Sphero Mini Activity Kit: App-Controlled Robotic Ball and 55 Piece STEM Learning Construction Set, Play, Learn, Code, Ages 5 and up
Sphero Mini
One of the world’s smallest app-enabled robotic ball. That we know of.
Driving. Gaming. Coding. Fun-sized
Sphero Mini fits a huge experience into a tiny robot the size of a ping pong ball. Aside from driving and addicting games, get the ball rolling just by using your face. Yes, you read that right. Face Drive is a crazy feature that uses facial recognition technology to drive the ball. And thanks to the beauty of app updates, there’s always more features on the way.
Packed with teeny tiny tech, Sphero Mini has a little gyroscope, accelerometer, and LED lights that glow in millions of colours. Colourful, interchangeable shells are available, so you can easily switch one out to suit your mood. With almost an hour of play time, Sphero Mini is one of the next big things.
Tech Specs
- iOS 10+ and Android 5.0+ compatible
- Interchangeable, removable plastic shell
- Gyroscope and Accelerometer
- LED Lights
- Bluetooth connection (10 metre range)
- Micro USB charging (almost 1 hour of play on a full charge)
- Free app: Sphero Mini app available through iTunes or Google Play
- Height: 42 mm/Width: 42 mm/Weight: 46 g
Little robot. Lotta fun
| | | | |
|---|---|---|---|
Face DriveSmile, frown, tilt your head left and right, and get weird with it. See how Mini moves with your expressions. | Drive ModesTilt your device. Pull back and Slingshot forward. Use the Joystick. Whatever you’re in the mood for. | GamesUse the ball as a controller to shoot through space, race through a tunnel, or destroy a polygon of bricks. | CodeUsing the Sphero Edu app, drag and drop blocks or write your own Javascript text to code your robot. |
 |  |  | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Programmable with the Sphero Edu App | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Code 3 Different Ways | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Available in Education Multi-Packs | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Compatible with the Sphero Play App | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Bluetooth Smart Connection | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Waterproof | ✓ | ✓ | |
| Extremely Durable | ✓ | ✓ | |
| Programmable LED Matrix | ✓ | ||
| Auto-Aim | ✓ |
| Dimensions: | 5.72 x 5.72 x 13.97 cm; 439.98 Grams |
| Model: | M001RW2 |
| Colour: | Activity Kit (Clear) |
| Colour: | Activity Kit (Clear) |
The sellers of this product should consider a version for cats, its a must for all cat owners, ours absolutely love this thing even weeks on.
Being a Grandmother, I new not a thing about this item. My daughter told me to order this Sphero for my 6 year old granddaughter for Christmas. She was excited to open it and actually I was amazed at this item. She controls this little lit up ball with her Mom’s cell phone on the floor. Was a novelty gift.
Nice toy. I bought it to entertain our cat. He didn’t like it much. The Sphero Mini works well, but I found it too expensive for what you get.
As I always wanted. The product is good for beginner who want to try to code.
Lo utilizzo a scuola per un progetto di coding. Si pu comandare o anche programmare quindi adatto ad alunni di diverse et. Molto intuitivo lo consiglio
Ottimo rapporto qualit/prezzo
Easy to use, configure and charge. Purchased 2 of these, set up a track and it’s great fun. Not attempted the coding element yet.
Fantastic gift, hard to find a toy for teens but this is perfect kept them happy for ages, great design and the technology is impressive.
Really good gift- think they are just playing but are learning too
Definitely worth the money
I bought 2 and my daughter and I have had loads of fun playing with them
Bought this so i could teach my baby to crawl. Easy to drive and navigate. My baby loves it and tries to roll over and catch it. An orthodox use for this device but definitely helped my baby improve her crawling
I have bought this for my nephews and they enjoying it.
They can learn how to program and develop some great features using Sphero Mini.
Happy with my purchase and my nephews are loving it.
Really fun! Bought two of these for the kids. They’ve had some fun with them racing them around! Genuinely neat little gadget to pass the time away. Really easy to use, download the app and connect and off you go
As such it has been neglected a bit by the makers of Sphero, who seem to favour it’s bigger, beefier cousins ie Bolt, SPRK and Sphero 1 and 2.
If you have hard floors and marble like we do. The thin exterior shell will break with worrying ease. Exposing the more delicate robotic interior ball.
The shell is not screwed securely. It’s held together by a sort of magnetic connection.
