Razer is a company that made a name for itself with gaming products. They started originally with peripherals and then eventually with their own PCs. For the past year, the company has been looking to go beyond gaming with things like their Nabu fitness tracker. This year they offered a couple of new items at the CES show but probably the most intriguing is a new take on something we have already seen in the market. The Forge TV is essentially another $100 Android based box design to plug into a home entertainment center. Sticking with their gaming emphasis, Razer is looking to differentiate their product in several key ways.
The Forge TV
Let’s face it, at the heart of it, the Forge TV is essentially another Android TV box that really is not that different from the Amazon Fire TV. It has a quad core Qualcomm Snapdragon processor with 2GB or memory and 16GB of storage. This does make it faster than say the Fire TV with its previous generation Qualcomm quad core processor but frankly most Android streaming apps aren’t going to be benefiting from this.
What really sets the Forge TV apart is in the connectivity of the device. It features 802.11ac dual band wireless networking and gigabit Ethernet ports for extremely fast networking support. In addition, it has a USB 3.0 port for use with high speed external peripherals such as storage. Most of the other streaming boxes rely on slower networking and USB 2.0 connectors if they have them.
The reason these factors matter is because the Forge TV is being marketed at being a home gaming device. Now, this is something that Amazon was trying to push with their Fire TV, but it looks like Razer is trying to go even further. Much of this has to do with the peripherals and software they are offering in conjunction to the $99 Forge TV.
The Serval Game Controller
Of course using the Forge TV for gaming is only going to be useful if you have a controller. To this end, Razer also developed their Serval wireless controller. It will be sold in a bundle with the Forge TV for $150 and also sold individually but there is no word on what the price will just be for the controller.
The Serval is essentially a standard Bluetooth game controller that can be used with just about any Bluetooth compatible device. This makes it more useful than the NVIDIA Shield controller that is Wi-Fi based and thus won’t work with as many devices. The controller even has a adjustable clip that can hold an Android smart phone for mobile play outside of your living room. What is also intriguing is the ability to hook up four of these controllers at once to the Forge TV for multiplayer gaming.
The overall design of the Serval looks very similar to the controller for the XBox 360 but with a slightly larger build to hold the battery and wireless electronics and a few different buttons on the center of the controller.
The Turret Keyboard and Mouse
One thing that seems to be missing from the Forge TV is any sort of remote for controller it. This may be an omission by Razer in their press announcements of the device but in addition to the Forge TV and the Serval, the company also announced its Turret gaming keyboard and mouse. Now, this is not specific for the Forge TV but the announcement seems to make it fairly clear that it is an intended peripheral.
The package essentially contains two major parts. The first is the lapboard which is essentially a sturdy keyboard designed to be used on ones lap in front of a TV. The sturdiness is key because most keyboards are intended for a hard surface like a table or desk. The keys use a flat isolated design akin to a laptop rather than a desktop style in order to keep the design a bit smaller. The lapboard also has an extension that folds out to act as a mousepad. Most people will probably keep the extension out in order to keep it properly balanced on their lap.
The second part of the combo is a wireless gaming mouse. The design looks to be different from their other mice but then again this is an ambidextrous design that can be used by the right or left hand. It features a high 3500 DPI sensor for a high degree of accuracy.
Both of these components function via Bluetooth making them easy to connect to the Forge TV. They can also be used with Bluetooth compatible PCs or mobile devices. If your PC does not have Bluetooth, there is also a supplied USB dongle. Both components are rechargeable and fit into a special charging dock. There is no pricing as of this time for the Turret keyboard and mouse combo.
PC Game Streaming
So the big hook for the Forge TV is the ability to use it as a remote PC gaming platform. Essentially, the Forge TV combined with the software, allows one to use the Forge TV with its peripherals to essentially stream PC games from a desktop or laptop on the local area network to the Forge TV and a HDTV. Now, this is not a new concept as NVIDIA has been doing this with their Shield product lineup that also runs on Android.
What is making the Razer solution so appealing though is the flexibility. You are not locked into a specific set of hardware at all. In fact, as long as your PC and Android TV device meet the minimum specifications, it should be able to stream just about any Direct X 9 and new Windows game to your home entertainment center. Of course, the first hardware to support this will be Razer’s Forge TV and Serval controller but the company is just as interested in selling the $40 Cortex: Stream software as it is the hardware.
The only question is how effective Razer’s actual solution is going to be at doing the PC streaming. The early Shield streaming had many issues that caused disconnects and lag. Much of that has been improved over time but the cost of the Shield and the required NVIDIA graphics card in the PC limited its use being enthusiasts. This has the potential to go much further but we still aren’t sure as it its effectiveness. Only time will tell if this is a true success or a niche product like NVIDIA’s.
Final Thoughts
Overall, the Razer Forge TV looks to be a very unique combination of devices. If it lives up to its ability to stream just about any PC game to a home theater, it may become a great option to expand one’s entertainment boundaries, especially for those with just a desktop gaming PC. The overall cost of an entire bundle of Forge TV, Serval and Turret are still up in the air as is availability. It is likely that a complete bundle with the software will probably end up being around $300. This is certainly less than another gaming focused PC for a home entertainment center but it still is a significant investment. Of course its success is going to be entirely dependent upon the Cortex: Stream software and if it can live up to the claims that Razer have made for it.