ROMI

Romi is a palm-sized companion robot from MIXI, the Japanese social platform company. The current Lacatan model sits on a table or moves in your hands while a 2.4-inch face shows rich expressions. MIXI's own conversational AI generates replies in real time instead of playing canned scripts, so chats feel more like talking with a patient friend.

The Lacatan refresh adds vision sharing (Romi can discuss what you show its 120° camera), long-term memory of shared moments, and smoother turn-taking in Japanese conversation. Touch sensors let it react when you pet or pick it up. The Romi app supports remote check-ins, family profiles, and subscription management.

Romi lists at ¥98,780 tax included (~$658 USD equivalent) on shop.romi.ai and at about 40 electronics retailers across Japan. A required cloud plan runs ¥1,958 per month or ¥19,580 per year. Conversation is Japanese-first today, which limits it outside Japan even though the hardware is a polished, made-in-Japan product.

HomeBotRadar tracks Romi for buyers cross-shopping desk companions like EMO or Vector 2.0 and premium emotional pets like LOVOT. It won a CES 2025 Innovation Award in Robotics and general sales began July 25, 2025.