Joppu said:
And thanks for your positive feedback
Ask people what they think, they're going to tell you, unfortunately. Sometimes tactfully, sometimes, not.
They look "cool" but they're not as functional as one would hope they would be.
Using another platform as an example: I'd rather have a bluetooth portable keyboard like the N770/N800 require
than to have the slide-out from the N810. It's nice to have the keyboard there all the time, but it's not the same
thing as my Stowaway- I can actually touch-type on it and for the times where I need text input and don't have it,
the tap-board function under Maemo works well enough and close enough to a thumb-board in practical use that
it's only "nice". Couple that with the sacrifices they made to get that keyboard (Trans-flash as opposed to SD/MMC
support- this means double/triple or more on the cost of the secondary storage...grrr...), it's a mixed bag at best
to bring it to that device. Nokia was looking for "cool" and looking to bring something to the table for Sprint's 4G
phone network- the N810's close to that device, really. And, for a phone, it might not be a bad compromise since
the bulk of the drawbacks are there for you on those devices anyhow. For a webpad/PDA, though, it's obnoxious
in some definitely negative ways.
In the case of one of your designs, the thing is made much more bulky along the sides of the device- this means
it's harder to want to carry the thing around or you're going to sacrifice screen real-estate or make it less robust
by shrinking land space for the controllers. Something you don't want in a consumer device- and if you lose
screen real-estate, you lose part of what makes a Pandora 'cool'.
In the other idea, you made it lop-sided with a stress concentration and lever point down at the bottom that wants
to tend to pull the device out of your hands unless the thing is featherweight (not likely) which will make you want to
not play with it over extended periods of time.
As MWeston said...back to the drawing board. I suggest looking at what they've chosen to do for the Pandora up to
this point and understand WHY they chose this route. I also suggest looking at what Sony did with the PSP and
Nintendo did with the DS, SP, and GBA packaging for ideas of what will work out nice.