Digest note. We have not tested the Sharp Poketomo ourselves. This page condenses published third-party reviews in our own words; sources are linked on the device page.
What it is. Sharp’s palm-sized plush companion, opened for pre-order in Japan from 21 August 2025 at ¥39,600 (roughly 1,929 yuan per ITHome), against an official sales target of 100,000 units by 2027. It talks and keeps up with you — but the talking is a service: ITHome reported a companion app at ¥495/month from November 2025, and the later Taiwan launch split the dialogue service into three monthly plans priced by how many back-and-forths you get (XFastest, News Pie). Coverage in Chinese is mostly launch reporting; the detailed hands-on used below comes from tecstaff, a Japanese owner’s write-up.
What reviewers like. The tecstaff owner bought the Poketomo to replace Sony’s poiq, a project Sony ended in September 2024, and his measure-by-measure notes read like a manual: 117 mm tall, 194 g, legs fixed — only the hands and face move; USB-C charging at the tail; a power button underneath the base (two seconds to start, five to stop, fifteen to reset); 802.11ac with 5 GHz per the included paperwork. His favourite part is a physical mute slider on the left of the belly, which he calls more practical than poiq’s approach of saying “be quiet” out loud — useful mid-phone-call. Registering as a Sharp member buys a 200-dialogue trial in the app, and he credits the ChatGPT-based engine for starting conversations nearly fully formed. XFastest adds the party trick from the launch event: two Poketomos meeting each other start a conversation of their own.
What they don’t like. Day one was rough: the robot paused long before answering, which the tecstaff author blamed on launch-week server congestion, and it talked far more once moved to another setting. An owner replying in the comments says the dialogue allowance runs out fast and wishes for an unlimited plan. Television audio is enough to make it chime in, so in daily life he leaves it muted most of the time. While one subscription is active, the body and the app cannot both be used — when the robot moves, the app reports it as “out” — and the charging dock is a separate purchase (tecstaff; in Taiwan it only appears inside bundles, per XFastest). The three Chinese reports are all launch copy: no battery figure, no failure data, no repair channel, and no statement of what the body can still do without a plan.
Longevity and lock-in. XFastest’s launch write-up describes the dependency plainly. The core is Sharp’s own edge language model (CE-LLM) with empathy sensing; it records your conversations, interests and emotions, and all dialogue data is encrypted on Sharp’s cloud servers in Japan, synced live between app and robot. The robot even keeps a diary from its own point of view — readable only in the dedicated app. Memory, diary and speech are vendor services, not on-board features. The money structure: in Taiwan the body lists at NT$12,990, the plans at NT$128 (400 dialogues), NT$398 (1,600) or NT$598 (unlimited) per month, with the first month-and-change free after account creation, pre-order from 20 May to 30 June 2026, sales and subscriptions opening the same day (XFastest and News Pie, whose tier numbers agree). News Pie also names real retail channels — MYFEEL and several appliance chains — which reads as an ongoing distribution business rather than a one-off. Sharp shipped a companion robot before this, RoBoHoN back in 2016 (XFastest). Not covered by any source here: warranty, repairs, spare parts, and what offline use looks like.
Our judgment. Treat the Poketomo as two purchases: a one-time hardware plush, and a metered voice you rent monthly. Accept that and the owner-level details (mute slider, tail USB-C, reset sequence) suggest daily handling is less awkward than the genre’s history. ITHome notes you can also interact with a virtual Poketomo through the app alone — worth trying before paying for the body, if the real question is how long the household will keep talking to it at all.
Who should skip it. Anyone picturing a pet that waddles over to greet them — the legs do not move (tecstaff). Anyone who refuses subscriptions: dialogue volume is the product being billed. And anyone whose purchase hinges on offline behaviour or repairability: sources on this device simply do not answer those yet.