Is It Comfortable To Hold?

[Hacker117]

What else do you want to know? Ask and we answer.
So far the bottom line is:
Comfortable

In all fairness (and with the utmost respect, Mali), I don't see how you can make that claim. No one who's replied to this topic has actually held a completed unit in their hands and tried to operate it. I make this statement mainly based on a limited knowledge of which developers (community and otherwise) have admitted to getting a dev board, but also in part because the first completed unit (prototype or otherwise) hasn't been assembled yet, unless Craig has received the key pads and didn't let anyone know about it. He made a post earlier today to the effect that they hadn't arrived yet.

@Haxor117 -- You seem to think the touchscreen and bluetooth were unnecessary. Being able to tether this device to my phone via bluetooth for a go-anywhere internet connection is one of the major draws for me. I don't really care about the touch screen, and I think that the microphone is completely extraneous, although I realize there are others for whom a microphone is a must-have for network play.

I can't really speak for the design (again because I haven't held one and tried to use it yet), but it looks like a decent enough compromise between gaming device and linux handheld. For me, the keyboard is an absolute must, and once you make that stipulation, it becomes extremely difficult to place the gaming controls. From a purely aesthetic viewpoint, I think it's quite attractive. We'll have to wait for the first few units to be assembled to really get a good idea of how functional they are.

In the meantime, I think most of the answers you'll get here will be based on speculation.


God, i said that thetouchscreen and bluetooth being excessive were OPINION, if you guys want it, fine, im just saying that it seemed a little over the top. and Ive even stated that i just think the touchscreen is excessive based on where the screen is. Im not trolling, just not getting the point. and again, no one has even touched the completed unit (as you said..) so im getting all opinionated answeres on it being comfortable (again, as you said). My main question is if its comfortable, i really could care less about there being a touchscreen or not, and i dont get why that has to be such an issue in a topic that has nothing to do with it!

But thanks for the post.. one of the few related ones on the 3 pages....

 

[dekutree64]

I personally love the button/analog/keyboard layout and don't think it looks awkward at all. It's part of what caught my attention to the project in the first place. Then again I have big hands, so the nubs will probably be more comfortable for me to reach than most.

The touch screen does seem a bit awkward being up away from your fingers, but I think it would be a tragic crippling of the system if it was not there. Using a DS as a test, I can hold it pretty comfortably with 2 fingers on the bottom and 2 fingers under the lid, and thumb next to the screen.

Using the touch screen and buttons together would be more of a pain though. Especially if the lid opens to 180 degrees, since the pressure would constantly be pushing it open (which I would never want anyway, judging by experience with DS).

 

[mali]

My comfort bottomline is created by explaining various usages of the "excessive" features and the little mockup I made a while ago. It is speculation, but as I usually think with reasoning, the speculation often matches reality

 

[Trip]

The touch screen was the only thing that they weren't really sure would work out when designing the Pandora but it was added for the following reasons..

1 - Loads of people wanted it.
2 - It turned out that the top quality screen that they wanted had it already so it didn't cost them any more (or not enough to make a difference anyway).
3 - It makes for some really interesting coding, especially with homebrew apps.
4 - It opens up a lot more options when it comes to how people can use the Pandora itself.

It does have it's downside as well though. A lot of new people don't seem to realise why the Pandora was designed the way it was in the first place and seem to be trying to steer the devs in lots of different directions. At least most of them get the open source nature of it though

As for the comfort of the other controls; you could do what's already been suggested and make one of the paper mockups and try it out. I ended up doing that because I wasn't too sure myself and it does feel quite natural to use. IMHO the devs have done a bang up job of designing it. I don't plan on using the touch screen much myself but it's a nice option to have anyway.

 

[Creature XL]

xbox, jaguar, n64 ... look em up lol.. oh and my dad came ove during those ten min too

The JagPad is not that bad.

And I for one love the PS2 pad. Some of my mates hate it and love the XBOX pad. They owned a XBOX and I had a PS2 in my flat. Its all about getting acustommed to it. that's all.

 

[Hacker117]

CAN EVERYON IN THIS GOD FROSAKEN CHAT GET OFF THE ****ING TOUCHSCREEN? JESUS CHRIST! IF ANYONES TROLLING, ITS THE PEOPLE WHO WANT FREE POSTS THAT THROW OUT OPINIONS ON TOUCHSCREENS! GOD!

 

[mali]

So my nose didn't trick me after all :lol:

 

[Yigguth]

In my opinion the touch screen is super neato awesome

 

[Creature XL]

xbox, jaguar, n64 ... look em up lol.. oh and my dad came ove during those ten min too

and how many of those were created behind closed doors and how many were driven by a community?

sorry dude. But what has that to do with it? I didn't got a sample Pandora to hold and givem feedback and neither did any of teh other 4000 preoders. And I would bet that Nintendo or Atari have made some prototypes of their controllers and tested them. As we knwo the Pandora team has not, becuse AFAIK they made a prototype one or two weeks ago.

I bet they have the P ready since months and are just enjoying all this stupid posts we make here. If we stop posting to this forum for three days they will start shipping. I am really sure. Should we try it?

 

[Squidge]

CAN EVERYON IN THIS GOD FROSAKEN CHAT GET OFF THE ****ING TOUCHSCREEN? JESUS CHRIST! IF ANYONES TROLLING, ITS THE PEOPLE WHO WANT FREE POSTS THAT THROW OUT OPINIONS ON TOUCHSCREENS! GOD!

and on that note, I think we are done. The answer to your question is yes, it will be comfortable. It has been designed by the community, and lots of people here have held prototypes of the case.