Thankfully as of writing, we haven’t yet suffered a catastrophic failure. Though I am stuck between the figurative rock and a hard place.
On the plus side, You have access to the entire online App based platform that all the Spheros balls do. Except for the LED lights coding program, that the Sphero BOLT does, as this ball isn’t compatible with it being somewhat limited by the absence of said lights.
Though it does have a more of all over internal ‘glow’ light that you can control – impressively: throughout the entire spectrum of the colour wheel.
At the time of writing, there are no rubberised covers designed for the Sphero Mini – which is essentially what this one is. So in essence, as of writing, my job is to urge our young, enthused, tech savvy recipients to avoid, by aid of virtually programming, flinging this between a rock. And a hard place.
The performance is rock solid and you can do a lot of things with it. I had some issues with the “face control” and I could not make it work. Other than that, it is a fun STEM toy. I had so much fun in playing with my kid.
Sehr schnell installiert und eine tolle Fernsteureung, reagiert sofort!
Ich finde das Teil klasse und meine Katzen kommen aus dem Staunen nicht mehr raus
Remember big trak, the programmable tank? Now picture that in a ball that you can also code!
It’s great fun and can be a great start to simple coding, which is why so many schools have them. Only criticism is that the app seems selective on which apple device I use and recognising the sphero for binding.
Great little play around for kids and… keeps the cat busy too lol
Simple app and real easy to setup, so virtually fun, straight out of the box.
Played with one of the large models in an Apple store with my daughter. It was great fun. Bought this when on offer for 25 which was an absolute bargain. This was our most played with toy over Christmas and still amuses both adults and children.
As my daughter gets older I’ll teach her how to code using the scratch-like interface.
Excellent device. Easy to set up and use. The added extras in the kit make for some fun activities.
Cuesta conectar con el mvil, pero una vez hecho, es divertido y para los peques es genial
Great perfect for little ones and scaring cousins and brothers
The allied campaign of 1944 was successful. This means I have the freedom to buy this for which I am eternally grateful to all those who laid down their lives for freedom
My son kept asking for a robot for Christmas and most proper robots are super expensive so I settled on Sphero Mini, everyone loved him. It’s super fun to drive him around and experiment with all his movement modes, it’s ridiculously fun to drive him with your face (though of course superbly impractical) and he is an absolute cutey, small, quick, responsive and all around adorable. It takes a bit of imagination on the part of the kids to figure out how to play with him longterm as he is just a remote controlled ball after all, but mine came up with a bunch of stuff (having him try to drag things over the floor, one person guiding him and the other person trying to block him from passing through a ‘goal’, etc etc.
Has been a big hit with my kids, outlasted most of the other Christmas presents, they keep coming back to this one. Only annoying thing is they monopolise my phone to use it!
I like it, so as my daughter.
I wish I`d checked size more carefully, (its a little small)
I hope it will last long.(because yet she did n`t played much )
My cats and I love this little football whizzing round the room. I plan to develop a soft covering. So it has a softer impact with my cats when they whack it, and with my skirting boards.
Good bit of fun could be used educationally for coding
Clever little toy. The app comes with loads of games and features for it. The accessory kit and flashcards are a good way to help you learn to control it, but I can’t say I’m too happy about all those small parts. The video shows the first few seconds of play, which is why my daughter keeps getting it stuck in the corners.
Quick tip. The plastic ball is the outer shell. Before you first use it, you need to take it out (it’s rubbery and small, but don’t worry, it’s very hard-wearing), plug it and leave it to charge for a couple of hours, and then put it back in the shell, pair, and play.
I brought this for my 9yr birthday he loves i
I bought it for my 9 years old son. He loves it. He says that it has become a part of our family…
Not convinced this is going to last long but great as a learning tool for the kids
Kids had hours of fun programming the ball to move around the house without hitting objects scattered around the floor.
It’s hard to say anything about its durability, as I’ve only had it a month, however I doubt it would last long after a few drops.
Great product and suitable for both young and old.
Very popular present. App was easy enough to set up and this gets ‘rolled out’ to show people fairly often. Clever, fun item.
My granddaughter was over the moon and has not stop playing with it!
Est bastante divertida, no queda bien calibrada pero quizs eso sea parte de la diversin, que apuntes algo y se vaya chueco 🙂
Lo compr de oferta y pues as si pienso que vale la pena, de precio normal se me hace muy caro.
My son loves this ball. There are 2 apps for it one that allows simple remote controls and some games and another that lets you write programs using a block editor. It works with his kindle fire which is great too.
