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So after avoiding it for as long as possible I finally stuck my feet into the Powered Up pool to give it a try and now I've got my first impressions after letting my Crocodile spin for about 10 minutes.
Presentation wise the bluetooth control on the phone is great, but behind the literal bells and whistles actually setting up the PU hub to my phone took much longer than I realized since I didn't realize I needed to hold down the power button while connecting it. The whole setup process just feels so barbaric in comparison to the system utilized by Circuit Cubes' bluetooth system where all I had to do was turn the box on and locate it with my phone.
Speaking of Circuit Cubes, price-wise they're the far better value compared to PU. To power the Crocodile I had to drop $50 on the Hub and another $40 on the L-Motor that goes in the cab (Not to mention the cost of AAA batteries). Meanwhile dropping $40 on a Circuit Cubes set nets you a much smaller Bluetooth hub (PU's 8x4x4 vs CC's 4x4x3) with a built in Micro-USB charging port and two micro motors. Sure the tiny $20 CC motors aren't as strong as Lego's $40 L/XL motors, but they're pretty damn strong for their size. I really don't get Lego's obsession with huge-ass battery boxes and motors when 3rd parties have shown that you can easily do the same thing in half the size.
The one thing I can give Powered Up a positive on is that the combined Battery Box/Receiver is a lot better for more condensed building than the Power Functions equivalents. Overall I like Powered Up a bit more than Power Functions, but I really can't see myself dropping a minimum of $65 on each train that I want to motorize when all it took for Power Functions was ~$40 ($13 Battery Box + $15 IR Receiver + $7.50-$14 per Motor).
