameras that have a tiny little treat gun you can use to remotely fire little food nuggets at your cats while watching them skitter around in confusion.
Smart system (Alexa/Google Home) enabled cameras that can use your smart speakers to talk to your animals.
Swiveling cameras that auto-track your animals so they are always in frame (not creepy at all, I promise).
Mobile robot cameras designed to roam the house and entertain your pets while tracking them on camera.
That last one is what we’ll be focusing on today but let’s take a moment to marvel at how expansive the camera market has become. How have we gotten to a place where something as potentially niche as a pet-watching camera has gotten so big that we have multiple brand competitors in 5 functional categories? Crazy times we live in. Crazy times.
The Good
So, let’s talk ambulatory pet-focused robo-cameras. (The more I write this review the more I feel like we are living in a dystopia.) Our first entry in this category is the Enabot EBO Air 2. As the name might imply, this is their second pass at this particular product and it is trying to do a few new things at once here. It’s a patrolling security bot, it’s a pet enrichment tool, it’s a cute little robot friend that makes funny little faces while it records everything you do. Adorable. While I’ve compared it to the first iteration and can confirm they have ironed out a lot of the bugs in this design, it still isn’t perfect.
The EBO has a few great features so let’s look at those before we focus on the problems. The design is admittedly very cute. It has a sleek round design that feels like something from the Jetsons or WallE with a big screen on the front that shows you cute little digital facial expressions as it rolls around and makes little noises. The camera is a solid 2K resolution and does a great job of taking wide-angled footage of its surroundings and the little tank treads it rolls around on are surprisingly good at handling some tricky household terrain that I honestly thought it would struggle with.
I have a lot of little area rugs in my house and the little treads (which have cute little animal paws on them, by the way) managed to climb over the edge of those rugs and manage the change in rug pile with almost no trouble at all! That little feature really blew me away because I’ve seen roller robots fail the rug-change test over and over again. It even navigated the metal edge strip between my carpet and hard wood like a champ! I can’t give the mobility of the EBO Air 2 more thumbs up. While not perfect (we’ll get to that later) it’s still miles above so many similar bots.
The camera is stellar and not only gives a nice fish-eye view of things, but does it in a way that isn’t so warped that it’s hard to look at. It gives you a wider field of view and keeps things clear. Well done, EBO.
The remote control feature is a blast. I’ve had more fun driving around my house watching my cats be crazy than I’ve had with practically any other remote control toy I’ve had. While the controls are a little wonky at times, it’s still really cool. If this were marketed as a toy I’d be 100% sold. Coupled with a few of the other features this thing comes with I feel like it would do better as a “mess with your cat” robot than a companion bot. I can get behind that.
The night vision function of the camera works pretty well which makes it easier to check in on my cats at night when I’m out of town. That does give me a little peace of mind in that scenario, but kind of makes me feel like it might be watching me while I sleep. That’s just my natural robo-paranoia speaking though.
The Not-so-Good
Ok, so let’s be real for a minute, this isn’t a complete product. It’s fine as a high-tech toy, but as a pet companion that is marketed as future tech, it falls short. There are just too many issues and half-baked features to make this a win for me.
Firstly, I found the WI-FI connection to be uneven. I thought I might have gotten a bad unit so I looked into some other reviews of the EBO Air 2 and found that other people were having the same issue. It works fine about 70%-80% of the time, but every so often it will just disconnect from the internet and go dark. It doesn’t always reconnect, either, meaning I end up not being able to check on my cats until I get home and reset the thing. That’s a huge issue for me, considering the remote access feature is half the point.
Secondly, this is marketed as a pet companion. It’s supposed to be able to interact with your animals and entertain them while you’re out. To make that happen they have programmed a number of animal noises into the robot so you can have it “attract” your animals and get them to play. In action, though, the speakers are too small and tinny to make convincing sounds and the loud meows and howls it makes are just unsettling and only serve to freak my cats out. Every time it has made one of these noises my cats have spooked and bolted. It also comes with a little laser pointer that’s supposed to entertain your cats. It’s not strong enough to make a really bright dot, and even when it does, my cats have never been able to get over their fear of the robot enough to engage with the laser. Also, not for nothing, but when it rolls over an uneven surface the pointer shoots up to eye-level and could very possibly do a bit of damage to an unsuspecting kitty eyeball, so I just stopped using that feature entirely.
Finally, the pathing is way off. It’s supposed to be able to find its way back to its charging station and plug in so it doesn’t die while you’re away. I’ve seen it successfully make it back there once, but every other time it struggles to navigate my admittedly obstacle-heavy home fast enough to make it there before it runs out of battery power.
TL;DR Specs
Here are the specs for those who just want the basics.
- Camera: 2K HD video
- Audio: Two-way communication
- Mobility: Tracked wheels
- Storage: 32GB local storage
- Battery: Rechargeable with auto-docking (theoretically)
- Dimensions: 3.74″ x 3.74″ x 3.51″
- Weight: 1.6 lbs
- Control: Mobile app
Is it Worth it?
This was more expensive at first, but the price is down to $189.00 on the Enobot site so at that price, I’d say it’s worth it if you’re looking for a neat toy. As an actual security bot and pet companion, I can’t recommend this. I have cats and they mostly just avoided the little robot, but I can imagine a dog going ham on the EBO and breaking it within moments of deployment. If you’re looking for a little fun driving around your house and barking at your cats, go for it, but otherwise I think this one is a pass.
About the Author:
Ever since a young George was disappointed with a toy that did match up to the advertising, he became a tireless advocate for consumers. He’ll review anything that folks have to spend their hard-earned dollars on. George is grateful that he gets to use his skills as a writer and an artist to help connect with consumers and help them make the best decisions possible.
This article is for informational purposes only and reflects the author’s independent opinion. Readers should verify details directly with the manufacturer or retailer before making a purchase decision.
