​Razer hopes to fuse Android and PC gaming with $100 Forge TV microconsole (hands-on) http://goo.gl/H7qb25

LAS VEGAS -- Razer and CES often have fun together. This year's no different: instead of PC gaming, Razer's taken a side turn into
Android TV
gaming.

We knew Razer was making an Android TV microconsole back at Google I/O last year, but the Forge TV is finally real and playable. It does what you think it does: much like Google's own
Nexus Player
, it's a tiny puck you connect to your TV.

Forge TV supports Android 5.0 devices, so your phone or tablet can Google Cast with Forge TV the same way you can with Nexus Player. It also works with iOS, Android, Chromebooks or Windows to control Forge TV remotely. It'll cost $100, with UK and Australian prices still to come, but it converts to £65 or AU£125.

Videos and games can be played using a Bluetooth controller, including Razer's own, the Razer Serval, which will cost $80 in the US (roughly £55 or AU$100). The dual-stick full-on controller is one that Razer says is specially tuned for Android gaming, but the controller doesn't have rumble or a microphone: to use gesture and voice commands on Forge TV, you'll need to download a separate Razer app.

A bundle will include one controller with the Forge TV for $150 (£100 or AU$185 converted).

The Serval comes with a clip that will allow you to attach a phone and play games on the go, too, like many Android gaming accessories.

The Forge TV is really small:
Amazon Fire TV
-sized. It fit in my back pocket. It's more powerful than some small streaming boxes, with a Qualcomm Snapdragon 805 processor and Adreno 420 graphics, 16GB of onboard storage, and a standard HDMI output plus USB 3.0 on the back.

It supports four simultaneous controllers, if you can find Android games that even allow that. I played Asphalt 8 and Bombsquad, which does have multiplayer gaming. Android games played fine, but performance wasn't quite jaw-dropping.

The cooler part of Forge TV is its support of streaming PC games:
Nvidia's Shield
handheld and
Shield Tablet
do the same thing, but via compatible Nvidia graphics gaming PCs and a selected library of games. Forge TV promises to work with any DirectX 9-ready PC with either AMD or Nvidia graphics via Razer Cortex Stream, a new feature to Razer's game-launcher software.

It'll stream any game you have: via Steam, Origin, Battle.net, or anything else. I played a bit of Titanfall streaming in a Razer demo suite, and it appeared in playable form at 1080p (Razer claims it'll work at 60fps). My demo had a fair amount of start-and-stop hiccups, and streaming game performance, even locally, is often a mixed bag.

Razer's Turret lapboard.
Scott Stein/CNET

Razer's also making an unfolding lap keyboard and mouse that'll work with Forge TV streamed PC games, or with your PC itself: the $130 (£85, AU$160) Turret lapboard works via Bluetooth or 2.4GHz wireless technology, much like other gaming accessories. The mouse feels like the
Razer Orochi
: it's a high-end product, and magnetically clings to the mousepad surface underneath for greater traction.

How Forge TV handles streaming PC games versus Nvidia's Shield hardware remains to be seen, but it's the killer app lurking in Forge TV. If a $100 box could help you turn your everyday PC into a TV-connected console, it could be great.

But no Android gaming box has emerged that's been any good yet: Amazon Fire TV, Google's Nexus Player,
Ouya
and others have fallen short and been underwhelming. The PC angle is Razer's best bet, but at least the price on the Forge TV is pretty reasonable. Forge TV will be available in the first quarter of this year, so we'll know soon enough.