Skip to main content

Professor Einstein: Your Personal Genius educational toy review

The alternately cute and creepy Professor Einstein wants to teach your kids about science

We have seen everything from a smart bra to an electric skateboard here at Digital Trends, but we never imagined a 14.5-inch Professor Einstein robot would be strutting around on our coffee table explaining what a volcano is. This cute, walking, talking, automaton was designed by Hanson Robotics to teach the basics of science to kids, teenagers, and interested adults.

Professor Einstein lectures, answers questions, and even tells jokes. With the aid of an iPad or Android tablet, he can also quiz you to test your knowledge. We first saw a demo back in January when the Kickstarter campaign launched. It was successful, so we’ve spent the last week with the finished product. He’s recommended for ages 13 and up, but we enlisted my dinosaur-obsessed, astronomy-mad eight-year-old son, and his inquisitive five-year-old sister to help us with our Professor Einstein: Your Personal Genius review.

Recommended Videos

Why Professor Einstein?

Famed German physicist Albert Einstein had a profound impact on modern physics when he developed the theory of relativity. He went on to win a Nobel prize in 1921, and so great was his intellectual influence, that his very name has become slang for genius.

Professor Einstein lectures, answers questions, and even tells jokes.

There’s no doubt that Einstein is an iconic character, but he’s also morphed into something of a caricature in pop culture, and that’s exactly what this diminutive robot is – a caricature. The long white hair, the bushy moustache, and the expressive eyebrows are instantly recognizable, even for an eight-year-old.

Professor Einstein has a series of motors inside that allow him to shuffle around, roll his realistic eyeballs, point at you, and even pull expressions like sticking out his tongue. His voice is distinctly robotic, but with the same speech patterns and clipped German accent you’ll hear in every Einstein impression.

Getting started with Professor Einstein was one of the smoothest gadget set-ups we’ve ever experienced. You plug the rechargeable batteries into his legs, pull down his pants to flick on the power switch on his posterior, and download the free Stein-o-Matic app for iOS or Android.

We had a blast with the tech support voice that guides you through pairing, and the ‘50s theme carries through into the gorgeous app art. Once Einstein’s personality and intellect has been downloaded and he’s hooked up to your Wi-Fi network, you can create profiles and take your first step on the enlightening path to genius.

Educational, but relatively fun

Professor Einstein is capable of a few things on his own, but he’s really designed to be used in concert with the Stein-o-Matic app. We were immediately impressed with the quality of the software. There are a few bite-sized introductory videos covering the universe, the brain, motion, and special relativity, which Einstein narrates, giving the impression of a multimedia lecture.

There’s also a large selection of data cards, which provide information on topics from astronomy to biology to geology, with multiple choice questions designed to test your knowledge. The presentation is great and the formats have been tweaked to make them a little more engaging. For example, you must choose the wrong statement from a choice of three, or match up four terms with the relevant branch of science.

Professor Einstein tablet
Simon Hill/Digital Trends
Simon Hill/Digital Trends

At the easiest difficulty level, my eight-year-old was able to answer a lot of questions correctly, and the multiple-choice format allows for a process of elimination approach. You can also ramp the difficulty up beyond my scant scientific knowledge, so there should be enough of a challenge there for teens. Hanson Robotics recommends Professor Einstein for ages 13 and up, but we think younger kids will get a kick out of it, particularly if they’re developing an interest in science.

My daughter was fascinated by Einstein at first, but immediately got bored with the app because she’s only five. She later confided that she found Professor Einstein a bit creepy, and he can be. There’s a small camera in his tie which enables him to see people and he can obviously hear, so he does turn to address whoever poses a question and sometimes points his finger at you. Although he’s clearly a caricature, he has realistic eyes and often pulls distinctly odd facial expressions. The fact they’re accompanied by a lot of loudly whirring motors doesn’t add to the illusion.

Beyond the lectures and quizzes, you can also play a couple of games. Mag-Neato is a puzzle game based on magnetism and momentum. Launch Lab challenges you to control a rocket in space, and will be immediately familiar to anyone who has played Asteroids. There’s also a series of mini games based around various scientific concepts. One top-down scroller challenges you to guide a bat through a maze using echo-location, another is based on the idea of combining different colored lasers to find a target color.

