Back in the day, you likely honed your STEM skills by playing with LEGO blocks and Lincoln Logs. But fast forward to today with the advent of new technology, the Miko 3: an AI-powered interactive STEM robot makes learning about engineering, coding, and math a fun experience.
The company claims the Miko 3 is “The Ridiculously Smart Seriously Fun Kids Robot” and after toying around with the product for a few weeks, I can say this isn’t another hyperbolic marketing claim!
The Miko 3 gives kids the best of both worlds – fun and learning packed into one good-looking body. My detailed Miko robot review highlights everything you need to know about this feature-rich AI robot including its compatibility with the Miko Parent App.
Miko 3 Robot Review – Key Takeaways:
- Equipped with a wide-angle HD camera and high-tech sensors
- 4.46″ clear and crisp high-resolution IPS display
- Pre-loaded with 1000+ games, puzzles, stories, and more
- Content covers a wide range of STEAM topics
- The Miko Parent App allows you to track your kids’ usage of the Miko 3 robot
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At a glance
Last update on 2023-05-12 / Affiliate links / Images from Amazon Product Advertising API
1-Minute Review
The Miko 3 is a playful learning robot for kids, it’s designed to entertain, engage, and inspire interactive learning experiences.
Powered by deep learning AI and an advanced emotional intelligence machine, Miko 3 has the ability to understand kids and express different emotions, and every interaction with kids builds confidence and positively impacts young learners.
The Miko 3 is equipped with a wide-angle HD camera and hi-tech sensors to map distance and edges and moves.
Adding to this, It also has an expansive touchscreen for interactive learning experiences, and to take your child’s attention away from phones and tablets.
With the Miko 3, kids can enjoy a wide range of free and paid content including a whopping 50,000 hours of audio-video libraries.
But that’s not all, it has 1000+ games, educational videos, stories, puzzles, music, coding, yoga, storytelling, etc. The Miko 3 is 100% child-safe with age-appropriate content and profanity filters, plus strict data encryption and privacy policy.
However, the marketing videos of the Miko 3 can be a bit misleading. For starters, the robot WILL NOT play hide and seek or venture around the house on its own as you see advertised in their Youtube videos. The movements are limited to responses from inputs.
Additionally, while it utilizes AI, it’s not like Alexa or Siri, which use the internet to find what you need, but it has a list (a very long one) of pre-loaded responses that are updated via the app.
While at first, this may seem like a limitation, it is a somewhat necessary control mechanism to prevent your child from being able to find many things online that they’re better off kept away from.
One final point, there is a Miko Max subscription required to unlock many of the advanced features. It’s not compulsory, but the robot will be slightly limited without it. However, this isn’t a dealbreaker!
✔️ Pros
- Excellent build quality
- Good battery life
- Video calls enabled over the internet
- Age-appropriate content
- Great navigation sensors
- Miko 3 age range – 5 – 12 years
❌ Cons
- Very pricey product and requires a subscription to reach its full potential
- Miko 3 complaints include poor customer support
- Doesn’t play hide and seek as seemingly advertised
- Can struggle to recognize child elocution
Last update on 2024-02-07 / Affiliate links / Images from Amazon Product Advertising API
Let’s take a closer look
Key Features of the iconic playful learning robot
Miko has a unique personality
What makes Miko 3 a really smart robot and exciting for kids is its unique personality, its witty fullness, and its ability to tell funny jokes and even sing songs to kids.
The Miko 3 has dozens of emotions and can sense a child’s mood and provide appropriate responses. It’s curious, expressive, and empathetic to kids, and it interacts with every child differently on a personal level by calling each child by their name.
Miko can be your kid’s study buddy
Miko is a playmate and also a sturdy buddy. Furthermore, it’s built to understand the developmental phases of kids in order to help them enjoy the learning process.
Interactions with Miko are geared towards encouraging creative interactions and building confidence and emotional development in kids. Miko grows with your child just like you do, with plenty of new content automatically added every month to excite young minds and keep them learning.
