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Product Description
From the Manufacturer
Following up the 2008 TIA Toy Of The Year Game of the Year Rubik’s Revolution, the Rubik’s TouchCube seamlessly blends cutting edge technology with the world’s #1 puzzle to create the first completely electronic, solvable Rubik’s Cube. Featuring touch sensor technology on all 6 sides and lights in every square, slide the lights with a simple swipe of your finger to mimic the moves of the original Cube. To eliminate false inputs or moves, the TouchCube uses a motion-detecting accelerometer to determine which side is facing up and active. The Rubik’s TouchCube also includes a built-in solver, so now anyone can easily get a hint or learn how to solve the Cube step by step.
Product Description
One of the hottest new games. The Rubik's TouchCube seamlessly blends cutting edge technology with the world's #1 puzzle to create the first completely electronic, solvable Rubik's Cube. Featuring touch sensor technology on all 6 sides and lights in every square, slide the lights with a simple swipe of your finger to mimic the moves of the original Cube. To eliminate false inputs or moves, the TouchCube uses a motion-detecting accelerometer to determine which side is facing up and active. The Rubik's TouchCube also includes a built-in solver, so now anyone can easily get a hint or learn how to solve the Cube step by step.
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
66 of 67 people found the following review helpful
Durability:
Educational:
Fun:
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.
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.
16 of 16 people found the following review helpful
Durability:
Educational:
Fun:
I was given one of these recently as an early holiday present from my family. After a week or so of owning an using it, I have to say that I feel it's a great little toy and an excellent gift for the cube or puzzle adict in the house (which would be me), BUT one that's not without its quirks.
First, the positives - the TouchCube has a lot going for it. It's mysterious, bearing all white faces when off, becoming instantly recognizable as a Rubik's cube as soon as its turned on. The whole "touch" thing is something that everyone loves... that whole "manipulating something with no visible buttons or switches" thing never gets old. It's very bright, especially when used in the dark, and the colors are accurate to those classic cube colors. It works like a traditional cube so it's solved like a traditional cube. The extra features that being computerized provides though will help some users out quite a lot. The "hint" feature is cool but I'd say it's hard to really learn from. The old solution guide that comes with the current regular cubes is a lot more helpful. Being able to have the computer solve the cube is nice for someone that just wants to start over. In this sense, the TC may help more people get into the cube again because it seems less "impossible" than before.
Negatives - High price. When a regular cube is [...] at Target, charging [...] is a bit steep, but the technology in this little guy does warrant the price... there's a decent CPU in there handling the solutions, 6 color LED panels, 9 per side, an accelerometer to determine orientation... I do understand that it's a very sophisticated little guy, but that price will scare some people away. The only other big problem is actually solving the thing. Because you have to manipulate the top face, and only the top face (all other faces have their touch surface disabled), this can cause a lot of disorientation if you're used to solving the cube a different way. It only took a day to adjust, but my solve times on the touch cube are about 20 minutes, vs about 2 1/2 for a regular cube thanks to a combination of having to re-think some moves and the fact that you have to rotate the whole cube instead of just turning it from the bottom. Isn't technology supposed to make things more efficient/better/faster? Finally - dead spots. There are some parts of my particular TC that just don't respond well to swipes. Sometimes 2 or 3 swipes are needed or sometimes it'll flip the cube the wrong way... if you don't notice it go the wrong way this can undo a lot of your solution work, forcing you to re-do a bunch of steps. If you DO notice it though, and haven't progressed too far, the "UNDO" feature is a boon. These seem to be getting better with use though, so it's hard to say if the dead spots will be a permanent problem.
So in short, it's not 100% perfect, but the TouchCube is a great conversation piece and for those that just like the Rubik's cube enough to overcome the high price, it's worth it. I would recommend a regular cube first though, if you're shopping for someone that doesn't already have one. That way, if they just don't enjoy it, you're only out 1/15th the cost.
First, the positives - the TouchCube has a lot going for it. It's mysterious, bearing all white faces when off, becoming instantly recognizable as a Rubik's cube as soon as its turned on. The whole "touch" thing is something that everyone loves... that whole "manipulating something with no visible buttons or switches" thing never gets old. It's very bright, especially when used in the dark, and the colors are accurate to those classic cube colors. It works like a traditional cube so it's solved like a traditional cube. The extra features that being computerized provides though will help some users out quite a lot. The "hint" feature is cool but I'd say it's hard to really learn from. The old solution guide that comes with the current regular cubes is a lot more helpful. Being able to have the computer solve the cube is nice for someone that just wants to start over. In this sense, the TC may help more people get into the cube again because it seems less "impossible" than before.
Negatives - High price. When a regular cube is [...] at Target, charging [...] is a bit steep, but the technology in this little guy does warrant the price... there's a decent CPU in there handling the solutions, 6 color LED panels, 9 per side, an accelerometer to determine orientation... I do understand that it's a very sophisticated little guy, but that price will scare some people away. The only other big problem is actually solving the thing. Because you have to manipulate the top face, and only the top face (all other faces have their touch surface disabled), this can cause a lot of disorientation if you're used to solving the cube a different way. It only took a day to adjust, but my solve times on the touch cube are about 20 minutes, vs about 2 1/2 for a regular cube thanks to a combination of having to re-think some moves and the fact that you have to rotate the whole cube instead of just turning it from the bottom. Isn't technology supposed to make things more efficient/better/faster? Finally - dead spots. There are some parts of my particular TC that just don't respond well to swipes. Sometimes 2 or 3 swipes are needed or sometimes it'll flip the cube the wrong way... if you don't notice it go the wrong way this can undo a lot of your solution work, forcing you to re-do a bunch of steps. If you DO notice it though, and haven't progressed too far, the "UNDO" feature is a boon. These seem to be getting better with use though, so it's hard to say if the dead spots will be a permanent problem.