Einstein elevates the presentation, but can feel like a side prop when he should be the main event.

The games in Stein-o-Matic are a mixed bag. Most of them are accessible and relatively fun, but a few, like the one where you must deflect asteroids by dragging the moon around the earth, are an exercise in frustration. They’re intended to encompass scientific concepts in a fun package, but our eight-year-old actually preferred the data cards and questions to the games.

For each profile you create (you can create up to five), you gain points by completing activities, earning a word of praise from Einstein and advancing up the “Genius levels”. The well-designed app has a mildly addictive hook that keeps you coming back for more, but, while Professor Einstein elevates the presentation, he can feel like a side prop when he should be the main event.

A misunderstood genius?

During a conversation with a colleague on quantum mechanics, Einstein reportedly said “I can’t be sure that I understand you because you are using the wrong words.” Unfortunately, the robot Professor Einstein failed to understand us on countless occasions, but not because of semantics.

When he’s offline, Professor Einstein is severely limited. You can say “Question” and then ask him how he is, or say “Hey Professor” and then tell him to take a walk or stick out his tongue. It’s a problem we’ve encountered before, with the Cognitoys Dino, which employs IBM Watson as its brain. You need to be able to go online to get the best from Professor Einstein.

If you link Professor Einstein up to your Wi-Fi connection, then you can ask him a number of different questions and he’ll search for an answer. Queries are encrypted and routed to the cloud where Hanson Robotic’s AI formulates an answer. Einstein can tell you who he is, crack a terrible joke, or explain a trapezoid or a dynamo. At least he can in theory. In practice, we found him very clunky. You have to say, “Hey Professor” to get his attention, then wait for him to respond before posing your question.

Sometimes he would be unresponsive for a few seconds, before responding “Yes, that’s me!” Even with clear enunciation, we often got a confused or negative response to our queries, or, more often, a request to repeat the question. My kids are used to Alexa, because we have an Amazon Echo, so they understand the importance of phrasing and clarity, but Professor Einstein simply isn’t as capable. We got a software update that seemed to improve his responses slightly, but overall, conversations with Professor Einstein were a real disappointment.

Volume is another issue. Professor Einstein talks quite loudly and he doesn’t seem to have a volume control, which is an odd omission.

Following a successful Kickstarter campaign, Professor Einstein is available exclusively on eBay for the next two weeks at $250. From August 6, you’ll be able to buy him at Amazon or www.professoreinstein.com for $300.

If you’re going to spend that kind of money, then you really want a responsive robot. Reflecting on our time with Einstein, most of what we liked was actually in the app, he just served as an extremely weird prop. If Hanson can improve his conversational skills, then he could help inspire kids to a career in science, but for now we’d pass on the Professor.

Simon Hill
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Simon Hill is an experienced technology journalist and editor who loves all things tech. He is currently the Associate Mobile…
Juiced Bikes offers 20% off on all e-bikes amid signs of bankruptcy
Juiced Bikes Scrambler ebike

A “20% off sitewide” banner on top of a company’s website should normally be cause for glee among customers. Except if you’re a fan of that company’s products and its executives remain silent amid mounting signs that said company might be on the brink of bankruptcy.That’s what’s happening with Juiced Bikes, the San Diego-based maker of e-bikes.According to numerous customer reports, Juiced Bikes has completely stopped responding to customer inquiries for some time, while its website is out of stock on all products. There are also numerous testimonies of layoffs at the company.Even more worrying signs are also piling up: The company’s assets, including its existing inventory of products, is appearing as listed for sale on an auction website used by companies that go out of business.In addition, a court case has been filed in New York against parent company Juiced Inc. and Juiced Bike founder Tora Harris, according to Trellis, a state trial court legal research platform.Founded in 2009 by Harris, a U.S. high-jump Olympian, Juiced Bikes was one of the early pioneers of the direct-to-consumer e-bike brands in the U.S. market.The company’s e-bikes developed a loyal fandom through the years. Last year, Digital Trends named the Juiced Bikes Scorpion X2 as the best moped-style e-bike for 2023, citing its versatility, rich feature set, and performance.The company has so far stayed silent amid all the reports. But should its bankruptcy be confirmed, it could legitimately be attributed to the post-pandemic whiplash experienced by the e-bike industry over the past few years. The Covid-19 pandemic had led to a huge spike in demand for e-bikes just as supply chains became heavily constrained. This led to a ramp-up of e-bike production to match the high demand. But when consumer demand dropped after the pandemic, e-bike makers were left with large stock surpluses.The good news is that the downturn phase might soon be over just as the industry is experiencing a wave of mergers and acquisitions, according to a report by Houlihan Lokey.This may mean that even if Juiced Bikes is indeed going under, the brand and its products might find a buyer and show up again on streets and trails.

