Is the Pyra beautiful? (mathematically speaking, Φ phi)

[mius]

Well, most of the design proposals I've seen from you are rounded shapes, rounded shapes and rounded shapes.
Which is what I personally hate on modern devices. In my opinion, the GPD Win is really really ugly. The GPD XD looks a lot better.

See it the same way. Why GPD didn't actually use the case design of the GPD XD/XD2 as basis for the GPD Win is, from a purely aesthetical standpoint, utterly beyond me.

Yes, I know it looks like a Sandwich-Maker!

I actually like your render, as I'm fond of facetting in industrial design. You could dial down on the thickness of those plastic hips, though.

 

[Djoga'Ro]

prefer ED's brick! to each their own...

You might want to articulate that quite clearly, should you ever find yourself in need to speak it out loud.

 

[ible]

i have been known to say very suggestive-sounding things, by accident...

 

[Yoyobuae]

Pyra may be close to the Golden ratio but for me, it's just not that "beautiful" design at all. A brick may fit in the Golden ratio but this doesn't make it a beautiful brick. maybe with half the thickness but the Pandora/Pyra is actualy not a nice design. It may be functional and good but not "beautiful". Of course these are just opinions and everyone may have adifferent one.
I would have done an different design if I would have had the opportunity but OK, we have to live now with the current pyra appearence.

If you take a closer look at GPD board/internal design it's quite noticeable some of the compromises made in order to make the device thinner. The "floating" sticks which connect to board with ribbon cables, the non-repleaceable battery, the oddly shaped PCB, all that just to make the device smaller/thinner with rounded corners.

Issue is that each one of those design decisions has an impact on device functionality:

• "Floating" sticks make for harder assembly/disassembly and introduce fragility (ribbon cable)
• Non-replaceable battery is ... non user replaceable
• The oddly shaped PCB might be more costly since it wastes the PCB material that needs to be cut

By comparison Pyra's design is brutally efficient: Everything is "on-board" in the PCB. Square PCB can be efficiently made/cut from standard sized PCB panels:
http://circuitpeople.com/Blog/PanelsInPcbManufacturing.aspx
Battery contacts are on the board, battery only needs to be properly aligned to them, which is achieved by the battery compartment. Speakers are on the board (or rather sit on it via spring contacts). And so on.

 

[fusion_power]

See it the same way. Why GPD didn't actually use the case design of the GPD XD/XD2 as basis for the GPD Win is, from a purely aesthetical standpoint, utterly beyond me.

These XD designs are actualy not to different from the WIN version imho, they are all more or less somehow inspired by the NDS. Pandora/Pyra may be inspired from the DS too but it's design is really different from the other devices.

I actually like your render, as I'm fond of facetting in industrial design. You could dial down on the thickness of those plastic hips, though.

The thick "hip belt" was just to fit the design into the original Pyra measuerments, of course it could be thinner if the internals are adjusted of course. The Pyra is almost 30mm thick, I'm sure you can cut some mm away from the thickness and still have replacable battery and separate CPU board fit in.

If you take a closer look at GPD board/internal design it's quite noticeable some of the compromises made in order to make the device thinner. The "floating" sticks which connect to board with ribbon cables, the non-repleaceable battery, the oddly shaped PCB, all that just to make the device smaller/thinner with rounded corners.

Nobody sayed that the Pyra has to be THAT thin. It's more about the shape than the measurements imho.

 

[Yoyobuae]

Pyra has to be THAT thin. It's more about the shape than the measurements imho.

If the PCB remains square, then any shape changes mean a bigger overall size. The current "brick" hugs the dimensions of the PCB closely.

Changing the shape of the PCB would result in higher costs:
http://circuitpeople.com/Blog/PanelsInPcbManufacturing.aspx

 

[fusion_power]

Of course you have to use a different PCB with "cut corners", but we are only talking about an theoretical Pyra design, nothing that will ever happen I guess.

 

[mius]

These XD designs are actualy not to different from the WIN version imho, they are all more or less somehow inspired by the NDS.

Sorry, can't sign that. The XD line is aesthetically more pleasing to my eyes than the Win. And it's got nothing to do with the increased thickness or the completely bungled keyboard design of the latter.

The thick "hip belt" was just to fit the design into the original Pyra measuerments, of course it could be thinner if the internals are adjusted of course. The Pyra is almost 30mm thick, I'm sure you can cut some mm away from the thickness and still have replacable battery and separate CPU board fit in.

In that case I'd lose them hips completely; thought it's about semi-ruggedizing the device, like on the CAT smartphone.

 

[fusion_power]

The "belt" helps to have a semi-rounded side for a comfortable grip and still no gap between lid and base unit. All other designs that have rounded or sloped sides would have a noticable (and ugly) gap there, basicly every clamshell Handheld has these more or less.