Anyone received their new Pandoras yet?

[Drax_Bloodfinger]

I know that ED had been sending out the Pandoras so I was just wandering if anyone here has had the chance to play around with them.


How do the buttons feel, screen sharpness, build quality etc.


I am very keen to get one but it is quite an expensive outlay.

 

[Binky]

I don't think the screen, buttons are any different to the original, American Pandoras. For those, read reviews here:


http://boards.openpa...egation-thread/

 

[double7]

Not sure what you are searching for i am. The final push to order searching you are? Or seeking the difference between?

 

[Drax_Bloodfinger]

Thanks Binky and double7. That is exactly what I am looking for.

 

[Nikolaas]

I have recently received my pandora and I must say, up until now, I'm perfectly happy with it. The D-pad feels very comfortable, the analog nubs work smoothly and the other buttons feel perfect. I have noted no problems with the shoulder buttons, as was apparently a problem with the older pandoras.


The screen seems fine. It is my first touch screen (yes, I'm from the stone age), which means I finally got to experience the joys of playing gweled with a stylus. I do have to say, though, that sometimes the screen stops responding to any form of touching. This problem is always solved by rebooting, so I guess it is not a big deal.


The build quality is very good. The pandora seems very solid and feels nice and smooth. Only problem: the hinge creaks a little bit.


I'll give a quick rundown of my experience until now.


Positive points:

1. the controls are perfect and the emulations work great.
   
2. I had heard the sound was great, but I wasn't prepared for this. It's marvellous.
   
3. I am basically a linux-newbie, but even I found the pandora very intuitive and easy to use.
   
4. the 10h battery life is not an overestimation (although I use pretty low screen brightness).
   

Negative points:

1. getting the stylus out the first time, was hell.
   
2. the carrying case is a little bit too small.
   
3. one USB port seems like one too few.
   
4. see above for the touchscreen problem.
   

 

[bismuthdrummer]

I have recently received my pandora and I must say, up until now, I'm perfectly happy with it. The D-pad feels very comfortable, the analog nubs work smoothly and the other buttons feel perfect. I have noted no problems with the shoulder buttons, as was apparently a problem with the older pandoras.


The screen seems fine. It is my first touch screen (yes, I'm from the stone age), which means I finally got to experience the joys of playing gweled with a stylus. I do have to say, though, that sometimes the screen stops responding to any form of touching. This problem is always solved by rebooting, so I guess it is not a big deal.


The build quality is very good. The pandora seems very solid and feels nice and smooth. Only problem: the hinge creaks a little bit.


I'll give a quick rundown of my experience until now.


Positive points:

1. the controls are perfect and the emulations work great.
   
2. I had heard the sound was great, but I wasn't prepared for this. It's marvellous.
   
3. I am basically a linux-newbie, but even I found the pandora very intuitive and easy to use.
   
4. the 10h battery life is not an overestimation (although I use pretty low screen brightness).
   

Negative points:

1. getting the stylus out the first time, was hell.
   
2. the carrying case is a little bit too small.
   
3. one USB port seems like one too few.
   
4. see above for the touchscreen problem.
   

Touchscreen problem is because of the OS (software-related), so no worries there, it will be fixed.


The USB port works best with a hub anyway, since our host only supports 2.0 (hi-speed) and is not automatically backwards compatible. A hub gives you both more ports and the backwards compatibility, and hubs are dirt cheap and come in a variety of styles.


My case was small too, and the styli are known to be stiff. Both of these go away over time with general usage. Really they do. My case was so tight I had to squeeze my Pandora in but after a couple months' use, it loosened up fine. Same goes for the stylus, first extract/insert was tough and each one thereafter got gradually easier until it goes in and out smoothly.


Not the most ideal, but knowing the size of this project you can hopefully understand some quirks will exist.

 

[DaMummy]

its so good to see these threads again, maybe its time to sticky up a "new Pandora user" thread again, just so people are informed and same questions aren't answered over and over again, like....


after forcing your stylus out, you should "write" with it on a piece of paper to remove some of the excess paint.


turn your Pandora case inside-out a couple times to relax it a bit so the Pandora will fit better.


also, if you, or anyone else, happen to find a way to reproduce the death of the touchscreen(which only requires a reboot), please let it be known so its easier to fix by OS devs.


and last, but certainly not least, make sure you turn down the volume, and plug the headphones in before you put them on/in your ears, because if you think the speakers are nice, wait till your pants fall off from the headphone output

 

[Nikolaas]

Not the most ideal, but knowing the size of this project you can hopefully understand some quirks will exist.