Bought this on offer great fun my nine-year-old really enjoyed playing with it.
Smart little gadget that’s different from the usual rc cars etc. Smaller than I thought it would be but still fun for my son to play with
El sphero mini es una gran manera de iniciar a los nios en el mundo de la programacin. Con su app de programar pueden hacer que la pelota haga lo que ellos quieran. A dems la app habitual trae diferentes y divertidas maneras de controlar la pelota en tiempo real. Incluye tambin varios minijuegos en los que la propia pelota es el mando, y en la caja trae conos para crear una pista de obstculos. Ideal para que los nios usen su creatividad y aprendan mientras juegan.
The easy to use app makes control easy and the ball is a magnet for cats and small children. Lots and lots of fun at parties.
Great product. My 12yr old loves it. Great fun to play and amazing to watch it working
Hat sofort funktioniert und unsere Teenager haben damit viel Spa. Wre schn, wenn der Ball einen Ein- und Ausschalter htte. Vielleicht it der ja auch automatisch. Das kann ich nicht genau sagen. Deswegen einen Stern weniger.
Aber das kleine Ding ist eine Wucht und wir haben alle zusammen gesessen, gespielt, geguckt und gegenseitig Ratschlge gegeben.
Lustiger Zeitvertreib … wenn das Handy passt
Leider tat das Samsung J3 meines Sohnes das nicht – Entuschung am Weihnachtsabend. Da in der Beschreibung nur stand das es z.B. mit Android funktioniert, war ich davon ausgegangen, dass es auch auf dem J3 luft – tut es aber nicht. Handy und Sphero Mini verbinden sich nicht.
Mit meinem J5 luft er – will das aber nicht stndig meinem Sohn berlassen!
Fazit: lustiger Zeitvertreib, sehr schnell der kleine Mini, aber vorher UNBEDINGT erkundigen ob das eigene Handy dafr geeignet ist !!!
3 Punkte fr den Spass, htten bei mehr werden knnen, wenn ee auf allen unseren Handys lufen wrde.
Nachtrag – der Sphero luft mit dem Amazon Fire Tablet – somit Weihnachten gerettet. Da der kleine Ball bei uns somit fr viel Spass sorgt und mein Sohn super begeistert ist habe ich verdient noch ein Sternchen draufgepackt.
Auch die App-Spiele finden bei meinem 12-jhrigen Anklang. Wir haben fr Freunde als Geschenke noch Spheros nachbestellt und freuen uns schon auf Wettrennen durch die Hindernisse.
Klare Kaufempfehlung … aber vorher prfen welche Smartphones kompatibel sind!
Really cool little gadget, great toy kept kids entertained for hours. Little tricky to get than hang of at first so as age suggestion says better for older children or adults
Molto carina e divertente ed anche creativa grazie alla possibilit di programmazione.
I bought 2. One for each son.
I also text all their friends parents and told them to buy them too which they did!
The mini does all the same things as the regular sized one, it’s great value.
Coding is massive in schools right now and this is a great, fun way to help your children understand coding and get ahead of the game.
Purchased one for my 12 year old, then a second the next Christmas for my 10 year old. These are great toys for developing technology awareness. Fun to play with, you control with an app, either typing in codes to move, using your face or using the phone e.
Seems to do everything the full-sized one does, minus the flashing LED panel (who cares?) for a much lower price.
Getting it set up and working with the app wasn’t great, there are no instructions with the Sphero, and no downloadable instructions on the website – this is an area that needs a lot of improvement. Once up and running however, the software’s great, and my son’s already had lots of fun using this for school presentations about coding, games with his friends, and building elaborate obstacle courses around his room.
Even the cat’s intrigued, but too nervous to chase it!
Bought it during prime sale so got it half pff. Wouldn’t have paid full price for it. Bought for the cat and other than needing to recalibrate any time if hits something a little hard, its a good toy
A fun little toy for my puppy. She loves chasing it around the kitchen!! Only downside is that she’s faster than it so she catches it, picks it up in her mouth and runs off with it to her bed…game over until I retrieve it, again!!
Bought this as a fun toy for me and my two cats to play with. They were a little puzzled by it at first, but it is certainly better for their hunting skills than using a lazer pointer.
Great little gadget to have some fun with and keep the kids interested in tech. A tad overpriced for the functionality but it makes sense considering the amount of tech that’s in it.
un gioco veramente molto interessante ed intelligente soprattutto se usata la modalit di gioco programmazione.
