My impressions of the Pandora

[kasp]

So I finally have a Pandora in my hands (One of the refurbished cc units) and I thought I would give my impressions of the device.


It is comfortable to use, the screen is a good size and the buttons just have an amazing feel to them and have been placed perfectly. The sound quality with headphones is superb. Also the touch screen is a lot more responsive than I was expecting however I find myself not using the touch screen much. I really like the dual SD slots as well as how they integrate with the OS as well as everything being stored on the sd card. The keyboard is about as good as you can expect from a device this size.While it is still a little bit awkward to use it is miles ahead of a touch screen and you couldn't expect more given the devices size. The battery life is great as well I haven't found myself running out of charge yet.


Now for the bad, the Wifi just sucks. If its anything more than a basic webpage I just don't bother, it's too slow for me to really take it seriously, its just quicker and easier to use the SD cards attempting the wifi. The repository needs a bit of a makeover, it looks fairly dated.The OS doesn't seem to be that stable to me. It seems every week I am having to re flash the unit. Once it freezes up once mid game I know I have to flash the unit otherwise I am in for a world of grief. One of my SD cards just holds the image for flashing permanently now.


I have showed this device to quite alot of people and everyone has said pretty much the exact same thing. "Cool, but it looks really dated" I would have to agree with them there. The device does look a bit dated and it could be made sleeker. My device although a CC unit is in the new style of case but I believe it is the chunkiness of the unit when closed which gives that impression.


Overall I am happy with the device and I use it around 2-3 hours every day while travelling. I think if there's one thing to improve for the Pandora 2 would be the sleekness of the unit. That is what everyone I showed the device to commented on.

 

[DaMummy]

i wholeheartedly disagree. i think it should stay away from the sleek smartphone era as far as possible, and continue to offer everything that those "sleek" devices are missing

 

[kasp]

i wholeheartedly disagree. i think it should stay away from the sleek smartphone era as far as possible, and continue to offer everything that those "sleek" devices are missing

Why not have both?

 

[thatgui]

Now for the bad, the Wifi just sucks. If its anything more than a basic webpage I just don't bother, it's too slow for me to really take it seriously, its just quicker and easier to use the SD cards attempting the wifi.

You could try the "foil" trick, if your bold enough, or use a Wifi - Stick. Fortunatly I was lucky with both of my units.

The OS doesn't seem to be that stable to me. It seems every week I am having to re flash the unit. Once it freezes up once mid game I know I have to flash the unit otherwise I am in for a world of grief. One of my SD cards just holds the image for flashing permanently now.

Seems odd to me, there was never the need for me to reflash my units (old cc or the new gc), except for having a more "up to date" os. Does it happen only when a certain game crashes or is it random behaviour ?

i wholeheartedly disagree. i think it should stay away from the sleek smartphone era as far as possible, and continue to offer everything that those "sleek" devices are missing

Why not have both?

I don't think anyone has something against having a more sleek Pandora. The problem here is that making the Pandora sleeker could lead to sacrifices regarding the versatility.


I think that most of the active people around here simply prefer the "form follows function" approach.


But if you take a look in the P2 spam section you will find, that the possible P2 could be what your looking for.

 

[ghostpatch]

The sound quality with headphones is superb

It really has amazing sound! I use it as music player a lot. People seam to take it for a walkman

Now for the bad, the Wifi just sucks. If its anything more than a basic webpage I just don't bother, it's too slow for me to really take it seriously, its just quicker and easier to use the SD cards attempting the wifi

Browsing is on my Rebirth unit slow too. I think its more of a not powerfull enough thing, then the bad wifi-chip. Can anyone confirm this? Don't have an externel wifi-stick so I can't test it myself.