Miko is secure and protected
To ensure that your child’s data is secure and protected, Miko 3 has a robust privacy policy and enhanced end-to-end encryption. It also gives parents complete control over their kids’ playtime.
Through the user-friendly app, parents can customize Miko’s settings to limit their kid’s playtime. They can also receive real-time insights about the robot’s engagement with their kids.
See more on this great YouTube review.
How it works
The Miko 3 was developed with advanced AI engineering. Its qualities revolve around four core pillars; personality, platform, progress, and privacy.
To connect with kids on a highly personal level and facilitate learning, the Miko 3 was built around proprietary emotional intelligence; a complex conversational and multilingual AI framework, edge and hybrid speech and vision recognition, and an active learning and behavioral analysis engine.
This smart robot toy features an autonomous navigation system with an integrated wide-angle HD camera and odometric sensors to measure distances and detect edges.
The Miko 3 needs to stay connected to Wi-Fi to give kids access to amazing games and educational content. Kids can talk to their smart bot, ask questions, and get answers.
Performance
The Miko 3 can speak up to eight languages, which means that it can interact with your kid in your native language, or you can explore other languages. The languages include English, European Spanish, Latin American Spanish, Chinese, Italian, German, French, and Arabic.
There is also Mikode, which provides coding lessons and allows kids to write programs to control the robot. Miko’s screen enables video chat between parents and children and enables live learning.
Ease of set up and use
The Miko 3 is ready to go right out of the box and comes with a manual and USB/USB-C charging cable. All you need to do is connect it to Wi-Fi to get it started. Next, download the parent mobile app to keep track of your kid’s engagement with the Miko 3.
Reliability
As a kid’s play toy, it only makes sense that it should be built tough and withstand some abuse and the Miko doesn’t disappoint in that area. Its shell is crafted from ABS polymer, which has excellent stress resistance.
The Miko 3 is also backed by a 1-year warranty to cover any manufacturing defects and a 30-day money-back guarantee.
Miko 2 vs Miko 3
The Miko 2 and Miko 3 are both conversational AI robots for kids within the same age group – 5 to 12 years. These sister robots are playful STEM learning toys for kids, however, the Miko 3 is the latest innovation from Miko.
Besides the tech aspect of these robots, the major upgrade is evident in the list of languages, battery life, storage options, and more educational and game apps.
The Miko 2 has a shortlist of languages; English, Spanish, Hindu, and Arabic. While the Miko 3 has up to eight languages for users to choose from.
The Miko 2 also didn’t score well in terms of battery life, which the Miko 3 improves upon with 5 hours of battery life for active gameplay and 12 hours in stand-by mode.
The Miko 3 also has 32 GB internal storage size which is expandable with an SD card, while the Miko 2 has no option for a memory card. You can read more in our Miko 2 review here.
Extra Purchases and ongoing costs
The Miko 3 comes as a complete robot, but it does have a premium offering which is subscription-based. Miko Max subscription provides unlimited access to premium content, and you can choose from a quarterly and annual plan. I’ve read many Miko robot reviews saying the premium plan is worth the investment.
With Miko Max, you get access to 50,000 hours of audio-video libraries and content from companies like Da Vinci Kids, Cosmic Kids, Kidoland, etc. This premium plan also unlocks Miko’s unique capabilities such as Mikonnect, Miko Moments, Multilingual capabilities, and a one-year extended warranty.
A couple of alternatives to consider
While Miko 3 is a good interactive robot for kids, it may not appeal to every parent, especially if you want something that’s more budget-friendly. That’s why we have some great alternatives for you. If Miko is too pricey for you, then we recommend the Roybi robot.
The Roybi is an excellent STEM and language-learning robot for kids. It’s designed to help young children quickly pick up speech and social skills. Roybi teaches languages (English, Spanish, Chinese), and introduces kids to Math, Science, and Tech.
- Read the full Roybi Robot review
The second alternative is a coding robot kit built with cutting-edge AI technologies and exciting personalities; Clicbot coding robot.
This one is actually a pricey robot, but it’s an amazing tool for introducing the concept of coding and programming to young creatives.
