Christmas 2014 was a good year for tech gifts — the PXP3 Slim Station handheld console and an Android TV box both made it under the tree, representing two different ends of the budget tech spectrum. The PXP3 was a cheap Chinese handheld that played built-in 8-bit and 16-bit era games, while the Android TV box running Jelly Bean brought a full Android interface to the living room TV. Both were interesting in their own way and typical of the kind of gadgets that were finding their way into Christmas stockings as electronics got cheaper.
The PXP3 Slim Station
The PXP3 was a PSP lookalike that included a collection of built-in games — clones and originals in the 8-bit and 16-bit style — on a small, bright screen. Build quality was exactly what you’d expect at the price point: functional but fragile, with mushy buttons and a battery life measured in hours. As a novelty it worked well; as a serious gaming device it had obvious limitations. The appeal was the price and the portability rather than any particular depth of experience.
The Android TV Box
The Android TV box running Jelly Bean (Android 4.1) was more interesting as a platform — cheap ARM-based hardware running a full Android install, connected to the TV via HDMI. Kodi (then XBMC) ran well on it, streaming worked reasonably on a good WiFi connection, and the Play Store gave access to a wide range of apps. The limitations were the underpowered processor for anything demanding and the mediocre remote control. A solid living room computer for the price, and a useful introduction to the Android TV box category.
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