Customer Reviews

Smart e-Bear

5 star:		(16)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Let me say first and foremost, this toy is not worth the $80 MSRP. It's a stuffed bear with a speaker in it. I picked it up here at Amazon at an enormous discount, and I wouldn't have paid a penny more for it. If I had paid full MSRP, it would be going back to Amazon. In fact, it may be going back anyway.

I decided to rewrite my review after giving it to my 3-year-old son so I can add his impressions as well. I'll try to avoid ranting over the media issue and break it down into pros and cons.

Pros:
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-software is extremely easy to work with
-huge variety of educational material pre-categorized by subject
-bear is very light, soft and cuddly
-memory has room for over 5 hours of non-repeating play
-headphone jack was a nice thought
-speaker is good enough quality for a child's toy

Cons:
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-EXTREMELY overpriced
-bear does NOT come preloaded with over an hour of content like the product description states, but 23 minutes (33 minutes if you download free content)
-games are too fast paced and too short
-buttons to activate the feet are not where you'd expect them to be and continually frustrated my son
-the "interactive" stories only ask your child ONE question throughout the entire story with no impact on the outcome
-navigating content via the yes/no system is extremely tedious and time-consuming, especially with a large amount of content
-no continuous playback, bear stops after every single song
-songs and stories get interrupted constantly if your child accidentally touches the hands or feet
-songs and stories purchased on the website can NOT be converted for use on other devices
-likewise, you can NOT add your own content that you have already purchased
-website can occasionally trick you, such as when you buy the album "25 Christmas Songs" and you only get 15 songs
-albums are more expensive on manufacturer's website than if you were to buy them elsewhere, such as here on Amazon
-you lose everything you've purchased if you ever sell or give the bear to someone else, you can't keep it and it does not transfer to the new owner

This toy had amazing potential if only the manufacturer were a little less greedy. If they allowed you to add your own content or allowed you to use content you purchase from them on other devices, I would have paid more than what I did and been very satisfied. In the end, if you don't mind paying out your nose for songs and stories that you can't use without the bear, it may be worth it for you. If you like to make the most of every penny spent, you may be ticked off like I am. In the end, if my son had absolutely adored the bear, that would have made it worth it for me. But after 15 minutes the bear was thrown across the room and not looked at again. One of the worst toy purchases I have ever made.

My son received Smart-e-Bear for his 2nd birthday. He enjoys it tremendously.

We've only had it for a little while, so he's concentrated on just a few of the features and pieces of content -- toddlers like the repetition after all -- so I have no complaints about only having a 1/2 hour or so of material. Considering how many times we've heard the "Five Little Monkeys" song so far, a half hour of other stuff might last years!

The toy itself appears to be durable, works reliably, and has been very entertaining for my son. That he can control the toy a little, and that it responds to his squeezing the paws, is a big deal. For a kid that likes pressing buttons and enjoys taking in the cause/effect of his actions, this is a GREAT toy.

But the real advantage this toy brings is the unbelievably responsive service from the manufacturer.

In the course of synching the toy the first time so it would say my child's name, I got either impatient or creative (depending on how you look at it), didn't follow the instructions, and somehow managed to screw up the data on the bear. This was at about 7 PM (West coast time). I left a message and sent an e-mail to the tech support number, thinking it'd take a day or two to resolve the issue.

But within the hour, I had the president of the company on the line from new York walking me through some fixes. When he wasn't immediately able to fix the problem remotely, he arranged to send a replacement -- which arrived, pre-programmed for my son, the next day.

Intellitoys took responsibility for the issue -- even though it might have been my fault for breaking it! -- and made certain that my son had a working toy for his birthday. He -- and I -- really, really appreciate it.

I look forward to this company's next creation.

Smart e Bear has hit the mark with bringing together technology and simplicity in a soft easy to use traditional looking toy. Smart e Bear can be a simple huggable plush bear for your child, or when you turn it on it becomes a music player, story teller, and game player. My son's Smart e Bear has almost 90 minutes of content loaded and it takes up less than 10% of its storage capacity, so you get the idea of how much this little guy can store.

The Smart e Bear online store has lots of content to purchase and free content as well. Songs are .99 cents and I purchased an interactive story and a game for 1.99 each. Interactive stories have decision points for your child to decide where they want the story to go, and games can test memory or listening skills. There are also narrated stories by colorful narrators with music and sounds and voices. It's easy to purchase content via credit card or Pay Pal and you can listen to 30 second segments when browsing the song area. The software also knows which songs you have purchased so you don't have to worry about remembering.

Smart e Bear also has a huge list of children's names so it can greet your child by name when you turn it on. With so much content available Smart e Bear will always be fresh and new to your child and not get boring and repetitive like hard programmed non updateable electronic stuffed animals. Now if YOU need a break from the bear before your child is ready to stop, not a problem, it has a jack to plug in headphones!!

Customer service is also great. I had a non technical question which I emailed and called (left a message) about and the customer service rep returned my call (left me a voice message) AND replied to my e mail knowing that I was the same person, just to make sure they reached me and that my question was answered. Their website also has video tutorials to show you how update the bear incase you are not sure how.

This is a great toy/educational tool that you can always change up to keep fresh and new. It's a winner!

This just arrived (super fast, too), and since it's a Christmas present for my daughter, it's not out of the box yet, but I have turned it on and played with it a bit. I even showed it to my daughter (she's 6 months), and she was thrilled by it. All smiles and grabby hands (and she was actually reaching for the bear, not trying to eat the box).

