My first impressions of the Pyra

[Askarus]

I had no idea Mate had touch support! Awesome I wil look into that.

I checked right now. Even the file manager has touch support.
So you can touch anywhere and scroll down with gestures.

Post automatically merged: Jan 3, 2021

By the way, amazing to hear you used your Pandora at uni!

It was my main device back then.
Except doing presentations and writing my bachelor thesis I did like 80-90% with the Pandora.

Post automatically merged: Jan 3, 2021

As I don't like the glossy Pyra screen I have a mate screen protector mounted.
The touchscreen is still nice to use and does not require much pressure.
As long as you use your finger nails the touchscreen is good.
Not great, but good and much better than what I did expect from a Linux device.

 

[Askarus]

In case you don't know my old Pyra post:

Pyra in the wild - the real life experience

Ok, I'll waste some time to report my Pyra experiences for you. And to feel important with hopefully lots of likes and responses :p University has started again and my holidays ended. I've been playing around with the Pyra a little but because of a bad keymat not as much as I've planned to do...

pyra-handheld.com

It's quite dated already, but what did work at that time does work now as well

 

[Phlyra]

For me this is another reason to have no touchscreen: if it isn't good enough I won't use it and without it we gain a better display image as we can eliminate flexible plastic layer in resistive screen. That resistive layer gives reflections (and even worse distorted reflected light/images as it isn't a completely flat surface) and reduces screen bright/contrast.

Even, without that layer it can be used a matte/antireflective layer to elimite some reflections.

It woukd be good to have that option, even id it isn't a standard option when purchasing Pyra but an add-on you have to pay for.

PD: I have own a lot of devices with resistive touchscreen and I know how bad they.

Is this something one could mod? I.e. simply unscrew the screen retaining plate, disconnect the screen ribbon cable (?) and remove the resistive touch screen to replace it with a desired screen?

 

[Blue Shadow]

That's actually a mod I am hoping for since ED decided to scrap his original plan of using a matte touch screen, as it seems to cause some grainyness. Personally I'd prefer graniness over glaring distraction, so a "grain of matte-ness" mod would be welcome. But it would prabably not be too easy, as IIRC ther touchpanel have to be glued on the display
That said, a while ago ED was mentioning he could probably order custom screen protectors from one of his suppliers. If that could be bought and applied directly by the shop, that might be a good alternative.

 

[Askarus]

That's actually a mod I am hoping for since ED decided to scrap his original plan of using a matte touch screen, as it seems to cause some grainyness. Personally I'd prefer graniness over glaring distraction, so a "grain of matte-ness" mod would be welcome. But it would prabably not be too easy, as IIRC ther touchpanel have to be glued on the display
That said, a while ago ED was mentioning he could probably order custom screen protectors from one of his suppliers. If that could be bought and applied directly by the shop, that might be a good alternative.

Screen without touchscreen will be glossy as well I guess.
I applied a matte screen protector.
Works much better in sunlight.
No need to rip of the touchscreen

 

[spud42]

Is this something one could mod? I.e. simply unscrew the screen retaining plate, disconnect the screen ribbon cable (?) and remove the resistive touch screen to replace it with a desired screen?

didnt ED just say the touch screen was glued down? and that was what caused the unresponsive edges?

 

[Phlyra]

didnt ED just say the touch screen was glued down? and that was what caused the unresponsive edges?

Yes, you’re right:

Unlike capacitive touchscreens, resistive ones can't be bonded on top of the screen - they need to be affixed around it.

Due to the minimum space on the screen where they can be glued to, the edges are affected a bit. The only other option would have been to not affix it to the screen (but then dust would gather between the screen and touchscreen) or to create a surrounding metal frame - but that would've cost at least 50k EUR more just for the tools needed for that frame.

Though perhaps if we know what glue is used, a serious modder who wants a different screen might be able to apply the appropriate solvent - so long as it wouldn’t affect the plastic of the screen retaining plate...

Frankly, in theory at least (since I have no physical experience and must therefore base my current opinion on the evidence presented by those who do have physical experience), this screen doesn’t bother me. I was just trying to suggest ways that others might be able to make the changes they want that would improve their UX.

 

[oskda]

Resistive screens are the best choice for a device not using a finger centric gui like android or IOS. that said I'm not that big into using them, just feel like physical controls a superior in most cases.

