You know Sphero? The little robotic ball you can drive around with your smartphone? If you are not familiar you can check it out at www.sphero.com website.

1.1.         BB-8 by Sphero Review

When you check out the site, you will come across with two kinds of robotic toys; Sphero and Ollie. Further in the product details, there are three (four if you count the original Sphero which is not available for sale today) different versions of the robotic ball; Sphero BB-8 which is the newly released Star Wars Movie major character (Spoiler: It is CUTTIEST droid in the Star Wars Saga including C3PO or even R2-D2). First thing you wish for when the movie is finished, will be this droid to have (Since we do not have the tech for a real lightsaber, moving on). It is not a companian like seen in the movie; however, it does not let your feelings down for it. It is an impressive replica since it can move like seen in the movie. It is not big in size but gets his place on your heart when you see it rolling on the ground seemingly to go somewhere as fast as it can (this is not an overstatement, you may set the speed setting on the control and might set it a tate slower while you are getting used to drive little BB-8). There is only the drive mode you can actually interact with the toy. If you are willing to see what will it do by itself you can send it to a patrol. It can roll around and by itself; however, its not my kind of thing and I will leave it with that. However, you can further test the balls intellectual intelligence by setting some maze and see whether it can escape it or how long does it take for it to escape (might be fun for some or younger users). There is also the holographic messaging option which needs improvements mostly. The message is transmitted via remote controlled smart device and the visual is relatively sized for BB-8 itself. Although, the technology behind the idea is impressive, the tech can project the message else where and not related to droid on the screen. When we turn back to driving experience, the head is giving the ball all the adorable effects and personality as much as I am concerned. However, be aware it can lose it on collision at higher speeds. I am not stating this not as a downside yet as a matter of fact. The head is attached via magnites to the body of the droid and it is considerably powerful one (you can even lift up the droid by its head if you lift it up slowly).

BB-8 by Sphero does its own app to control it and the app is Star Wars themed as well. All the sounds and beep boops come from your mobile device (iOS, Android and Windows). A mental note is that, there is connection problems mentioned on reviews via Android; howver, I have no problem of connectivity with iOS 9.1 on an iPhone 5. Controls on the app have a definite learning curve (the younger you get, the easier you handle =)). You can control the tale light or facing orientation of the droid. The droid moves toward where it is faced; however, you need to calibrate the tale light accordingly during play time. The second control provided is the directions and it is adaptive to tale light oriantation. There are pre-set commands BB-8 can perform like confirming or rejecting. You can give pre-defined voice commend via your smart device as well (“OK BB-8, It’s a trap” being the most fun of them).

BB-8 by Sphero is not compatible with Sphero apps except recently released SPRK app. The app asks which droid ball you wish to connect and BB-8 is available in the selections. The down side of this kind of use, BB-8 loses the personality provided by the original control app of its own and becomes a standart Sphero with a head if you attach it while using it. You can manage to give commands and use the SPRK app via BB-8. If you are not into so much of the games provided by Sphero or third party apps using Sphero as a control, it does all. There is a drive mode provided in SPRK app and it is easier to use or control BB-8 compared to its original app controls. There is again a tale light adjustment required but the direction and tale light are set as switching controls. On the other side of the control, speed and light color settings are provided.

1.2.         Sphero SPRK Edition Review

I was aware that BB-8 by Sphero does not much of a toy that I can play yet is a theme item that is functional on the plus side. When I come across Sphero SPRK Edition the day after I bought BB-8 by Sphero. What I did not know at the time was that BB-8 competability to the SPRK app. There is not much to say actually about Sphero SPRK Edition accept that it is a cristal clear version of the exact Sphero 2.0. The ball has it marked as Sphero 2.0 on itself as well to make it for sure.

There is not much to expect of the box when compared to BB-8 boxing, it is less than BB-8 boxing yet more than cheap looking both outside and inside. There are cartoon tools for kids to take notes, calculate degrees and step numbering 3 rings. The major affection is being cristal set being both the droid ball and the charger unit being cristal clear. Needless to say, I do not like neigher packing nor the transparent ball that much. All improvement achieved on the app according to my belief. It sure is a fun way to code something and see it operate at the same time. Coding is sugar coded for kids for sure.

This version of Sphero ball is compatible with all apps and games that are already available for Sphero 2.0 version which is making my point that the only difference between Sphero 2.0 and Sphero SPRK Edition is the color of the ball and the charging unit.

I might say Sphero 2.0 is introduced back in 2013 and Sphero SPRK is released most recently. There is the difference of release date without any mentioned improvements on the product itself.

1.3.         Sphero 2.0 Review

Since I do not own this version I can direct you to look for a in depth review of Sphero 2.0. However, as far as I have seen during my search other reviewer fellows mentioned that Sphero 2.0 comes with two ramps in the package. It is stated that it is not an easy task to make the Sphero ball complete the jump successfully, nor it is a huge jump.

Since it is available for 2 years on the market, there are several (according to my research over 30) apps available for Sphero 2.0. This version is also compatible with SPRK app as well, although you cannot see inside of the ball you can give commands to the ball as well.

1.4.         My Point

I do this review in order to share information I have gather during my research for relatively limited time. However, I try to share different information than I have learned during my research. I would like to express my preference and explain why for the last part of my review of Sphero droid balls.

I would prefer to have BB-8 among others since it is the best replica available at the moment of Star Wars VII: The Force Awakens. The second part is that I was not much in to playing games with Sphero (such as killing zombies etc.) however, I am intrigued by being able to code via a software. Only purpose I bought Sphero SPRK was that I thought that BB-8 would not be compatible with the app. I recommend to buy a cover for BB-8 body part if you are willing to use it as a Sphero droid ball incase of scratches caused during play or collision.

If you or your younger one are willing to play with the games provided for Sphero 2.0 or Sphero SPRK than select any of between two.

Note: Preferably search for cheaper prices since there are no differences between Sphero SPRK and Sphero 2.0.