iFixit, the popular creator of consumer-friendly gadget repair manuals, has taken some time with the Android-powered Ouya gaming console to see what makes it tick. With Ouya's full permission, iFixit dismantled a final Ouya cube piece by piece, and found some encouraging things waiting inside.
The small console cube and its accompanying controller can be opened and cleaned in a matter of minutes, allowing gadget owners to clean the console's heatsink and fan with ease. This ease of disassembly triggered a 9/10 score on iFixit's "repairability" scale.
Given that the Ouya is so small and can, in theory, be easily damaged, the folks at Ouya have completed measures to increase its durability. First, the console has been weighted down with almost two ounces of metal weights to make it less easily toppled.
In addition, the fan can be easily removed. Instead of a proprietary piece, the fan is a standard model that can be easily found and replaced if it ever breaks due to console damage or simple overuse.
Finally, one remaining step has been taken: the heat sink has been soldered onto the motherboard, instead of being attached with clips. In iFixit's drop tests, the Ouya survived better as a result.
Here's the full breakdown of the components on the front and back of the Ouya's motherboard.
Two Samsung K4B4G1646B 4 Gb DD3 SDRAM modules (2 x 4 Gb for 1 GB total)
• SMSC LAN9500A Hi-Speed USB 2.0 to 10/100 Ethernet Controller
• Texas Instruments TPS659110 Integrated Power Management Unit
• AzureWave AW-NH660 Wi-Fi/Bluetooth 4.0 module, based on Broadcom BCM4330
• Nvidia T33-P-A3 Tegra 3 Multi-Core CPU
• Kingston KE4CN3K6A 8 GB eMMC
While such in-depth stats likely won't alter the opinions of casual gamers, the simplicity of the Ouya's design, along with the lack of many expensive repair parts should encourage additional purchases.
The Ouya was originally scheduled to launch on June 4, but was delayed so that more units could be created to keep up with unexpected demand. The console is now set to launch on June 25 with a catalog of around 100 games, and the potential for thousands more (including emulated Nintendo games) coming further down the line.
