Gadgetory

with the ouya officially out is it a game console for the future or just a phone with no screen find out in our review hey everybody I'm Chris look when the Ouya first had its funding goal on Kickstarter a lot of people were excited and a lot of people just didn't care that still seems to be the case when you talk to people about the oh yeah the question is is it worth it for you well that depends on what you're looking for to see what I mean let's get started with the review well you might expect top-of-the-line specs in a unit ostensibly dedicated to gaming that's not what you get with the Ouya though the specs aren't particularly wimpy either powered by a Tegra 3 chipset it runs a 1.7 gigahertz quad-core CPU and ULP GPU along with one gig of ram and 8 gigs of internal storage for connectivity it has a tow 2.11 B G and n Wi-Fi wired Ethernet and Bluetooth le 4.0 more on that later it's got one standard USB slaw and one micro USB slot and video output is through HDMI current-gen high-end phones blow those specks away but keep in mind that this box only costs 99 bucks right now the console itself is fairly small essentially a 3 inch cube though a bit stylized setup is super simple plug in the AC adapter plug in an HDMI cable and you're all set if you've ever used an Xbox 360 controller the Ouya controller should look and feel very familiar it's not quite as smooth an its general feel and obviously the buttons are labeled differently in an entirely unsurprising twist instead of the traditional letters like you might expect to see on a console controller you've got the letters o u Y and a guess what that spells where the controller gets different is its built-in touchpad this isn't clearly marked on the controller and at first I honestly had no idea was there but it's a very cool feature especially when you're using an app instead of gaming on either side of the controller there's a removable faceplate with a double a battery underneath each I've heard stories of these becoming loose but during my time with the console I never noticed this it is a little weird taking off too different base plates to change the batteries but it's not a huge deal it's worth noting that you can also use a ps3 controller via bluetooth or a wired Xbox 360 controller via USB the Ouya runs Android 4.1 jellybean but you probably won't ever notice unless you go look under the hood the interface is entirely leo with no trace of Android aside from the occasional progress dialog or pop up once the Ouya is turned on you're met with a screen offering four options play is a simple list of all the games you have installed discover is where you go to browse all the games and apps available on the Ouya make is mainly for developers although it's also useful for those who want to sideload apps as there's no Play Store here finally manage is where you change console options check for updates and generally well manage things the who uses a try before you buy model so any game you see can be downloaded and played for free what you get to play from the game and how long you get to play it is entirely up to the developer some games are short demos or just demos of a single mode in a game while others basically give you the entire game for free and ask for donations there are some cool games available but the selection is the area I think that is lacking the most right now for every interesting game there are 10 games that are either straight ports of simple Android games or are just plain bad the one thing that we Ennead x' most is a killer app one game that by itself makes the system worth buying in addition to games there are a few rudimentary media box features for a long time the only streaming at the Ouya had was twitch TV a service for gaming streams recently though it got support for Plex which greatly increases its use as a media box now the one thing that will definitely make the system worth buying for a lot of people exists in a legal gray area emulators there are a ton of emulators available right in lieu you store everything from the original NES to the PlayStation 2 odd systems like the MSX are available these aren't illegal by themselves but chances are a lot of the roms you might use with them are still I'm sure this will sell more than a few units right now the main thing that the RIA delivers is potential well that and a lot of emulators it's definitely a neat little device and for 99 bucks it's not quite an impulse buy but it's close if you're looking for really compelling games they're not quite there yet anyway luckily the try before you buy model keeps you from buying a game you end up hating the main thing is if Netflix and other similar apps come to the system and a couple great games then it'll really be worth it we've got a written companion to this video at Android authority comm you can find the link to the article down in the description now make sure to stay tuned to android authority for more reviews news QA giveaways and more I'm Chris Wilk and as always thank you for watching