Technosource Rubik's TouchCube

Slide your finger to start solving this modern Rubik's cube!
Tags: Christmas, Christmas Must Haves 2009, Gadgets

Reviews

Fun and Competent Modern Update to the Ultimate 1980's Toy

Neil Dewitte on 2009-11-25

Technosource's Rubik's TouchCube answers a question that probably no one asked, but it is so much fun we probably shouldn't mind. Overall the TouchCube is fairly easy to use and by being electronic adds enough on top of the classic cube to make a decent argument for its existence.

First I would like to provide product description clarifications:
1. The top face is the only face that you can directly move - the toy contains an orientation sensor so you are not accidentally rotating the sides or bottom with your hands while you hold it.
2. This 3 inch cube comes in a 6 inch box (for reference the original Rubik's cube was a 2.25 inch cube)
3. The cube weights 13 ounces, not quite a pound, but much more than the 3.5 ounce original cube
4. The toy may very well contain 3 AA batteries, but you cannot access or change them - they recharge through an included base

Pros:
1. Lots of cool features - including hint, auto-solve, undo, a volume controller (9-level, 2-mode), on-off button, and a scramble button - 6 features in all, each accessed by pressing twice or holding down the center square of a given face.
2. The colors are very vibrant and lots of fun - they are brighter than the pictures
3. The auto-solve feature uses a common set of steps to solve the green face first, then the sides and finally the blue face. Note this may not be the fewest moves to solve the cube, but it is a reliable, reproducible and easy way to learn how to solve any 3x3 cube. The solver can be stopped at any point if you wish to continue yourself.
4. Easy to charge with a fun to watch "screensaver" mode
5. Falls to sleep after a period of non-use and saves your progress to conserve batteries.

Cons:
1. The hint mode seems to abandon the common steps mentioned in #3 above and use the shortest number of steps to solve the cube. This means the cube appears to be a jumble with no apparent progress until voila - it is solved at the last moment.
2. Expensive - this product is A LOT of money
3. Difficult to rotate the top face about the z-axis. It is easier to simply rotate the whole cube and then turn along the x or y axis.
4. Can only rotate the top face - most top rotations would affect the bottom faces, but occasionally you have to reorient the cube to turn a face near the bottom. At first this is not intuitive, but easy to pick up and will force you to visualize the cube in a mentally engaging way.

Toss-ups:
1. Rotating the cube takes a deliberate finger swipe - not exactly easy, but not difficult either
2. The cube gets a little warm, not hot though. This is kind of odd, but no big deal.

Overall the electronic Rubik's Cube is a good toy, albeit expensive. It capitalizes on the "apparent simplicity" of many other popular electronics by offering not too many easy-to-use features. This cube is a must-have for any die-hard 80's enthusiast.