GPD Win (x86 Computer / Palmtop)

[canguy247]

I would disagree with that. Keep in mind that the makers of the Pandora each had their own companies, and while one of those companies has since folded, EvilDragon and OpenPandora GmbH now has a proven track record, having successfully brought the Pandora back into production and delivering every pre-order he had taken. (All remaining unfulfilled Pandora orders were taken by the British company that folded)

-Neelix

All very nice, but the Pandora was VERY late. I was in the first hundred or so shipped, and it took so long that the device's soc was obsolete when i got it. Luckily (for me) they ran into problems producing more so i was able to sell it for a profit. (after using it for some SNES emulation)

It will ship in 2 weeks...no really!

Intent of the manufacturer is only worth so much. Even the "nameless british fellow" was fully intending to ship all products initially. They just had a ton of issues and had to climb some serious learning curves. So, in spite of Evil Dragon's trustworthiness and experience, he is a novice compared to GPD when it comes to getting a product of the door. And their resources of engineers and equipment as well as their connections and such mean that they are easier to trust.

And that is not even mentioning the whole half the price thing. $750 cad is insane.

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[Klumpen]

And that is not even mentioning the whole half the price thing. $750 cad is insane.

It wouldn't be any cheaper if GPD would make exactly the same thing, would take the time ironing out the various problems that come with such a complex device and wouldn't just let everything made by Asian slave labour.
GPD makes cheaply produced throwaway hardware with various flaws in design that gets replaced on a regular basis and is more directed at the average guy who doesn't really take the real life use cases into consideration and is sold on buzzwords and a cheap price but wants some specific thing the average smartphone doesn't offer. Pyra is a panacea for an insane amount of use cases and a swiss army knife for nerds and Linux enthusiasts with all those storage options, open software, nice keyboard, excellent long term support even after tinkering with it, thoughtful keymapping on the shoulderbuttons, swappable batteries with long life etc...
Both fill a market segment and have a right to exist and ED's prices are just as fair as the ones of GPD, they probably even make more money out of it and they sell their products with shady emulation software and ROM downloaders which are illegal in most parts of the world afaik. European retailers have to remove this software in order to sell it further legally.
ED has been very open when it comes to the price and how it comes to be, you don't see other companies telling openly how much every part will cost at which number ordered, people usually have to investigate this and are quite shocked then, like with the whole IPhone/Foxconn story.
The next thing is the software and optimization side, my GPD Q9 (very nice for mobile Playstation emulation on a big screen although the sticks were definitely not chosen by gamers and the four cores don't manage to emulate as well in highres as pcsxreARMed on the classic Pandora) is limited by android and losing insane amounts of power in standby and the way data storage is handled is terrible, yet it's still good if you take the price into consideration of course.

I don't have much money, but as someone creating products on German soil as well but in way smaller numbers I can safely say that Pyra isn't overpriced.
If there'd be more demand, it would be cheaper of course.

 

[Neelix]

All very nice, but the Pandora was VERY late. I was in the first hundred or so shipped, and it took so long that the device's soc was obsolete when i got it. Luckily (for me) they ran into problems producing more so i was able to sell it for a profit. (after using it for some SNES emulation)

It will ship in 2 weeks...no really!

You seem to be missing my point, All those issues happened before ED took over production. He learned from the mistakes made first time around, and when he took over he had the production running smoothly and reliably as quickly as was practical.

-Neelix

 

[Klumpen]

You seem to be missing my point, All those issues happened before ED took over production. He learned from the mistakes made first time around, and when he took over he had the production running smoothly and reliably as quickly as was practical.

Imho, saving the whole wreck that he took over needed more skills than just doing something entirely new, so his credibility is excellent in my book.

 

[canguy247]

You seem to be missing my point, All those issues happened before ED took over production. He learned from the mistakes made first time around, and when he took over he had the production running smoothly and reliably as quickly as was practical.

-Neelix

Not true. All three of them were involved throughout.

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[canguy247]

Imho, saving the whole wreck that he took over needed more skills than just doing something entirely new, so his credibility is excellent in my book.

Credibility was never the point. Just experience, resources, and industry connections.

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[vcoleiro1]

Well manufactured prototypes of the GPD WIN should make their way into testers hands next month. So it should be interesting to see what it's like.

 

[Neelix]

Not true. All three of them were involved throughout.

