My impressions of the Pandora

[Dionysus]

Not sure about the rest of you, but I rarely use my Pandora outside the privacy of my own home.

I actually use mine a lot away from home. I ride the bus a lot, every day for about 30-50 minutes each way. When I'm in the mood to play games, this is the device I pull out. I also have a 3DS and DS, and rarely bring them compared to the OP. I use the OP a lot....but it is away from home, though.

Me too. I have it with me all the time. Most of the time im on campus so can connect to wifi to look something up and then play puyo puyo whilst taking a break or a bit of arkanoid if a lecture is crap. Its useful to have. One person said it looks like a cheap chinese copy. He was a iphone owner with a stupid haircut. Many have asked about it and shown interest. I'd prefer brushed chrome with an engraved lid or some other retro theming to say "it looks retro on purpose" but its not a huge deal. Improved functionality is far more important.

 

[Green7]

Me too. I have it with me all the time. Most of the time im on campus so can connect to wifi to look something up and then play puyo puyo whilst taking a break or a bit of arkanoid if a lecture is crap. Its useful to have. One person said it looks like a cheap chinese copy. He was a iphone owner with a stupid haircut. Many have asked about it and shown interest. I'd prefer brushed chrome with an engraved lid or some other retro theming to say "it looks retro on purpose" but its not a huge deal. Improved functionality is far more important.

My guess, and it is just a guess - fauxhawk.

 

[Dionysus]

Me too. I have it with me all the time. Most of the time im on campus so can connect to wifi to look something up and then play puyo puyo whilst taking a break or a bit of arkanoid if a lecture is crap. Its useful to have. One person said it looks like a cheap chinese copy. He was a iphone owner with a stupid haircut. Many have asked about it and shown interest. I'd prefer brushed chrome with an engraved lid or some other retro theming to say "it looks retro on purpose" but its not a huge deal. Improved functionality is far more important.

My guess, and it is just a guess - fauxhawk.

Youve lost me? If your highlighting seemingly contradictory points I would personally have a retro design like a tailed mario or something. Plus the delorian was brushed metal..

 

[Green7]

As I said, just a guess.

 

[Dionysus]

I think battery life would suffer as it does in most modern slimline devices. The tech hasnt kept pace with the chips.

 

[Kumaki]

See but people are just going oh well the aesthetics don't bother me so they should just leave it. However aesthetics matter to alot of people. Also you want people in the street seeing the device and wanting it. The Pandora as it stands only has a very small market appeal. Expanding that appeal can only help sales.

FUNCTIONALITY should matter more. Yeah, but you're right, Americans are stupid...they constantly pick style over substance.

 

[Kumaki]

The real brains here on this board are the people creating and porting software for it.


If you still like to have own a Pandora after doing the research, buy it from EDs store. You will not be disappointed.

Amen!! I am in awe of the brainpower that has brought us all the things this device can do. I could not code my way out of a paper bag, but I'm smart enough, generally, to know how to use and get working...the stuff they put out. Occasionally I need a nudge in the right direction to get it going, but this Board is very great for that sort of thing.

 

[Kumaki]

"Form follows function" and not the other way around is all that we want. Experience has shown that sleek design often introduces several downsides, so we get paranoid when someone suggests to change the design to make it more appealing for the mainstream-market. Because the mainstream market cares more about the looks and doesn't even notice the lack of functionality introduced by this.


If it can look cool without turning the screen into a mirror or making it uncomfortable to hold or reducing the size of the keyboard or introducing some other downside - fine, why not? If it must look like a brick so we can do all the things we want with it - fine, give us a brick and to hell with anyone who does not like it because it does not look cool/polished/glossy.

Bingo!!


Nail. Head. Direct hit.


I'll take a massively functional brick over a dysfunctional pretty device any day.


I first ran up against this when I got a Sansa Fuze + Sleek, looks wonderful...IT IS THE BIGGEST PIECE OF DOGSHIT I EVER WASTED MONEY ON. The controls do not work for crap.


I like the ten hours of battery time and the REAL BUTTONS!!! and if that means it has to be a bit clunkier, then so be it.

 

[Kumaki]

Not sure about the rest of you, but I rarely use my Pandora outside the privacy of my own home.

I actually use mine a lot away from home. I ride the bus a lot, every day for about 30-50 minutes each way. When I'm in the mood to play games, this is the device I pull out. I also have a 3DS and DS, and rarely bring them compared to the OP. I use the OP a lot....but it is away from home, though.