Absolutely! In fact, one of the reasons I bought a pandora is that I really like this kind of projects. I had to tell myself a few times that I had no use for a nanonote, or I would have bought one too

also, if you, or anyone else, happen to find a way to reproduce the death of the touchscreen(which only requires a reboot), please let it be known so its easier to fix by OS devs.

Up until now, I have been unable to reliably replicate it, in fact the last few days, I haven't encountered it. Probably a random fluctuation.

 

[notaz]

also, if you, or anyone else, happen to find a way to reproduce the death of the touchscreen(which only requires a reboot), please let it be known so its easier to fix by OS devs.

Up until now, I have been unable to reliably replicate it, in fact the last few days, I haven't encountered it. Probably a random fluctuation.

It's a race condition in the driver, real hard to deal with as it's impossible to reproduce reliably.

 

[drock]

Those are always fun to fix. Is this race condition showing up over a TI serial port by any chance?

 

[retroDude]

My was sendt today

 

[Shpuld]

New Pandora received today!


This device rocks really hard.

 

[Nintendo]

This thread is so awesome!!! :wub:

 

[Green7]

Got my RMA'd Pandora back last week so here's some thoughts

• Touchscreen : having the same problem as another couple of people mentioned. It just stops responding after a while. Deffo a software issue as a reboot solves the problem
  
• Overclocking : my old Pandora overclocked to about 850 iirc, this one goes to 1050 on opp5. And it's really snappy - just gonna leave it on that
  
• Nubs : much better. Work well when controlling the cursor and seem spot on (once you get used to them) in Mupen.
  
• dPad/buttons/keyboard : the same thankfully. Still the best handheld dPad I've used.
  
• Build : the hinge is so much better. Much stiffer. No obvious faults or cracks with the case but these appeared over time in my old one.
  

*edit* All on Super Zaxxon 1.5 I have a 1002 Rebirth edition

 

[notaz]

• Touchscreen : having the same problem as another couple of people mentioned. It just stops responding after a while. Deffo a software issue as a reboot solves the problem
  

Can you try SZ 1.5 b2 and see ir it still happens?

 

[Green7]

Yea, wary of this though - if it breaks my currently working Pandora...


Point me in the right direction and I'll report back.

 

[TrashyMG]

Flashing the firmware is a fairly safe operation, even if it fails it's just a matter of making sure your hotfix download isn't corrupt and just doing it again.

 

[Green7]

Flashing the firmware is a fairly safe operation, even if it fails it's just a matter of making sure your hotfix download isn't corrupt and just doing it again.

hehehe


Yea, updating to Vista seemed like a good idea at the time...

 

[F_Slim]

I have mine since 2 weeks now. It's just great! I tried to keep my expectations low and imagines all the things that will probably not work. Just so that I am not disapointed in the end.


But actually it is as great as everybody sais it is!


I played the Lemmings-port with earphones on ... after a while my face started to hurt because I was smiling so much!


Some things still do not work for me, but I guess that is mainly a matter of finding the right settings and/or game-files. (Or just ask here when all else failes).


Wifi works flawless for me at the moment, reception could be a bit better but that's all. Tried two different routers so far.


TV-Stick works perfectly (after I realized I have to overclock to make it work).


You could say most of the stuff I tried so far just works. Maybe not always right away, but often much easier and better than I was expecting.


Only problem I found so far is that sometimes things seem to randomly disappear from the task-bar. I lost the mixer once (had to be replaced manually). The Network manager went away but I got it back after a re-boot. Yesterday suddenly the Pandora-button and menu vanished!! No idea why, at least yesterday it was after some other .PND crashed or was killed.


It's hard to file a bug-report for something like that though ...


I'm a bit worried about the hinge. Feels like it is more loose already. Unless I have it sitting on a desk I find it quite comfortable to put the screen entirely to the back though. Just hope that this position will not loosen over time.


There is so much more I want to try and test and do, I just don't have the time actually. At least this means it will not become boring for a loooong time (if ever) ^_^

 

[Prometheus]

Only problem I found so far is that sometimes things seem to randomly disappear from the task-bar. I lost the mixer once (had to be replaced manually). The Network manager went away but I got it back after a re-boot. Yesterday suddenly the Pandora-button and menu vanished!! No idea why, at least yesterday it was after some other .PND crashed or was killed.


It's hard to file a bug-report for something like that though ...

This is a general Xfce thing, and not Pandora-exclusive, believe it or not! It happens when you run out of RAM, and causes launcher icons - of which the Pandora-menu is one - to disappear. The instructions to fix it are located here.


I hope this helps!