The Ninebot Mini Review

Hovercrafts is a recent trend and well for us it is no different. A few months back we bought a kind of hovercraft named the Ninebot Mini. Although it looks like a hovercraft, which only can travel on smooth terrain. Ninebot Mini can travel on any  type of terrain such as sand or tar road. It is made by Ninebot, which bought Segway earlier and also collaborated with Xiaomi to manufacture this particular model. This particular model is the little brother of the more expensive Ninebot Mini Pro which costs 999 dollars but this little baby costs around 300 dollars plus shipping.

Initial Looks
Initial impressions looks like it is a normal hovercraft that has two long stems attached to the middle in which doesn't look anything impressive to be honest. The stale looks combined with the black colour gives it a very industrial feel which some people might not like. However, there is a white model which gives it a bit more flair. There is a backlight which can be modified to give out an array of colours. This makes it a tad more interesting but the front lights cannot be modified in any way. However, it is quite a head-turner when taken outside as the availability of these vehicles here are scarce.

Backlight looks amazing

Usage
The Ninebot Mini is a fun and fantastic way of going around places such as going to a local coffee shop to take away some food or taking your pet for a walk without you breaking a sweat. It certainly is convenient but it might make us lazy as well. Probably a double-edged sword for me. In order to properly use the Ninebot users must install the Ninebot app from the Appstore or Google Play in which it tracks your mileage, battery usage and even a remote control feature to navigate your Ninebot  without you being on it. Even though this feature doesn't really mean much at the moment but future modifications such as adding an artificial arm could help you carry things or go shopping without you going.

Lazily walking the dog

The Ninebot App

Safety
Safety is a key concern in any vehicle, no matter a car or a hovercraft. Thankfully The Ninebot Mini nails it with its superb safety features such as beeping when you are travelling too fast and it will automatically correct you when you do so. This is to prevent users from travelling too fast and when turning could flip the vehicle and in result deal potentially fatal damage. The Ninebot Mini is also the only hoverboard like vehicle that passed the UL battery certification so no worrying about exploding hovercrafts while charging..  The thing is, it could be TOO safe for some. As you start off with the vehicle it sets a speed limit for newbies which is kinda slow but gives you some room to improve before you burst at full speed. The speed limit will be lifted once you complete a certain mileage but the thing is, you need to have the app at all times and connected to your Ninebot via Bluetooth in order to ride without the petty speed limit which is kind of bummer like when you wanna ride past a neighbouring bicycle then you realise you forgot to bring your phone.

Also for newcomers a helmet is advised to prevent unnecessary injuries. Normal users are also advised to use a helmet and not wearing it might result in injuries.

Helmet On!

Ease Of Use
With the app or with a Ninebot user anyone can learn and use the vehicle in under 5 minutes which makes the vehicle incredibly easy to use. Unlike its cousin The Ninebot One ( Review coming soon ) no training or practice is needed.  The only thing that you need to know is that you must step on the vehicle from the back of the vehicle or else it will go haywire and make you fall down in the process. Other than that it is using your two knees to control the middle stem of the vehicle to steer the vehicle and basically you are good to go. This is what makes The Ninebot Mini stand out from the others. While usually it might take a day or two to learn how to use the hovercraft, with this you only need 5 minutes in which I like it a lot.

Battery
The Ninebot Mini can carry a person and travel with an average of 15 kilometers in a full charge, which means I could travel this to a nearby park and come back with it having at least a plenty of battery left. I consider this to be good considering how electrical cars have big sized batteries and yet only manage to go 70 plus kilometers. Charging it from zero to hero takes it around 4 hours so you could vroom again in no time.

Battery status, Bluetooth status and charger port can be found here

Verdict
Fun, easy to use and an amazing head-turner, The Ninebot Mini creates bundles of joy for you and your family and it takes RM1200 ( 300 dollars ) to ship it to your home. Even though buying it could be kind of tough but once you got it you will basically fall in love with it. I do wish that the vehicle could rely less on the app and pop out a little bit with color but other than that a great choice for anyone wanting to join the hoverboard trend.

8/10

Pros:                                      Cons:
Fun                                        A bit plain
Easy                                       Too App-reliable
Eye-Catching                        Unavailable on most places