I already use this in my car, instead of my Zune to play music.


Don't get me wrong, the Zune is a nice piece of work, and functions well...but it is difficult to get it to stay in place by my dashboard, even with the specially-designed holder.


The Pandy...I put the plug in the headphone jack, and the whole unit goes right down under my ashtray, perfect fit. And it doesn't fall down or move around while I'm driving.

 

[Kumaki]

One of the examples I showed had a keyboard and I suspect is just as pocketable as the first Pandy. The reason why these examples are perfect is because it showed that slim form factor doesn't mean a loss in functionality. Even with a 7 inch screen the Archos had a slim form factor and plenty of power under the hood.

Not sure if I attributed the quote right...sorry if I got it wrong...but...what is the battery life of the Archos? I'm betting it is nowhere near ten hours. 'Nuff said.

 

[Kumaki]

Show to us that the P2 can have the same versatility that the P1 has,

I just did. I showed you a device slimmer than the Pandora with more functionality.


Oh look my pawn has made it to your edge of the board. I'll take a queen please.

Oh, look, your battery just died, because it doesn't last ten hours. I just captured both of your queens and a knight and a rook!

 

[moxie]

I would not have bought this device without the full real keyboard. I hate virtual keyboards.

Indeed.

 

[Super Roach]

Just to chime in (and to test my account, first login in more than a year!), The larger form factor is largely due to the battery - it's a monster in it's class, moving towards tablet territory. It's just not possible to keep it slim for the device it's in (not much depth or width to hide it)

 

[craigix]

Trying to make mini computers is very complex. It's no surprise to me than few come to market and even fewer stay on the market.


So many of these demoed devices never actually launch.

 

[Yoyobuae]

Let's start from what we have now.


From what I understand, the Pandora "sandwich" is something like (assuming closed lid and looking from the front side):

• Case plastic
  
• LCD
  
• Small gap
  
• Case plastic / keyboard / d-pad / pad buttons / nubs
  
• Circuit board
  
• Case plastic
  
• Battery
  
• Case plastic
  

How to shrink any of these "layers"?


Some feasible ideas:

• Place LCD directly onto circuit board. Would need to make up space in board by removing keyboard, nubs and shrinking the remaining controls. Clamshell design is lost.
  
• Slide out screen / keyboard. This design is patented if I'm not mistaken, so patent fee would affect price. Also keyboard would need to be very compact / low profile for this to work. Clamshell design is lost.
  
• Shrink battery. I doubt this can be done without sacrificing capacity. Battery technology has not really advanced as much as anyone has hoped for, despite all the research.
  
• Shrink any of the remaining components. Thinner LCD / touchscreen, lower profile d-pad+buttons / nubs / keyboard, more compact case design.
  

I think that last option is the only one that has any chance of reducing the thickness of the device without compromising any of the of the functions. But to me it seems there's not that much thickness reduction to be gained. Even then, the device still needs to be produced by OPT.


I personally would change little as possible. As with coding, any changes will unavoidably generate a new set of problems. And OPT really don't need that.

 

[Kumaki]

My head just exploded trying to read that speed reading.... :blink:

 

[klapse]

Sleeker implies a more aesthetic design. If slimmer is what you wanted to imply, type "slimmer" instead. It is not easy to make a slimmer design, and very hard to make sleeker design with the given feature requirements and battery technology.


If you are up to the challenge, dust off truespace or blender or whatever and have a go at it.


@yoyobuae: excellent post.

 

[Dionysus]

Cooool. Now we can have the fun of filling the thread with bickering all over again.


B)

 

[Wally]

 

[quartercast]

Thanks Wally!! Did anyone get a warning for that one? 7 pages of OT posts

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.

Tried entering this in a terminal? WIFI power management causes a lot of slowdown in my unit.

sudo iwconfig wlan0 power off rate 54M

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.

Yup, I agree about the repo, it works and it works well, but could do with a makeover Interesting that you need to keep reflashing, are you running the OS off SD or off the NAND? I once had a problem SD which kept getting corrupted, quite a pain to run the OS off from.

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.

I kinda think of the Pandora as one of those fat swiss army knives. It's not sleek, it's not aesthetically pleasing. But boy is it useful!


Perhaps they should make a Victorinox red pandora, the swiss army knife of handheld devices