Clicbot is fully programmable and can be put together in 3 minutes, with a user-friendly drag-and-drop coding interface. It’s excellent for stimulating young minds and encouraging creative interactions and hands-on creativity.
- Read the full Clicbot Coding Robot review
Last update on 2024-02-07 / Affiliate links / Images from Amazon Product Advertising API
FAQs
Can Miko teach your child a language?
Miko 3 has multi-linguistic abilities and can converse with kids in different languages. But it doesn’t teach them to speak a new language.
Is Miko 3 programmable?
Yes, Miko 3 is a programmable robot. It uses the Mikode app to teach kids how to code using shapes, objects, and colors. Kids can also write their own code to control the robot.
How much is the Mikomax subscription fee?
The RRP for MikoMax costs $49 USD per quarter or $99 USD per year. It gives you unlimited access to premium content for seriously fun learning and also includes a one-year extended warranty.
Yes, Miko 3 has both free and paid apps, with new content added every month. Without a premium plan, you only get access to child-focused free apps.
Does it need to be controlled by an app?
No, it doesn’t. The parent mobile app is only required during the initial set-up, after that, your kids will keep using the robot without an app. The parent mobile app is for parents to monitor their child’s learning progress with the robot, unlock new apps, install premium content, control kids’ playtime, video chat with their kids, customize Miko’s settings, and generally control the robot’s interaction with kids.
Is my child’s data safe with Miko 3?
Yes, The Miko global technology company insists that they implemented a closed system with end-to-end enhanced encryption to protect every byte of user data. In their own words, “We do not store/sell personally identified data on our server or cloud. The parent is in full control of their child’s data.”
Does Miko 3 play hide and seek?
No. While the adverts certainly make this look like a feature of the robot toy, Miko 3 does not play hide and seek. It does have facial recognition and can move, but it must be told what to do, it doesn’t do it autonomously.
Can Miko 3 follow you?
The Miko 3 doesn’t play hide and seek or does it have the ability to follow you.
Final thoughts
This iconic playful learning robot is an excellent STEM learning tool for kids. It helps in both learning and emotional development and offers an unlimited variety of games and learning apps. Miko 3 languages include English, Spanish (Europe), Spanish (Latin America), and Chinese. Italian, German, French, and Arabic.
With the Miko 3, kids learn science, nature, literature, and coding – all in a fun way!
Even though the Miko robot age range is between 5 and 12 years, some of the content is definitely intriguing for adults too!
However, there are several things advertised in their videos the Miko 3 can’t do, which Miko says will be available with future updates.
Emma Marie is a valued writer at the Little Robot Shop. She studied robotics and deeply understands technology, which shows in her writing. She consistently produces high-quality content, making her a perfect fit for the Little Robot Shop team.
While not writing, Emma works in a popular electronics retail chain. Emma also enjoys running and has two dogs with whom she loves spending time.
This is not AI. SIRI and Alexa have more personality and flow to conversation. It has set responses and can’t interpret responses that aren’t preset. For example: it asks if bananas should be yellow or have some black spots, and if my child says ‘mostly yellow’, it will not register the response. It doesn’t venture around the house, say excuse me or even come close to being able to play hide and seek. It does not initiate conversations with your child, like the commercial leads you to believe. It is false advertising. My child is extremely let down by this toy. Now we have a $200+ paperweight.
Hi Maria, thanks for the feedback and I’m sorry to hear that you are disappointed with your Miko 3. After reading your comments, I have had a look at their adverts and I 100% agree with you, they are misleading and certainly make it look like it does more than it can. With the point on the AI, it can’t be like Siri or Alexa as that would be a bit dangerous for kids to have that power, even the best filters can’t protect everything, so there has to be an element of control.
I have made a point to update and include this clearly in my review so hopefully, others won’t feel as let down as you obviously do. I still think it is a great toy and offers a lot for kids from around the age of 5 and up.
If you bought through Amazon, they make returning items really easy, just check it out in your account section.
