Razer has joined the Android TV box market with its latest offering of Forge TV. Razer Forge TV is directed to the new era of gamers. Out of the box it’s a very powerful device, sporting a quad-core Snapdragon 805 CPU, Adreno 420 GPU, 802.11ac WiFi, Bluetooth 4.1, 2GB RAM and 16GB of on board storage.
With all of that, one should be able to run all the game titles on Google Play. Allowing up to four players at a time and stream them onto your big screen TV. But Razer Forge TV’s main powers are based on its Razer Bluetooth peripherals and the “Cortex: Stream.”
Razer says its Cortex: Stream uses your WiFi signal to give you streaming from your gaming PC. It also doesn’t lag during live streams like some other TV box systems. It works flawlessly at 1080p resolution with a WiFi or Ethernet connection. And for a $40 subscription fee it’ll also work with other Android TV devices and supports any DirectX 9 or higher game.
To better aid gameplay any further, Razer reveals two optional Bluetooth accessories: the Serval gaming controller and the Razer Turret gaming mouse and lapboard. The Serval gaming controller can play with any Android TV or smartphone game (using the phone clip), and it can memorize up to four device’s Bluetooth pairings.
On the software side, Razer’s Forge TV works as an Android TV entertainment center. Works well with apps like Netflix, Hulu and Spotify, giving you control via an Android or iOS device as a remote. It also supports Google Cast support for when you want to broadcast shows through a Chromecast dongle. There is also a cloud save feature that can save your shows and gaming progress.
Razer Forge TV box is $100, or $150 bundled with the Serval controller (no current pricing for the Turret gaming mouse). Device availability should be available by Q1 2015.