Credibility was never the point. Just experience, resources, and industry connections.

Involved? yes. In charge? No. That's an important distinction. As for experience, what better experience could he have? One learns more from failure than from success and ED has demonstrated that he learned well from the mistakes made during that first failed run. Well enough to revive production of a product that would normally have crashed and burned given the mistakes made the first time around.

-Neelix

 

[EvilDragon]

Not true. All three of them were involved throughout.

I was the one communicating with the community, doing the newsposts, selling the units in Germany.
I was never involved in any design or production decisions, have never talked with any company nor handled anything like part ordering or production - up until I took over to move the production to Germany.

So while I was part of the team, I had as much to do with the production of the unit (which is was failed) as any other forum member here.

 

[canguy247]

Involved? yes. In charge? No. That's an important distinction. As for experience, what better experience could he have? One learns more from failure than from success and ED has demonstrated that he learned well from the mistakes made during that first failed run. Well enough to revive production of a product that would normally have crashed and burned given the mistakes made the first time around.

-Neelix

What better experience? How about a team that develops and releases products every 12 months? Previous success is the best predictor of future success. Failure may be a good teacher, but success is hard to beat.

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[EvilDragon]

But still: Doing a product is not easy, and I'm sure GPD is more experienced and has a lot more funding than I have.
I am trying to do my best, but that won't assure that everything will work out as it should.

However, whatever faults the unit will have, we'll work on them and improve them, whereas the DPad of the GPD XD still isn't the best one and recent units all have lightbleed. And quite a few have defects like failing screens after a while. So GPD also is far away qualitywise from products like the PS Vita or any Nintendo product.
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What better experience? How about a team that develops and releases products every 12 months? Previous success is the best predictor of future success. Failure may be a good teacher, but success is hard to beat.

The Pandora was very successful after the production moved to Germany.
The demand is still there, whenever I manage to put a few more units together, they're sold within a few hours.

While GPDs products are better than most cheap chinese stuff, they also are far away from being really good quality.

Additionally, I rather have a company that supports their products over a longer period of time than a company that releases new products every 12 months.

The firmware of the GPD Q9 is practically unusable, as you can't use 14GB of the storage to install programs to, the Android version of the GPD XD and Q9 as well as the kernel itself is horribly outdated as well.

 

[directive0]

Everybody complains about things like build quality and outsourcing, but nobody is willing to vote with their dollars about it.

 

[vcoleiro1]

Can we have one thread in the Other Consoles section that doesn't turn into a defensive slanging match.

 

[Exophase]

Everybody complains about things like build quality and outsourcing, but nobody is willing to vote with their dollars about it.

Problem is that nobody is making a GPD-like product only with better build quality and manufacturing or whatever not in China, so there's no alternative to buy.

And no, Pyra isn't that.

 

[vcoleiro1]

GPD just made another Indiegogo update which shows the finalised and populated WIN PCB. I suspect they now have a working prototype.

 

[levi]

So the keyboard and nubs are on a separate board? Guess those circular contacts next to the blank area on what I assume is the top of the board are for the keyboard.

 

[vcoleiro1]

The keyboard is on a seperate PCB as shown in a previous pic. What happens with the sticks is that because of the part depth, they go through the board and connect via a small ribbon cable connector - like on the GPD XD shown below

 

[erico]

But... but...no wonky chip on the pcb?
That lacks style.

 

[Yoyobuae]

So the keyboard and nubs are on a separate board? Guess those circular contacts next to the blank area on what I assume is the top of the board are for the keyboard.

Those are most likely test pads (which are on the bottom of the device). Connection to the keyboard is probably via ribbon cable (see connector right besides the test pads).

So many ribbon cables though:

1. Keyboard
2. Stick A
3. Stick B
4. Display

Also it seems like the keyboard pads might be on a thin plastic similar to ribbon cables, as I doubt there is room for another PCB (some PC keyboards are like this). Durability might be a problem. Spares could be cheap though (if offered by GPD).

The SoC is also placed on the top, right under the keyboard. They'd better have a good cooling solution planed.

 

[fusion_power]

The keyboard is on a seperate PCB as shown in a previous pic. What happens with the sticks is that because of the part depth, they go through the board and connect via a small ribbon cable connector - like on the GPD XD shown below

Clever idea actualy. Extra keyboard PCB and still a compared flat device, not bad. No lit keys though, which is bad imho.