At its CES 2025 press conference, Samsung just announced that the Ballie home robot it showed off last year will actually be available for sale this year. This cute yellow rolling device has a built-in projector that allows it to beam images and videos on your walls and floors, so you can interact with it. No further information on pricing and a more specific window of time has been shared, though.
When it was first announced, Samsung told The Washington Post that Ballie would actually be available at some point in 2024. Alas, here we are six days into 2025 with no actual date or price yet. We first started seeing early iterations of Ballie in 2020, when the thing was just a tennis ball-sized orb that a Samsung executive tenderly caressed in their hands. Back then, Ballie was touted as a potential “fitness assistant,” and Samsung further showed off capabilities like smart home control last year.
We also saw last year that you’d be able to talk to Ballie by speaking to or texting it. It also became bowling ball-sized, and the Post said it would have a LiDAR sensor, which should help it detect and avoid obstacles. An onboard infrared sensor is what will help it connect to older home appliances to turn them on or off.
Ballie only got the briefest of mentions at Samsung’s CES 2025 press conference, which ran for about 45 minutes, and details beyond what I’ve already described are extremely sparse. For now, we can only guess at a cost. But I wouldn’t be surprised if it cost about the same as a Bespoke Samsung fridge.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/home/the-cute-samsung-ballie-home-robot-will-actually-go-on-sale-this-year-223528677.html?src=rss
