Pandora 2 should have dual screens

[ekianjo]

Here's a picture wot I done to show my idea. Probably already patented by someone, but if not there you go:

Pre-edit: Nice idea, Klumpen.  That would certainly solve the problem.

Japanese mobile phone pre-smartphones used a similar design to switch between a regular phone operation (vertical) to a browser mode for internet (horizontal). 

Personally I think it looks pretty ugly, and you need to have very solid materials to ensure wear and tear will not break this design. Besides, you kill stereo this way (sound becomes up/down and not right/left anymore) and the connection between the screen and the base unit is bound to take a serious amount of volume. 

 

[Exophase]

Speakers don't have to be on the display, they can be on the base.

 

[ekianjo]

Speakers don't have to be on the display, they can be on the base.

Yeah, that would make much more sense in this kind of design. But that does not solve the other problems/challenges I mentioned. 

 

[_wb_]

I like the ability to switch between portrait and landscape, and not just for DS emulation or vertical shooter games. Also when editing or viewing documents or big spreadsheet tables, it can make sense to have a portrait mode.

But I'm not sure if it is worth the trouble.

I can see how Klumpen's idea could work, but only if there is no hinge and you basically always use it in the 180 degrees position (which is what I tend to do anyway, although sometimes it is nice to use a 90 or 120 degrees angle too). So I don't see how it can be a pocketable clamshell. Maybe you can somehow combine the two-connector "click-in" approach with a hinge, but I guess that is quite a challenge. It's going to be quite a challenge to make this sturdy anyway, even without the hinge.

So to be realistic, I think it's better not to keep things simple and just make a simple clamshell. There is enough that can go wrong already, I don't want to have nifty complicated mechanisms that first give a major engineering challenge and then become an RMA nightmare when the mechanisms break anyway.

As for the original post: dual screens in the style of the DS doesn't make much sense to me (except for DS emulation). We still want our physical keyboard, and the twisting stuff where you put the keyboard on the back of the bottom screen is not an option: too complicated, and you cannot close the unit without exposing either the keyboard or a screen, which kind of sucks.

It could make sense to have a (small) e-ink screen (no touch, black&white) at the back of the main screen, with a good protective layer against scratches. It could be used to display some status information like the time, battery charging status, the title of a song, etc. Useful if you want to keep the lid closed while still doing some stuff (it could even have a simple menu that can be navigated using the shoulder buttons). If it's large enough you could even use it as a tiny e-reader, useful e.g. if there is really way too much sunlight to use the main screen but you still want to check your emails or something. With the lid open it could just display a static Pandora logo or something (of course you could customize this), which would use zero or almost zero power. Creative devs could even make games or other applications that use both screens at the same time, e.g. imagine 2-player games like Battleships where the players sit at a table with a Pandora successor between them, each looking at one side of the lid, and the player at the e-ink side could use the shoulder buttons to input moves while the player at the main-screen side can of course use any of the other buttons.

It would be a gimmick, but potentially a fun and useful one, and I would assume that a small e-ink screen would not add too much to the overall cost.

 

[Hồng Thất Công]

So I see some good ideas here.  However, I still don't see the second screen.  In addition, reading around the forum, there seems to be a need for a better, maybe close to full size physical keyboard.  So, I've also put together some of my own ideas down on some sketches.  I know it may not go anywhere but I think hey what the heck, nothing wrong with crazy ideas and this would be the ultimate P2  .  Yes! it has 2 screens, 2 batteries and 4 speakers, close-to-full-size keyboard, 4 shoulder buttons, and 6-button control!  :lol:

I've been trying to post the sketches but for some reasons I could not do it in this thread.  Can some one tell me how to post pictures here?

 

[monstercameron]

So I see some good ideas here.  However, I still don't see the second screen.  In addition, reading around the forum, there seems to be a need for a better, maybe close to full size physical keyboard.  So, I've also put together some of my own ideas down on some sketches.  I know it may not go anywhere but I think hey what the heck, nothing wrong with crazy ideas and this would be the ultimate P2  .  Yes! it has 2 screens, 2 batteries and 4 speakers, close-to-full-size keyboard, 4 shoulder buttons, and 6-button control!  :lol:

I've been trying to post the sketches but for some reasons I could not do it in this thread.  Can some one tell me how to post pictures here?

post to imgur and then link on the forums...

 

[ingoreis]

Dualscreen? ?? OMG.


When Pandora have Dualscreen in future,then will i not buy this.


Dualscreen take the Place for a real Keyboard and no Touchkeyboard,good Gaming is better with real Controls.


