Ouya game device gets the teardown treatment
The open-source game console, which rocked Kickstarter last year, earns a high repairability score from iFixit of 9 out of 10.
Ouya, the open-source game console that took the Kickstarter world by storm, has been ripped apart by the folks over at iFixit.
The Ouya device earned a score of 9 out of 10 from iFixit for its high repairability. The iFixit team was able to tear apart the gadget with ease, and found that it was packed with several important components, including two Samsung 4-gigabit SDRAM modules (for a total of 1 gigabyte), a Texas Instruments power management tool, and Nvidia's Tegra 3 multicore CPU.
Interestingly, because of the Ouya's small size, the company was forced to add weight to the console. Ouya did that by including five metal weights in the case to make it more bottom-heavy. iFixit believes the weights are designed to keep stable the cables connected on the back.
Ouya was a Kickstarter heavyweight last year, earning millions of dollars in donations from its supporters. The console is designed to be open source, and according to Ouya, will be updated each year with better specs to keep up with the technologies that game developers want to use.
The console, which is currently available for preorder, costs just $99 and comes with a controller. An extra controller will set customers back $50.
Speaking of the controller, iFixit found that it comes equipped with an ARM Cortex M3 processor. As with the console, the controller is easy to take apart, but iFixit warned that the joysticks are actually soldered to the circuit board, meaning the whole device would need to be replaced if the joysticks were damaged in some way.
Correction 7:55 a.m. PT: This story initially gave an incorrect figure for the SDRAM modules in the Ouya device. The console has a pair of 4-gigabit SDRAM modules.