It seems every week I am having to re flash the unit.

strange I never needed to reflash once (except updates of course).

i wholeheartedly disagree. i think it should stay away from the sleek smartphone era as far as possible, and continue to offer everything that those "sleek" devices are missing

funny to hear that. I'm switching back to a PDA and cellphone. I still like smartphones (and toy with them)but I'm so fed up with the direction that sector is taking in tearm of wh***ng with our data und tracking us. In most cases you can't do anything because the system is closed or its the responsibility of the provider -.-

 

[Cas]

Only ever had to reflash once, other than new updates.


I assume that after the crash or lockup during gameplay when you turn it all back on it is not working as it should ?

 

[Binky]

<p>

The repository needs a bit of a makeover, it looks fairly dated.

Have you tried PNDmanager?

 

[pengo]

Why not have both?

Have you forgotten? This is no DS lite!

 

[kasp]

Well the sleekness of the unit doesn't bother me at all, I think it's fine and is functional but I am not the kind of person who cares about that. However every single person I showed it to commented on that. So while you guys are right that it works and it is functional for it to have a more mainstream appeal something needs to be done about the design to make it more appealing to the masses. After all the main goal of this is to increase sales right and you do that by getting out of the niche market. Make it something that people want to have and be seen with.


As for the repository no I haven't used PNDManager I just browse to the site. Will try that next time.


As for the freezing it just seems to happen randomly. However if it freezes up once it happens constantly until I flash the device. However it hasn't done it for over a week now instead of every few days so perhaps I am past it.

 

[McLovin]

why not just paint it to look even more like a walkmen. it wouldn't be outdated but retro

 

[Binky]

The aluminium faceplate found on the iCP2 should do a lot to rectify the lack of stylishness

 

[atari_afternoon]

I think the design is great the way it is. I know how long I´ve wanted to have a Pandora, and never a smartphone (yet) even if I am demonstrated how easy-to-use the latter are every day.


But then, "phone" for me sounds like "work" and not like "leasure time". That might be just me, however...


True, you always need both hands to operate it. Best to sit down, not waiting in a queue or while walking etc.


Personally I´d hate it if "sleekness" led to sacrifice the two-fold design, the keyboard. WiFi works fine for me in house-distance, never had any problems.


About having to reflash so often, this sounds very unusual to me... "on-Off-button" + "Pandora"-button as a forced machine turn-off doesn´t work for you at all even in the worst cases?

 

[Kumaki]

i wholeheartedly disagree. i think it should stay away from the sleek smartphone era as far as possible, and continue to offer everything that those "sleek" devices are missing

Amen.

Now for the bad, the Wifi just sucks. If its anything more than a basic webpage I just don't bother, it's too slow for me to really take it seriously, its just quicker and easier to use the SD cards attempting the wifi.

You could try the "foil" trick, if your bold enough, or use a Wifi - Stick. Fortunatly I was lucky with both of my units.

The OS doesn't seem to be that stable to me. It seems every week I am having to re flash the unit. Once it freezes up once mid game I know I have to flash the unit otherwise I am in for a world of grief. One of my SD cards just holds the image for flashing permanently now.

Seems odd to me, there was never the need for me to reflash my units (old cc or the new gc), except for having a more "up to date" os. Does it happen only when a certain game crashes or is it random behaviour ?

i wholeheartedly disagree. i think it should stay away from the sleek smartphone era as far as possible, and continue to offer everything that those "sleek" devices are missing

Why not have both?

I don't think anyone has something against having a more sleek Pandora. The problem here is that making the Pandora sleeker could lead to sacrifices regarding the versatility.


I think that most of the active people around here simply prefer the "form follows function" approach.


But if you take a look in the P2 spam section you will find, that the possible P2 could be what your looking for.

If I have to "give up" sleekness for function...I'll take that trade any day of the week. I love my Pandora!


The latest thing I have gotten into, just for pure shiggles, is getting the TRS-80 emulator running...now I can mess around with a Trash-80, which was my very first computer, when I was a mere nine years old.

 

[Binky]

When 'sleek' means 'form over function' and 'dropping useful hardware for the sake of shiny round corners', it should be avoided at all costs.


However, there is no reason why the case shouldn't be made to look better* and more solid.


