Sure, the graphics capabilities of ARM-based chips keep getting better. But have you ever wished you could run Android games on a computer with desktop-class graphics? Yeah me neither — there’s not really much point, since those games were designed for ARM-based devices.

But that’s not stopping the maker of the iConsole.tv gaming system from updating the desktop gaming PC to an Intel Haswell processor with Intel Iris graphics.

The iConsole.tv is a desktop PC designed for Android gaming, and it’s reportedly the first device to score higher than 80,000 in the AnTuTu benchmark.

iConsole.tv
Left: dev unit / right: production console

While that’s a bit of overkill at a time when there aren’t any Android game that need that level of graphics power, the iConsole.tv has another trick: It can run Ubuntu Linux.

That means you could also use this desktop PC as a Steam game console.

Right now the iConsole.tv is only available as a developer device, with dev kits selling for $699 (which is a $300 drop from earlier models). But eventually the goal is to ship a consumer device for between $399 and $499.

That’s a lot of money for an Android game console when you consider that you can pick up an Ouya or GameStick for under $100. But those models won’t run Ubuntu nearly as well as a desktop with an Intel x86 processor. And they won’t top 80,000 in AnTuTu, for whatever that’s worth.

via Engadget

Support Liliputing

Liliputing's primary sources of revenue are advertising and affiliate links (if you click the "Shop" button at the top of the page and buy something on Amazon, for example, we'll get a small commission).

But there are several ways you can support the site directly even if you're using an ad blocker* and hate online shopping.

Contribute to our Patreon campaign

or...

Contribute via PayPal

* If you are using an ad blocker like uBlock Origin and seeing a pop-up message at the bottom of the screen, we have a guide that may help you disable it.

Subscribe to Liliputing via Email

Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Join 9,457 other subscribers

3 replies on “iConsole.tv Haswell-powered gaming PC dual boots Android, Ubuntu”

  1. Nice kind of PC. I wouldn’t mind having Android there as more of a tampering OS. But Haswell with Ubuntu preinstalled? Sweet.

  2. I’d buy one at $400 just to use as a media server, to replace our 7-year-old $300 Dell Ubuntu machine. (Plex needs more juice for transcoding 1080p stuff.) But for Android? Aren’t most higher-end Android games ARM-only, kind of defeating the purpose of having… well, apparently twice the performance of Tegra 4?

  3. When it comes to getting a dedicated gaming console, Android and Intel graphics (Iris Pro included) aren’t the first things that come to mind especially for $500. The only reasons I’d consider getting this is if the consumer model is fanless and is smaller than most m-ITX cases for use as a regular desktop PC.

Comments are closed.