Read more
Volkswagen plans 8 new affordable EVs by 2027, report says
volkswagen affordable evs 2027 id 2all

Back in the early 1970s, when soaring oil prices stifled consumer demand for gas-powered vehicles, Volkswagen took a bet on a battery system that would power its first-ever electric concept vehicle, the Elektro Bus.
Now that the German automaker is facing a huge slump in sales in Europe and China, it’s again turning to affordable electric vehicles to save the day.Volkswagen brand chief Thomas Schaefer told German media that the company plans to bring eight new affordable EVs to market by 2027."We have to produce our vehicles profitably and put them on the road at affordable prices," he is quoted as saying.
One of the models will be the ID.2all hatchback, the development of which is currently being expedited to 36 months from its previous 50-month schedule. Last year, VW unveiled the ID.2all concept, promising to give it a price tag of under 25,000 euros ($27,000) for its planned release in 2025.VW CEO Larry Blume has also hinted at a sub-$22,000 EV to be released after 2025.It’s unclear which models would reach U.S. shores. Last year, VW America said it planned to release an under-$35,000 EV in the U.S. by 2027.The price of batteries is one of the main hurdles to reduced EV’s production costs and lower sale prices. VW is developing its own unified battery cell in several European plants, as well as one plant in Ontario, Canada.But in order for would-be U.S. buyers to obtain the Inflation Reduction Act's $7,500 tax credit on the purchase of an EV, the vehicle and its components, including the battery, must be produced at least in part domestically.VW already has a plant in Chattanooga, Tennesse, and is planning a new plant in South Carolina. But it’s unclear whether its new unified battery cells would be built or assembled there.

Read more
Nissan launches charging network, gives Ariya access to Tesla SuperChargers
nissan charging ariya superchargers at station

Nissan just launched a charging network that gives owners of its EVs access to 90,000 charging stations on the Electrify America, Shell Recharge, ChargePoint and EVgo networks, all via the MyNissan app.It doesn’t stop there: Later this year, Nissan Ariya vehicles will be getting a North American Charging Standard (NACS) adapter, also known as the Tesla plug. And in 2025, Nissan will be offering electric vehicles (EVs) with a NACS port, giving access to Tesla’s SuperCharger network in the U.S. and Canada.Starting in November, Nissan EV drivers can use their MyNissan app to find charging stations, see charger availability in real time, and pay for charging with a payment method set up in the app.The Nissan Leaf, however, won’t have access to the functionality since the EV’s charging connector is not compatible. Leaf owners can still find charging stations through the NissanConnectEV and Services app.Meanwhile, the Nissan Ariya, and most EVs sold in the U.S., have a Combined Charging System Combo 1 (CCS1) port, which allows access to the Tesla SuperCharger network via an adapter.Nissan is joining the ever-growing list of automakers to adopt NACS. With adapters, EVs made by General Motors, Ford, Rivian, Honda and Volvo can already access the SuperCharger network. Kia, Hyundai, Toyota, BMW, Volkswagen, and Jaguar have also signed agreements to allow access in 2025.
Nissan has not revealed whether the adapter for the Ariya will be free or come at a cost. Some companies, such as Ford, Rivian and Kia, have provided adapters for free.
With its new Nissan Energy Charge Network and access to NACS, Nissan is pretty much covering all the bases for its EV drivers in need of charging up. ChargePoint has the largest EV charging network in the U.S., with over 38,500 stations and 70,000 charging ports at the end of July. Tesla's charging network is the second largest, though not all of its charging stations are part of the SuperCharger network.

Read more