Recent hp calculator designs aren't bad...


* Not shiny! No piano black!

 

[Kumaki]

The sound quality with headphones is superb

It really has amazing sound! I use it as music player a lot. People seam to take it for a walkman

Now for the bad, the Wifi just sucks. If its anything more than a basic webpage I just don't bother, it's too slow for me to really take it seriously, its just quicker and easier to use the SD cards attempting the wifi

Browsing is on my Rebirth unit slow too. I think its more of a not powerfull enough thing, then the bad wifi-chip. Can anyone confirm this? Don't have an externel wifi-stick so I can't test it myself.

It seems every week I am having to re flash the unit.

strange I never needed to reflash once (except updates of course).

i wholeheartedly disagree. i think it should stay away from the sleek smartphone era as far as possible, and continue to offer everything that those "sleek" devices are missing

funny to hear that. I'm switching back to a PDA and cellphone. I still like smartphones (and toy with them)but I'm so fed up with the direction that sector is taking in tearm of wh***ng with our data und tracking us. In most cases you can't do anything because the system is closed or its the responsibility of the provider -.-

The wh***ng of our data...if you mean what I think you do...is the very reason I'm getting RID of my Smartphone as soon as my contract with Verizon is up. Never again!


I get all sorts of ads come up on mine all the time...ads I didn't ask for and don't want...and for the privilege of that, I pay eighty bucks a month...I don't think so. They should PAY US...for the inconvenience of those ads...Heaven knows Verizon makes enough money from those pieces of s**t that they could give us the service FREE. To hell with them.


Ad: Meet Hot singles in Philadelphia!! - I'm not interested in meeting singles, hot or otherwise...anywhere. And in fact, they actually use my own hometown, not Philadelphia...and I can tell you "hot" and my home town...are mutually exclusive concepts.

 

[Kumaki]

Well the sleekness of the unit doesn't bother me at all, I think it's fine and is functional but I am not the kind of person who cares about that. However every single person I showed it to commented on that. So while you guys are right that it works and it is functional for it to have a more mainstream appeal something needs to be done about the design to make it more appealing to the masses. After all the main goal of this is to increase sales right and you do that by getting out of the niche market. Make it something that people want to have and be seen with.


As for the repository no I haven't used PNDManager I just browse to the site. Will try that next time.


As for the freezing it just seems to happen randomly. However if it freezes up once it happens constantly until I flash the device. However it hasn't done it for over a week now instead of every few days so perhaps I am past it.

Scr*w the masses. The masses are stupid anyway. this device is NOT for "the masses" the average person could not make most of the stuff work. I have had a hard time with a few things, but, with some help, got it working. But only because I already had a basic idea of what I was doing.


The person who has never used a Dingoo, a Wiz, or an Acekard with their DS would not find the Pandora to be very functional...as they would not be able to get most things working.

 

[Binky]

Scr*w the masses. The masses are stupid anyway. this device is NOT for "the masses" the average person could not make most of the stuff work.

Quoted for emphasis

 

[Dionysus]

i wholeheartedly disagree. i think it should stay away from the sleek smartphone era as far as possible, and continue to offer everything that those "sleek" devices are missing

This. I like the retro look of the thing. It looks a little like the sort of thing that wouldve been around when the games I play on it were being made, when computers were still a bit of a niche hobbyist thing that you learned to use rather than the modern equavalent of a biro.

 

[Dionysus]

Ad: Meet Hot singles in Philadelphia!! - I'm not interested in meeting singles, hot or otherwise...anywhere. And in fact, they actually use my own hometown, not Philadelphia...and I can tell you "hot" and my home town...are mutually exclusive concepts.

I bet loads of people have met really hot singles in philadelphia and had a great time as a result of those ads and so think the ads are great. They wouldnt have known about the hot singles without them. These people will never buy a pandora while it lags behind when it comes to telling people about hot singles.

 

[Binky]

This kind of case style would do nicely