My Pandora Review

[wejp]

Today I have received my Pandora console. Here is a little review about the device: Pandora Review

 

[joseluisjazz]

Very interesting. Thankyou.

On one side I'm glad the wifi works better than I was expecting. 950 KB/s is very good for a hanheld.

Also you confirmed some of my fears about the hinge. I'll have to try it when I receive it but I suspect I'll agree with you. Since I don't like how much loose it looks from the video reviews.

 

[xpansive]

Great review, but just out of curiosity, why don't you like the nubs and shoulder buttons?

 

[marshal]

I have got to say the whole hinge thing was quite misleading from the start.
Some people say they quite like the locked position though. Got to try it myself before I can say if I like it or not.

What I've read about wifi recently on the forum seems quite encouraging. Range seems to be good. 950 KB/s is definitely really decent for a mobile device.
I already mentioned that here, but the nokia n800 (ok, quite an old device but well known for it's great wifi range) only achieve about 750kb/s max.

 

[SomeGuy99]

Very interesting. Thankyou.

On one side I'm glad the wifi works better than I was expecting. 950 KB/s is very good for a hanheld.

Also you confirmed some of my fears about the hinge. I'll have to try it when I receive it but I suspect I'll agree with you. Since I don't like how much loose it looks from the video reviews.

You do get used to the hinge angle, even though it isn't perfect.

Try slobbing out with the Pandora to see the plus side of the angle (just lie back in your chair/sofa and prop the machine on your belly).

Great review, but just out of curiosity, why don't you like the nubs and shoulder buttons?

I find the shoulder buttons are way too clicky and stiff. They could have been much better tbh. I hope this is something we can mod!

 

[droneb]

NICE REVIEW!
NICE PHOTOS!
NICE COMMENTS!



except for the same complain about wifi ....

if you get 802.11G it doesnt mean it must pump the full speed not to say it never reacher full speed, its more about compatibility stuff.
also it might not be a wifi module issue anymore, it might be just the limit of the processor dealing with it or
the maximum I/O of that data bus.

 

[TitanUranus]

Most interesting review, good job. I'm still fairly confident that some fairly simple and non-invasive solution can be found to stiffen the hinge so it stays put where you want it to. Till I get my hands on my own Pandora and can start throwing out ideas and testing them I'll stick with my PVA glue idea - someone can try it and let me know if it's useless.

Just a tiny dab of some solvent free washable PVA glue (the white childrens kind that dries like clear plastic, washes off easily and can be peeled off if you made a boo-boo)in the hinge should work a treat, don't go overboard with it, and if you make an arse of things don't blame me.

EDIT: I myself might try this. I'm going to give the hinge a name before I work on it, I'll call it Mary. Now boys and girls, keep the area clean while the glue dries, we wouldnt want Mary Hinge getting hairy now would we?

 

[emcp]

got a few bones to pick

first thanks for the review

however several times you simply said this isnt good, some explanation such as why it isnt good would be better
particularly the nubs, due to the fact this review is the only one which says the nubs are bad (even the ridiculously critical reviews dont pick up on this)

i dont have my pandora yet, but you can put it on a desk, (are you talking about when you apply pressure via the touchscreen, you have to hold the back of the screen) (almost every device has this problem)
p.s. its a handheld but i know where your coming from (still doesnt affect me)

i too would have liked possibly more angles, however its not a major concern, and due to the analogues position i think 180 is a suitable position (might upload a pic of me holding the ds, the way i imagine holding the pandora, small fingers horizontally across the top of the bottom of the device, tilting it up, seems the most comfortable to reach the nubs)#

i was even thinking about possibly sticking something to the back of the pandora, angled in such a way, taht it would rest against, and which was detachable, (maybe something to think about if thats a big negative fro you)

also concerning the battery, im paranoid about this aswell
however i was told, the majority of topics surrounding such a subject really do overreact about it

concerning the wifi the way its worded is as if the hardware is now limiting it, it was said the software could still be greatly improved, considering the amount of hacks it underwent when they thought the problem was software and not hardware

