My Review

[electrocity]

Hi all, first post here. What better way than to kick off with my review of the Pandora.

Being an emulation freak on the go, I wanted something that would replace my PSP. Something with a better screen, longer battery life, and act as a mini computer. The answer: The Pandora.
The Pandora arrived in a plain box inside a plain bag. No fancy logos here, but it's what's on the inside that counts. Opening up the box, I took out the Pandora which was actually a lot smaller than what I was expecting. I popped in the battery and set it away charging.

A few hours later, I inserted my pre-loaded SD card. I've got a bunch of emulators mainly on there, plus a few apps such as firefox, chromium, minitube and exaile. Playing the usual emulators is a pretty good experience - and the PSX and N64 are coming along nicely. The D-pad is nice, although the A button feels a little spongy. The shoulder buttons are pretty dire however and I don't particularly care much for the nubs, although I haven't really played anything with them as I normally stick with digital controls/games.

I quickly tried out the video and audio capabilities of the Pandora. Again, with a few videos I had specially compressed down in size, the Pandora plays them nicely. Remember that on such a small screen, low bitrate videos can look quite good. Next tried out a few MP3s, all of which sounded very good through a decent pair of headphones. The audio DAC does a nice job here with MP3s sounding as good or better than an ipod or similar. I tried out exaile, in particular for streaming shoutcast stations. Whilst it worked, it seemed as if the bandwidth just wasn't there as streams buffered frequently. I had to turn the wifi power saving off to reliably stream some of the higher bitrate stations. I gave Minitube a shot, however youtube videos simply can not be streamed without stuttering and pauses. Like streaming from shoutcast, this is definately a wifi driver issue with the Pandora.

Web browsing with the Pandora is OK. The mentioned wifi issue does mean pages don't load as fast as they should, but it is OK for limited web browsing when necessary. Flash obviously does not work. Personally, I'd stick with chromium for now as firefox is a resources hog and whilst perfectly useable on the Pandora, it isn't the snappiest by any means.

What lets down the Pandora is the case. It appears the chinese company who makes it are simply not up to producing high quality plastics. They probably produce plastics for cheap and nasty knock off gear. The case looks and feels like something from the 80's, but hey, suppose that might appeal to some folk. The screen is a resistive touch screen - it is perfectly functional for use in the Pandora, but don't expect iphone 4 stuff here. The resistive layer gives the screen a somewhat "hazy" look, and is nowhere near as responsive as a multi-touch capacitive screen as per iphone, HTC Desire etc.

Overall, in it's current form, I rate the Pandora: 6 / 10
If the wifi can be fixed properly, that rating would go up to 7/10
It is only the cheap plastics that let the Pandora down, and possibly the fact that the technology is already showing it's age. Nevertheless, a nice device for on-the-go portable gamers everywhere.

 

[DaMummy]

wow....surprisingly low rating. hope you get more time to learn to love your pandora, thought it sounds like youre more of an iDevice person

 

[may88]

Best device I'm yet to have.

Nice first post Eletrocity. Welcome.

 

[linc186]

Hi all, first post here. What better way than to kick off with my review of the Pandora.

Being an emulation freak on the go, I wanted something that would replace my PSP. Something with a better screen, longer battery life, and act as a mini computer. The answer: The Pandora.
The Pandora arrived in a plain box inside a plain bag. No fancy logos here, but it's what's on the inside that counts. Opening up the box, I took out the Pandora which was actually a lot smaller than what I was expecting. I popped in the battery and set it away charging.

A few hours later, I inserted my pre-loaded SD card. I've got a bunch of emulators mainly on there, plus a few apps such as firefox, chromium, minitube and exaile. Playing the usual emulators is a pretty good experience - and the PSX and N64 are coming along nicely. The D-pad is nice, although the A button feels a little spongy. The shoulder buttons are pretty dire however and I don't particularly care much for the nubs, although I haven't really played anything with them as I normally stick with digital controls/games.

I quickly tried out the video and audio capabilities of the Pandora. Again, with a few videos I had specially compressed down in size, the Pandora plays them nicely. Remember that on such a small screen, low bitrate videos can look quite good. Next tried out a few MP3s, all of which sounded very good through a decent pair of headphones. The audio DAC does a nice job here with MP3s sounding as good or better than an ipod or similar. I tried out exaile, in particular for streaming shoutcast stations. Whilst it worked, it seemed as if the bandwidth just wasn't there as streams buffered frequently. I had to turn the wifi power saving off to reliably stream some of the higher bitrate stations. I gave Minitube a shot, however youtube videos simply can not be streamed without stuttering and pauses. Like streaming from shoutcast, this is definately a wifi driver issue with the Pandora.

