iFixit tears down the Ouya console

The Ouya (pronounced like “Oh, Ja!”, wat maklik is om te sê as jy Afrikaans praat) is a US$99 games console powered by Nvidia’s quad-core Tegra 3 SOC (system-on-chip) and running Android Jelly Bean.

Its designed to fit into the living room and offer buyers the entire breadth of games in the Google Play store as well as Nvidia’s Tegra Zone, a special store-within-a-store on the Play market that has games with special features optimised for Tegra hardware.

The Ouya is cube-shaped and ships with a wireless Bluetooth-enabled controller not unlike Sony’s Dualshock 4 mixed with the Xbox’s controller layout. It has a touchpad in the middle of the controller to control other elements of the Android GUI and works on two AA batteries.

: OUYA console and controller

: OUYA console

: OUYA console is easy to open.

: OUYA motherboard

: OUYA console internals.

: Ouya disassembly complete.

iFixix documented a Teardown on the Ouya and came away pleasantly surprised. The console opened up easily and there were no funny parts or tools required to get into its innards. Many parts are soldered straight onto the board for stability and strength and many parts can be replaced or modified. The console’s shell is so light that it required extra weights to help keep it from being dragged off a shelf with the weight of the power and HDMI cables.

The controller is likewise easy to pry apart and if you’ve ever taken apart an Xbox 360 or PS3 controller, you’ll appreciate how much difference this makes if you need to fix something. Running on AA batteries is also impressive and Ouya (the company) says it should last about a week between charges. If you’re playing on the console every day, prepare to invest in rechargeable batteries and a charger.

The Ouya initially released to poor reviews and some critics didn’t like the console’s unfinished feel, at least for the versions that were handed to early backers of the Kickstarter project that got this going. Every Ouya console is also its own development kit – you can use it to test and program your games before publishing and at $99, it’s a much lower cost than development kits for Microsoft’s Xbox or the Playstation 3.

Every game available for the Ouya specifically is free to try, just like some apps and games on the Microsoft Store for Windows Phone and Windows 8.

The Ouya is currently available in the United States for pre-orders only. The company does mention that they will ship to other countries on their website. MyGaming has approached the company for further details and will update when we receive them.