2017 kicked off with the 50th anniversary of CES, the annual Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, where companies from around the world showcased products coming out in 2017. While the likes of Nvidia, Sony and Samsung have stolen the headlines, Lego announced Lego Boost, a cool new Lego kit that looks to introduce kids (and adults!) to the world of robotic toys. Here’s all we know about Lego Boost so far including UK price and release date rumours, and a little explanation of what to expect from Lego’s latest high-tech kit. Read next: Best upcoming games of 2017
Lego Boost UK release date and pricing
As Lego Boost was unveiled during CES 2017, we imagine the kit is still a little while away from being released – as with most things at the Consumer Electronics Show. According to the official UK-focused Lego Boost website, the kit is due to launch in the UK in August 2017, although it doesn’t mention a specific date.
It’s a similar story with pricing – while it has been given US ($159.99 USD), European (159.99 euros) and Canadian ($199.99 CAD) pricing, the UK is yet to receive official pricing. We assume it’ll be close to the US pricing, possibly even the same at £159.99. We’ll update this section as soon as we have more information, so make sure you check back regularly for the latest information.
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Lego Boost features and spec: What is Lego Boost?
So, what exactly is Lego Boost, and why is it so different to the thousands of other Lego builds available around the world? Lego Boost is the first kit from Lego that allows users to make robotic toys without needing to know/learn any code, opening the world of coding and robotics up to a much larger audience.
The Lego Boost kit includes 840 standard bricks along with a colour and distance sensor, a power hub with embedded tilt sensor and finally, a motor. The provided components will allow Lego users to build five different objects – a robot, a cat, a guitar, a bulldozer and a Lego-stacking machine (of course!).
Another aspect of Lego Boost that sets it apart from the competition is the inclusion of a companion app (iOS and Android) that lets you drag and drop different actions, rather than having to code them in manually. As well as being a huge timesaver, it eliminates the biggest barrier for both kids and adults interested in building robotic toys.
The app also features instructions for each build, a simple feature but one that’ll make the lives of Lego users a little bit easier – especially if they’ve misplaced the physical instructions. It also features game-esque upgrade systems, as you’ll be able to unlock new ‘abilities’ for your builds as you go along (the cat will learn to wag its tail, for example) – according to Lego, there will be around half a dozen actions for each build that can be unlocked via the companion app.
Once the actions have been unlocked, it’s simply a case of dragging and dropping them into a sequence in any order and hitting the big play button to bring life to the Lego-built robots. The app allows you to save sequences, allowing you to ‘teach’ your robot various tasks, from pushing things along the floor to making its way across a room in your house. For those that have knowledge of coding, there’s also a way to dive into the more technical parts of the app where the code is revealed, allowing for granular action customisation.
Essentially, Lego Boost aims to get people interested in robotic toys and to teach them the basics of coding along the way. That’s no bad thing, and we can’t wait to get our hands on it and build something ourselves!
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Lego Boost photos
Author: Lewis Painter, Senior Staff Writer
Lewis Painter is a Senior Staff Writer at Tech Advisor. Our resident Apple expert, Lewis covers everything from iPhone to AirPods, plus a range of smartphones, tablets, laptops and gaming hardware. You'll also find him on the Tech Advisor YouTube channel.