Wonder, The Android-Based Nintendo Switch Competitor, Announced
If you haven't heard of Wonder before, don't worry, neither have I!
This cryptic new device comes from a secretive tech startup of the same name based in Los Angeles. Unlike gaming smartphones like the Red Magic or the Black Shark or even the Android-powered OUYA home console, the Wonder plans to be something different, somewhat bridging the two...
Their eventual product will consist of a smartphone, dock, controller, and access to software services that will allow access to games and other media features. What about the Nintendo Switch competitor part? That has to do, as you might have guessed, with the dock. The latter will allow gamers to enjoy their game on big screens by placing the smartphone into the dedicated slot on the controller. While Android-based, the smartphone will run a custom version, called WonderOS, allowing the company to overclock the phone’s graphics processor to beam the display to a television when docked, à la Nintendo Switch.
The Verge had an exclusive first look at a prototype of the device and described it as "what looks like a standard Android smartphone [...], sleek, square cornered, and sports a massive screen". Unfortunately, no pictures were available at the time of writing.
The company has quite the ambitious vision for its product, hoping that the Wonder device "will be the centerpiece of an entertainment ecosystem for gamers and gadget heads who are fans of forward-looking tech".
However, with all that has been revealed, there is still a lot of information missing about this ambitious device. For one, it does not even have an official name. No news about the device's and services' cost whatsoever nor did they reveal the specs of the phone itself. What we do know is that Wonder is on track to come out next year.
Andy Kleinman, the CEO and co-founder of secretive startup Wonder, further adds that the phone might not even be developed and branded by Wonder either. “We’re talking with companies that are making high-end flagships about putting out software on them, similar to Roku,” he says, speaking to The Verge. “It’s more like an OS, which is why we can’t say that anyone with a smartphone can do this. There are still ways that we can have other devices be Wonder-enabled and there are certain threshold of specs that you have to have.”
“The Switch did a really good job starting with the idea of portability, but there’s a lot of limitations on the Switch,” he says. "With Wonder, think about building a portable gaming and entertainment type platform that can deliver any type of game.”
Kleinman says further added that his team has been in talks with Valve about Steam support and game streaming. With the recent announcement of the upcoming Steam Link app which will allow gamers to stream their Steam library games to any smarthphone running the app, this might entice a wider audience. In the interview with The Verge, Kleinman said that his team is in talks with game developers about making Wonder-optimized versions of console and PC titles that run on Android and support both controller and touchscreen play.
As such, rather than being an actual hardware, Wonder aims to build a mobile-console hybrid gaming ecosystem that is potentially not restricted to one hardware manufacturer but available to Wonder-ready devices that suits the user's needs and unleash further power with its peripherals.
“What we’re doing is not super hard. We’re not trying to create Magic Leap-style revolutionary tech nobody has ever seen,” Kleinman says confidently. “We’re just trying to put together a great experience, in the way Apple does it.”
I wonder... is it reminiscent to the OUYA to you or do you think that the time has come for a true Android-based home console-handheld hybrid?
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