The Rubik’s Touchcube Review + Pics

Is this just another one of Rubik’s Inc.’s last breath, gimmicky, non-turning products like the Rubik’s 360 and the Revolution? Read on to find out. (Click on any of the pictures below for the full size. The blues, whites, and yellows didn’t come though on the camera so well I touched them up as best I could. The side that looks white in the picture below is actually very blue, it’s the LED’s I think.)

If anything tells us that we’re in the future it’s the Rubik’s Touchcube. If anything tells us that the future is imperfect, it’s the Rubik’s Touchcube.  Most people will immediately say it’s multitouch, that’s not entirely true, it only supports one input at a time (monotouch?), rather than making a two finger swipe of R L’ the quicker way to do this is to swipe M. It’s not always responsive of course, I found you can make the same move R by tapping on the top right then the bottom right sticker/square, and a U by tapping the 3 o’clock edge sticker then the 6 o’clock one. OH GOD WHY DID THEY EVEN ADD THAT GESTURE?! Seriously now, I didn’t even realize I could do U without turning the cube to another side until I read the manual more closely. I would much rather see a gesture that swipes the first layer on one of the vertical sides. But meh.

That little diagonal line you see is a small ridge on the charger I actually never noticed before, huh. Anyway while charging it’s really mesmerizing, it just does random turns as far as I can tell. When its low on battery the whole cube flashes red accompanied with a series of tones. That red light on the charger also turns green when it’s at 100%. I don’t know exactly what the battery life is yet, it charges rather slowly though. The position from when you put it on the charger to when you take it off is saved though, so if you’re trying to invent some crazy algorithm and it runs out of batter the position will be saved.

I realized I never said anything about the size of the cube in my video review. The Touchcube is off is the above picture, it’s sandwiched between a V-Cube 5 and a Type A DIY. So it’s actually somewhat of a handful.

Once again THE VERDICT: if you have $50 and want a unique item in your collection that you’ll be sure to play around with every now and then it is fun. Then get it. Otherwise if you’re not really the collector type, or you’re very serious about cubes that actually turn then don’t get it, your call this is all just my opinion.