So in short, it's not 100% perfect, but the TouchCube is a great conversation piece and for those that just like the Rubik's cube enough to overcome the high price, it's worth it. I would recommend a regular cube first though, if you're shopping for someone that doesn't already have one. That way, if they just don't enjoy it, you're only out 1/15th the cost.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Durability:
Educational:
Fun:
I will admit to being a fairly nerdy kind of guy. I have 20 sided dice hanging from the rear-view mirror, can figure pi in my head, laugh at jokes about math and collect rubiks cubes.
All that aside, this is a great toy. If you enjoy the cube it is a ton of fun and a great way to look at the cube (since you can only move the top side.) If you are a speed cubist this can be really annoying. You will want to move more than just the top side, but cannot.
The good:
1. Cool, if you thought the Rubik's cube was a nice conversation piece (and it is) this is better, it glows, it is much better.
2. New spin on an old toy. Good use of technology, simple concept. Very bright.
3. Seems to work well, when you remember that ALL functions must be done from the top face
4. Not too expensive. I bought it local for 1/3 MSRP.
5. Automatic light show when charging. Very nice feature.
The bad:
1. Slow to solve. I am over a minute on a regular cube. My third solve of the touch cube is 4.5 minutes. Not so slow I feel like it is a waste (and I completely disagree with the non-amazon review that listed it as too sensitive and slow.)
2. Expensive. Even at 68.00 it is a little too much. Did not stop me from buying it, but something to keep in mind.
3. Big and Heavy. Not something that I would let my kid play with.
4. Old battery tech. Based on a comment in the manual it would appear that it uses NiCD battery which has a "memory" and is not very efficient at charging.
All in all I really am enjoying the touchcube. If you are a cubist I would recommend buying it.
3.14 Apple Pie is a great song.....
All that aside, this is a great toy. If you enjoy the cube it is a ton of fun and a great way to look at the cube (since you can only move the top side.) If you are a speed cubist this can be really annoying. You will want to move more than just the top side, but cannot.
The good:
1. Cool, if you thought the Rubik's cube was a nice conversation piece (and it is) this is better, it glows, it is much better.
2. New spin on an old toy. Good use of technology, simple concept. Very bright.
3. Seems to work well, when you remember that ALL functions must be done from the top face
4. Not too expensive. I bought it local for 1/3 MSRP.
5. Automatic light show when charging. Very nice feature.
The bad:
1. Slow to solve. I am over a minute on a regular cube. My third solve of the touch cube is 4.5 minutes. Not so slow I feel like it is a waste (and I completely disagree with the non-amazon review that listed it as too sensitive and slow.)
2. Expensive. Even at 68.00 it is a little too much. Did not stop me from buying it, but something to keep in mind.
3. Big and Heavy. Not something that I would let my kid play with.
4. Old battery tech. Based on a comment in the manual it would appear that it uses NiCD battery which has a "memory" and is not very efficient at charging.
All in all I really am enjoying the touchcube. If you are a cubist I would recommend buying it.
3.14 Apple Pie is a great song.....
Most Recent Customer Reviews
Dead On Arrival
My touchcube arrived dead on arrival so I recharged the cube with the display charger it came with. I followed the instructions by aligning the two contact points on the cube to... Read more
Published 23 days ago by SD
Failure
I got one of these for Christmas, and it didn't work. I have seen the video reviews, and I know that it is supposed to work right out of the box. Read more
Published 4 months ago by Chris
Its great, exactly what you'd expect it to be :)
I think its great. The only complaint I have is that the battery doesnt last long at all. The first time you charge it you will need to charge it for a long time. Read more
Published 5 months ago by Melodys thoughts
Great!
The toy is awesome and you can barely tell it was actually used. Very cheap price for a great product and quick shipping. Read more
Published 11 months ago by Cyrus
Very expensive, very bad.
First of all, I have to admit that I'm a Rubik's fan. I own dozens of Rubick's puzzles and enjoy all of them. When I first heard about the Touchcube I was completly excited. Read more
Published 12 months ago by jrfrias
Awesome for the cube enthusiast!
This cube is great! I don't understand the reviews saying "if you can solve the regular cube, this is not for you. Read more
Published 17 months ago by phlux
Don't buy it. Wait for a better version.
This is not for real cubists. It might look pretty with all the lights blinking sitting on your desk but if you are a real cubist with a couple dozen memorized algorithms you use... Read more
Published 23 months ago by cltinseattle
Great idea, terrible execution
For the price, you would expect a great build and ingenious programming. Instead, you get a product made from plastic you would expect from a bargain bin toy and programming that... Read more
Published 23 months ago by E. Tam
so cool
this was a gift for my brother who has already mastered the rubik's cube. he solved this rather quickly but really enjoys it and told me that it is the best gift he received! Read more
Published 24 months ago by V. Rankin
Rubik's TouchCube is not like the real Cube
If you are used to solving the traditional Rubik's Cube, then you will find the TouchCube to be a challenge. Read more
Published 24 months ago by Mark Z. Filter
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