Which LEGO(r) EV3 Should I Buy?

Whether you’ve just taken a class with me at Brickersville, or if you’ve taken our tour, or watched one of my videos on my YouTube channel Squigglemom, you may be wondering which LEGO(r) EV3 you should buy.

You can find the EV3 in retail and education form. I’m going to share with you the differences between the two.

The LEGO EV3 Retail Kit

This kit comes with several built in projects. The EV3 brick, which is the smart part of the EV3 and a number of technics parts motors and sensors. There are two large motors, one medium motor, one touch sensor, one color sensor, one infrared sensor, an infrared remote. There are also connector cables and an upload cable for programming the brick.

The LEGO EV3 Education Core Kit

This kit comees with the EV3 brick, two large motors, one medium motor (both with built-in rotation sensors). There is an ultrasonic snsor, a color sensor, a gyro sensor and two touch sensors. There is a rechargeable battery.

The core set also comes with building instructions for an educational robot base, and exercises that teach how to program the robot. It is these two that really differentiates the retail and core sets. Don’t think you can purchase the retail set and still do the educational projecs.

So my advice? Buy the core set. You’ll have a good box to keep all your parts in. There’s a sorting tray also, if you need it. There is a battery pack – Rechargable battery pack? It’s your friend!

If you’ve already purchased the EV3 retail kit, whether because it’s what you could find or perhaps you found someone who was getting rid of theirs… you might still want to pick up the EV3 battery pack.