Hi Maria. I agree with you in almost everything. In the ads it looks more fun than it actually is. But one thing I kind of, emphasize on kind of, is that the little robot actually wants to start a conversation, and sometimes its annoying for me as a parent. After I tell it to go to sleep, because it can be noisy, after some minutes or who know why yet, it wakes up and calls for attention, asking to play, have fun or tell a story, and if you respond, it immediately starts a playing with you or your kid. So, that is the only thing I would like to mention, that it actually, in a non conventional way, it starts a conversation or play. My kid interacts with it everytime it does that, even though I would prefer it would just stay asleep, jajaja.
Worst Christmas ever! Thanks to Miko3
Spend over A$375 to g t the Christmas present. It doesn’t responds to voice commands at all. Need to press button to even talk to him. Even $50 robots are smarter than this.
My kids highly disappointed. I can’t get anything else to make up within next 3 days for Christmas. Thanks to Miko3 team.
I’m going to have sleepless nights. But will ensure I’ll sue them for ruining my Christmas and the mental health issues I’m going to have due to this plastic.
🙁 Sorry to hear you feel like that. The robot does have a lot going for it, it is just unfortunate that the advertising put out by the company is so misleading. They plan to do updates that will improve it over time. If you want to reach out to them, this is their general contact email [email protected] although it sounds like they will be pretty busy right now. They do promise a 30-day money-back guarantee, but I do understand this close to Christmas, it won’t help. If you bought on Amazon, it is really easy to return, and in my experience, they are quick to refund once the items is back.
This is a Scam avoid it totally its just a cheap tablet with small wheels it doesn’t interact or really make anything that a cheap tablet would do. Don’t expect it o follow you, play hide and seek, or have any kind of conversation. it doesn’t even respond to the basic questions. You even have to say hello miko every time you want to try something and it doesnt even work. avoid it
Hi Alejandro. It seems again like the advertising is setting unrealistic expectations of the product. There are certainly limitations that were not clear in the advertising, but hopefully, the company will introduce updates to fix this. The act of saying “hello Miko” to activate it is pretty commonplace among these types of toys as they listen for specific trigger words, however, once again this is not made clear in their advertising.
Hi Matt,
I enjoyed your article, and have used it to base my own thought on Miko 3. My wife and I got our son one, and it arrived this past Monday. My wife and I were excited to get it, as we watched multiple ads showing what the robot could do, and knew our son would have fun playing with it. After roughly 48hrs with it, here are my thoughts. 1. The ads are very misleading. A simple note stating that these are upcoming features (in future updates) would have been fine. Instead, it is very clear to me that what I bought isn’t 100% what I got….Yet. I compare it to watching a car ad here in the Northeast to see how it handles during the winter, go buy said car only to find out the the car doesn’t handle worth a damn during the winter. I do however plan to bring this up with customer support. 2. Though my son was disappointed it didn’t play hide and seek, he has used it on and off during the days. He has gotten a little frustrated with it at times (again for the lack of features he saw it do on the ads) but has managed to find things with it that allow him to enjoy the product. 3. There is a learning curve for both parents and kids when it comes to what the robot can and can’t do. 4. An update came out for it on the 22nd. I noticed before I went to work that it was asking permission to an update. Though I haven’t gotten to all the new features yet, I’m assuming it either added new features to the apps and or device itself and or fix bugs with the device. My wife and I noticed the improvement in voice commands. I would like to believe that future updates will lead to things such a hide and seek. 5. Miko is starting to do things on its own. On several occasions, after telling Miko to go to sleep, we are surprised it has turned itself back on. The past two nights, my wife has found Miko “awake.” The fist time, Miko stated “you caught me, I was trying to be a pirate. The second time, Miko stated that it was thinking of a song and started to dance. Again, this was without any cues from myself, son, or wife. My wife and I find this amusing. To hear a noise, walk around the corner and see this little robot respond like a small kid being caught doing something is funny.