I don't agree. You can use a pen with more precision and possibilities with a digitizer under display like some smartphones and tables do.

And the problem is that a resistive layer, even if you don't use it, downgrades image on screen (some bright/contrast is lost, and worst it add irregular reflections).

Even now in Pyra that touch resistive layer can't be used on all screen, so you can't use it as a mouse replacement and other function because it doesn't work near borders.

You can say it is cheap of course. It worked on old devices (I had lot of them), although it downgrades image quality, but it doesn't work on Pyra, but it continues to downgrade image. So I think it is best to have the option without that resistive layer.

 

[TrashyMG]

Well perhaps, but I'm talking about obtainable options for the Pyra project, screens with support for an active stylus would have been cost prohibitive.Let alone sourcing the current LCD was a bit difficult to find from what I recall in prior discussions. The screen on the Pyra is pretty good and vibrant, It's not dull like on the Pandora.

 

[Silent-Hunter]

Touch support in Linux is independent of the desktop environment, it's part of X11. I used CDE on my laptop with a touchscreen, and in Chrome and other such modern programs, touch worked as you'd expect. On Google Maps even pinch to zoom worked.

 

[alucart1984]

Before reading ahead please note that I got my Pyra yesterday afternoon. This is a very first look and by no means a full review or test of the device. These are MY PERSONAL impressions.
Also please read the full post before writing a angry reply

Mechanics
The mechanics are first things I noticed after opening the package. The chrome color looks really nice. The case fells very similar to the Pandora, meaning there are a few sharp edges here and there. The cutouts for the joysticks and the d-pad look like they have had some manual work done to fit. The joysticks feel ok although you can hear a spring squeaking when moving them. The shoulder buttons have a very short travel but feel fine. The keyboard feels ok, however the keys don't feel consistent. This is especially noticeable with the AYBX keys which all feel a bit different.
The battery was not preinstalled and it literally took me like 5 minutes to insert the battery and close the case because there is a bit more force required than I am comfortable with and I was afraid of breaking something.
Also I noticed that the lid does not fully close when I close it slowly. I have to "slam" the lid to get if fully closed. I made a short video of that:

//Edit: Also I noticed that there is something poking trough the label in the battery compartment which also pokes the battery:
View attachment 36780View attachment 36781

All in all the device feels more like a early pre-production run than a polished device. It does not have the "premium" feel but is perfectly usable. As I said it feels a lot like the Pandora and I am perfectly fine with that knowing all the hurdles and the development story behind it.

Electronics
After pressing the power button the keyboard backlight starts to flicker, the leds blink and then the Linux boot message appears on the screen. All in all it takes my device about 30 second from pressing the button to the login screen.
The keyboard backlight is not evenly distributed but nevertheless every key is clearly visible and readable in the dark. This is a huge improvement compared to the Pandora.
The screen itself looks nice, vibrant, has a good viewing angle and good resolution. The resistive touchscreen feels outdated in 2020 but is absolutely necessary to be used with a stylus because there is no way you would be able to navigate the UI with a finger (a bit more on that later). However the edge of the touchscreen does not seem to work correctly. Meaning the outer ~3-4mm are not reachable with stylus. That is a problem because that is usually where e.g. the scrollbar is positioned. I re calibrated multible times so that is not the issue. I made a small video demonstrating the problem:

I mostly use the nubs as mouse to navigate the device. The touchscreen is just not reliable enough.
Wireless connectivity is also a problem. The reception (compared with my cheap phone) is bad
View attachment 36778
even when positioned half a meter away form the access point I was not able to reach more than ~45MBit throughput. Also the device sometimes looses the connection even with that distance. With the Pandora I used a external USB WiFi adapter and I hope I don't have to do that here too. Maybe this can be improved with firmware tweaks or configuration?
Also charging is a problem. Using the device and charging at the same time leads to problems with the battery temperature sensing (even though it is only slightly warm to the touch) and then charging is disabled. According to ED this a known bug and can be fixed in firmware/software. I now shutdown the device before attaching it to a charger.
The speakers have a clear low/mid range but weak base. They are loud, really loud. Limiting everything to 100% volume is software and turning up the volume nob makes them clip and distort easily. I am pretty sure you can damage them this way. Turning them down to a reasonable volume they sound perfectly fine.

