CES: Razer Forge TV First Look

Gaming industry giant Razer is demoing their new Forge TV product at CES this week and the first impression of the device are quite favorable. Forge TV is an Android powered gaming platform, but rather than a full size (not to mention cost) console, it is about 4” by 4” and is considered a micro console. Don’t be fooled by the small size, as it packs a Qualcomm 805 processor, 2 GB of RAM and 16 GB of internal storage. After accounting for the Android 5.0 Lollipop operating system, about 14 GB of usable space remains.

Forge TV seems to fill a niche that I wasn’t sure was clearly defined, a place below multi-hundred dollar price tags yet above more casual mobile options. The micro-console itself goes for $99.99, though you’ll need to spend an extra $50 on the Serval controller bundle. Given that the Serval normally goes for $80 as a stand alone device for Android gaming, paying $150 for both the controller as well as the console is a great deal.

The hands-on experience with both Forge TV and the controller was pleasantly surprising. I was admittedly skeptical walking up to the little box, wondering what kind of punch it could really pack. With ports for an ethernet cable, HDMI, USB 4.1 plus a wi-fi connection, I didn’t have much faith regarding the true guts of the device. Once I was in-game, the graphics didn’t blow me away, but was certainly a clear step above mobile Android gaming. While multiplayer games were not set up, Forge TV does support up to four controllers.

The load times between the games were brief, though there was an instance where the game did give about a 15 second loading screen. That was the exception more than the rule as other levels loaded quickly. At one point my controller did disconnect from the micro-console. Our demo booth had a hard wired connection rather than wireless and it took a simple unplug, plug it back in to fix the issue.

In addition to the gaming potential, Forge TV also showed off its Google integration. From the home menu, familiar options such as Play Music, YouTube, Play Movies & Television shows etc. all appeared. Other apps already on board are Crackle, Hulu Plus and Red Bull TV. The little box also sports Google Cast, thus allowing you to stream web based content directly to your television.

One thing  I missed out on was a chance to see Razer Cortex in action. Cortex allows Forge TV to utilize existing PC games via a $34.99 software add-on. Granting the ability to play PC games on a console for barely half the price of a console game is an impressive move, however I personally don’t like Day 1 add-on costs. Perhaps something like a 7-day free demo will be released by Razer to entice potential buyers.

Minor quibbles aside, I came away very impressed with what Razer has done with Forge TV thus far. As someone who leans towards being a PC gamer, a cheap micro-console that I can play my computer games on has a ton of appeal.

Header photo courtesy of Razer