OVERALL CONCLUSION
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LEGO boost is 80% of the learning at 50% of the cost and 20% of the hassle of LEGO’s fancier Mindstorms product. LEGO Boost compares really well to all other competing robots out there, so if you want your kid to know about coding, robotics, mechanics or technology, it’s a really easy choice. The age range is spot-on: 7 to 12 years old seems just right.
TOP PROS: 1) Great value for what you get; 2) Extensive models for a lot of fun; 3) Painless setup so that kids can use the app and Bluetooth connection easily.
TOP CONS: 1) Needs an iPad or Android tablet, which can triple the cost; 2) Limited accessories and other sensors/motors so far; 3) App can be very confusing at times and the “unlocking” of levels is irritating
WHAT CAN LEGO BOOST DO?
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You can build 5 different, intricate projects right out of the box. LEGO included a huge assortment of great parts so that you can build a standing robot, a guitar, a “factory”, a cat, and a horizontal rover bot. Each model is part toy and part experiment because the app has included code that makes the characters lively and interactive while leaving room for customization. All the sounds and processing is done by your tablet, so that’s a smart way to save costs and make the “brain” brick really simple (which LEGO calls the “Move Hub”). The LEGO Boost app guides you through building and programming each robot in a set of challenges that are unlocked as you go. My 7-year-old and I could only figure out how to do Vernie the tall robot so far, which was sad because he wanted to start with the guitar or factory. This is minor bump in the road, though, because I envision this being a popular toy for a very long time. The fact that the Bluetooth setup was so painless (no pairing on iOS, it was like magic) makes this much easier to deal with than other robots like Cozmo.
NOTE: If your app crashes, power off your iPad completely. This worked great for me. I’ve noticed that upon installation, some apps need a power cycle to work their best. I don’t know if this is a memory leak in the iPad or what. I’m running the app on a 3-year-old iPad Air 1 (not 2) and it works great. Anything newer should be fine, and LEGO has a device check section on their website.
IS LEGO BOOST FUN AND EDUCATIONAL?
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For sure, this product is a ton of fun and teaches a lot about coding/logic, problem-solving, and creativity. My younger two kids, ages 4 and 7, are over-the-moon-excited about it and have been counting down the days until it arrived on August 1st. My 7-year-old already spent three hours building the first robot and he was completely enthralled. I was especially impressed by the robot’s head motion and the intricacy of the gears used in this model. The app has been fun to go through, but we’re only partially through it right now.
HOW DOES IT COMPARE TO OTHER ROBOTS?
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As you can see from my website, LearnRichly, I’m kind of a learning toy nut. I especially like logic games and programming, so robotics coding is a pretty natural fit. In our house, we have Cozmo (from Anki), Dash (Wonder Workshop), Ozobot, and *3* LEGO Mindstorms kits (the older kids do FIRST Lego League, so they’ve acquired 2 EV3 sets and 1 NXT set). (Ouch, I just realized that I’ve spent over $1000 in toy robots in the last 5 years, yikes. We don’t eat-out or see shows more than a few time per year, so that helps save cash!) UPDATE: See more below about Cozmo in the 8/15 Update..
Which robot do we like the best? So far, LEGO Boost and Dash are the winners, with an edge towards LEGO if you have kids 8 and up and a recommendation for Dash if you have younger kids. Cozmo is small and limited, but more emotive and fun. He’s definitely a “toy” and the others are “learning toys.” Oddly, he’s also capable of real Python programming after a complicated SDK setup, so it’s an eclectic mix. Ozobots are only really useful for the most price-constrained budget; save up and buy a Boost, instead.
Why are Dash and Boost the best? Because they give you real coding experience and make it fun. Dash has several apps available and is generally more mature as of right now, but I think Boost should catch up and exceed Dash overall. They both can take LEGO parts for building, but LEGO far and away exceeds Dash in versatility. It can be a factory, guitar, cat or who-knows-what-else that’s coming in the future! I do appreciate Dash as a standalone, start-from-scratch project, but LEGO will be the better choice for most households. Dash has been alone in this space for quite a while, but probably just got dethroned.
UPDATE ON AUGUST 15th, 2017
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OK, we've had LEGO Boost for 2 weeks now. We've built the standing robot, the guitar, and the mini-factory. We couldn't get the factory to work and must have done something wrong--we'll come back to it. My son wants to build the rover next. We also had to buy a large organizer set to keep all the pieces--what I didn't realize is how many *unique* pieces there are in this set. The Mindstorms kits have lots of pieces, but they are easier to organize since there are fewer than 100 unique ones. LEGO Boost has over 200 different types of pieces; we ended up using about 60 little divided bins in plastic craft organizers. If I had it to do over again I would buy the Akro Mills 64-drawer organizer like this one: Akro-Mils 64-drawer organizer. They charge too much for the drawer dividers, but I believe another company (stack-on?) has a 48-pack for much cheaper that *supposedly* works with the Akro Mills set, but I haven't verified.
Since I wrote the above about Cozmo from Anki, I realize that he now has coding in the app! It's pretty good, too, so he's now much more competitive with LEGO Boost. I will review all of them in a future roundup at my little hobby blog LearnRichly.com, but for now I at least have an in-depth review of LEGO Boost that gives you much more detail than I could put in this Amazon review. Using my 6-criteria scoring scale, the average I came up with was a 4.4 out of 5 stars, so I wish Amazon would allow me to award LEGO Boost a 4.5 star rating instead of my 5 star rating.
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