WHEELSTER Hoverboard Review

Well, I’ve been at it again—zipping around my local park on another kids’ overboard. This time it’s called the WHEELSTER Hoverboard, and it’s every bit as fun as you might think. If you’ve been thinking about picking up a hoverboard for yourself or someone else, keep on reading and I’ll try to give you a complete picture of just what these things are—and what they can do.

(Note: The WHEELSTER Hoverboard that I received for testing was a very cool looking blue camo model that I haven’t been able to find on the Best Buy website, so I’ve linked instead to the next closest thing—the green camo model. Any specs I refer to in this review are taken from the packaging and manual of the model I have in hand. Some minor differences in specs is possible from one model to another.)

WHEELSTER Hoverboard

The WHEELSTER Hoverboard is pretty much your standard smooth-surface hoverboard (as in it’s not an off-road model). It has the increasingly common Auto-Leveling feature (making it fairly easy to balance on), built-in Bluetooth (just in case you want to blast music from it as you cruise around), and LED Lights that flash in lots of different fun colours.

It also has (which is unlike any other hoverboard I’ve ever tested) a flexible, rubbery plastic coating that protects the board from dirt and scratches. This layer is fairly thick, and it’s also removable if you’d rather be able to see the board in all of its glory (the photo above shows the board with the protective layer in place, while the one immediately below shows the board with the rubbery coating removed from one side).

The WHEELSTER Hoverboard can carry passengers weighing up to 120 Kgs, it can travel at a top speed of 12 Km/h, and it has an impressive range of between 15 and 20 Kms per full charge of its Lithium-Ion battery. This, of course, will depend on a variety of different factors, such as the weight of the rider and the smoothness of the surface being ridden on.

Of course, a charging adaptor is included with the board, so it’s easy to charge the battery whenever necessary. To achieve a full charge takes a minimum of 2 hours, although you can ride the board with less than a full charge if you’re initially impatient to just get out there and give it a try.

Finally, the WHEELSTER Hoverboard comes with its own hard-shell carrying case (see photo above), which is also something I have not seen before with one of these boards. This case is very reminiscent of a large, plastic toolbox, and it makes transportation of your board much easier when traveling (or when carrying the board through a place where riding is prohibited). This case also makes a great storage box for your board.

My Riding Experience

Riding the WHEELSTER Hoverboard was easy and fun, and once again I managed not to injure myself. I took the board to a parking lot near my home that happens to be frequently empty, and, as it turned out, I had the entire place to myself for the entire time I was riding. Better still, the lot had recently been completely repaved (within the last 6 weeks or so), so I had a super smooth surface to cruise around on.

I’m not exactly one to attempt a lot of crazy stunts when first trying to get used to a contraption like this, but I did push the board to go as fast as I could make it travel—so much so, in fact, that it would often begin to beep (presumably a warning alarm) whenever I got going too fast.

I also tried some spinning in place and other minor tricks once I got going (which was fun and made me so dizzy that I stumbled around pretty good for a while), but at no point did I feel like I was risking imminent death. It was actually quite fun (even when I couldn’t stand up straight after all the spinning)!

One thing I was especially happy about with this board was that it didn’t seem to labour under my weight at all—not at any point during the testing. This has not always been the case with such boards, so I must conclude that this one is better at handling a full grown adult than some of the other (non-off-road) boards have been.

Beyond that, there really isn’t all that much to say about this board, other than I really liked it a lot. Seeing as I weigh close to the 100 Kg (220 pounds) max of many other hoverboards, it was nice that this one could handle an extra 20 Kgs of weight, so it’s great for both kids and adults.

By the way, the minimum recommended age for using this thing is 6 years old, and there’s also a minimum weight of 20 Kgs.

Examining the Video Evidence

Please take a couple of minutes to check out my little video addendum to this article. In it, you will see me riding around on the WHEELSTER Hoverboard in a nearby parking lot, and you will also get a good look at the board itself (as well as its key accessories):

Final Thoughts

This is the third time I have reviewed a hoverboard now, and I can’t really distinguish much between the various brands themselves, aside from this one doing an excellent job of toting my heavy posterior around just as well as an off-road model I tested back in the summer. What does differentiate this model, however, is the handy carrying case and the layer of protective covering that it comes with. Both of these things are definitely a bonus that this board has going for it, and as I had no difficulty riding it and no complaints about its performance, I can easily recommend it to anyone in the market for one of these devices. Just give yourself enough time to find your balance and get used to riding it before you get too bold and crazy with the speed and fancy riding.

Check out all the WHEELSTER Hoverboards that are currently available at Best Buy.