Android By Lee Mathews Jan. 12, 2014 11:07 am
Just as China finally lifts its ban on foreign video game consoles, one of its biggest electronics OEMs has announced a new Ouya competitor. It’s called Tron, and Huawei hopes to sell it for less than $120.
The console itself is about the size of a soda can, and its minimalist exterior hides some pretty impressive ARM internals. Huawei opted to one-up Ouya by dropping in an Nvidia Tegra 4 processor and 2GB of RAM. They may offer two different models, one with 16GB of storage and another with 32GB.
On the back of the “can” you’ll find an Ethernet and USB 3.0 port as well as HDMI and headphone outputs. Tron’s storage is expandable, too. There’s a door on the bottom that conceals a micro SD slot.
The Tron controller is a lot like the Ouya’s — the main difference being that the trackpad in the center is larger. It connects to the console via Bluetooth and can be recharged by hooking up a cable to the micro USB port.
Like Ouya, Huawei has heavily customized Android for their console. The simplified dashboard offers up access to games, videos, apps — and, of course, Huawei’s store. Google Play access doesn’t appear to be part of the plan, but that might not matter a whole lot. There’s a good chance that the Huawei Tron might never be sold outside of China.
Disappointing? Perhaps a little. Those who got to spend hands-on time with the console at CES found it zippy enough. Then again, it sounds as though Huawei failed to mitigate the annoying Bluetooth controller lag that plagues Android consoles.
What’s more disappointing is that Huawei went with the name Tron and didn’t even bother to deck this thing out with some blue neon and angular geometric patterns.
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The console itself is about the size of a soda can, and its minimalist exterior hides some pretty impressive ARM internals. Huawei opted to one-up Ouya by dropping in an Nvidia Tegra 4 processor and 2GB of RAM. They may offer two different models, one with 16GB of storage and another with 32GB.
On the back of the “can” you’ll find an Ethernet and USB 3.0 port as well as HDMI and headphone outputs. Tron’s storage is expandable, too. There’s a door on the bottom that conceals a micro SD slot.
The Tron controller is a lot like the Ouya’s — the main difference being that the trackpad in the center is larger. It connects to the console via Bluetooth and can be recharged by hooking up a cable to the micro USB port.
Like Ouya, Huawei has heavily customized Android for their console. The simplified dashboard offers up access to games, videos, apps — and, of course, Huawei’s store. Google Play access doesn’t appear to be part of the plan, but that might not matter a whole lot. There’s a good chance that the Huawei Tron might never be sold outside of China.
Disappointing? Perhaps a little. Those who got to spend hands-on time with the console at CES found it zippy enough. Then again, it sounds as though Huawei failed to mitigate the annoying Bluetooth controller lag that plagues Android consoles.
What’s more disappointing is that Huawei went with the name Tron and didn’t even bother to deck this thing out with some blue neon and angular geometric patterns.
More...
