GamesCom 2017 - Pictures

[elvissteinjr]

Sadly, I am not surprised. Have any Pyras gone missing? Or Pandoras?

We also lost 2 GPD XDs. The same day other booths had stuff missing as well. There was probably somebody really sneaky at work there.
There were no Pandoras at the booth this year... except for our private ones, of course.

Any thoughts, or maybe a review?

You'll get some thoughts, but I'm not a great guy when it comes to reviews or stuff like that.
To clear things up a bit: I was helping out at the booth for the entire duration of gamescom, like I did the last 2 years.

The prototype we had there was Askarus' one. It had an old keymat, not ideal shoulder buttons and a wrongly calibrated touchscreen (the sides of the screen weren't working). All of that is already fixed iirc.
We had a lower case part with the final keymat in it and that one was great. The DPad on that one wasn't final yet either, though so I can't say much about that. It basically was sticking out too high up and was also pretty loose.
Nubs work great, but the overall movement is less smooth than on the Pandora. May be touching the case slightly. I actually forgot asking about this, thinking about it.

Apart from the touchscreen being miscalibrated, it was actually pretty nice. The touch layer is on the softer side (dunno if later Pandora screens were soft, but mine's is pretty hard), the output image looks good. Viewing angles as some have feared before are not an issue. However, since it's not matte anymore, there's the possibility of getting reflections on it. Not worse than the other devices we had at the booth, but still.
The case felt nice. The size is nice while holding, but obviously a bit big when trying to put it in your pocket. Your pants' pockets are not an impossible location, but far from recommended.
Weight is fine. Not super light, but didn't bother me when using it.
There was no audio on this unit, so nothing to say about that. No speakers and no config to make the headphone jack work either.

The software side is still pretty vanilla. There was no 3D with the current kernel (surprise) and the unit was locked to 1 GHz. But it was pleasant to use regardless. Heck, you could even do actual web browsing.
Thinking about it, I didn't do a lot of meaningful stuff. Just compiled my own software as every year to confirm the Pyra build configuration was still working (it did) and then stare at the low framerate of the software OpenGL renderer.
CrossCode, as seen on 2 of my photos was actually running at half speed, but please don't tell anyone. This game can even make older desktop PCs struggle a bit if there's no hardware accelerated graphics at work.
No idea of the battery life as the battery meter wasn't working correctly at the time. I think that was fixed too by now.
The USB sirring noise is very real btw. You really don't want that in the final unit.

It's hard to give a final verdict when there's all these little things (most are fixed already) and it's not even the latest hardware revision.
I'm not disappointed at all, though. Software can always be updated later on, compared to the hardware.


I can't wait to get corrected on some things. It has been 3 weeks already, so I wouldn't be surprised if I misremembered stuff.

 

[rygD]

I was including past events when asking about the missing Pandoras.

I can't wait to hear about (or try for myself!) a complete Pyra with final keymat with the proper keyboard and gaming controls. Sucks to hear that the nubs might be inferior to the Pandora ones when it comes to smoothness.

I expected the Pyra to be a bit big for pockets (won't stop me from doing that at times), but the feeling in the hands is more important to me. Ever since ED compared the size to the brick GB I figured it would be a better fit in my hand than the Pandora (which works fine for me), as the GB is a pretty great fit and feel. With the smoothed out angles it should be good for most people except those with tiny hands.

 

[EvilDragon]

I can't wait to hear about (or try for myself!) a complete Pyra with final keymat with the proper keyboard and gaming controls. Sucks to hear that the nubs might be inferior to the Pandora ones when it comes to smoothness.

Well, depends on what you call smoothness.
They work a LOT better in regards of accuracy and direction.
They are a bit louder as you can here the spring inside the nub a bit.

But as he used Askarus Pyra: That one had solder issues with the nub, so they're worse than they should be. Maybe that's the issue.

 

[levi]

Since he talks about them rubbing against the case, I assume he means physical smoothness i.e. the feeling under your thumb as you move the nub top about. It wouldn't surprise me if Askarus' unit is worse than production units will be on this front - did his use the injection plastic that was too thick, for example?

 

[elvissteinjr]

Yeah, I'm talking about physical smoothness. The Pandora's nubs really glide smoothly whereas Askarus' Pyra's nubs seemed to have touched the case slightly perhaps. Hard to describe, since they worked fine, weren't really blocked or slowed down by it and slid back by themselves as they should. Just a bit less smooth.

The hardware part without the disc is totally fine in that regard btw., so that might be some unique trait of that one prototype.
Take my writeup about the prototype with a grain of salt. It's from memory and just from one prototype, after all.

 

[rygD]

Prolly just needs some lube.

 

[levi]

On the Pyra, the nubs need to touch the case, because it's the case that holds them in IIRC - unlike the Pandora, when you remove the board from the case, the nub tops stay in the case, while the sensors are attached the the board. The plastic those parts are made from probably affects the feel most strongly then I'd assume.

In terms of lubing them up, I'm not sure which lubes are conductive, and if they're conductive they're liable to be magnetisable, which could play havoc with the hall effect sensor*. I'd personally just wait until any bumps and lumps had been ground smooth by the action of the nub over the case.

*Probably none; if we're talking grease, sodium or lithium salts are't liable to be conductive, I'd have thought. Still a bit messy having grease over the area your nub top moves.

 

[rygD]

I wouldn't lube my nubs, but it could help with the grinding.

That sentence seems wrong.
[doublepost=1505799780,1505780383][/doublepost]Thinking about it more, if the grinding bothered me enough that I wanted to do something about it I would probably find the friction point and do some sanding. I feel that might prevent possible damage that could develop over time.

WARNING: Sand is not always a good alternative to lube.

 

[torpor]

I had the same observation when I had a chance to trial ED's Pyra last year (at Metalab), but after a few minutes I sort of lost attention about the 'grittiness' of the new nubs and got a bit more distracted by the keys .. its pretty clear though, by now, that its all going through *very* careful quality processes to get to a refined ideal.

 

[TeDaDeS]

We also lost 2 GPD XDs. The same day other booths had stuff missing as well. There was probably somebody really sneaky at work there.

That isn't very nice at all. I guess if they really want to take a device they will even when you have a wire attached.