What i wish is a Dual Touch Display but only one, because Android on Pandora


A good idea too is to build in a Phone in it

 

[Hồng Thất Công]

So I see some good ideas here.  However, I still don't see the second screen.  In addition, reading around the forum, there seems to be a need for a better, maybe close to full size physical keyboard.  So, I've also put together some of my own ideas down on some sketches.  I know it may not go anywhere but I think hey what the heck, nothing wrong with crazy ideas and this would be the ultimate P2  .  Yes! it has 2 screens, 2 batteries and 4 speakers, close-to-full-size keyboard, 4 shoulder buttons, and 6-button control!  :lol:

I've been trying to post the sketches but for some reasons I could not do it in this thread.  Can some one tell me how to post pictures here?

post to imgur and then link on the forums...

Thanks monstercameron.  So here we go:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Binky]

What if I want to use the game controls and keyboard at the same time?

What if I want something that can fit in my pocket?

 

[Asiyura]

Oh thanks Shenmue, I needed something to make me laugh

 

[Hồng Thất Công]

What if I want to use the game controls and keyboard at the same time?

What if I want something that can fit in my pocket?

You could.  In figure number 4, you could use the controls from the Mini Trackball/Joystick, or you could use the controls from the underside.

"Fit in a pocket" is a subjective term.  My pocket can fit a small laptop .  Just kidding.  As for size, I envision this is the size of the 3DS XL but a little thicker.

 

[ekianjo]

Wtf is this design? It looks like when Homer designed his own car in the Simpsons.

 

[Klumpen]

I can see how Klumpen's idea could work, but only if there is no hinge and you basically always use it in the 180 degrees position

Of course you could still have the connector on a hinge.

 

[_wb_]

Shenmue: how do you make a foldable twistable rotatable hinge that also contains LCD and power cables? I cannot imagine any mechanism at all that would allow that. Same with the screen rotation: how would you do that without breaking/entangling the cables?

In short: interesting dream, but this is a Frankenstein monster of a device to engineer.

To be honest, I really like the form factor of the current Pandora, and I would prefer the Pandora successor to have exactly the same form factor, just with some tweaks and updates (larger screen, some keyboard/nub improvements, stronger, some minor ergonomics tweaks, slightly thinner, etc.). I wouldn't make radical changes to the form factor. The concept is still original enough not to need fancy fantasy features (that are sure to lead to problems) like a twistable keyboard or a rotating screen.

In fact, you're making it seem less original by adding all those fancy features. A dual screen makes it look like a DS, while I don't see many advantages of having a second screen (and if you look at many DS games, the second screen rarely gets used in very interesting ways). A rotating portrait/landscape screen makes it looks more like a smartphone or tablet, where dual orientations are a natural thing which basically come for free - they don't have to make complicated rotating connector mechanisms to get it. Both for the second screen and for the rotation, we would need software that can do something useful with it - for DS emulation and Android (respectively) this would be OK, but what about all the other software? Nearly all software assumes you have just 1 landscape screen.

 

[_wb_]

I can see how Klumpen's idea could work, but only if there is no hinge and you basically always use it in the 180 degrees position

Of course you could still have the connector on a hinge.

Right, I was somehow thinking that the screen would have two male connectors and the base unit would have a female one (which would be problematic on a hinge), but it would of course be the other way around.

Still could be tricky to make a hinge that is stiff enough to allow using the touchscreen on the top part of the portrait-mode screen, while being loose enough to make it easy to close the lid in landscape mode. And I also don't like that there's always one female connector exposed, collecting dirt. But maybe some rubber or plastic cover could solve that.

Overall I just don't see that much advantage of a portrait orientation to justify the changes. I mean, if it's just to view a PDF in portrait mode or to play some touch screen game, nothing stops you from holding the unit sideways - that would be much trickier to do with a desktop or laptop PC, but it's not really a problem in the case of the Pandora.

 

[Hồng Thất Công]

Shenmue: how do you make a foldable twistable rotatable hinge that also contains LCD and power cables? I cannot imagine any mechanism at all that would allow that. Same with the screen rotation: how would you do that without breaking/entangling the cables?

Yes that's a challenge.  The only cable that I think has problem twisting is the flat lcd cable.  If we were to use a round lcd cable then it might not be a big deal.

 

[ShleeDragon]

Needs more moving parts.. those things ever break

 

[Hồng Thất Công]

Needs more moving parts.. those things ever break

Makes Ed and Link happy selling parts 

 

[fusion_power]

Shenmue: how do you make a foldable twistable rotatable hinge that also contains LCD and power cables? I cannot imagine any mechanism at all that would allow that. Same with the screen rotation: how would you do that without breaking/entangling the cables?

Brush contatcs!

 

[Hồng Thất Công]

Shenmue: how do you make a foldable twistable rotatable hinge that also contains LCD and power cables? I cannot imagine any mechanism at all that would allow that. Same with the screen rotation: how would you do that without breaking/entangling the cables?

Brush contatcs!

Also this video here shows twist, turn, rotation, flip can be done (at about 3:32).