You never compared to other handhelds, you simply said

Pandora was about 950 KB/s. This is not great for 54 MBit 802.11g wireless, which is capable of reaching about 2.5 MiB/s under good conditions

thats good enough for browsing, streaming and gaming

you also never mentioned that the majority of phones, also charge the same way (quite important)

also you where normally advised to let it charge abit before turning it on

anyway bit more details on why you didnt like the nubs etc would be great (see if it affects me)
more comparison to other mobile devices, its not a pc
considering this is going up on another website where it might get some traffic, might be a good idea to link to other reviews at the bottom, or at least the official site

at last your comparing the actual product to the advertised renders, and the one thing you find disappointing about it is the angle it viewed at

how about, the hard kaypad (not thumbpad)
how about the fact some of the early models looked a lot better, silver etc around nubs, logos, silkscreen
or the fact that psx4pandora was shown on one and wasnt released

my favourite render was this (although i prefer the keypad of the on underneath)

also the viewing angle was shown like that because otherwise you wouldnt have seen it
there was also a recent video posted (youtube thread), which showed the hinge was stiff enough
just checking my original ds and its hinge isnt as stiff as want the pandoras seems to be, the guy was waving it up and down
i give the ds a slight movement forward and it falls

basically compare it more to mobile devices

once again thanks for the review
nice pics too
was worried about the condition of the ports at the back, but they look good
what was the overall, are you happy with it, would you recommend it

 

[droneb]

i have a DSL with broken hinge, si the fix/mod i did, was to adapt a piece of rubber in the screen side of the hinge, near the axis so it produces extra friction.

did it with one rubber foot like those we find covering screw holes.

 

[TitanUranus]

got a few bones to pick.....

Really? Well I'd never have noticed! Give the guy a break ffs. He's written a fairly quick and honest review about the ups and downs he'd personally felt during the initial uses of his device. He isn't a top class journalist writing for "Which" magazine who has every new device delivered free to his address, so he can compare and contrast it with all machines known to hmankind! Personally I liked his review and it came from the heart, what he was dissapointed in and what he liked. He's not obliged to share any views with you, or qualify any he does make.

Don't get me wrong, I know you said you appreciated the review, but you did pick away at it like an overzealous schoolteacher marking an essay. Ease up a bit. When you get your Pandora I hope to see your review. Maybe if people who don't have one have questions you be asked politely to qualify certain things or make some comparisons.

 

[fuji99]

Very informative review, thank you for sharing.

 

[wejp]

Thanks for all your replies.

however several times you simply said this isnt good, some explanation such as why it isnt good would be better
particularly the nubs, due to the fact this review is the only one which says the nubs are bad (even the ridiculously critical reviews dont pick up on this)

You are right, I probably should have said what exactly isn't good about the nubs. The problem with the nubs is that the right one of them simply gets stuck every now and then. It seems that this could be caused by the paint which has been applied to the case. When trying to use that nub, first it didn't work at all but then after moving it a little, it got a little better eventually. It is still not perfect.

i dont have my pandora yet, but you can put it on a desk, (are you talking about when you apply pressure via the touchscreen, you have to hold the back of the screen) (almost every device has this problem)
p.s. its a handheld but i know where your coming from (still doesnt affect me)

What I meant was, the only reason I can see for using the 180 degree configuration, would be to use the touchscreen while the Pandora is lying on a table (or some other flat ground). This is not really possible though, because the display itself does not touch the table. So you cannot really touch the screen without the whole device moving.

also concerning the battery, im paranoid about this aswell
however i was told, the majority of topics surrounding such a subject really do overreact about it

Maybe so, time will tell.

concerning the wifi the way its worded is as if the hardware is now limiting it, it was said the software could still be greatly improved, considering the amount of hacks it underwent when they thought the problem was software and not hardware

You never compared to other handhelds, you simply said

Pandora was about 950 KB/s. This is not great for 54 MBit 802.11g wireless, which is capable of reaching about 2.5 MiB/s under good conditions

thats good enough for browsing, streaming and gaming

you also never mentioned that the majority of phones, also charge the same way (quite important)

The 950 KB/s are better than what I was expecting and I'm fine with it. Don't get me wrong, I really was positively surprised by that speed. Still, 802.11g is capable of higher speeds and even the tiny microSD wireless lan card the guys of qi-hardware were using with the Ben NanoNote, is able to transfer at 2 MB/s, which is really fast considering that wlan card is only of the size of a thumb nail. When comparing the Pandora's wireless speed to that card, the Pandora is barely half as fast.
This really is not such a big issue, but there is still some room for improvement. That's all I wanted to say. Maybe I'll extend my review to add a few things here and there to make things more clear.

also you where normally advised to let it charge abit before turning it on

Actually, as I said, this is not possible. As soon as you attach the power adapter to the Pandora, the Pandora starts booting.

