When Hendo Hoverboard was first introduced, the world was rousing with excitement, but its design leaves much to be desired. It was nothing like what Back to the Future II depicted. I hate to benchmark against a fantasy product, but that’s how we like our hoverboards to be, or at least a little more befitting its futuristic status. Cumbersome, I believe is the word to use for the first-gen Hendo. It was rather big and honestly, does look much like a wheel-less skateboard. A year on, Arx Pax, the company behind the original Hendo Hoverboard, is ready to showoff a more streamlined version, referred to as Hendo 2.0 and it will be officially unveiled on October 21, 2015 to coincide with the iconic “destination time” of Back to the Future II.
The new version will be, according to Arx Pax own words, “more true-to-skateboard-like design” – a result of a close collab with Pro Skateboarder Tony Hawk. The Hendo 2.0 will be more proportionally similar to a skateboard with longer but slimmer deck, nose and tail kicktails, and in place of trucks, it has stronger and more efficient second-generation hover engines. Speaking of trucks and hover engines, the new board features modified skateboard-style trucks (you can’t really tell, actually) integrated with the hover engines, which the company says will provide better traction. In addition, Hendo 2.0 also promises wireless safety switch for turning off the Hoverboard remotely, improved balance with the use of modular MFA array, and better charging and power management, longer battery life and USB connectivity.
The biggest issue of the first Hendo is the difficulty in riding, but with the promised improvements, we are expecting some thumbs up from the community with respect to riding. I mean, it is supposed to be so easy to operate that even a little girl on a Mattel Hoverboard could do it. No? Ok, maybe not now, but I am sure Arx Pax is getting somewhere with Hendo 2.0.
