paytonmg75
Still Fresh
- Joined
- Feb 7, 2010
- Messages
- 6
Hellollo everyone! I received my Pandora on Friday, and have been playing around with it near constantly since. I´d like to share my experience, and hopefully add a little to the mix.
First, the physical aspects. To me the size and heft of the unit is very nice. I have no problems using the controls and keyboard. I could see it might be an issue if you have large hands. The D-pad is very nice and the AXBY buttons work well. The shoulder buttons take a little getting used to, and on my unit both left and right have pretty much the same feel. The keyboard keys have to be pressed in with a bit more force than I expected, but I quickly got used to that. I keep trying to press the non-existent Right Shift key, but I'm getting better. The only pain is when you need to hit Shift and a key on the left side of the keyboard. Only if you were writing something really long would I see a need for the use of an external keyboard. At first I thought that something was wrong with the stylus holder as it was very difficult to remove. But after some use it as loosen up to were it is snug. The power switch, SD card slots, and volume knob are nicely recessed. At first I was almost annoyed with that, as I felt it was too far in, but after taking it around with me, I see the value as you are not going to accidentally turn it on, pop out a SD card, or change the volume. The one thing I did notice immediately is when closed there is a slightly larger gap on the left side. Others have mentioned it also. Its not a big deal to me, because it doesn't seem to affect anything as far as I can tell. Overall I am very pleased the the build quality. If are looking up close, you can see some variances in the fit. But you have to be purposefully looking. I'm sure the average person, if handed this to try out, would never notice it. The LCD screen is very crisp, I haven't come across any ghosting, and touchscreen functions well.
Second, the software side. On the part, I am struggling somewhat; I am a linux noob. Its taking a bit, but I am starting to get up to speed, well enough to get emulators working and install the hotfixes and codec pack and some additional browsers. On that note, Midori crashes on me a lot. But I'm using FF3, so not an issue for me. I do have the crackly sound issue, but I found Notaz's temp fix, and sound is good now. Overall things have a beta feel to them. Not a knock against it, it is what I expected, and everything works for me. Wifi does act up after sometime, but toggling it off and on clears it up. When I initially connected to my router, I couldn't get any sites to load. But I power cycled my router and its been fine ever since. Sometimes there is a glitch with the SD card, but rebooting seems to solve it.
Overall, I absolutely love the system! It really is something else to have in a unit slightly larger than my DS lite all these old console, dos, arcade games, and a desktop environment, with sweet gaming controls. I`ve heard the 'just get a netbook' argument before, but it just doesn't add up to the experience the pandora gives. By far, biggest thing on my wishlist would be pandora standardization (pandization?) of the emulator controls, i.e. same button for menu access, etc. I know things are still in the early stages, but what better time to do this?
The pandora is still a bit rough, but the foundation for everything is down. I can see what the possibilities are for this unit, and its very exciting! The combination of keyboard, game controls, an open OS environment add up to an exerience more than the sum of its parts. Sorry if I come across as fanboyish, but I have used so many devices and thought 'this is nice, but I really wish I could do {insert function} with it, then it would be great!'.
Some parting thoughts to wrap up with. This post written on my pandy. And if I have covered any problems that have already been addressed, my apologies. I've been enthralled with playing games and leaning how to set things up. Hope I added something of interest to anyone. Please post questions if you have them, and I'll do my best to answer.
Thanks to the OP team and everyone involved with the project. It's been worth the wait.
MG Payton
First, the physical aspects. To me the size and heft of the unit is very nice. I have no problems using the controls and keyboard. I could see it might be an issue if you have large hands. The D-pad is very nice and the AXBY buttons work well. The shoulder buttons take a little getting used to, and on my unit both left and right have pretty much the same feel. The keyboard keys have to be pressed in with a bit more force than I expected, but I quickly got used to that. I keep trying to press the non-existent Right Shift key, but I'm getting better. The only pain is when you need to hit Shift and a key on the left side of the keyboard. Only if you were writing something really long would I see a need for the use of an external keyboard. At first I thought that something was wrong with the stylus holder as it was very difficult to remove. But after some use it as loosen up to were it is snug. The power switch, SD card slots, and volume knob are nicely recessed. At first I was almost annoyed with that, as I felt it was too far in, but after taking it around with me, I see the value as you are not going to accidentally turn it on, pop out a SD card, or change the volume. The one thing I did notice immediately is when closed there is a slightly larger gap on the left side. Others have mentioned it also. Its not a big deal to me, because it doesn't seem to affect anything as far as I can tell. Overall I am very pleased the the build quality. If are looking up close, you can see some variances in the fit. But you have to be purposefully looking. I'm sure the average person, if handed this to try out, would never notice it. The LCD screen is very crisp, I haven't come across any ghosting, and touchscreen functions well.
Second, the software side. On the part, I am struggling somewhat; I am a linux noob. Its taking a bit, but I am starting to get up to speed, well enough to get emulators working and install the hotfixes and codec pack and some additional browsers. On that note, Midori crashes on me a lot. But I'm using FF3, so not an issue for me. I do have the crackly sound issue, but I found Notaz's temp fix, and sound is good now. Overall things have a beta feel to them. Not a knock against it, it is what I expected, and everything works for me. Wifi does act up after sometime, but toggling it off and on clears it up. When I initially connected to my router, I couldn't get any sites to load. But I power cycled my router and its been fine ever since. Sometimes there is a glitch with the SD card, but rebooting seems to solve it.
Overall, I absolutely love the system! It really is something else to have in a unit slightly larger than my DS lite all these old console, dos, arcade games, and a desktop environment, with sweet gaming controls. I`ve heard the 'just get a netbook' argument before, but it just doesn't add up to the experience the pandora gives. By far, biggest thing on my wishlist would be pandora standardization (pandization?) of the emulator controls, i.e. same button for menu access, etc. I know things are still in the early stages, but what better time to do this?
The pandora is still a bit rough, but the foundation for everything is down. I can see what the possibilities are for this unit, and its very exciting! The combination of keyboard, game controls, an open OS environment add up to an exerience more than the sum of its parts. Sorry if I come across as fanboyish, but I have used so many devices and thought 'this is nice, but I really wish I could do {insert function} with it, then it would be great!'.
Some parting thoughts to wrap up with. This post written on my pandy. And if I have covered any problems that have already been addressed, my apologies. I've been enthralled with playing games and leaning how to set things up. Hope I added something of interest to anyone. Please post questions if you have them, and I'll do my best to answer.
Thanks to the OP team and everyone involved with the project. It's been worth the wait.
MG Payton
