Ortomi Umi Review: Meet Our Tiny New Robot Studio Companion

Our Ortomi Umi review is a little different from the usual gadget test. Ortomi sent us one of its tiny Umi robots to try as a studio companion at Auravine Studio, so rather than spending an afternoon pressing buttons and writing a verdict, we have decided to live with it.

And Umi has already started making itself at home.

At first glance, it is difficult to explain exactly what Umi is. It is a robot, but it is not trying to be an AI assistant. You cannot ask it for the weather, dictate an email or get it to play your favourite song. It does not speak, and crucially for somewhere like a radio studio, it does not listen either.

There is no microphone or camera watching what is happening around it.

Instead, Umi is essentially a tiny digital pet brought into the physical world.

So what does Umi actually do?

Umi reacts.

Pet it and it notices. Pick it up and it responds. Shake it and you will get another reaction. Touch its little moving ears and, depending on its mood, something else might happen.

Ortomi says there are more than 100 expressions and six different moods, including happy, sad, grumpy, bored and asleep. Umi’s personality and interactions influence what appears on its little screen over time.

That simplicity is probably the most interesting thing about it.

A lot of modern technology desperately wants your attention. Umi does not. It can simply sit on the studio desk doing its own thing while everything else carries on around it.

Every so often you look over and discover it is reading a book, knitting a scarf or playing with something it has found.

Umi gradually discovers little treasures and unlocks activities as you spend time with it. There are eight activities and 32 different coloured treasures to discover, so part of the experience is simply waiting to see what it gets up to next.

What is it like in a radio studio?

This was the question we particularly wanted to answer with our Ortomi Umi review.

Auravine Studio is a working radio environment. There are microphones, computers, mixing desks, presenters coming and going, and occasions when silence actually matters.

Umi fits surprisingly naturally into that environment because it does not require constant interaction.

We have mostly been leaving it sitting on the desk while we work.

It makes little chirps, beeps and boops, although the volume can be turned down completely. We have kept ours at zero while programmes are on air. There is, however, one thing we cannot mute: those ears.

Umi’s ears physically move as part of its reactions, and the movement itself makes a small mechanical noise.

So if you are listening to GlitterBeam and one day hear a mysterious little whirr in the background, there is a reasonable chance Umi has decided to express an opinion.

Privacy is one of Umi’s cleverest features

Perhaps unexpectedly, one of the things we like most is what Umi does not contain. There is no microphone and no camera.

That means Umi is not sitting on the desk listening to conversations or recording what is happening around it. Its relationship with you is based primarily on physical interaction and movement rather than surveillance. For a companion gadget, that feels refreshingly uncomplicated.

It also changes the personality of the product. Umi is not pretending to understand everything you say or attempting to replace human interaction. It is much closer to the appeal of a Tamagotchi or another digital pet, except this one physically sits beside you, wiggles its ears and reacts when you interact with it.

At only around 65 grams and roughly five centimetres across, it is tiny enough to move around the studio or take with you elsewhere. Ortomi rates the battery at around ten hours of regular interactive use, with a hibernation mode available when it is not being used.

Is Umi just a novelty?

That is the question we are not ready to answer yet. The immediate novelty is obvious. Umi is ridiculously cute, the animated expressions are beautifully suited to its tiny screen, and the moving ears give it considerably more character than you might expect from something so small.

But the more interesting test is what happens after a few weeks. Does it become something you genuinely notice is missing when it is not on the desk, or does it eventually become another gadget sitting beside the computer?

That is exactly why we are keeping Umi at Auravine Studio. Rather than deciding what we think after a couple of days, we are going to keep experiencing it as part of everyday studio life and see whether its little moods, discoveries and increasingly familiar personality turn a cute robot into an actual companion.

For now, Umi has a permanent spot on the studio desk. And apparently, it has some knitting to finish.

Want one? Get yours here

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