Sol (Game System)

Sol

Product type	Video game console
Owner	Solus Network Corporation
Country	Makko Oko
Introduced	March 24th, 2002
Tagline	One console, limitless possibilities
Website	sol.com.mk

Sol is a video gaming brand that consists of two home video game consoles, four handhelds, an online service and two dual-console-handheld systems. The brand is produced by Solus Network Corporation, a division of Solus.

Home Consoles

The Sol

The first system to be launched was the Sol on March 24th, 2002 at a price point of SLO$336. The Sol revolutionized the industry and put competitors Slanar and Nari by being the first company to release a 2nd-generation console, and was slightly cheaper than Slanar's later-released console, the Slanar Orbit. The specifications were quite impressive for the time, boasting a 524MHz CPU, with an individual graphics processor clocked at 194MHz, the first such console to boast non-integrated graphics processing. Finally, the console had 128MB of RAM, which a later revision allowed for an expansion card that would make games run even better. The Sol console had massive sales, selling over 850,000 units in less than 3 years, a record for a domestic console.

Sol 2

The next system to be launched after the Sol was the Sol 2 on June 6th, 2005 at a price point of SLO$399 and it was a massive improvement over the first one. The Sol 2 had a 1.4GHz CPU with two dedicated GPU's adding up to a total clock speed of 560MHz (Individual clock speeds of 280MHz). In addition, 256MB of RAM was provided without the option for expansion. The Sol 2 was one of the most expensive consoles released in the 3rd generation, with only Nari beating them at a price point of SLO$415 for their NariStar game console. Sales exceeded 2 million units within the first 5 years on the market, which Nari ended up beating by about a million.

Handheld Consoles

The Sol Mobile

After the success of the Sol 2, Solus answered the calls of fans for a minature powerhouse of a gaming system that still "had the heart of Sol, but on the go". This led to the launch of the Sol Mobile on January 1st, 2007. The Sol Mobile launched at a price point of SLO$360, cheaper than the Sol 2, however, limitations existed. The Sol Mobile came with a CPU clocked at 1GHz, and only one dedicated GPU clocked at 300MHz. The RAM was decent at 256MB like the Sol 2. The Sol Mobile was advertised by Solus to be the "baby of the Sol 2", however it could not play games made for the Sol 2, and instead had its own platform. The Sol Mobile unit was small enough to fit fully tucked inside, although snug, in somebody's pocket.

The Sol Mobile was criticized by fans for "giving us what we did not want", however, sales exceeded 4 million units within the first 3 years, more than the Sol 2 garnered.