All Wii Know About the Wii U Console Itself and Its Controllers

The Wii U logo has changed since E3.  As you can see above it is now a slightly darker blue color.

Deluxe Black Wii U

White Basic Wii U

It's been more than 1 year and 3 months since Project Cafe rumors started appearing on the internet, and now the Wii U's launch is approaching fast, so let's look back at what Wii know about the console itself (I'll post a post about what we know about the console's features tomorrow).

Release date: November 18th in the US, November 30th for almost everywhere else.

Price: $299.99 for basic and $349.99 for deluxe (what comes with each bundle detailed later)

Processor: A custom-designed IBM processor.

RAM: 2GB--that's 2000MB--of ?GDDR5? RAM, one GB of that for games and one GB of that for the OS (operating system)--more RAM will be freed up for games at a later time. (The Xbox 360 has 512MB that's shared between both games and the OS, while the PS3 has 512MB, with games using 462MB and the OS using 50MB.)

Supported Resolution's: 480i, 480p, 576p, 720p, 1080i, 1080p.

Graphics Processing Unit: Either a custom-designed Radeon HD similar to the Radeon R700 architecture (3 years newer than the Xbox 360 & PS3's architecture), or a custom-designed Radeon E6760 (5-6 years newer than the Xbox 360 & PS3's architecture).

Media (Discs): A custom-designed disc format that can hold up too 25GB (possibly more--the Xbox 360's disc format has capacities up to 8.7 GB, and the PS3's disc format has capacities up to 50GB). The disc drive can read discs at 22.5MB/s.  The higher MB/s means faster load times (for comparison, the Xbox 360 can read discs at 15.85MB/s and the PS3 can read discs at 9MB/s).  The Wii U is also backward compatible with Wii Optical Discs. One more thing to note about the Wii U discs are that they've got rounded edges, both outside and in:

Storage: 8GB's of Internal flash memory for the basic, and 32GB for the deluxe, supports SD cards (though they cannot store Wii U games, just Wiiware and Wii VC) and USB hard drives (up to 2TB--that's 2000GB).

Supported Controllers: Up to two Wii U GamePads (see below), 4 Wii U Pro Controllers (see below), 4 Wii MotionPlus/Wii Remote Plus, 4 Classic Controller Pros, Wii Balance Board and all other Wii Controllers.

Backward Compatibility: All Wii games and peripherals are backward compatible with the Wii U.

Other: 4 USB 2.0 Ports (2 at front of console, 2 at rear), HDMI 1.4 port (interesting fact: HDMI 1.4 supports 3D images), Sensor Bar power port.

The GamePad

Front of black GamePad that comes with the Deluxe Wii U

Back of black GamePad that comes with the Deluxe Wii U

Front of the white GamePad that comes with the basic Wii U

Back of the white GamePad that comes with the basic Wii U

Dimensions: 5.3 inches high x 0.9 inches deep x 10.2 inches wide.

Screen: A 6.2 inch 16:9 Single-touch resistive touchscreen (see why they choose this below) with a resolution of 854×480 and a ppi (pixels per inch) of 158.

Buttons: It has 13 buttons, A/B/X/Y face buttons, ZL/ZR bumper buttons, L/R trigger buttons, and Select, Start, Home, Power, and TV Remote buttons.

Sticks & D-Pad's: Two clickable analog sticks and one D-pad.

Motion Control: It has a 3-axis accelerometer and 3-axis gyroscope, like the 3DS.

Battery: A rechargeable battery pack that lasts 3-5 hours on a charge and takes 2 hours to fully recharged.

Wireless: Internal wireless transmission based on IEEE 802.11 and NFC (Near field communication chip, not Nintendo Fried Chicken)

Other: Rumble, a 3.5mm Headphone jack, a Volume Slider, a microphone, a front-facing camera, built-in speakers, a IR sensor strip (for Wii Remotes), and a stylus.

GamePad Features that do require the Wii U to be on: The GamePad can be used as a universal TV remote without the Wii U on:

Why the Wii U GamePad uses a single-touch resistive touchscreen: resistive touchscreens are far more accurate than the capacitive touchscreens you use on your phone or tablet, making it better for gaming, plus a 6.2 inch resistive touchscreen costs $30-$40 cheaper than a 6.2 inch multi-touch capacitive touchscreen that you would find on your pone or tablet, therefore saving you money.  

Wii U Pro Controller 

As you can see above, the Wii U Pro Controller is a bit longer and flatter than the Xbox 360 controller (and it has a different button layout)  Source: http://venturebeat.com/2012/11/07/whats-in-the-box-nintendo-wii-u-deluxe-edition-and-pro-controller/

More pics, including how it looks compared to the PS3 Controller can be found here: http://www.engadget.com/photos/nintendo-wii-u-gamepad-pro-controller-vs-xbox-360-playstation-3-controllers/

Price: $49.99

Buttons: It has 12 buttons, A/B/X/Y face buttons, ZL/ZR bumper buttons, L/R trigger buttons, and Select, Start, Home, and Power buttons.

Sticks & D-Pad's: Two clickable analog sticks and one D-pad.

Battery: A rechargeable battery pack that lasts 80+ hours on a charge.

Other: Rumble.

My thoughts on this controller: It's like a cross between an Xbox 360 controller and a PS3 controller, taking the best parts from both, making it the best classic controller I've ever used.

What Comes With The Different Bundles? 

^The Deluxe Wii U also comes with a 10% off all the stuff you buy in the Wii U's eShop, and, by the way, Nintendo Land costs $59.99, meaning this bundle saves you money if you want that game.^

Online Services, OS, & The Games

See this post: http://technologyhobbit.blogspot.com/2012/11/most-of-what-of-wii-know-about-wii-us.html

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What do you think of the Wii U console itself? Did I forget anything? See a typo? Have some questions? Please comment.