E3 2013: Hands on with Unu - the latest Android-based gaming unconsole
Get tablet, gamepad and airmouse for $249
Just when I thought the unconsole space was fully saturated, another one arrived with a big E3 2013 stand.
Called Unu, it's an Android-based gaming and multimedia system.
At its core it's 7-inch 1280x800-resolution Android 4.2 touchscreen tablet, running a 1.66 GHz quad core RockChip CPU and an ARM Mali 400 quad core GPU.
It comes with 5MP back and 2MP front cameras, 8GB of storage, a micro SD slot, 2 micro USB and a mini HDMI slot.
As 7-inch Android tablets go, it's not a bad-looking one; the version at E3 2013 had a metal back and felt pretty solid.
There's moreCombined with this, you get a docking/charging station and HDMI cable so you can connect it directly into your smart TV for the bigger picture.
And for ease of use when you're in the armchair, there's also an airmouse; basically a gesture remote control that neatly has a full QWERTY keyboard on the back.
This combination is labelled the Media Edition and will set you back $200 when it's launched in the summer.
Give me joyMore interesting for Pocket Gamer, however, is the $250 Gaming Edition which adds a gamepad, turning the whole ensemble into what I call an unconsole [see my definition here].
Content is available via the standard Google Play marketplace, although it's not yet clear whether developers will have to support the Unu controller for touchscreen games to work on it, or how many will work directly out-of-the-box.
Something else to note is the devices on display at E3 were straight off the Chinese production line and will receive additional tweaks before full production.
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That was a good thing to learn as the build quality of the airmouse and especially the gamepad weren't up to standard of competition such as Ouya, Green Throttle or GameStick.
Of course, these are taking a different approach, being pure gaming plays and much cheap as they don't include a tablet. In that sense, Unu's most direct competition is the $249 Wikipad gaming combo.
Expect more information and a hands-on with production hardware soon.
You can see some video from E3 2013, include footage of market analyst Michael Pachter complaining that the airmouse doesn't work that well for Angry Birds Star Wars.
