Argg What Should I Do?!

[silvercroc]

Hey guys,

I have just ordered a GP2X Wiz without even seeing the Pandora, basically I just want MAME and a comic book reader on the go, however the Pandora does look like that and a lot more, what should I do? Cancel my Wiz order and go for the Pandora? Will games like The Simpsons and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles run properly on the Pandora?

Apologies i've had a quick look but need some advice as I need to know asap to cancel my order!

Thanks very much in advance for any advice given!

Apologies if I sound like a noob! I have done homebrew etc before with both my psp and NDS and really enjoy it, mainly actually getting things to work rather than actually playing them!

 

[benjymous]

Buy a Wiz now, and flog it on eBay when you get a Pandora?

 

[silvercroc]

Buy a Wiz now, and flog it on eBay when you get a Pandora?

Do you think it'd be worth it? Basically is the Pandora capable of all that the Wiz is and more?

Cheers mate

 

[gaterooze]

Do you think it'd be worth it? Basically is the Pandora capable of all that the Wiz is and more?

Very much so.

But you won't be able to get a Pandora for another 2 1/2 months at least. When is the Wiz shipping? Another few weeks?

 

[jakshep2]

cancel the wiz order and get a pandora. the wiz is an (essentially) less powerful version of the pando with a lot less buttons, a very small screen, and crap controls.

you will get a lot more out of pandora.

 

[silvercroc]

cancel the wiz order and get a pandora. the wiz is an (essentially) less powerful version of the pando with a lot less buttons, a very small screen, and crap controls.

you will get a lot more out of pandora.

Excellent, all I needed to know.

Cheers! Hopefully they'll let me cancel my order!

Do you think it'd be worth it? Basically is the Pandora capable of all that the Wiz is and more?

Very much so.

But you won't be able to get a Pandora for another 2 1/2 months at least. When is the Wiz shipping? Another few weeks?


Yeah apparently so, the website fails to mention that though and it even had the cheek to charge me for 24hr dispatch, i thought i'd be getting it this week as i hadn't read too much into it like a fool!


So i'll be pre ordering a pandora, is there a site to do this yet or are they only pre ordering mid september?

 

[Mr Wendal]

The preorder starts mid sept or later, sign up for the email newsletter on the main pandora site and they`ll send you a mail as soon as the preorder opens.

 

[silvercroc]

The preorder starts mid sept or later, sign up for the email newsletter on the main pandora site and they`ll send you a mail as soon as the preorder opens.

Good stuff! Cheers!

 

[Parkydr]

It depends what you want and how much you want to spend.

The Simpsons runs fine (don't know about TMNT) in MAME on the gp2x so in should be fine on the Wiz.

Don't know what the comic reader is like but it has one so the Wiz should meet your needs.

The Pandora is more powerful but also more expensive.

I'm surprised your PSP doesn't do what you want.

 

[silvercroc]

It depends what you want and how much you want to spend.

The Simpsons runs fine (don't know about TMNT) in MAME on the gp2x so in should be fine on the Wiz.

Don't know what the comic reader is like but it has one so the Wiz should meet your needs.

The Pandora is more powerful but also more expensive.

I'm surprised your PSP doesn't do what you want.

yeah the psp is good but this looks awesome, more memory to store everything, better web browser, keyboard etc

Hopefully the pandora will be worth the extra cash

 

[AireTamStorm]

Yeah, the only real "advantage" the Wiz has over the Pandora is the OLED screen (better color), but the insanely higher resolution of the Pandora's screen will make it a moot point for most people.

 

[Kyo]

I still don't know how they were able to keep the price at 180 with an OLED screen. Anyway, yeah. Get a pandora

 

[Megamixman]

I still don't know how they were able to keep the price at 180 with an OLED screen. Anyway, yeah. Get a pandora

Mass produced OLED screens are cheaper then LCDs. Problem is there aren't many companies making OLED screens and they generally have batch minimums on the order of 10K units.

 

[CronoTriggerfan]

I still don't know how they were able to keep the price at 180 with an OLED screen. Anyway, yeah. Get a pandora

Yeah, OLED screens are really, really cheap. It's what most Chinese companies throw in their chiPods. ;P

 

[AireTamStorm]

Doesn't OLED still have longevity issues when it comes to their blue diodes? I'd feel sorry for Wiz owners if their blue died for half the pixels on the screen in a few months.

