Well, I got my Pandora and I couldnt be happier with it. The blessed thing is charging now, and although its nearly 4am Id be happy to jump back into playing around with it before I retire (if my eyes werent dropping heavily).
Im writing these impressions after 2 weeks of owning it, so things may well change after another 2 weeks. Ill try to post any new observations if theyre significant. As for now, a potted account of information and my thoughts.
This also comes with a quick disclaimer Ive been playing games for around 25 years now, and been working in the games industry for approaching a decade, so my biases and opinions are very much formed from a history of games and computers, from the Atari 2600 and Amstrad CPC 464 right up to my PS3 and Wii. Im not saying this as an e-peen thing its more offering a framework for my experiences with my Pandora so far which may help build the picture of it. The detailed and varied accounts of everyone whos owned one so far have been extremely helpful in creating a realistic expectation of the machine for myself, so Im hoping this will help continue that, as expectation plays a large part of how youll react when you first get your hands on it.
Right, onward:
- I ordered on first day, around 3.48pm GMT. Queue estimate was 300-400. My email came on August 26th, delivered to my work addy (UK) the next day.
- The machine itself is much smaller than expected. If youve owned an original grey DS, its around that sort of size, but somehow seems easier on the eyes due to the colour, dimensions and varied controls. Its retro style also works in its favour in some ways my girlfriend (an Apple fiend) was pleasantly surprised by its form factor. Sure, its bigger than a regular DS Lite, but Im from an era where a GameGear couldnt even fit into my school bag at the time, let alone a pocket. This still fits perfectly into my jeans.
- The case feels about right. Dont expect Nintendo/Sony finishes here, but it works, feels solid and does the job, never feeling uncomfortable. My only problem with it is its a smudge magnet and scratches easily. But thats a very, very small issue. Its durable, which is the most important thing. Ive already had an accidental drop from about 3ft, and it shrugged it off like nothing happened. I dropped my PSP from a smaller height and that damaged the battery cover. Props to Pandora.
- Yes, the hinge makes the left hand side of the lid lift slightly. No, this isnt noticeable unless youre staring at it for a long time or looking for it.
- The stylus is nice and sturdy, although was entrenched deeply in its holder the first time, making it difficult to remove. Thats not an issue two weeks later, but it did make me a little cautious the first time I tried to wrench it free. Also, as suggested by others, its best to rub the stylus against paper for at least a solid few minutes before using it on the screen. The paint on the stylus may cause slight scratches on the screen otherwise, which is what happened with mine. Nothing is damaged and 9 times out of 10 you wont even see the scratches, but its worth considering for your first time usage. My screen still works perfectly, however.
- I find the buttons fine. Theyre responsive and work well when I use them. The A button is a little off centre/less spongy than the other face buttons, but its easily ignored. Contrary to many others, I find the shoulder buttons to be actually quite nice. Theyre very clicky, rather than the smooth travel of, say PSP shoulder buttons or the tempered precision of the DS shoulders, but whether acting as Ctrl/Shift or as gaming buttons Ive been more than happy with them. Go to them expecting them feel more like a mouse button rather than a shoulder button. Position-wise theyre good, even for my rangy ET-like fingers.
- The D-pad is as advertised: brilliant. Feels just right and suited for just about any game Ive thrown at it so far.
- The keyboard is nicely done. I write A LOT, so Ive been nicely surprised that I can hammer out a few hundred words on it and not get frustrated. It takes a short while to learn the layout (and get used to having a shoulder button as Shift) but its surprisingly sleek. The keys are raised to a good degree to make thumb-touch-typing quite intuitive. With the boot-up time being so swift (around a minute, tops), its a great little note-making machine. The number buttons are little out of the way, but its a small sacrifice.
- The nubs are fine. Havent quite taken to them as well as I thought I would, but thats mainly because they feel a little too sensitive at times and I havent quite found their throw quite yet. They feel good on the thumb, but the swivel of the plates when combined with the sensitivity makes for some unintentional movement at times, even after some tweaking with the software. But still, Ive found them more than adequate for games and navigation, so I just need to get used to them a bit, hopefully.
- The screen is brilliant. Bright, clear and makes the software sparkle. Videos look great, and games look especially sharp, no matter which era theyre from. And the touchscreen is a charm, especially when youve adjusted it to your sensitivity preferences. After a couple weeks the hinge isnt quite as sturdy as it was at the start (very much flopping into its 180 degree angle unless I sit the Pandora upright), but the machine is designed for that rather than tabletop work, so I dont mind too much.
- Encountered very few bugs. The infamous date bug (where the machine kept asking for me to set the date but refused to accept my entry) came up prior to Hotfix 4, but thats now a thing of the past. There was a scare when it suddenly stopped recognizing my home wireless router, but 30 minutes later that ceased to become a problem as well, and theres been no issues with the wi-fi since. Bluetooth has been a tad flaky (in terms of data transfer rather than connectivity), but without further testing its hard to say if thats from my phones side or the Pandora likely the latter, but will investigate further. Oh, and the PND system is superb. Quick and easy. Take in mind I havent use a Linux based machine before, so to find everything so relatively user-friendly on a whole was reassuring.
- For internet usage, the screen is a tad too small for unoptimised software (such as Firefox) as expected, but Ive been able to get by, especially now Chromium has been refreshed. Some sites still struggle with the resolution, but its a decent browsing machine.
- Its now my favourite portatable machine to watch videos and read documents on. Versatile and fuss-free, especially compared to my iPod Touch. Not being forced to faff around with the video formats has been a particular blessing. Its a tad too unwieldy (both software and hardware-wise) to be a replacement music player, but it still performs admirably in that area, with the little speakers coming out surprisingly well in terms of sound quality and loudness.
- Games-wise, its virtually everything I wanted. I took a version of my Day of the Tentacle disc, played it and fell in love all over again. Jumped from that to a few of my old Amstrad games... bliss. These games have never looked or sounded so good. And the ability to play them on the way to work, waiting for a train or just lying down in bed is charming beyond belief. Obviously theres a bit of messing around in terms of knowing where to put what for the folders, theres little consistency between emulators in terms of presentation and reading the documentation is a MUST to save jumping into a game and not being able to get back out without lots of frustrated button pressing and such and many of the ports are still being optimized for bugs and efficiency, but... its just lovely. When it works - and it does when you get the swing of it - it really clicks. For a guy who spent much of his life playing games, this is a dream machine.
Ive droned on long enough, but as I said at the start, I couldnt be happier with my Pandora. Two years of waiting and I cant help but feel that its been worth it. Its a regular part of my day, barely two weeks in of owning it, drifting from making some writing notes, to listening to a little bit of music, to reading one of my comics, to playing some classic games, to watching a DVD-rip, to web browsing, checking a pdf, doodling... its just indispensable. Whether or not that will change in the coming weeks/months, well see. For now, warts n all, its already one of my favourite machines. And Ive owned a lot of the buggers.