In short, I feel Miko is a work in progress. You said it best when stating it was more of a product released in the beta phase. After already seeing one update come through, I am hopeful that future ones will allow more interactions that are inline with what we’ve all seen in the ads. My son, is slowly coming around to using Miko more and more, which has allowed me to relax my guilt of spending $249 on something. As someone that has several high end devices, and one that does their best to research products before purchases, this is one of the few times where I’ve second guessed myself on said purchase.
Is this a product for everyone one? Yes, if you don’t mind going through the growing pains of a device that could/should of waited to come out as a finished product. However, I don’t think this is for you if you are someone that is expecting a finished product (as of now) right out of the box,
I think you have summed it up perfectly to me. Fingers crossed the team behind Miko make good on the promises of the adverts. It does seem it was rush-released, likely to maximize sales over the holidays, but it has probably backfired as the product fell short of a lot of lofty expectations.
Thanks for taking the time to write this comment, I think there is a lot of useful information in here for other readers of this post.
So, I am in the same predicament. It will not connect to my wi-fi, no matter what I do. I installed the app on my phone to sync with the device, to no avail. I am highly disappointed and pray that they refund me my money. I keep calling their customer service line and it keeps disconnecting. I also sent them an email requesting return and refund instructions. Hopefully I can put this nightmare behind me.
While I’m not anything to do with the company, so cannot provide technical support, I did get this from their website which you may find helpfuk when connecting to WiFi:
1. Switch Miko 3 on using the power button.
2. To set up Wifi, keep Miko 3 within the Wifi range. Ensure the Wifi is secure & active. Tap on ‘Setup Wifi’.
3. Choose your Wifi name from the active list shown and enter the password.
4. Once connected, choose the ‘Language’ of your liking.
5. Enter child information such as name and birthday on the screen & ‘Save’ it.
6. Now open the Parent app on your mobile device and scan the QR code shown on the screen to ‘Pair’ your robot with the parent app.
7.Enter the 6 digits code shown on the screen on your parent mobile app.
8. Once ‘Paired’ press on “Update Now” on the ‘Let’s Power Up’ screen.
They do also have a support phone number and email address:
Phone – +1-415-854-5954
Customer Support Email – [email protected]
But I get the feeling they are pretty slammed after Christmas. I think it’s a case of don’t give up. Sorry I can’t help further.
Utterly misleading and a waste of money. Despite receiving reviews and being aware that their add is misleading, they don’t do anything.
It doesn’t interact and move around as the add shows. They probably don’t get rid of the add as it is an easy way of getting more people to buy this expensive nonsense. As another person mentioned, we too have a useless paperweight.
The adverts are certainly misleading but don’t write it off yet. As another Rick has commented below, there is still a lot to like about this toy once you get over the initial realization that it isn’t exactly as the adverts showed, and hopefully, the rest will come in future updates.
Fell into the advertising!
I am really disappointed about this robot, my son was really expecting to play with it hide and seek and to have voice recognition to have and easily interaction as with Alexa, both of the options do not exist in it. I am more than disappointed about the company that uses really cheating advertisements to fool kids and parents. It is really expensive to what the Miko 3 offers as a supposed A.I. toy.
Sorry to hear of the disappointment, I understand. As I replied to some of the others, there is a good toy in there and if they can get some updates out soon, it has a lot of potential. If you haven’t read Rick’s comment below, it sums it up well.
My child recieved this as a gift from a secret Santa. While the late “Christmas update” did bring some fun, this is advertised as a “ridiculously smart robot” clearly advertising hide and seek , listens to a child, and help with school. The only thing it does is now explore the house on its own and dance party (assisted). My child keeps asking when she can play with it like the commercial.
Xmas day Miko keep asking about the update, robot wont conect to Wi Fi at all, my daughter try to play with it, Miko doesnt have any answers, my daughter call this Robot Ron (Ron’s gone wrong the movie) she ask me to return it and get her a suit case 😒😒.
I feel frustrated because on xmas I promise her not a present I told her this is The present freaking thing is like interacting with my google home, 80% of the time we have to repeat ourselves this Robot is Not Smart at All 🤦🤦.
I try to return it and Now the returning process is a nightmare 😢😢😢.