Even Though Pandora Has A Generation Of Old Hardware

[Phawx]

This console is fast. I have an Epic 4G currently, which is an Intrinsity built Cortex A8 clocked at 1Ghz that I can OC to 1.3 Ghz and it doesn't feel as nice as the Pandora when running games. Obviously, Android running the kit and kaboodle in a VM isn't helping things, I have to admit I wasn't expecting much from my Pandora, comparatively.

Either way, I have to say that I'm pretty impressed with what OP has done. There are a few cosmetic gotcha's but they aren't show stoppers. It's all where the pandora case comes together, most of it is good, but some parts are a little too separated. Perhaps I just need to finagle some stuff to get it aligned, but again, not a big issue.

As for the game controls, bravo guys. the dpad, face buttons and shoulder buttons feel excellent. I'm mean TOP NOTCH. I just finished Cave Story on the Pandora and I've only had it in earnest for about a day. I just can't seem to put the Panda down. I've tried SF2 and I can pull of specials moves with EASE. Was it Dave C whoes designed the dpad? I can't remember who designed the dpad exactly, but whoever did, I want you to know this is in my top 3 favorite dpads and definitely the best dpad for a mobile hands-down.

Anyway, I hope the community comes back to life now that all the niggles have (by a good margin) been fixed. I am thoroughly enjoying the Panda as is right now and it feels like a competent netbook as well. It really is everything I thought it would be.

Thanks OP Team for making this a reality. I'm glad I invested with you guys and stuck with it.

Here's hoping to an awesome future for the Panda.

 

[jdbye]

I've tried psx4droid on my 1ghz archos 70, and psx4pandora is fullspeed at 800mhz compared to 40 fps at 1ghz on the tablet, so it is indeed very fast for the specs compared to other devices, might have something to do with Angstrom being much lighter than Android (likely), but regardless CPU performance on the Pandora is great.

 

[wardred]

I just finished Cave Story on the Pandora and I've only had it in earnest for about a day.

Gah, I have that for the GP2X and haven't finished it yet. Mind you, I generally put it down for months at a time so when I pick it back up I have no idea what I was even doing, but still! Glad you're enjoying your Pandora.

 

[Trip]

..might have something to do with Angstrom being much lighter than Android (likely)..

Possible, but it may be more likely that M.Weston did a really good job at balancing out all the hardware in the Pandora.

Anybody that's ever replaced a cheap motherboard in their computer for a better quality one that runs the same processor, RAM etc. will no doubt tell you how much difference there is when they get the design of the motherboard right instead of just cobbling one together out of standard parts.

I'd love to see some speed comparisons between a Pandora and similarly specked devices

EDIT: p.s Glad you got your Pandora Phawx and cheers for the mini review

 

[typs lik dis]

What's wrong with standard motherboard parts? Aren't they usually made with a lot of the same chips in them?

 

[DaveC]

..might have something to do with Angstrom being much lighter than Android (likely)..

Possible, but it may be more likely that M.Weston did a really good job at balancing out all the hardware in the Pandora.

Anybody that's ever replaced a cheap motherboard in their computer for a better quality one that runs the same processor, RAM etc. will no doubt tell you how much difference there is when they get the design of the motherboard right instead of just cobbling one together out of standard parts.

I'd love to see some speed comparisons between a Pandora and similarly specked devices

EDIT: p.s Glad you got your Pandora Phawx and cheers for the mini review

It is probably a combination of both. Android is a bloated mess, That is why they require a minimum of 1 GHz to run it.

The Pandora OS was implemented with speed in mind, even at that it has been said that runing X you DO lose a few FPS in demanding emus because of that overhead.

 

[Prometheus]

Wow, reading the above, I can't help but think that some of the folks who reckon Android will be a plus for emulators on the Pandora could potentially end up disappointed.

 

[Phawx]

@prometheus

Android is nice, but the real problem is that the Manufacturers want to apply their own skin on top of it (HTC - Sense / Samsung - TouchWiz) and then the carriers want to add their own VAS bloated crap. If you've used a RTM of CyanogenMod, Android actually flies. It's all the crap that everyone puts on top of it that really makes a mess. And Google is pumping updates to Android every 6 months or so and it takes a real long time to get updated unless you have the Nexus series.

As far as I've seen and played, Pandora emu's are far more plentiful and run much better than is currently available on Android. Perhaps this has to do with a shotty NDK available to Android, but they just released a new NDK for Android that allows applications to be fully coded and compiled in C/C++ without any bit of Java.

Plus I had already asked Notaz if it would be possible to port GINGE to Android because I really wanted to play some GP2x games and he cited kernel issues. All in all, I can say quite clearly that the Pandora (even with older hardware) is the current mobile gaming device to beat (in terms of how things run and how well the controls work.)

I think what I am really trying to hit home is the point that if people are looking at the Pandora and seeing the somewhat outdated specs that they really shouldn't be turned off by it because it runs stuff better than my current tech Android device.

I think the only thing that would be nice is when Android 2.3 starts getting some quality commercial games. Android 2.3 is basically the "gaming edition" of Android. The new NDK requires at least > 2.3 Android AND AND 2.3 introduced gamepad API. So all of the buttons on the Pandora could be successfully mapped correctly to the gapi controls, including the nubs.

I wouldn't want to run Android only, because the linux compiled stuff works fantastic. But when quality commercial games start appearing for Android, (and they will start appearing in 2011) I'd like the option to boot into it. Hopefully that OMAP Android project starts working on Android 2.3.

The Pandora has quite a bit of life left in it.

 

[OilySalmon]

It is probably a combination of both. Android is a bloated mess, That is why they require a minimum of 1 GHz to run it.

Uh... where'd ya hear that..? My Ally runs at 600MHz (when not overclocked) and it runs totally fine. Of course, I'm using a custom ROM on it, but still.

Both 2.1 and an AOSP version of 2.2 run just fine on this machine. 'Course I don't game on it, since it has no dedicated GPU and the best it could do is run a GBC emu.

But I'd agree that Android is not as fast as it could be.

 

[Trip]

What's wrong with standard motherboard parts? Aren't they usually made with a lot of the same chips in them?

It's not the parts themselves but how the engineers integrate them into the hardware.
The processor and RAM might be capable of high speeds, but if the motherboard isn't they wont be able to be used to their full potential.

Example: Some motherboards only allow for a Memory Bus Speed of up to 800MHz, whilst the processor is capable of speeds up to 1600MHz (using Hyper Transport Technology). This causes a bottleneck and makes the processor run a lot slower than it's capable of.

A decent setup requires the motherboard to be able to move the data at the same speed as the processor, RAM and the other parts of the motherboard to get the most out of all the parts.

Hope I made that clear enough

 

[Dead1nside]

I think it's probably more a case of a lower software overhead, and therefore resource overhead on Pandora. Also, any program which is coded for the Pandora, only has to target one system, fragmentation of hardware on Android, probably doesn't help much.

As for mismatched hardware, I think that's quite elementary. From what I know, Tripmonkey_uk, you're essentially right but it's not that it slows down the processor, it's just that like you say there's a bottleneck, so it's wasted, it's like your wheels on your car spinning, not translating into extra speed.

This thread does make you think that the Pandora is still relevant and has some advantage in terms of performance over modern smartphones. Which is quite reassuring actually. I remember seeing these specs around two years ago, and my jaw dropping. Think how ahead of its time it was.