Battling Bots: Dash vs. Chimp and Cozmo

Chimp does not have Hollywood ties or heartthrob appeal, but it does have other strong attributes. It's significantly less expensive than the other toys in the competition. It's designed for children as young as 5. And, like CHiP, it doesn't require a mobile app for operation. That means you don't have to hand your smartphone off to little Billy each time Chimp gets called into action.

The toy responds to 10 different voice commands. And, to its credit, it can field them in two languages: English and French. The infrared sensors in its eyes and nose even allow Chimp to react to a child's gestures or touch. "If you wave your hand in front of its face," says Consumer Reports engineer Emilio Gonzalez, "its eyes turn blue, which means it's curious, and it will follow you around."

According to the manufacturer, Chimp performs over 100 tricks and makes over 200 sounds—including screeches, belches, and other digestive-track noises popular with the grade-school set. As with any playful chimp, you shouldn't expect it to do the same thing every time you tell it to "sit down" or "go bananas!" It's an unruly pet and that's a large part of the appeal.

Chimp opens its mouth, moves its arms, shakes its hips, flips onto its back, and—in a remarkable display of dexterity—stands up and rolls around on two feet. When you activate Guard Mode via a voice command or a button on its back, the toy will squat down in front of, say, a treasured teddy bear and charge forward, eyes fiery red, the moment it detects motion.

"While Chimp's eyes aren't a mirror to its soul," says Gonzalez, "they do indicate what's going on inside its electronic brain." Purple means that it's functioning in Auto Mode, green that it's listening for voice commands, and yellow that it's time to recharge the battery.

In many ways, Chimp is the least sophisticated of the toy robots we tested, but that's a virtue in this case. It doesn't take a young tech whiz to get the toy up and running. If little Billy knows how to push buttons and order Chimp around, he will do just fine.

Compared to Chimp, Cozmo is a tech wonder. On Anki's website, they call it "a supercomputer on treads." And there's some truth to that. But the idea does not convey Cozmo's amazing charm.

At a glance, it looks like a palm-sized tractor with forklift arms. But the tiny black LED display that serves as its face exhibits dozens of cartoon-like eyes dreamed up by former Pixar animator Carlos Baena. And the camera sensor behind the slot-like mouth is outfitted with facial recognition software that permits Cozmo to scan your visage and greet you by name.

That sensor is also capable of mapping Cozmo's surroundings at 15 frames per second and sending that data to an app on your smartphone for processing. As a result, the toy possesses a surprisingly sophisticated form of artificial intelligence.

It can navigate on its own, creeping right to the edge of a tabletop without falling off (though you should keep an eye on it—just to be safe). It can pick up one of the three plastic Power Cubes included in the box and transport it to a different location. And it can coax your child into playing games with those cubes.

That's where Cozmo really shines.

"The toy will at times have ideas of its own," says Gonzalez. "It will suggest a game to play. When you decide not to join in, you can tell from its reaction that it's disappointed."

These aren't just any games, but games that require quickness and dexterity. In Speed Tap, for example, Cozmo and the child each get a cube and watch as the four LED lights on top change colors. When the patterns on both cubes match, the first person to tap the cube gets a point.

Beware: Cozmo is quicker than you think.

The first player to five points wins. When Cozmo is victorious, the toy often chirps and spins in celebration. When it's the child, Cozmo may groan. Either way, it's hard not to laugh at the robot's antics.

Cozmo communicates with users via its mobile app, which provides clear instructions on what to do and how to play. But, unlike the other toys we've reviewed, this one links to the app via WiFi instead of Bluetooth. That means you must punch in a password the first time you access the toy. And type the password in again if you try to access the toy from another device.

That may sound like a hassle, but it takes only a few seconds and it protects you from strangers who may try to access the toy—and its data—from outside your home.

In the end, all five toys we reviewed had their strengths. There wasn't a dud in the group. So if your child is a huge Star Wars fan, go right ahead and choose BB-8. If she loves dogs, CHiP is a delightful companion.

Up to this point, we've championed Dash because of the clever way it uses its microphones, lights, and sensors to teach kids the fundamentals of coding. And Zoomer Chimp literally does not have the power to alter that opinion.

"Though it can be fun to play with," says Gonzalez, "its limited battery life and long charging time is a real liability. Replaceable batteries may have been a better option."

So be prepared to wait roughly an hour for the toy to charge and don't expect much more than 20 to 30 minutes of play time to follow. We had two more small knocks: When Chimp's arms and legs are in motion, the toy can be difficult to hold it. And when its eyes turn red in anger, it can look a little creepy.

That brings us to Dash versus Cozmo.

And we can now declare that Dash's 3-0 winning streak has come to an end.

"Cozmo was the most engaging of the toys," Gonzalez says. "The shallow learning curve and some really cool features make it the most attractive of the bunch."

For the record, it takes only 10 minutes to charge our new champ and, in that 10 minutes, you can easily download the app and set everything up. One last tip: Before Cozmo scans your face, it asks you to type your name into the app. You may want to do that phonetically, says Gonzalez. "That way Cozmo has a better chance of pronouncing it properly."