I bought this for my kid's 5th birthday. I didn't want to get some dumb toy that would almost instantly be thrown on the floor and forgotten about, nor something that was too advanced for him and have it sit around unused, for years. There are some amazing "toys" now, but many of them have a bunch of pieces and a complexity that means...if he plays with it, I play with it. Nope.I wanted something that was simple, fun, and not too hard for a smart 5 year old to get going and have fun with, while also being something that he could learn from. I wanted something that wasn't just cool for the next 2 months, but something that, as he learned, he could do more with. This fits the bill. As much as I researched things, I was still surprised by how much thought was put in to this.On the basic, starting level, you have a bunch of ways to control it. Standard forward, back, right, left, but there are different ways. My kids, unfortunately, favor the "scream drive", where you have to make noise to make it move. Even in the basic control section, there is a block programing mode. In addition to the control modes, there is a game section where you use the ball itself as the controller. That's just the "Sphero Play" app, there is still the "Sphero Edu" app. I have only played with it a little, but I can't wait for my kid to get to that level. Regardless, even with that, it takes very little to start getting the SPRK+ to draw shapes on the floor.Overall, it might be a really expensive baseball, but it's totally fun, there is a ton of room for growth, and my 5 and 3 year old's love it.Don't make the mistake I made, make sure you buy a protective shell for it. Unless you only plan on running it on carpet, it's going to get messed up really quick. It only took about 5 minutes, and mine is scarred. It still works perfectly fine, it just looks bad cosmetically from running it on laminate floors and tile. After those brutal 5 minutes, I had to take it away from my kids until the shell was ordered and delivered. They were not happy. It was $10 I didn't think I needed to spend, and I was wrong.My son loves it, it’s great brain work and fun toy all in one!I bought this for my class, I teach sixth grade math and robotics to sixth and seventh graders. I’m so happy with this purchase. I do recommend getting some kind of cover for it or keeping it off of hard flooring. The problem is they get scratched pretty easy and in a classroom setting the poor thing looks like it’s been abused. I did find a way around this by creating my own mazes. The kids get great joy watching and helping me create the maze and it is a huge skill to be able to program that Sphero to run the maze. I usually start my students off with using their finger to drive it, but then I move them to programming it to run the maze. It’s amazing how quickly they learn how to program. Some of my mazes are a little difficult and I know they get a little frustrated but they will work until they figure it out. I think this is probably one of the best things that I have purchased for my robotics classIt is a christmas gift. I have not opened it.Bought this for my 9 year old and downloaded the edu app for Sphero. He gave up and thought it was too hard to code. (He’s not patient). Using my phone to “drive” it is a little tricky even as an adult. Learning curve. I downloaded the edu app and it is easier to use to build up to coding. My son plays with it often and is feeling more comfortable with experimenting with codes seems pretty durable. I even like playing with it and trying out the codes.Its a good toy for kids for the age range advertised. I got it so that i could have my year old run around it and be fascinated but it moving by itself and its lighting. I failed to get his attention. As as adult I couldn’t get much out of it, got bored in a day. The games on it are useless so are the activities. Controlling the bot is cumbersome, it needs to be calibrated every now and then otherwise it moves in other directions than intended through the remote.This was my son’s Christmas present. (He's 6.) It’s really pricey, so I wanted to love it and I wanted him to love it. But, as you’re getting started with it, it can be frustrating. It’s supposed to automatically turn on when you turn on the app – sometimes it does, sometimes it doesn’t. The instructions on the app say you’re supposed to tap the Sphero to turn it on… no matter how hard you tap, this rarely works. When you start up the app, it asks you to calibrate it by turning it so the blue light on it faces your device. Easy enough. But then as a child plays with it, they accidentally bump that calibration feature on a regular basis, then it stops working right, and you have to re-calibrate it. These frustrations were enough that we basically got it at Christmas, played with it off an on for a few hours over a few days, then it sat on the shelf untouched till May.I think it can do a lot more. I think I remember back when I ordered it, that there was programming you can do, and lots of other things, but frankly we’ve never done that…. My notes from Christmas say: “Visual Block-Based Programming Transform ideas into code by using visual blocks that represent our C-based language, Oval.” Could it be a cool toy if we could really explore it more and figure it out? Maybe, but I’m not motivated to do that.After reading reviews on here and on google. I'm happy with this purchase although it doesn't come with any kind of instructions, and for me that is a big thing as I am an avid person of reading instructions. It just came with a user guide.. which isn't any sort of instruction. But the sphero itself is pretty cool. I got it mainly to play with my brothers dog with it. But found myself playing around with it. It's about the size of a baseball maybe a little bigger, and the help I received at spheros email was very good, they were very fast at responding to my questions (about setting it up, which is pretty straight forward you just put it on the charger ?) but my only complaint is that it doesn't come with any instructions...Very disappointed. The Sprk+ is advertised as working with Android. However I have not been able to connect it to any app. There is no flicker of recognition the device is there. The support material is poor. Support is almost non-existent. I emailed and they sent me a link to a page that does not exist and have not had a response since this. I have tried on 4 different devices with 3 different applications. Yet another thing that really only works with Apple. This is going to be sent bacoHit and miss with charging, connection and it got put in a cupboard never to be used again after the first dayThis is a great little product to help learn programming skills. Ideal for people who like something visual to happen during the learning process. Lots of resources online. Downsides are the price and battery life could be better.Good fun toy. The programming features aren't intuitive. Wished I'd bought a regular Sphero after playing with this. £100 cheaper and more fun!My son loves this with lots of options available for him to play with. Great purchase and am very happy with this product.