 

[Chip]

I just want MAME and a comic book reader on the go, however the Pandora does look like that and a lot more, what should I do?

Reading comic books on a 4.3" 800x480 display will be tough. Reading them on a 2.8" display with less than 1/4 the resolution will be considerably tougher. I occasionally read comics on a 26" 1920x1200 display, and I still find it less than ideal. Pandora is the better of the two for this one task, but it's still not the best.

MAME will likely run quite well on both devices. You will have more control options with the Pandora - Analog controls for games that use them, extra keypad buttons for things like coin insert and game start, etc.

As for everything else the Pandora can do, it's up to you whether or not those features are worth the extra cost. I suggest checking out this comparison to help you make your decision.

Mass produced OLED screens are cheaper then LCDs. Problem is there aren't many companies making OLED screens and they generally have batch minimums on the order of 10K units.

That is certainly true for small monochromatic displays. I don't know if it's necessarily the case for the display used in the Wiz. In any case, I can guarantee that the display being used is an off-the-shelf part. Since it's not a dedicated production run, the minimum requirements are likely much lower than that.

Doesn't OLED still have longevity issues when it comes to their blue diodes? I'd feel sorry for Wiz owners if their blue died for half the pixels on the screen in a few months.

This was true in the early days of OLED manufacturing, just as it was true when plasma display technology was young. But just like with plasmas, OLED technology is continually improving. Display longevity should not be a major concern.

 

[christo930]

Hey guys,

I have just ordered a GP2X Wiz without even seeing the Pandora, basically I just want MAME and a comic book reader on the go, however the Pandora does look like that and a lot more, what should I do? Cancel my Wiz order and go for the Pandora? Will games like The Simpsons and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles run properly on the Pandora?

Apologies i've had a quick look but need some advice as I need to know asap to cancel my order!

Thanks very much in advance for any advice given!

Apologies if I sound like a noob! I have done homebrew etc before with both my psp and NDS and really enjoy it, mainly actually getting things to work rather than actually playing them!

If you just want MAME and comic book reader on the go, then I would stick with the wiz. It's $150 less than the pandora, has the features you say you want, it's shipping sooner, will fit in your pocket and should have a lot of other emulators and games very quickly due to the simplicity of porting from the gp2x.

The challenge of getting everything to work doesn't exist with the Pandora or the Wiz or the GP2X, since these are designed to run software downloaded from the Internet in the first place. You will find that for the most part, everything just works. I think you will also find a high level of quality for the homebrewn games for the wiz/gp2x and probably the Pandora as well. Most of the homebrewn I've seen on psx and nds are more like demos than polished games. There are some crap HB games for gp2x, but for the most part the library quality is very good. I don't think I can really say the same thing for the psx and nds (of course there are some really good commercial offerings on these machines).

You could always do both or you can get both and sell the one you like least. You would probably get back at least 85% of your money.

Chris

Doesn't OLED still have longevity issues when it comes to their blue diodes? I'd feel sorry for Wiz owners if their blue died for half the pixels on the screen in a few months.

From the information I can find, this problem is being greatly overstated in the threads on this website.

Chris

 

[gaterooze]

If you just want MAME and comic book reader on the go, then I would stick with the wiz.

For a comic reader, the Wiz's screen will be incredibly small. If it's just MAME and that, I'd probably recommend grabbing an F200 off eBay.

 

[silvercroc]

If you just want MAME and comic book reader on the go, then I would stick with the wiz.

For a comic reader, the Wiz's screen will be incredibly small. If it's just MAME and that, I'd probably recommend grabbing an F200 off eBay.


I've cancelled my wiz order, the pandora looks like too much fun so gonna have to stick with that

 

[IceBerg303]

Doesn't OLED still have longevity issues when it comes to their blue diodes? I'd feel sorry for Wiz owners if their blue died for half the pixels on the screen in a few months.

I have an Asus G1 that has an OLED status screen on it. Since I run Linux, for the longest time there was no way to change that or turn it off so the ASUS logo was badly screen burned into it. Since the screen burn was only visible on lit pixels I would have to agree that the pixels die very rapidly. If it were true screen burn the burn would be visible when no pixels were lit.