Web browsing with the Pandora is OK. The mentioned wifi issue does mean pages don't load as fast as they should, but it is OK for limited web browsing when necessary. Flash obviously does not work. Personally, I'd stick with chromium for now as firefox is a resources hog and whilst perfectly useable on the Pandora, it isn't the snappiest by any means.

What lets down the Pandora is the case. It appears the chinese company who makes it are simply not up to producing high quality plastics. They probably produce plastics for cheap and nasty knock off gear. The case looks and feels like something from the 80's, but hey, suppose that might appeal to some folk. The screen is a resistive touch screen - it is perfectly functional for use in the Pandora, but don't expect iphone 4 stuff here. The resistive layer gives the screen a somewhat "hazy" look, and is nowhere near as responsive as a multi-touch capacitive screen as per iphone, HTC Desire etc.

Overall, in it's current form, I rate the Pandora: 6 / 10
If the wifi can be fixed properly, that rating would go up to 7/10
It is only the cheap plastics that let the Pandora down, and possibly the fact that the technology is already showing it's age. Nevertheless, a nice device for on-the-go portable gamers everywhere.

The case? You're crazy. From other reviews I've read (I've yet to receive my own...2nd batcher) they described the case as very high quality, sturdy, and awesome. And don't forget, the Pandora is in a very early state, only been out for about 2 months now, so they're still hotfixes coming out fixing the problems with the OS. Obviously, they're working on the wifi problems, and they will be fixed through the hotfixes, its only 2 months old. Also, I heard it takes about 2 weeks to get the controls broken in, then the problems with sponginess and stuff stop. The shoulder buttons, from what I've heard, I agree with you. With the nubs, I heard the new hotfix made them much better and more accurate to use, and no offense, but i think your in no position to judge them if you haven't extensively used them yet. Minitube is still being worked on, because of the wifi problem and the fact that minitube is new. Flash doesn't work because we don't have source code for it. Also, I partly agree with you on the touchscreen. As I've heard the touchscreen isn't the most accurate thing ever, I don't think it's as bad as you've described. And again, it does sound like you like Idevices more, but the Pandora is superior with a full OS (wrather than that half assed...thing your given with the Idevices), dedicated gaming controls, and open source...um..ness, as well as having a touchscreen. The web browsers are also at an early state...everything is at an early state. Also, the touchscreen wasn't meant to be multitouch or whatever, the iphone is because it doesnt have buttons! so the screen is all it has to rely on, making it an asset to have multitouch. However, with the Pandora, your using the touchscreen to double tap on icons or maybe play a game or two, its really meant to be used with the buttons and doesnt need multi touch features.
I think your rating is unfair:
-you totally misjudged the case
-the wifi drivers don't work to well, cry about it, they're two months old and will be fixed in a matter of time
-your not cutting the Pandora slack, everything about it is brand new, and is still in state where things need to be fixed
-it does NOT need multitouch
-flash doesn't have available source code
-not giving time for the buttons to break in
-firefox, and other browsers are still in a new state (like everything else...)

 

[WizardStan]

The resistive layer gives the screen a somewhat "hazy" look, and is nowhere near as responsive as a multi-touch capacitive screen as per iphone, HTC Desire etc.

This is the only part of your review I'm going to question, because my touchscreen is very responsive: I use it for everything, pretty much ignoring the mouse mode nubs. That's supposed to be one of the benefits of resistive vs capacitive screens: they're almost twice as responsive as capacitive. Mind you, we're talking less than 10ms response times here, so even if the resistive was less responsive than the capacitive, you shouldn't really be able to tell anyway. Are you sure there isn't something else going on that might explain any slowness you're experiencing? What exactly makes you think it isn't responsive?

 

[Prometheus]

It may possibly be that electrocity hasn't done the writing-on-a-bit-of-paper-with-the-stylus thing to remove the excess from the painted finish - I did notice that the touch-screen responds very poorly if you don't do this.

 

[gruso]

