Samsung says that Ballie is ready to roll

Ballie’s return to the limelight was one of the biggest robot-related reveals of CES 2024 but there’s been little to no news since then. Given that Samsung's little AI robot has already vanished like vapor once before, it's enough to make you worry that an encore might be on the cards.

Fortunately, during the company's annual CES press conference, Samsung publicly confirmed plans that its Ballie robot would be launching in the first half of 2025.

For the unfamiliar, Ballie is an orb-shaped robot that can interact with and intuit information from the various Samsung smart devices in your home.First announced at CES 2020, it can also act as a companion to your pets, a fitness coach or portable display (thanks to a built-in 1080p projector).

Ballie is the kind of tech product that was made for the CES showfloor but all too often fails to make it to market, so it's nice to see Samsung commit to a more firm timeline. That said, if you're based in Australia I wouldn't rush out to your local JB Hi-Fi to put in a preorder just yet.

Reviews.org spoke to Samsung Australia’s Jeremy Senior in the aftermath of the announcement and while it doesn't sound like Ballie isn't coming to Australia, it doesn't sound like there's much of a timeline.

"We haven't yet confirmed that we'll be bringing it to Australia but when you look at the context of what we discussed in terms of home AI and SmartThings, Ballie is a really good personal AI companion and fits into the way that we're seeing consumers start to operate at the moment," he said.

It's worth noting here that while Samsung did talk about launching Ballie, it didn't have nearly as much to say about how much the robot might cost. Still, if the company is as good as its word, Ballie could be sitting underneath your Christmas tree in 2025. You just might have to get a grey market importer involved if you live in Australia.