Software
The Pyra is running debian which is great. To install my favorite browser (Vivaldi) I just had to download the .deb, run dpkg -i and I was ready to go. The web browsing experience is nice however video playback is a problem. I tried YouTube and the ARD Mediathek (the video library of a German public TV channel) and both were not able to produce a smooth playback at native screen resolution (720p). I used youtube-dl to download a video and play it back without the browser. mpv seems to have some problems with the color but playback itself is smooth. After tweaking VLC a bit I was able to get the video to playback smoothly after the first few seconds. I also tried firefox-es from the debian repsitory but the overall experience was worse than with Vivaldi and also playback via YouTube did not produce sound output.
I played some games via scummvm (installed via apt-get). I tried monkey island 1 (DOS version) which is playable and the feeble files (Windows 4 disc version) and here video playback was not smooth, the in game menu is really slow but the game itself is alright. The scummvm menu itself (running in native resolution) is also very slow.
I tried to play some old console games via retroarch (also via apt-get) but this one does not start.
I noticed that a lot of applications threw errors regarding the video driver so there is probably some work to do.
I also managed to crash/freeze the device multible times. Once while browsing the web and the other times via SFTP (transferring files, creating folders)

Other thoughts
I haven't used a Linux desktop in a while. My main OS is Windows and all the Linux interaction I have (e.g. my server or some software development) is terminal based. I was a bit surprised that the desktop (at least mate which was chosen here) is still not touch friendly and not very well optimized for high DPI screens. Even when increasing the DPI in the settings not everything scales correctly or at all. I heard that Apple is the king when it comes to these things (I don't have any iDevices) but Windows 10 also has done a lot in this regard and scaling works really great here in almost all of the cases.
Also websites in "desktop mode" these days really don't seem to care anymore about devices with "low" (720p) screen resolutions. I saw a lot of scroll bars when browsing with the Pyra. I will change my User Agent to a mobile one and see if that helps.

Conclusion of this first impression
The software is in an early state, features are missing or buggy. This was the same with the Pandora in the beginning and knowing you guys I have no doubt that we will get a very nice experience in the not to near future. This community is awesome. I sadly don't have the knowledge for that so I will probably be of no help in this regards. I haven't even managed to get the cross compiler setup running yet.
The hardware on the other hand I have some doubts. The case I don't really care, If there will be future revision this can be swapped easily with a more "polished" one. WiFi can be fixed with a USB dongle, charging is apparently a software problem but the touchscreen is a problem.
However (as with the Pandora) I am hugely impressed on what ED is able to produce here (I work in electronics engineering). I am pretty sure I will not be using the Pyra as intensiv as I have done with the Pandora when I got that. However I don't regret my purchase/support for this project one bit and I am a bit sad that I am not able to support it better (financially or with software support)

How are the joy sticks? I had a Pandora a long while back and I never liked them. They wanted to spin (the tops) while I moved them. Guess I could have glued them down but it just felt bad even without that issue.

 

[TrashyMG]

How are the joy sticks?

They're pretty good, they make a bit of a twanging sound due to the mechanism, but they're way more accurate and stay in calibration.

 

[chomwitt]

@jakko, well it's not that full screen isn't working, it's just not drawing on the screen properly, as it's not accounting for screen rotation.

I did try what you suggested but didn't change anything.

Nice keyboard! looks ibm pc era!

 

[TrashyMG]

Nice keyboard! looks ibm pc era!

Well it is a 1987 vintage IBM Model M keyboard.

 

[socket]

Awesome overview. Got an early Pandora. Can't wait for the Pyra.

 

[erico]

As far as I can see from the original post video about the pen, it has instantaneous response time. That is essential for drawing confortably. Borders are no problem as you can pan and zoom the image. Dead zones are there with galaxy notes and caanoos. The later is super fast, the former drags. I like what I see.

 

[matzesu]

Well most times I used the Nubs on my Pandora when it was new, because the Pen was too scratchy ,
Now as the nubs ditnt work that good anymore, I use the Pen..

But I think whe should use the Pen on the Pyra also some times so it wears off a bit to solve the issue whit the too thigh pen holder


Send from something, i guess ^^

 

[elw3]

Mkey mine is here, i must say i am not that impressed on the first glance.
Especially that it has whining coils bugs me hard.

 

[elw3]

Ahrg, the booklet doesnt fit in the box, where do i store it now? The struggle is real!

 

[Djoga'Ro]

whining coils

That'd be inacceptable to me.