The case? You're crazy. From other reviews I've read (I've yet to receive my own...2nd batcher) they described the case as very high quality, sturdy, and awesome. And don't forget, the Pandora is in a very early state, only been out for about 2 months now, so they're still hotfixes coming out fixing the problems with the OS. Obviously, they're working on the wifi problems, and they will be fixed through the hotfixes, its only 2 months old. Also, I heard it takes about 2 weeks to get the controls broken in, then the problems with sponginess and stuff stop. The shoulder buttons, from what I've heard, I agree with you. With the nubs, I heard the new hotfix made them much better and more accurate to use, and no offense, but i think your in no position to judge them if you haven't extensively used them yet. Minitube is still being worked on, because of the wifi problem and the fact that minitube is new. Flash doesn't work because we don't have source code for it. Also, I partly agree with you on the touchscreen. As I've heard the touchscreen isn't the most accurate thing ever, I don't think it's as bad as you've described. And again, it does sound like you like Idevices more, but the Pandora is superior with a full OS (wrather than that half assed...thing your given with the Idevices), dedicated gaming controls, and open source...um..ness, as well as having a touchscreen. The web browsers are also at an early state...everything is at an early state. Also, the touchscreen wasn't meant to be multitouch or whatever, the iphone is because it doesnt have buttons! so the screen is all it has to rely on, making it an asset to have multitouch. However, with the Pandora, your using the touchscreen to double tap on icons or maybe play a game or two, its really meant to be used with the buttons and doesnt need multi touch features.
I think your rating is unfair:
-you totally misjudged the case
-the wifi drivers don't work to well, cry about it, they're two months old and will be fixed in a matter of time
-your not cutting the Pandora slack, everything about it is brand new, and is still in state where things need to be fixed
-it does NOT need multitouch
-flash doesn't have available source code
-not giving time for the buttons to break in
-firefox, and other browsers are still in a new state (like everything else...)

Woah there tiger! He's given his opinion based on first use, you can't really argue with personal impressions.

- I don't think the case comments are too harsh. They're what you'd expect from someone who was perhaps expecting a PSP or smartphone quality finish. Most of us scene regulars knew not to expect that, but we shouldn't jump down the throat of someone who did. Fact is, if the case company was capable of producing a high end finish, we'd have a high end finish.

- He's not crying about wifi, he's stating how it is. And he's right.

- He did not say it needed multitouch, he just made a screen comparison.

- He didn't whinge about Flash, I suspect he understands why we don't have it.

- He's right that Firefox is a bit chuggy compared to Chromium, that's why I run Chromium on my Pandora and my desktop too.

- The A button is a little spongey for many people.

Personally, having owned a GP2X and also having a deep appreciation for what has gone into the Pandora, I think this device is a little miracle. (I even like the shoulder buttons, they remind me of something between the F200 buttons and an Atari ST mouse. An opinion I don't expect everyone to share. ) But that doesn't mean you'll hear trumpets and angels singing when you first open that box.

As I stated in my day one story on the blog, the Pandora is a bit of a shock to the system when you first hold it. Just as my GP2X was. Because you're used to holding Sony and Nintendo gadgets, and all of a sudden you're holding something completely different. After a few days you'll acclimatise and eventually forget it was ever weird. I can almost guarantee that you'll have the same experience, and electrocity will too.

 

[Jumpman]

Hi electrocity, and welcome.

Good review. I don't agree with some of your problems, but that's why they are "your" opinions. No harm in differant points of view. Actually my A button was spongy to. I hope the teams knows about this and address it in future units.

I actually fixed the problem myself, but you have to open your unit, and I wouldn't recomend that to the normal users out there(it might void warranty also). The underside of my A button had a little excess plastic, and it was causing that spongy feeling, and a little bit of stickyness. I just used a small screwdriver to shave out that excess plastic, and it works perfect now.

I have read several reviews that mention the spongy A button, so that button appears to be the only one having this problem. Hopefully the team can have the mould company look into this, as it is slightly annoying, but it was an easy fix.

Anyway, welcome, and hopefully your views improve over time.

Chris

 

[jonjandran]

Thanks for the review.

A few things I have a differing opinion about.

The case: I have almost every portable made and I absolutely LOVE the Pandora case. I find it better looking and better feeling than any other portable I have. It has a wonderful look and feel to it, Retro yet "rugged" and "solid". It doesn't show fingerprints unless you've been eating fried chicken. And everyone I have showed it to (about 30 gamers) absolutely loved the case.

The screen: Once again I own a ton of touchscreen. Yes you are correct it isn't an iPhone. But compared to most screens I have and have used, the touchscreen is a lot more responsive. And the screen itself has much better colors/contrast/resolution/quality than the others I have.

Buttons: My shoulder buttons are perfect and the A/B/X/Y not spongy at all.

So maybe it is a matter of the unit you received ?

 

[Trip]

I like reviews like this. There's nothing worse than getting all hyped up about a product, and then feeling let down once it arrives because it doesn't live up to all the hype. Much rather have honest and well balanced reviews and make my own mind up when it arrives.

Cheers electrocity

 

[Bosbeetle]

Welcome electrocity this was a pretty balanced review I see where you are comming from.

I do like the look and feel of the pandora but thats just taste I guess, I agree the wifi could be better. And I didnt notice the touchscreen issues.

Hope you enjoy your emulators and please also try things like battle of wesnoth etc. this is where the pandora shines imo