any word on the chipset being used?
The CPU/GPU? We know it's going to use Ryzen/Vega technology, most likely the Horned Owl instead of the previously planned Merlin Falcon.
any word on the chipset being used?
I know nothing is confirmed; but with the current rumored tech, what's more powerful the Intel Core M3 in the GPDWIN2 or the Ryzen/Vega tech in the Smach?
I'm assuming the Ryzen tech blows it out of the water?
Hi Smachers,
At this moment we're working on different areas of the project, but in this update we'd like to speak about the BOM (bill of materials) of the project and the new market price.
We had already a BOM but we have reworked it with the new team and updated it. The new BOM results in a higher production cost. RAM and SSD prices have raised a lot this year and they are increasing the production cost. Also the new SoC price is higher and other components that had not been correctly quoted make that we have to redirect the product to a higher tier.
The new market release prices will be:
SMACH Z: $699
SMACH Z PRO: $899
At first sight, we understand that those prices can look expensive but from our market research, we believe that they correspond with the device features, renewed SoC power and capabilities. SMACH is not just a console, it's an hybrid PC capable of much more. Consoles can be cheaper since the platform holders make benefits by selling games, so our device can't be compared in price with them but more with laptops or tablets.
Of course, this is a business decision that doesn't affect to the current backers. It just mean that you got the console at much more reduced price than expected. Now, we're updating Indiegogo prices to match the new market prices.
Thanks for your feedback and comments!
In our online shop the price will be adapted to the taxes and currencies of each country, but the RRP will be the same in $ or € (699/899 for both). That's this way because in Europe we have to pay more taxes.
Hi Smachers,
We received all the component that were missing to produce some controller boards to test and this week we have ”cooked" them. This is how it looks:
Related with that, we have been preparing some 3D of the PCB volume to work on the new mechanical improvements:
Cheers!
Damn, how can it pass from 299 to 699/899?
At least it seems it still exists.
Anyone complaining about the Switch specs should take note of these prices.
It still exist, yet.
They raised the price, they printed a board. They have yet to fix the biggest issue since the begining:
How do they plan on using a 15w to 35w SoC to power this device in such a tiny case, fanless at that.
They can bullshit people, they cant bullshit physics.
Either way, they cant reach the promised performances in the promised case.
They'll either have to boast a big fan in a bigger device with a bigger battery or go for a lower specced SoC.
Damn, how can it pass from 299 to 699/899?
At least it seems it still exists.
They've incorporated a fan into the design after the forum community raised concerns and put it up to a vote (you can check a few pages back for more information on that). The 15/35w SoC is still a concern if they want the device to has a battery life of five hours, especially since we don't know which one they're running beyond Vega/Ryzen (again, Horned Owl's rumored specs seems to be what they'll be running but nothing is concrete at the moment) and how well it will perform in 720/1080 gaming. The biggest issue i'm seeing is that, barring the portability, you could find a comparable gaming laptop with similar or better specs for the same price or lower so it's hard to justify a purchase unless you highly value modularity or really hate gaming on a keyboard and mouse.
15w is still a huge concern, even with a fan. GPD Win with a fan is reaching high temps with a 4.5-6w TDP.
And 15W is the optimistic figure because their SoC choice was more of a 35W one.
They announced they'd be using a Ryzen/Vega SoC. Which one ? When ? Does it even exist beyond an AMD roadmap ?
Who's funding all this btw? It can't be the backers, as they are going to lose money on each unit delivered at those prices.
Someone's gotta change that thread title now.
They're well aware of that and aren't charging backers for the extra cost. In addition, their new partners won't be raising their current costs of development. Mind, before they can worry about lost profits on every backed unit there needs to be an item to ship for backers to receive.
Why would they ?
Comparing orange and apples here. This product price has no correlation yet because they dont even provide concrete specs.
That's still enough to make the point that Switch couldn't have been much more powerful without a significant price increase.
Mh no ?
You're basically arguing about Apples based on Oranges.
The Smach Zero is a product that doesn't exist yet, without any concrete specs. You're basically saying:
"You see this inexistant product with a troubled past which lost its current partner and with no known specs ? It's the proof Switch couldn't be more powerful without a significant price increase !"
How I see it, they are going to lose money on each unit shipped to backers, let alone what they have already spent on R&D. Something similar happened to Pandora, they finished the product and started shipments, but went bankrupt before they could ship all units, thus I lost my 350. And Pandora didn't had a middle of development SoC change that increased the production costs, and had more more realistic target specs. The preorder money simply wasn't enough to cover R&D + actual production.
I don't know about Sony or Nintendo costs but we're not selling SMACH Z at loss. We have enough margin to make the business profitable by selling ”just" 10,000 units, so you don't have to worry about that. And of course, crowdfunding money is not all the money, otherwise it wouldn't be possible to develop such big project.
We plan two prototype iterations, I don't know yet if we'd be able to send some of them to backers, it'll depend on the amount of AMD SoC chips that we will be able to obtain for those prototypes (probably we will have only a few and we won't be able to send them around)
At this moment we don't have the money in the bank to produce 10,000 units, but our investors don't see problems to obtain it when production will start.
Now that we had time to analyze in detail the new SoC information and we have started work on integration, weve been able to better plan the project. However, its going to be revised and updated next week with our latest progress and information, so we prefer to wait until then to share it with you.
Once we have the project plan updated with final dates, we will also update our Indiegogo campaign with the new prices.
Thanks for your support!
From our market research, we believe that they correspond with the device features, renewed SoC power and capabilities. SMACH is not just a console; its an hybrid PC capable of much more. Consoles can be cheaper since the platform owners make profits by selling games. Our device cant be compared in price with them but more with laptops or tablets.
Of course, this is a business decision that doesnt affect to the current backers. It just means that you got the console at much lower price.
I almost forgot about this project. I see that the specifics on SoC will be a bit more of a wait. Isn't there a 2 Zen core mobile APU in the works? Banded Kestrel, I believe. Maybe that could provide a more efficient, battery friendly option. I guess we'll see what they've decided on soon enough.
No matter how good or great the switch is it cannot play PC games just some ports of console games that happen to be on PC.