anyway bit more details on why you didnt like the nubs etc would be great (see if it affects me)
more comparison to other mobile devices, its not a pc
considering this is going up on another website where it might get some traffic, might be a good idea to link to other reviews at the bottom, or at least the official site

at last your comparing the actual product to the advertised renders, and the one thing you find disappointing about it is the angle it viewed at

how about, the hard kaypad (not thumbpad)
how about the fact some of the early models looked a lot better, silver etc around nubs, logos, silkscreen
or the fact that psx4pandora was shown on one and wasnt released

Actually I like how the actual Pandora looks. As for the keys, I like both the keyboard buttons as well as the dpad and the ABXY buttons. They work just fine, nothing to complain about here.

was worried about the condition of the ports at the back, but they look good

Yes. Although I haven't used the ports much yet, they look pretty good.

what was the overall, are you happy with it, would you recommend it

Despite the things I've mentioned, I'm pretty happy with it. Sure, I still need to use the Pandora more, but until now, yes, I'm happy with it.

 

[WizardStan]

What I meant was, the only reason I can see for using the 180 degree configuration, would be to use the touchscreen while the Pandora is lying on a table (or some other flat ground). This is not really possible though, because the display itself does not touch the table. So you cannot really touch the screen without the whole device moving.

It's actually 170 degress. The DS is 160 degrees. And have you considered that it was designed to be used in your hands, not on a table at all?

also concerning the battery, im paranoid about this aswell
however i was told, the majority of topics surrounding such a subject really do overreact about it

Maybe so, time will tell.

Li-po batteries are a lot more resilient than you give them credit for. Unlike nicad, they're designed to be trickle charged like this. It won't cause severe harm for them to be simultaneously charged and discharged, this is how most small electronic devices (ie, cell phones) do it. It will cause harm if they're completely discharged, however, or left too long at full charge.

also you where normally advised to let it charge abit before turning it on

Actually, as I said, this is not possible. As soon as you attach the power adapter to the Pandora, the Pandora starts booting.

This is also by design, and normal. Your cell phone does the same thing. The difference is that your cell phone has a micro kernel that does nothing but display the charging animation and wait for the battery to be full or the power button to be pushed. It's possible for a similar micro kernel to be installed onto the Pandora for charging only, but it'll take some time before they get around to it.
These two facts combined prove that, despite the gauge reading 0%, it really wasn't at 0%. Since it draws power from the battery, the battery needs to be a certain level before it will allow the Pandora to boot up. If the battery were really dangerously discharged, when you plugged it in, you wouldn't have gotten any indication. There have been a few people to receive batteries like this for some reason. It takes about 10-20 minutes for the battery to top up enough to finally turn on in such cases.

edit: fixed quote

 

[Dead1nside]

I have no experience of the DS, but I would hope the Pandora's screen hinge is strong enough to allow you to open it as if you would a laptop. I can see many uses for this, for example when typing on it, or watching videos.

A few of the issues you mention have been raised before. I hope that in time the controls loosen up a bit and even out.

 

[wejp]

What I meant was, the only reason I can see for using the 180 degree configuration, would be to use the touchscreen while the Pandora is lying on a table (or some other flat ground). This is not really possible though, because the display itself does not touch the table. So you cannot really touch the screen without the whole device moving.

It's actually 170 degress. The DS is 160 degrees. And have you considered that it was designed to be used in your hands, not on a table at all?

It looks like it is almost 180 degrees.
Yes, I have considered that and I have even used it in my hands. Even then I really don't want to use it fully opened.

also concerning the battery, im paranoid about this aswell
however i was told, the majority of topics surrounding such a subject really do overreact about it

Maybe so, time will tell.

Li-po batteries are a lot more resilient than you give them credit for. Unlike nicad, they're designed to be trickle charged like this. It won't cause severe harm for them to be simultaneously charged and discharged, this is how most small electronic devices (ie, cell phones) do it. It will cause harm if they're completely discharged, however, or left too long at full charge.

You are right that LiPo batteries are way more resistant to trickle charge than NiCd, but still, it stresses them a lot more when charging them and discharging them at the same time. The reason why cell phones do that is rather simple: It is cheaper for the manufacturer to build them that way. The power supplies need to be less capable and the charging circuit can be simpler.

also you where normally advised to let it charge abit before turning it on

Actually, as I said, this is not possible. As soon as you attach the power adapter to the Pandora, the Pandora starts booting.