Anyway, from what I can tell so far, this is going to be a huge hit in our house, for several reasons:
~it's super soft and cuddly, more than I expected from a "tech" toy
~the songs aren't the same crap you hear over and over again on all your kids' other toys. They're bouncy and fun, and they even have "And The Cat Came Back."
~if you still don't want to hear it, it has a headphone jack!
~it comes preloaded with almost an hour and a half of different content, and you can already get 5 new songs and one new story free on the website (there are a ton more to buy for $0.99 each), and they're constantly updating.
~they just added over a thousand names to their database, so your child's new toy can call them by name, and they'll be adding more names in the future.
~their customer service is excellent. I had a question, and they responded quickly and were very kind and personable, and definitely went above and beyond.

I can't wait for Christmas now. :)

This toy is adorable and a great concept, but I advise you to wait a year to see if they can work out the bugs.

PROS:

The bear is very soft and cuddly and my 2 1/2 year old daughter enjoys dancing with it and listening to the stories.

The speaker sounds great.

The music and stories are from actual CDs so you aren't stuck listening to the normal tinny sound of a toy playing music.

Customer service is very attentive and responded almost instantly to all of my complaints.

CONS:

There are almost no instructions at all with it.

The help section on the website is sparse.

There are endless errors in the smart-e-store with bad links that play the incorrect songs when you try to "preview" them.

It gets very expensive buying additional content at $1+ each.

The second time I tried to change the content, I just kept getting an unspecified error.

The menus to choose the song/story are WAY TOO TEDIOUS for an adult, never mind a child. (Think automated phone answering system at your insurance company - arg).

All in all, it's cute and I'll keep it if I can get it to sync with the computer again. I DEFINITELY would return it if I had paid full price. Not worth the money.

its awsome teaches and sings all types of educational things your kids would love it

I recently purchased a Smartebear for my son's 2nd birthday and was attempting to add some new media to it for the first time and got an non specific error message while sync-ing it. The bear was immediately rendered unresponsible and I have attempted to reboot it/change the batteries with no success in reviving it. I attempted to sync it with two other computers and got the same error message again. It seems the issue is with the bear itself or the smartebear software.

The company was quick to replace it with a new one and the new bear is fantastic. My 2.5 year old son loves it and takes it with him where ever he goes and snuggles up to it to sleep at night listening to a bedtime story.

This is great for your kids.
It creates a companion that also simultaneously teaches your child about whatever it is you choose to upload into the bear.
The website offering more stories, songs & learning programs is still being updated fully with other languages and related content.
It was easy to set up and the list of names is abundant.
Just remember you will have to spend a few bucks to purchase other (not previously loaded) content into your bear to personalize it.
You can purchase these new songs & stories using paypal, which makes it easy.
Overall a very good purchase and great idea.

My only con was the pronunciation on some of the names, it was very robotic...

I bought 3 of these, 2 for my 2 year old grandchildren and 1 for a friends 5 year old daughter. The 5 year old takes it everywhere and plays with it often. The 2 year olds love the softness but aren't ready for all the educational stuff on their own. They love it when Gram-E plays with them though.

My almost-3-year-old son received this for Christmas (per my request). It was on sale for $[...] or I wouldn't have requested it since you never know if a kid will like a toy until it's too late. The bear is very cute and cuddly and even bigger than I thought (which makes no difference to me), but is probably a little too complicated for my son (or maybe just not interesting enough, I'm not sure). He likes the bear some because he likes stuffed animals, but it can be a little "time consuming" to get to the song or activity that you want to do. When the bear comes on it will say, "Hello, ____" and give the child's name if you program it that way (through the computer). But then it starts a routine of "If you want to play Simon Says, squeeze my hand. If you want to do something else, squeeze my foot." And you have to go through this sequence over and over to get to the thing you want to do (the more songs, stories, activities on the bear, the longer it will take to get to what you want since you have to go through them in order). Of course if the thing you want to do is the first thing programmed on the bear, that's great, otherwise you have to keep squeezing his foot to get to what you want. Then, when that song or story is over, you have to squeeze the hand again to hear the same song again, or squeeze the foot to go back through everything to get to a different song or story. I'd prefer to be able to set it to just keep playing the songs/stories without stopping unless "told" to stop. My almost-5-year-old has no problem with this toy and can navigate it easily enough (though he doesn't play with it much either), but the younger son either doesn't understand what to do, is not squeezing in just the right spot or doesn't care. He LOVES music and stuffed animals, so I really thought this toy was going to be a huge hit. I even got online and downloaded Sunday school songs and things he's familiar with, but he hasn't shown much interest in it. I still gave the bear a good rating because it is cute and it's basically a good idea that I'm sure many kids will LOVE, but it could use some more work on making it easier to get to what you want. I think the "I-teddy" might possibly be more what my son would like (I didn't know it existed until after we got this bear and I didn't even know this one existed until shortly before Christmas). I don't know much about I-teddy at all, but it looks like it may operate more like a CD or DVD player where you just hit the "skip" button to get to what you want, but don't take my word for that because I haven't looked into it much since we already have Smart-e.
Oh, and just a note, if you have dial-up internet, it's practically impossible to download the software or new songs and such. I had to take the bear to my dad's house (who has DSL) to download the software from the site and get new songs and stories and "program" the bear to my specifics. It does work straight out of the box, but if you want it to say your child's name or if you want to add songs/stories/games to it you need to download the software and buy new songs/stories/games. Also as a note, the software did not download immediately upon plugging the bear into the computer as it said it should (not on my computer nor my dad's computer). It was not much trouble to go to the website and download it, but the directions on the bear say that it "should" download as soon as the bear is plugged in and if not to go to the website.
Anyway, overall I think it's a cute toy with a pretty good idea, but could stand to be "quicker" or "simpler" in actual use. I also would prefer you be able to load your own personal music on it (mp3) instead of having to buy only what is offered on the site, but they do have an extensive list of music to choose from.