Humane AI Pin and the Rabbit R1, and their goal was simple. Observe your surroundings to better understand the world, and help you do normal smartphone things by just talking to it. Well, both devices were massive flops due to their inability to perform even the most basic tasks. Surprisingly, the AI wearable market isn’t ready to give up yet, and there’s a new Indian startup trying to shake things up: Neosapien.

Imagine this: You’re a busy professional trying to juggle a full-time job and a side hustle after work. This is the reality of most people today. You don’t get time for yourself, and it becomes easy to lose track of important information. Maybe your boss asked you to do a presentation at home and present it tomorrow, but you forgot. That’s where Neosapien Neo 1 wants to help you. It’s essentially an outsourced memory farm that listens to important conversations and remembers things for you. The idea is pretty clever, but is the Neo 1 worth ₹13,499? To find out, I used the device for the better part of three weeks and even took it with me to Jaipur to cover an esports tournament.

Neosapien Neo 1 Review

Hisan Kidwai

Summary

The Neosapien Neo 1 serves a niche purpose. It’s for busy people who have trouble managing multiple jobs or hobbies, yet still want to do their best. I’ve never been the kind of person who consistently uses reminder apps because setting everything up feels like extra work. So a device that listens to and understands what I’m saying and keeps track of everything I need to do, like a personal assistant, is great

Design & Build

Unlike the Humane AI Pin, the Neosapien Neo 1 is elegantly simple. There are no screens or speakers. Instead, you get a sophisticated pendant-shaped wearable that’s not very heavy. I do wear a simple silver chain, so I thought it would take me some time to get used to it, but that wasn’t the case. After just 5 minutes, you simply forget it’s even there. The rectangular wearable on the front houses a metal shell with the Neo logo centered. The logo glows when it’s working, so you don’t have to pull your phone to check. Underneath the logo is a touch-sensitive area you can tap to turn the device on, and that’s pretty much it.

Some might argue for an AI wearable you can only use via your phone, but I do like the idea of it not being in your face. I already have a million different things bombarding me for attention, like my smartwatch, my earphones, and my doomscrolling beacon of death, the phone. So an AI device that sits quietly on my chest is great.

Performance

All this talk about Neosapien Neo 1 centers around one key idea. It’s supposed to remember things for you. And I’m one of those people who constantly forgets important information. Had a plan with me to go out and get lunch together? Too bad, I’ve forgotten. Part of this behavior, which I’m not proud of, is that I’m always distracted by some work. Never a day goes by that I’m not rushing to complete something. So, as you may imagine, I was quite excited to test the Neo 1 out, and, maybe, finally lend a helping hand to my brain.

When you first set up the Neo 1, it trains to recognize your voice. This, in theory, helps it sort memories more effectively. It listens constantly to whatever conversation you’re having and uses AI to transcribe, summarize, and even set reminders of important meetings, once you connect to Google Calendar. I did all of that and took it to cover the BMPS Grand Finals happening in Jaipur last week. One of the stories I worked on was a daily recap covering the biggest moments from each match. While this is usually a labor-intensive process of me writing the highlights in real time as the game is being played, I gave that task to the Neo 1 instead. It heard the commentary and recorded everything.

For the most part, the experience was better than expected. The device transcribed the commentary, which was in Hindi, and summarized the information game by game. This included the different strategies teams used, the commentators’ analysis, and how they played throughout the tournament. I could use those summaries as a foundation for my article without constantly referring back to handwritten notes.

App Experience

The best part about the Neo 1 is that you can sort through different memories and even ask the integrated chatbot questions. For example, I often remember that I’ve forgotten something important, but can’t quite figure out what it is. So, I just asked the bot, and it gave remarkably accurate answers. There’s also the obvious benefit of recording meetings, which are mostly boring with just sprinkles of useful information. That’s the part the Neo 1 excels at. I don’t have to worry about checking the deadline; I can just use the wearable.

Everything we just talked about is handled by the app, which is also pretty simple. There are four different sections: Home, Ask Neo, Memories, and Reminders. All of them are pretty self-explanatory, and they work quite well. I’m a fan of the reminders section because it highlights everything I haven’t done yet, which is usually a lot. The battery lasts a full day on a single charge, and it uses the standard USB-C port for charging.

As useful as the Neo 1 is, it isn’t without its flaws. The Neo 1 is a first-generation product, and it comes with a few quirks you should know about. The biggest hurdle is psychological rather than technical: the device is always listening. I don’t know about you, but it took me a few days to be comfortable with an AI device listening to all my conversations and recording things the other person is saying.

The other is that the Neo 1 struggles with names. Don’t get me wrong, its Hindi transcription is great, but it needs a little more work to get the names of people and teams correctly. Beyond those, the Neo app requires many permissions, the most important being the ability to disable battery optimization. I know it’s necessary for the app to work and use the AI features, but it drains a lot of battery. I had to shift the app from my primary phone to my secondary phone for that reason. So, it’d be great if Neo could optimize the app a bit more.

Verdict

At ₹12,999, the Neosapien Neo 1 serves a niche purpose. It’s for busy people who have trouble managing multiple jobs or hobbies, yet still want to do their best. I’ve never been the kind of person who consistently uses reminder apps because setting everything up feels like extra work. So a device that listens to and understands what I’m saying and keeps track of everything I need to do, like a personal assistant, is great. Don’t get me wrong, it’s still a first-generation product, and there are some problems like the increased battery drain or the fact that someone is listening to everything you say. But after three weeks of use, I found myself relying on it more often than I expected. And that’s probably the strongest compliment I can give a first-generation product.