Yoto started off as a Kickstarter campaign in 2017, receiving full backing within a few days and has since developed into a product available to the public. It’s an all in one, audiobook solution, specifically crafted for children. It looks fun, the stories available look decent, so I’m keen to unbox it and try it out with my two young daughters.
The Yoto player is a small cube-shaped speaker, with two bright orange rotary knobs, a large colour display and a slot at the top. The display is not a screen, it’s a pixelated colour display, which shows pixelated content based on what you’re doing/listening too, so it doesn’t distract the kids too much. Either side of the player is perforated, allowing the sound from the speaker to pass through and on the right-hand side as you look at it, is a small power of button, with a 3.5mm jack on the left. The back of the player is to a point, not flat, allowing you to stand the player upright or tilt it back, presumably just for fun. To the bottom of the player is where you charge it, it just sits on top of the provided circular plate, which plugs in at the mains. The player does include a rechargeable battery, so once charged, you can take it off the charging dock and move it around freely.
The speaker could be handheld, for an adult anyway, maybe not so much a child. It’s lightweight, sturdy and appears to be able to withstand the odd knock or drop from a low height. The two orange knobs are used to control the player, you can push them in to change modes or rotate them to change volume. As for the technicals, it’s a little vague but It does include Bluetooth 4.2, WiFi, a 40mm 3watt speaker and a 2500mAh rechargeable battery.
There are a few features for the player but the main one is it plays audiobooks. How? Via a plastic credit card that you insert into the top of the player. Turn the device on, insert the card and then the story will begin. There are an array of stories available, including some very popular books such as The Gruffalo, Winnie The Pooh and classics from Roald Dahl. These stories need to be purchased via the online store or app and start at £4.99 for The Gruffalo and go upto £8.99 for the longer stories such as Matilda. The library of available stories is plentiful and appears to have something for everyone. As well as stories, there are a number of music cards, playing nursery rhymes, sound effect cards and activities. There is also the option to create your own cards, via the website, although this is in a BETA stage and a work in progress. In essence, you create a virtual card, link it to a real card and start to use it. There are limitations though, 100 tracks per card, 100MB file size per track and 500MB total size per any one card.
As well as stories, the player can be used a Bluetooth speaker, so you can play music via Spotify or similar, and via the Yoto app, you can play radio stations and podcasts. The player is also a digital clock and shows a sun or moon, depending on the time of the day. I’ve mentioned the app a couple of times now, it’s free and it is required to use the player. You need to create a free account with Yoto, which will allow you to connect your player to your home network. The app also allows you to control the player, select content, adjust volume, that sort of thing, along with parental controls for limiting time etc.
The set up process was quite straight forward, I downloaded the app onto my smartphone, created an account and then set the player up. After set up, the player would appear within the app and I was able to control it and change settings. As mentioned before, the player does have a rechargeable battery, so I left it in to charge for the day and since a full charge, we’ve listened to several chapters of a story and listened to some music. I’d say the battery lasted circa 3-4 hours.
Unfortunately, the audio quality is not the best, especially when listening to music and even my 5 year old picked up on it. We would listen to stories, mid-volume and the voice would be clear and perfectly acceptable. If you turned it up or listened to some music, the sound would get distorted and muffled. Even the deep voice of a giant in one of the stories went distorted. Depending on what you was listening to, a colourful pixelated image would display i.e The Gruffalo, which looked really nice and appealed to my children.
Controlling the player was ok, once you got used to it. With the knobs, you can select a mode, change volume and select a chapter. When you insert a card for the first time and if it’s a story, it will start at chapter 1 and a 1 will appear on the display. Take the card out and it will remember which chapter you’re on and where you finished. At the beginning of each chapter, its corresponding number will appear and there will be a voice intro too.
The Yoto player starts at £79.99 on it’s own, or add £10 for a starter pack which includes a few stories, or add £60 ontop to gain access to the Yoto club for one year. As a member of the club, you will receive a selection of new content, delivered to your address four times a year and these will be before they’re available to buy on the store. It’s not a requirement and it’s a bit of a lucky dip. I should also mention there is free daily content, it’s short and sweet but it’s a nice little freebie.
I love the idea and my daughter loved it even more, she’d look forward to bedtime when she could listen to a couple of chapters. It fell down for me on the audio quality and although fine most of the time when listening to a story, listening to music was not enjoyable.
For more info, head over to the official Yoto website.
