My Pandora Review

[noisome]

Gallery: Noisome's Pandora Gallery

I got my Pandora today, #227, 10 days after my shipment confirmation email, on May 26th.
I am in North Carolina, USA, and it was sent via Airmail.

1. Packaged well enough.
2. Buttons function well enough, no problems with shoulder or placement, other than the tab button (tab should be alone).
3. Have front lower screen/bezel gap shown in another thread.
4. Screen locks completely shut or completely open, and is friction held in any other position. Any tap will move screen back or forward.
5. Power button didn't work for me.
6. Signing on for first time, selecting Minimenu instead of XFCE for default stopped system from advancing. Restart by pulling out battery. Redid username/password and selected XFCE. Continued appropriately.
7. Using midori I couldn't see images from http://apps.openpandora.org and had to guess where to click for category.
8. Arora crashes when saving to SD card. (Separate issue, #9)
9. User doesn't have default permission to write to SD card. This causes #8.
10. PND files don't run in XFCE, or at least hasn't for me, only in miniMenu.
11. Wireless works perfect. Fast and efficient.
12. Password every time needed to sign into wpa secured SSID. (not key, just password keyring password)
13. Codec pack installs mplayer, but not XMMS. Plays videos very well.
14. "opkg update" in terminal then "opkg install xmms" to install XMMS for MP3 and OGG files.
15. Left nub = mouse movement, Right nub = mouse clicks. For right nub, left = single left click, up = double left click, right = right click, down = blah.
16. In miniMenu, left shoulder button moves tab to left, right shoulder moves tab to right, D-pad for item selection, B button for selection. Pandora button for reset.
17. Pandora has been on for 7 hours without AC plugged in and has 2 hours remaining, wifi on, screen on full brightness doing nothing. I never charged Pandora battery.
18. Sound is good.
19. Ghosting very visible using Mame106 and playing Black Tiger could be just Mame106. Games run smooth. Mame106 does crash with certain games (Samurai Showdown 4 being one of the few that has crashed that I have tested).
20. SNES is smooth. Tested Donkey Kong Country.
21. Testing more.
22. Need better package install interface.
23. Bluetooth is semi-functional. I can see other devices but I can't send files nor receive them (yet, I may be missing something).
24. Fennec is a clean browser but slow loading.
25. XFCE is fat.

*Editted*
26. The D-pad is good. I played Street Fighter 2 CE in Mame106 and I was able to Dragon Punch, Spin kick, and Hadouken EVERY time I tried. Albeit, the game was running slower than normal, it was still very easy to do the movements. Good work here.


Overall, I like it. There are some things I don't like about the software, but everyone is working on that. The hardware is very good quality and the feel is fantastic.

I will post more as things come up. I will also post this on my site tomorrow.

Noisome

 

[DaveC]

You are not going to use it with that plastic over the screen right :blink:

That is not a screen protector, it is just for shipping handling etc.

 

[noisome]

You are not going to use it with that plastic over the screen right :blink:

That is not a screen protector, it is just for shipping handling etc.

Lol, no. It was on there until I actually *used* it instead of greasing up the screen. Lots more pictures with it *off* are coming, including pictures of the abused D-pad.

Also would like a secure way to seal the small gap between screen and bezel. I will try the advice in other threads and if not, try and find a good adhesive for it.

 

[Xenu]

Thanks for the review and the pictures. Intresing to read the quick guide.

 

[DaveC]

You are not going to use it with that plastic over the screen right :blink:

That is not a screen protector, it is just for shipping handling etc.

Lol, no. It was on there until I actually *used* it instead of greasing up the screen. Lots more pictures with it *off* are coming, including pictures of the abused D-pad.

Also would like a secure way to seal the small gap between screen and bezel. I will try the advice in other threads and if not, try and find a good adhesive for it.

Be careful. The touch screen membrane is there. If you stick some adhesive in there your TS may become erratic as it pulls on it.

 

[Arkay Firestar]

5. Power button didn't work for me.

What exactly do you mean? At all? It only turns on when you plug it in?

 

[noisome]

5. Power button didn't work for me.

What exactly do you mean? At all? It only turns on when you plug it in?

Meaning it does not function at all. The Pandora is on all the time. I shutdown the system via shutdown button and it comes back up, regardless of the position of the switch and no matter how long I slide and hold.

 

[Pinballwzd]

Did you pay any duty on your Pandora ?

 

[Sarlix]

5. Power button didn't work for me.

What exactly do you mean? At all? It only turns on when you plug it in?

Meaning it does not function at all. The Pandora is on all the time. I shutdown the system via shutdown button and it comes back up, regardless of the position of the switch and no matter how long I slide and hold.

Did you have it plugged into the mains or USB when you tried to shutdown? If so thats the reason why.

Unplug it from any power source and try again.

 

[ahahah]

when i read the reviews on the forum we are far from what is said on the blog

At least 60 units should have reached the customers so far and there were only a few problems.
A dead battery, a dead PSU (which can happen, unfortunately), one broken WiFi and a broken backlight.
For the very first units, that's a good quote - basically only one two broken ones.

"a good quote" is not appropriated, some problems such as this one, are not listed and in term of percentages it is not encouraging.
don't forget there will be 4000 units.

 

[mvickers03]

As said above if the AC is plugged in the Pandora powers itself on automatically try it without the power plugged in

 

[Prometheus]

when i read the reviews on the forum we are far from what is said on the blog

At least 60 units should have reached the customers so far and there were only a few problems.
A dead battery, a dead PSU (which can happen, unfortunately), one broken WiFi and a broken backlight.
For the very first units, that's a good quote - basically only one two broken ones.

"a good quote" is not appropriated, some problems such as this one, are not listed and in term of percentages it is not encouraging.
don't forget there will be 4000 units.

But that was written when there were around 60 units out there.

 

[emcp]

1 in 15 (4 in 60)

when QC wasnt quite that tight at all, not bad

 

[noisome]

5. Power button didn't work for me.

What exactly do you mean? At all? It only turns on when you plug it in?

Meaning it does not function at all. The Pandora is on all the time. I shutdown the system via shutdown button and it comes back up, regardless of the position of the switch and no matter how long I slide and hold.

Did you have it plugged into the mains or USB when you tried to shutdown? If so thats the reason why.

Unplug it from any power source and try again.

It was unplugged when tried. But this morning it slipped out of my hand to a soft landing and now the system stays off with the power toggle to the left and I shut down from the menu or command line.

As said above if the AC is plugged in the Pandora powers itself on automatically try it without the power plugged in

The Pandora powers itself on when I insert the battery too, regardless of the AC as long as the power switch is not to the left. I still can't power it off with the switch however.

Did you pay any duty on your Pandora ?

I didn't pay any extra fees. I preordered and what I paid then is all I paid.

 

[Prometheus]

I still can't power it off with the switch however.

Don't quote me on this, but I'm pretty sure that you have to shut down from the OS, not using the switch.

 

[Sarlix]

Prometheus is right you can't turn off using the power button. Sliding it to the right will put it into sleep mode, and sliding to the left puts it into hold mode.

 

[Aninhumer]

I still can't power it off with the switch however.

Don't quote me on this, but I'm pretty sure that you have to shut down from the OS, not using the switch.

IIRC the switch is supposed to toggle low power mode, not sure if that includes turning off the screen though.