Gaming is a huge market and Android continues to claim a larger piece as more Android games hit the Play Store, some with increasingly stellar quality similar to what you’d find on a console. The only issue sometimes is that playing on a bigger screen just feels better. This is where Android micro-consoles tried to make a splash in the market and while there are still some out there doing just fine, none have really taken the gaming market by storm. A new Android console that was introduced on Kickstarter called ZRRO is trying to do just what other Android consoles haven’t yet been able to.
Is another Android gaming console really going to change the direction of that market though? That all depends. It’s too early to tell right now for ZRRO, but it certainly has an interesting concept that is at least worth taking a look at. It’s main focus feature, is its controller called the ZRRO pad. The idea behind ZRRO is that it can allow gamers to more natively play touch-based games on their big screen the way they were meant to be played, with touch-based controls, and this is where the ZRRO pad comes in. The ZRRO pad, short of the navigation buttons on the bottom edge is essentially one giant touchscreen. There are sensors in the touchpad that are able to recognize the position of your fingers when hovering over the pad itself, and then it mirrors those positions on screen. Why do this? According to ZRRO Ltd. it’s because while playing touch games on the big screen is already possible, if you are attempting to use the touchscreen on your phone for the controls but are viewing the game on the big screen, you aren’t really looking at where you finger placement is, which can make for a more difficult time playing the game, and results in people just looking at the phone screen to play. The ZRRO pad aims to get rid of this scenario.
Once you get past the controller, the ZRRO box itself is actually quite similar to any other Android console. It hooks up to your TV via HDMI, sports a microSD card slot for expandable storage up to 32GB and even houses 16GB internally. It’s powered by a quad-core processor clocked at 2.0GHz and comes with 2GB of RAM, features 2 USB ports, and as far as connection goes you’re looking at either Ethernet or WiFi. There is one more standout feature however, it’s capable of outputting video up to 4K, which currently is only supported by one other Android console, the NVIDIA SHIELD. The kickstarter has about 5 days left on it and the goal has already been reached, but if you’re intrigued and want to give the ZRRO a try, you can still back the project, and the beginning early bird tier starts at $149.