This is also by design, and normal.

I know and I didn't complain about that. I just mentioned it because I was being told to charge it before turning it on, which is not possible.

I have no experience of the DS, but I would hope the Pandora's screen hinge is strong enough to allow you to open it as if you would a laptop. I can see many uses for this, for example when typing on it, or watching videos.

It is strong enough for that as long as you do not use the touchscreen, or if you do you need to make sure to use very little force.
So if you are just watching some videos or using the nubs for controlling the mouse pointer, it is not such a big issue as it seems.

A few of the issues you mention have been raised before. I hope that in time the controls loosen up a bit and even out.

I hope so too.

 

[Dead1nside]

wejp, with regards to how the battery charges. I believe I've seen Mweston corroborating what you're saying. That when the AC is plugged in, it is charging the battery, but the Pandora is taking its power from the battery also. I don't think this is ideal, when thinking about what my laptop's behaviour is. But I don't know the behaviour of similar devices to the Pandora either.

It would seem that on AC you wouldn't want to be charging the battery at all. Indeed, I would also like it if there were commands to inhibit the charging, to change the charging thresholds of the battery, as I do on my laptop in the hope of prolonging its life.

Mind you, I haven't heard this discussed too much, so it might be possible in software. It's if its a hardware issue that'll be the ultimate stumbling block to this.

 

[MonkeyChops]

nice review, thanks for taking the time

one question -why are you shaking your pandora? :blink:

 

[God Ginrai]

Since it draws power from the battery, the battery needs to be a certain level before it will allow the Pandora to boot up.

This is completely wrong. See below:

When no battery is found on AC adapter insertion, the unit goes into constant voltage mode which provides a constant 4.0V on the battery net. It doesn't like it if you put a battery in at this point because the TI chip doesn't appear to be designed to jump back to normal mode without a power cycle. It could do weird things like dump ridiculous amounts of current into the battery without software control. I liked the idea of letting customers power without a battery so we left this feature in but be aware of this restriction:

IF YOU POWERED THE SYSTEM WITHOUT A BATTERY, SHUT IT OFF BEFORE STICKING THE BATTERY BACK IN. (not an angry sentence, just making it clear.)

When the battery is inserted first, the system will power up using the normal mode. When the AC adapter is plugged in after this, it will power the system and charge the battery up to the limits set in software. Currently, Notaz and I have chosen 1A on the AC adapter and 600mA from the USB input. It can be changed by sending commands to the chip to alter these set numbers but that is a software lesson better learned from someone else. With the LCD off (lid closed perhaps) idling on the desktop, something like 750mA will go to the battery for a 6 hour charge time or so. With the system doing stuff and demanding more power, less current will go to the battery and it will charge slower. 1A was also chosen to consider thermal dissipation because the regulator of the TI chip is linear and wastes energy dropping the voltage from the 5V down to just above the cell voltage. You may notice the system feels warmer when the battery is more discharged than when it is full which is normal.

I haven't had much luck hot swapping batteries while the system is live but I think it worked for ED once. For me, as soon as I pull the battery, the system resets. The power management chip seems to rely on the status of the thermistor in the battery and it if disappears, it can trigger events. Maybe there are software work arounds but I don't know.

MWeston specifically says in that post that the charging circuit supplies power to the system and the battery. This means that the battery is not simultaneously charging and discharging when the AC adapter is plugged in.

-God Ginrai

 

[DaveC]

About the hinge mechanism:

The actual mechanism is a cartridge inserted into the plastic of the case. We could not afford to design and manufacture our own, we needed to buy one. The reason this is the way it is is because that is all we could find to work in this size unit. It only has two detents, one open, one closed.

The DS has three, one open, one at an angle and one closed. We would have liked that one too but the company that makes these hinges (there aren't many) said NINTENDO had exclusive rights to that hinge and we couldn't buy the same one from them. We buy from the same company Nintendo does. We would have to have had a custom hinge mechanism made with more detents for more positions but not infringe on Nintendo's design. Of course then the tooling would be costly and the lead times would be much longer to get (more delays).

I like to think of it like this, pretend it is like a PSP go where the screen slides up (no angles) with the added bonus that it closes like a clamshell and can stay open at an angle if just watching videos.

 

[Bosbeetle]

nice review, thanks for taking the time

one question -why are you shaking your pandora? :blink:

good question : http://www.gp32x.de/board/index.php?/topic/54020-the-shaking-hype/