"Smach Z is Back!" ...?

[EvilDragon]

Well, even Feb/Mar is unrealistic, given the current state of the device.

They really remind me a bit of PGS now... they live in a dream world.

Calculating that you need at least a 100Wh battery (probably even bigger!) to run this thing for five hours is no advanced maths...
Pandoras battery has about 20Wh, Pyras about 28Wh, so you can estimate how big a 100Wh battery is...

 

[fusion_power]

...and how explosive!

 

[TheOldOne]

But when you live in fantasy land it costs pinnies and is the size of a dime.

 

[Klumpen]

But when you live in fantasy land it costs pinnies and is the size of a dime.

When it comes to making things smaller, we could probably learn a thing or two from neutron stars.

 

[Exophase]

And here I thought that this would be very hard to work well with active cooling, now they're saying they won't even put a fan on it.

I wonder how much the whole ClickArm arrangement is setting Smach Z up for failure. They have a module supplier whom we can reasonably assume can actually deliver parts to the advertised specifications. But it's entirely on them, the end manufacturer, to put them in a device that provides suitable cooling and power delivery. By providing interchangeable modules with wildly different power specs they're letting clients who don't know what they're doing design something that can't ever work properly.

Sure, the SoCs can throttle to prevent from overheating, but we've seen over and over again that this is far from an optimal use case. The throttling tends to be very coarse and inefficient, and the SoCs aren't designed to be very efficient in those frequency ranges to begin with. So the end result is something a lot worse than if they'd just stuck with nominally lower power components.

 

[levi]

When it comes to making things smaller, we could probably learn a thing or two from neutron stars.

Yeah but then density becomes a problem. Last time I checked a neutron star has a density of 2.0e26kg/km**3. My Pandora has volume of about 500cm**3 by eye, so an object that size made out of neutrons would have a mass of about 1.0e14kg, or 100000000000 metric tonnes, if my maths is at all correct. And I'm ignoring the big magnetic fields something that heavy and conductive would produce.

 

[Grench]

So the end result is something a lot worse than if they'd just stuck with nominally lower power components.

They may want to be able to advertise on 'maximum capabilities' though - even if it is only for 2-3 minutes on a unit straight out of an ice box.

 

[AVahne]

Given how much of a brick their single unit prototype was at gamecom, I can't imagine how big a clamshell would have been

Well it'll always be a brick no matter what they do, considering the specs and battery they're claiming, but at least if they were to make it a Shield Portable-shaped brick they would have protection for the screen and a form factor that would be easier to shove into a bag than their current mega-burrito-shaped one.

 

[FlapJack]

Well, even Feb/Mar is unrealistic, given the current state of the device.

They really remind me a bit of PGS now... they live in a dream world.

Calculating that you need at least a 100Wh battery (probably even bigger!) to run this thing for five hours is no advanced maths...
Pandoras battery has about 20Wh, Pyras about 28Wh, so you can estimate how big a 100Wh battery is...

Then we're really talking about a huge Li-ion battery. My Pandora battery is roughly 0.25"x1.75"x5.25". Five times that would get them their 100Wh. It could be roughly an inch thick, 2 inches wide and 5+ inches long, give or take some fiddling. It would certainly fit inside that huge brick/monstrosity. It's just that ill-fated form-factor. It's just so stupid. @fusion_power said that it could be explosive, and with that amount of heat, instability, and size....it could be the gaming weapon that you do want to take OUT of the house... maybe kill some zombies with.

 

[MJPIA]

Multiple Spanish articles popping up across the web.
http://www.expansion.com/economia-digital/innovacion/2016/10/06/57f4f4cae5fdea82168b45ed.html

A 'start up' Kickstarter Majorcan seeks to raise 250,000 euros to produce a portable console which can play PC titles. It will be available in 2017.

A console designed and manufactured entirely in Spain? That's what aims the start up Majorcan Smach Team, which plans to launch next worldwide the first portable console games developed for PC year.

Z Smach begin on October 18 a funding campaign on the platform of crowdfundingKickstarter to raise 250,000 euros seeking to start manufacturing the device. The young company estimates that users Kickstarter funding support will receive the console in the spring of 2017. The price for these investors will be 299 euros for the basic version and $ 499 for the Pro version .

The business plan contemplates an initial production of 3,000 units to meet demand through Kickstarter, explains Daniel Fernandez, co-founder of Smach Team. The goal is to market the console through its website in late 2017 or early 2018, a stage where they have set a sales target of 50,000 units. In a second phase, in contemplating selling through other distributors, including physical facilities, they expect to market the order of 150,000 units, which would represent a turnover of 52.5 million euros.

The console will be entirely manufactured in Spain. The start up works with theValencian company IMASD as a technology partner, a company with over 10 years experience in producing hardware. " We ruled manufactured in China because it would lose control and we were afraid of a possible piracy. In addition, there is no cost savings basement as you can think , " says Fernandez.

In 2016, Smach Z received an initial capital investment by Mola incubator projects together with other private investors and public funds derived from Eureka Prize 2015. The investment was used to finance the production of the first prototype console. To date they invested more than 150,000 euros in the development of the first prototype and there are plans to invest another 300,000 euros to the design and development of the final version.

Video with various bits in it including some English interviews with people involved plus some bits of people playing them in random locations.

Including on the beach with the sun behind her.
I kinda find the fact they aim to make it entirely in Spain pretty neat in a way.

Its just a render at this point so theres no way to prove its what actually will be in the device but found this interesting.

 

[EvilDragon]

Aaaand... how are they going to solve the extreme power issues they'll face?

 

[slaeshjag]

That's a problem for the engineers to solve, not the dreamers.

 

[jeeks]

five hours of battery life? really? i guess this is great for people who don't want to be bound to their desk chair all the time, or ex-pokemon go players with lots of leftover power banks.

btw, did someone catch the meaning of the asterisk on some of the specs? i watched the video twice but can't find it

 

[EvilDragon]

five hours of battery life? really? i guess this is great for people who don't want to be bound to their desk chair all the time, or ex-pokemon go players with lots of leftover power banks.

With the CPU they plan to use it'll be more likely 1 - 2 hours.

 

[jeeks]

With the CPU they plan to use it'll be more likely 1 - 2 hours.

uh, so it's enough to play while walking the dog around the block really fast? i guess that's the reason why they'll offer an external battery (at least according to the website which seems kind of outdated).

 

[MJPIA]

Eh its easy to get long battery life with it.
Just wait until the heatsink gets saturated with heat and it throttles to hell and then bam!
You'll be able to game all day without charging.
Double digit framerates are for lesser men.

 

[AVahne]

I suspect it'll have a 30-minute to 1-hour battery life.

 

[MJPIA]

https://sketchfab.com/models/ff363af8f1c6443e98c247d44c07ac7e

This is the final form factor design of SMACH Z.

A highly detailed 3d cad model you can manipulate and look at from every angle.
Model number is SZ001.DG.
No noticeable vents anywhere.
At least it seems to be comfortable to hold.
Really can't see much battery space unless they put batteries in the handles on each side.
Currently on their website you can see this fat device.

But now its this.

Well I guess we'll know everything tomorrow.

 

[EvilDragon]

No vents, a 20W processor and no space for the battery... that sounds like fun

 

[ible]

that's what the active-cooled processor/battery backpack will be for.