The Humane AI Pin is a fascinating little device for gadget fans. If you missed its unveiling in November 2023, it's a small laptop with a built-in AI assistant, a camera, and a small projector that projects its user interface onto your hand. Unfortunately, it's also pretty terrible, according to the first reviews that have hit the internet in recent days.
It's rare that technology reviews, from both traditional media and YouTubers, are so unanimous in their criticism of such a hyped product. “The worst product I have ever reviewed… so far,” concluded Marques Brownlee. Oh. Meanwhile, Engadget called it “the solution to none of technology's problems,” while The Verge simply said that the AI Pin “wasn't even close.”
Naturally, these scathing verdicts create some additional fascination about a $699 device that also requires a $24/month subscription. However, few of the reviews think that the AI Pin is completely without merit. Many praise its hardware design, which is made of solid aluminum and clips to your chest thanks to a magnetic “battery booster” that goes inside your clothing. On the few occasions when it worked perfectly, it also gave critics a small glimpse of a refreshing screen-free future.
But beyond the specific features, many of which don't seem to work reliably enough yet, what's most interesting about these Humane AI Pin reviews are their general conclusions about AI devices. In short, our phones aren't going away for long, and as Bloomberg's review concluded, “the AI device revolution isn't going to kill off smartphones.” We haven't reviewed the Rabbit R1 yet, but that will probably remain the case for a while.
This doesn't mean that the Humane AI Pin isn't a fascinating (if deeply flawed) device today. Here are all the internet's thoughts on the boldest tech launch since Apple Vision Pro…
Pin Humane AI: the key reviews
Marques Brownlee: “The worst product I've ever reviewed… so far”
Despite the scathing headline, Marques Brownlee's report on his time with AI Pin is generally fair and impartial. Unfortunately, he couldn't find many positive aspects other than the design. “The construction of this thing is really impressive,” he says of the solid aluminum device. Unfortunately, he is also “bad at almost everything he does.”
That list includes responding to your voice queries, where it's either painfully slow (since most requests go to the cloud) or “just wrong all the time.” Battery life was also strangely inconsistent and the device was worryingly hot for a long time. But the bottom line, a recurring theme in most reviews, is that everything the AI Pin does, a “modern smartphone does better and faster.” Without connecting to your smartphone or offering any apps, the AI Pin is strangely adrift.
The good
- Solid build quality
- Translation feature is promising
- Impressive engineering
The bad
- Too slow to give answers.
- Poor and inconsistent battery life
- Overheating problems
- Wrong all the time
- No apps
Mrwhosetheboss: “Not good”
Tech YouTuber Arun Maini, also known as Mrwhosetheboss, was clearly conflicted in his review between the “little twinges of something magical” he could see in the Humane AI Pin and the impractical reality of using it. “Right now, Human Pin is an incredibly poor proposition,” he concluded.
As other reviews noted, it all goes downhill after seeing the hardware. The price (which equates to $1,700 over two years, when you factor in subscription, accessories, and taxes), slow responses to voice requests, lack of integration with existing phone apps, and clunky interface of the projector were black dots.
As Maini points out, a more sensible setup would surely be for the AI Pin to connect to your phone, like the best smartwatches, rather than acting as a standalone device. All of this led him to conclude that he doesn't see “a single angle from which it makes sense.”
The good
- The construction is top notch
- No words needed to wake up
- The vision characteristic is satisfactory.
The bad
- Very expensive
- Requests take too long
- Does not talk to existing applications
- The projector is not bright enough
CNET: “Futuristic but frustrating”
CNET's hands-on review of the AI Pin contains a nice nod to the Star Trek Communicator insignia the pin is apparently inspired by, but that's one of the few moments of levity in a review that cautions you to “definitely not” consider purchasing it . its current form.
The video is more of a tour of the AI Pin's features, including the built-in camera for taking photos and 15-second videos, than an actual dive into how to live with it. But there are plenty of useful real-world examples of the wearable's use, including its promising translation feature and uncut shots of how long it typically takes to respond.
There are also some familiar conclusions; overheating, the laser screen isn't bright enough in daylight, disappointing AI features, and the hand tracking interface is frustrating and worse than on a VR headset. In short, it's frustrating and CNET said there are times when AI Pin has driven him crazy.
The good
- Elegant design
- Well-designed accessories
- Decent battery life
The bad
- Overheating problems
- Too frustrating for everyday use
- I can't connect to your phone
- AI is not trustworthy
The Verge: “Not even close”
Frequent bouts of hysterical laughter are usually not a good sign for a technical review, and sure enough, The Verge found that the AI Pin's promise is completely undermined by its unreliability and its “only biggest problem: It's very, very slow.” .
Cue a 13-second wait for you to misidentify the Brooklyn Bridge and other unintentionally funny mistakes. In fact, The Verge was still “a little impressed” by the AI Pin's technology, including the fact that it doesn't require a wake word and promises a world where you can sometimes leave your phone at home.
He also concluded that the Pin “could still be the future, or something close to it”, with its camera-based descriptions of real-world objects being “easily the most futuristic” thing about the device. But it's also a “$700 bet” and the damning conclusion is that an Apple Watch connected to a cell phone is a much more capable and functional device, and at the same time much cheaper.
The good
- Robust and well made
- No signal word needed
The bad
- Many features are not yet available
- Very slow to respond
- It doesn't always work
Bloomberg: “The design and interface have fatal flaws”
Bloomberg's Mark Gurman is an Apple reporter who notes that Humane's co-founders are former Apple employees who worked on the iPhone and iPad, which gave them a leg up when it came to investing. But despite its promising story, he concludes that the AI Pin's “fundamental design and interface are fatally flawed.”
Gurman's conclusion is that errors and slow response times are not the main problem with AI Pin. Instead, the voice control and laser projection system make it “a failure for most people.” He notes that enthusiasm for smart speakers and voice assistants has died down because they are not a “convenient user interface.”
So while Gurman concludes, like most early reviews, that Humane deserves credit for creating something new and building a system that “aggregates data from multiple AI engines,” the concept is ultimately doomed and “will never function”.
What's next for Pin Humane AI?
Humane has understandably defended its new device from the wave of scathing criticism. Ken Kocienda, the company's head of product engineering and inventor of iPhone autocorrect, published a long statement in X (formerly Twitter) about why he is a “happy AI Pin user” and why his “intuition tells me we are on the right track.”
Kocienda admits that the AI Pin can be “frustrating at times,” but apparently no more so than a laptop or smartphone. That's not the conclusion of early Internet reviews from multiple sources, but Humane's designer also blames the social media landscape for encouraging “hot takes” and encouraging people to “jump on the skepticism bandwagon.”
So what's next for AI Pin? Humane has a roadmap for new features, with timers, gesture unlocking, photo sharing via SMS and more in software version 1.2, which is scheduled for “Summer.” Other features like number sharing, visual shopping, and an SDK for apps are also in the works, but not yet dated.
As it stands, the current consensus for the Humane AI Pin is that it is simply too ambitious for its current form factor and technology, including the problem that the AI tends to “hallucinate” or confidently give incorrect answers. For now, the Ray-Ban Meta Smart Glasses and the Rabbit R1 seem like more promising examples of AI devices, but we'll keep an eye on the AI Pin to see if it can overcome its inauspicious start.
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