Ho deciso di acquistare questa mini sfera per mio figlio di 10 anni e sono molto soddisfatto, funziona perfettamente, consiglio come regalo alternativo con ottimo rapporto qualit prezzo.
Unfortunately as nice as this is my grandson was not impressed I think he’s a wee bit too young still to appreciate it, even though it states 8 is a good age.
It is a small ball that you can control with app. It moves pretty quickly!
It comes with some small cones, small bowling pins and a USB charging cable (no plug). There is no case to keep everything in but you can buy those separately which I think I will do.
It did need charging out of the box for an hour. The apps downloaded quickly.
Bought the blue one for 29.99 which seems about the right price.
The shell is thin hard plastic so I’m not sure how durable it will be in the long term. I’m thinking a storage case will help it last as being a ball it’s likely to roll off the shelf.
Bought to torment the cat and she’s not disappointed, she spends hours chasing it round. Every time I pick up my phone she knows I’m controlling it and thinks it’s play time.
Great fun! A really good way to start conversations with your kids about lots of science and technology concepts!
After loving the Sphero Darkside, I decided to add a Sphero Mini to my birthday list. When I opened, and had quite a bit of time playing with it, I thought it was definitely a good product.
The box itself was slightly shorter than I had thought, but the plastic box that contained the Sphero Mini was quite cute, and fit perfectly. You may find that the cable provided is quite short, and it is hard to charge the robot without straining on it.
The robot itself is extraordinarily small and compact. It makes it more portable this way, meaning you don’t have to carry it, you just simply put it in your pocket.
Charging is unusual, and rather fiddly, when it comes to the Sphero Mini. From my experience of other Spheros, I was quite used to just plugging it in, or even just plopping it into an inductive charger cradle. To charge Sphero Mini, you have to open the shell and plug it into the actual robot. It is a lot quicker at charging, and to charge for an hour, with a play time of forty-five minutes, is defintely more efficient than an hour of play time only to then charge it for three hours.
The shell is not waterproof, but it’s more durable than expected, and the shell splits open only when it falls off a table at a considerable height (like a dining room table). The colours of the shells are nice to look at, but when you have your Mini lighting up, the shell meddles with the colours (unless you get a white shell with your Mini), and ruins the light effect more than most spheros.
The speed is good for such a small robot, and turning is easier to control than with the Ollie and Darkside. The light on the Sphero Mini is clear and bright, and is also multicoloured , so you won’t get bored with changing the colours.
The Sphero Play app was definitely a good app to create. The games are basic, but really addictive. The multiple driving modes can either be really good, or really pointless. I am really sad to say this, but the Sphero Mini would be the same without Face Drive. I spent an hour trying to pull expressions, and only got winking, peekaboo, forward, and the sides, with the ocasional backwards. Could it be my device’s camera?
Sphero Edu has one main purpose: program with blocks to make your robot do stuff. Now, it looks like a walk in the park, and feels quite pointless. I usually use it for a bit of community browsing, and accurate driving. If you are teaching coding concepts, this is the app for you (if you have a Sphero, of course!). If you are using it for some other programming reason, I would recommend getting the javascript SDK for your laptop, as you can use it to develop your own app, as well as learn some proper programming.
This might be quite unknown to a lot of people, but a quite big range of Sphero products are compatible with the Sphero Force Band. I was unsure about the Mini being compatible, yet it works without any extra tinkering. I thought it should be mentioned for people who may be wanting a none screen Sphero control system.
All in all, a good product. I hope everyone enjoys this product too!
Bought in the sales as a stocking filler at Christmas and ended up being the gift that monopolized the Christmas holidays. Wonderful fun little gadge
Se lo regal a mi sobrina para su cumpleaos nmero 9 y aunque le gust, no lo ha podido usar mucho porque o se le acaba muy rpido la batera o tiene problemas de seal con su Tablet. An si creo que es un excelente medio para que los nios empiecen a jugar con robots.
My 8year old girl loves this and has had lots of fun with it and is still playing with it since Christmas
Great little toy! Bought for Christmas and he’s loved playing with it! Easy to control
My 9 year old grandson is still exploring its full potential (after two weeks) and it looks as if it will not exhaust his attention span for a long time yet.
Got this for my son for Christmas, good little toy! He loves it as well as the adults do too!
My nephew loved this and got it working straight away. It was very receptive and moved precisely over the floor.
