I feel like this thing has been a bit overhyped, but I am only on day one, so may revise this review as I experiment with it more. These are my initial perceptions:

Pros:
- build quality is overall nice (although the power light had some excess plastic molding and looks really cheap). I like the wood.
- easy plug and play with a versatile cable
- swapping the pads is quick and easy
- compact enough you can throw it in a bag (although it is fairly heavy for its size)
- the different pads give you some good versatility

The not so good:
- 'velocity sensitive' - its over-sensitive, quickly maxing out at 127, and that makes it hard to actually use it in an expressive way; it feels like a really blunt instrument in that respect
- the mystery effects knob and sliders either seem to do barely anything or are too extreme; they don't seem useful and aren't settable as far as I can tell
- the iPad app is very limited and not very good. You can choose from about a dozen sounds for each pad, and you can record loops with optional quantization and metronome. You can buy another 16 sounds in two optional sound packs for about $10 (given there's only two seems a bit lame; just bundle them). There are 'tutorial' songs, but as far as I can tell the tutorial feature in the app is next to useless unless you want to just play along; you get no note guidance, no feedback, etc. If you actually want to learn the pieces, you have to go watch videos on their website. Accessing these videos must be done by you separately via a web browser; there is no access to them through the app, even though that would have been an easy thing to do
- there is often 'bounce' - press a note and it registers twice. Also, occasional misses when it doesn't register.

My overall impression is that I would not buy this to use it just for the app. So that means forking out another $50 (or $45?) to unlock the MPE functionality so it can be used with a DAW. I'm reluctant to do that because of the velocity issue.

Super creative and a very inspiring musical tool. Super easy to use. A real booster for producing music on the go. Really compact and strong gear. As a music producer since more than 35 years, i highly recommend this music instrument. plug, play and enjoy.

Really fun controller that comes with its own app but also works with DAWs like FL Studio, Ableton or Logic, as well as Bandlad on phones (free app). Fun and intuitive experience, instruments change when you change the pad. Very solid build, feels high quality and easy to carry around.

I’ve had more midi controllers than I can remember but I think I finally found a keeper. It’s portable, durable and with different templates, it’s very flexible. As a guitarist, I didn’t expect the guitar template to be as useful as it is. I can easily play riffs and lines into midi notes then play them with any synth sound.

This is one of the coolest controllers available. I've used MPE-enabled products before, and the Play is probably the easiest to get comfortable with. The app helps get started, the interchangeable surfaces give you plenty of flexibility, and the overall build quality is very sturdy so far.

I'm having a blast and would recommend it to anyone looking to incorporate more natural human expression into their digital music creation.