Segway Drift W1 eSkates product reviews

Having tried a number of Segway products over the years, I feel I have a good grasp on the technology and the style of this brand, so these took me by surprise a bit. Small, but densely packed with tech, these are basically self-drive single-wheel rollerskates. Stand on them, get your balance, and the merest thought of movement has you moving.

I was able to have a brief go, but a recent knee injury - totally unrelated to these - took me out of the running to do proper testing, so I turned to my two sons as able assistants. The eldest had no trouble picking up on how to ride these. In less than 10 minutes he was driving these as casually as one would ride a scooter - it was simply second-nature to him after even that short period of time. He was able to ride them in various configurations - inline, side by side, staggered... he even managed a brief stint riding on just one unit! He told me that it was a lot of fun, very easy once you had mastered the mount/dismount, and his only complaint was that he couldn't keep them.

My youngest, much younger and a lot more nervous, took a little longer to master them, but he was still riding them comfortably and easily within half an hour. While he didn't reach any significant fraction of the top speed, he still whooped it up every time he managed to make a turn and speed up for the next straight run. He confided that he really enjoyed riding them, even though they made him a bit nervous at the start, but he didn't feel comfortable with the getting off them at the end, as he found that as soon as his first foot hit the ground, the eSkate he was still standing on with his other foot wanted to zoom off and unbalanced him.

Charging was simple enough with the dual-charger cable that lets you recharge both units at once, and didn't take too long either. Each test session ran them down to basically flat-battery status, and the older lad had almost 50 minutes playtime while the younger lad, being more conservative and lighter, got close to an hour before things started to slow down on him. Each time, it was simpler to plug them in and let them charge overnight so I can't speak to the recharge time exactly, but even with that being said, the usual rule of thumb is charging takes 2-3 times longer than run-time so 2.5-3 hours should give you a good shot at a full charge.

Overall, even with the short amount of time I had to ride them, I found them fun, but they simply don't suit my needs in terms of practicality or fun. To be fun, they needed to be faster, but faster is less safe when you are standing on small, unsecured devices with independent control. Securing them to my feet would have made them even less safe. While I think they are brilliant, and they will undoubtedly appeal to those who want something small but stylish to ride around places such as Auckland's waterfront, Wellington's Cuba Street or Oriental Parade, or even around the inner city in Christchurch, for the majority of people I suspect something like the Segway MiniPRO would be far more in tune with their needs. Something to be especially aware of - despite some outlets promoting app integration and bluetooth connectivity - the units DO NOT have such functionality at this stage. Future iterations are likely to have such things, and apparently they designed room for the BT hardware to go inside, but it is not there yet. There is currently no way to control the onboard lights, speed settings nor do firmware upgrades by users.