Overall a great piece of KIT that’ is very enjoyable and Educational at the same time
I bought it to let my cat play, but I enjoy it too! Very well done
They are a great little unit. You split open the case and plug in a micro-USB cable (provided) to charge them, which takes about an hour. I had no problem pairing 12 of these to 12 iPads, I did it one at a time to avoid student chaos.
They are not as accurate with directions as the larger Sphero devices. For example, programming them to follow a square won’t return them exactly to the starting point, but they are pretty close. Not as robust as their big brothers, the shell cover is thin, probably wouldn’t survive a drop and a replacement shell can only be purchased through the USA.
One GOTCHA was using the Sphero EDU app. The Spheros kept on doing a firmware update each time you connected the iPad app. Very frustrating, but Sphero tech support suggested updating each device using the Sphero Mini app, this fixed the problem.
Overall very satisfied with the devices for the price paid.
Nice product but instructions and Web site a bit ambiguous as there are several models and they work/pair differently
Ideal zum Spielen auch fr Katzen bzw Hunde, da es sehr stabil ist. Man bedient es ber das Smartphone. Der Ball ist sehr klein, so das man ihn immer einstecken kann.
Nicht nur durch die Gegend fahren in unterschiedlichen Farben nein das ist auch noch Programmierbar mit einer eigenen App.
Echt vielseitig der kleine Roboterball von Sphero bin immer noch begeistert wie am ersten Tag.
Verpackung Top. Inkl Anleitung. Bluetoothverbindung klappt bestens beide Apps sind einfach zu bedienen.
Bought this for my daughters birthday, she loves it, highly recommended! If you don’t know what a Sphero mini is, it’s an app controlled robot ball, that can be programmed and all sorts.
Una volta scartato, si toglie l’involucro di plastica e si collega alla USB. Non ho controllato il tempo di carica. Deve essere scaricata l’APP SpheroMINI (Attenzione alla compatibilit con le versioni Androd, mi sembra oltre la 5).
Nell’App si deve prima di tutto calibrare lo sphero e successivamente ci sono opzioni per il cambio di colore, giochi e altro.
La manovrabilit buonissima anche se in un appartamento ci possono stare problemi con le fughe del pavimento (ogni tanto si incastrava). Quando sbatte in modo forte spesso dev’essere ricalibrato (sempre tramite app).
Il gatto si divertito molto!
Consigliato
En cuanto al envo llevo en 24h
Muy satisfecho con la compra.
Don’t step on it or use it around grandparents.
The charging lead is also very fussy, needs a lot of wiggling before it starts to work.
Un esempio di tecnologia all’avanguardia e gioco ,buona la fattura e molto originale il funzionamento e la app che gestisce i movimenti.
Fun fun fun. Different modes, games and ways to drive the ball around.
Really good for the kids as a way to teach them the essence of programing theology and also just great fun to play with
Really neat little product, speedy and easy enough to use, and sturdy enough to be batted about by the cat and run into walls. The one downside is that it comes with absolutely no instructions, so just make sure you download the Sphero mini app to use it as it is not compatible with the regular Sphero app!
he sphero has been great with my brother. With the educational app it allows for programming and normal steering, so this, aside from being fun, is a really educational little toy. It is also crazy fast!
Bought at an amazon daily deal price, for my 12 year olds stocking. He loves it. As did his cousins Christmas Day. A really cool little toy.
Shame amazon don’t sell the accessories though.
He now wants the Sphero bb9 for his birthday……
Fantastic fun for a “difficult to buy for” child, can’t wait for Christmas
Great fun. Everyone one who still has as inner child should buy this. A few people have complained about control. I’ve not had any issues
Loses half a star because there’s no on/off button inside so you need to charge it every time you use it, and another half a star because the plastic cover is too slippery for hard floors and it keeps getting itself into a death spin when I drive it into walls. Hope they start selling rubberised shells like they do for the bigger ones.
I rarely write reviews but this is a great little toy, even for the adult child!
La qualit est au rendez-vous. On a l’impression d’avoir un vritable Sphero dans une petite capsule de la taille d’une balle de ping pong. La technologie est sympa et tout se fait au niveau du smartphone et de l’application Sphero Mini !
Je n’ai pas encore essay les outils de dveloppement en JavaScript mais cela promet un bel usage dans le monde ducatif. Du moins, je le souhaite !
Pleinement satisfait donc ! Un beau cadeau pour les ftes de fin d’annes !