Pandora Vs Laptop

[tazg]

could it be, that what you are really looking for is something like this?

http://jkkmobile.blogspot.com/2008/11/meet...ini-laptop.html

he said he's not sure whether he should get a pandora or a cheap laptop, and that thing is going to be way expensive, and probably worse battery life than both a pandora or laptop. What are the benefits? If you need hsdpa and a camera, you should be looking in the much cheaper "phone" category. This thing is too big to be a handheld and too small to be a laptop (the keyboard is probably a pain to use)... just a dumb product in my opinion.

 

[chiark]

The keyboard of the pandora will be usable with thumbs, the keyboard of the eee is too small to type with all fingers and too big to use as a thumb-board...

sorta depends on the size of your thumbs/fingers and what you're used to . The eee pc 900 is fantastic IMHO...

I also have a libretto u100, and that keyboard takes some getting used to but it can be done...

 

[hch]

My guess is 2.5 to 3 times the price of Pandora

Another netbook shrunk down with the same intel atom as all the others, being £500-£600. NO WAY

:rolleyes:

not really. this one has a silverthorne cpu, which is quite a bit more power efficient than the diamondville. and it has a gma 500, i.e. a PowerVR SGX. the price will probably suck but hardwarewise it's actually not bad.

 

[taltoris]

Plus, don't forget one important thing: Battery life.

An average Laptop will get you about 4 hours of usage away from the cord, some less and some more (depending on price). The closest laptop equivalent to the pandora is a netbook or umpc, but unless your willing to shell out some serious dough, good luck on getting a 5-cell battery to keep that sucker alive more than 3 hours.

The front page claims that the pandora should get 10 hours of battery life. Now obviously as the prototype hasn't been assembled, that's just a guess. But, due to the ARM architecture being much more power efficient than an x86, it is certainly plausible. Plus, due to efficiency, the Pandora won't need a battery as big, heavy, or expensive as that of a laptop.

When it comes to portability and power, think of the pandora as a cross between a laptop and a (very) smart phone. If this is what you're looking for in a device, welcome aboard. If you need more power, get a laptop. If you want more portability, get a blackberry/iphone.

 

[krooked]

http://www.colordrives.com/usb-foldable-ke...pc--laptop.html
that could help a bit, im probably going to have to since my hands are huge

 

[WolfpacKxx86]

http://www.colordrives.com/usb-foldable-ke...pc--laptop.html
that could help a bit, im probably going to have to since my hands are huge



I recommend this :
http://www.amazon.com/Stowaway-Ultra-Slim-...s/dp/B0002OKCXE
I've had this for a year now and it is really amazing considering the size which makes it really easy to carry around and it connects via bluetooth as well . You can easily get for around $50 nowadays. Going to be with me all the time when am carrying my andora1:

 

[pseudomind]

Perhaps you should also think of something like this as a solution to your problem.

http://www.engadget.com/2008/12/04/trigems...e-500-umpc-swe/

It will be a bit larger than the pandora but could still possibly fit into your pocket. If you bring a foldable usb keyboard it would likely function exactly like a laptop and still handle xp and the like. The downside of this will be the lack of a keyboard alltogether and probably a sub 2hr battery life. Even still this bad boy is lacking the gaming controls, so once again if that was something you were planning on using it for you would be better off with the pandora yet again. At any rate at least price point on this guy is not anywhere near as terrible as the other lappy someone posted.

 

[Prophet]

If you need a laptop, get one. The Pandora will be useful, but no match for having a real size keyboard and a large screen with higher resolution.

 

[Sea]

If you need a laptop, get one. The Pandora will be useful, but no match for having a real size keyboard and a large screen with higher resolution.

Honestly, I don't 'need' a laptop, but I've been wanting one just for the portability and the ability to play games on the go.

Well, it seems like the Pandora is the best choice for me then since it can perform most if not all general computing, awesome (projected) battery life, and good gaming controls. The small screen would just take some getting used to, but if I ever need something with a big screen, I'd probably just use my desktop. Also, about the keyboard, wouldn't it be possible to just hookup a USB hub in the back of the Pandora and plug in any keyboard you want?

So yeah, I'll be one of the first pre-orders for the second batch (if the first batch goes as planned). Now it's kind of off topic, but since it's my thread, I hope no one will mind, will the need to learn Linux be something I should take care of now? At first it seems like it would be easy enough to be able to learn general use, then scale up to acts such as editing programs. If it would be a big deal, I could just put a Linux distro in a different partition or on my external HD.

Thanks for all the help everyone, any indecisiveness has been cleared up!

 

[PhillipJ]

... will the need to learn Linux be something I should take care of now? At first it seems like it would be easy enough to be able to learn general use, then scale up to acts such as editing programs. If it would be a big deal, I could just put a Linux distro in a different partition or on my external HD.

Thanks for all the help everyone, any indecisiveness has been cleared up!

Linux really isn't hard to use and if you do come across something you can't figure out then google pretty much always has the answer. However, if you do want to try a desktop distro (which will probably have a massively different UI than Angstrom) doing it via VMWare Player (free for personal use) is a pretty good way to go. Google will find you vmware images for the big distros without much trouble.

 

[TaG]

Well, it seems like the Pandora is the best choice for me
Well, welcome aboard. I'm sure you won't be disappointed.

Also, about the keyboard, wouldn't it be possible to just hookup a USB hub in the back of the Pandora and plug in any keyboard you want?
Many people have thought about USB keyboards or bluetooth keyboards. They ought to work fine, although you might need to use a mini-hub.

So yeah, I'll be one of the first pre-orders for the second batch (if the first batch goes as planned). Now it's kind of off topic, but since it's my thread, I hope no one will mind, will the need to learn Linux be something I should take care of now? At first it seems like it would be easy enough to be able to learn general use, then scale up to acts such as editing programs. If it would be a big deal, I could just put a Linux distro in a different partition or on my external HD.
You might even be able to get a first batch unit when any left may get put up for sale, should you want one.

As to 'learning' linux, it's not essential but if you want to give it a try as it won't do any harm and you may well like the experience. My usual recommendation is to start of with a live CD of something like Linux Mint or Ubuntu/Kubuntu and make sure your hardware works then install the one you like the look of.

 

[CCmachined]

if you haven't ordered a Pandora yet, you probably won't have one in your hands until march-april time or later (second batch). just sayin'

shall be awesome though ^^ (once it arrives, darn financial crisis)

 

[giovanni]

if you haven't ordered a Pandora yet, you probably won't have one in your hands until march-august time

You forgot that the second batch will probably be faster than the first... a lot more...
Probably it won't be shipped in summer...

 

[CCmachined]

if you haven't ordered a Pandora yet, you probably won't have one in your hands until march-august time

You forgot that the second batch will probably be faster than the first... a lot more...
Probably it won't be shipped in summer...


i meant march-april, sorry ^^'
maybe, but there are likely bugs etc to work out...

 

[giovanni]

Yes, March-April is probably the shipping period of the second batch.
However I'm really optimist: I'm pretty sure that untill January , now that almost all the other issues (like the pre-order's problems) are solved, the Team will work hardly on developing and we will get ALL the missing drivers.
Don't worry that the waiting will be more bearable when we will be able to see the first finish units working and running all the various programs and emulators and be sure that the next week we will be...

 

[kin]

All people I know owning a 7" eee PC are complaining about the size of the keyboard. Apparently, it is good enough to use a web browser, but writing emails, or even chatting is painful.

The Pandora keyboard is much smaller than the 7" eee PC keyboard. My guess is that it will be only usable with thumbs (while holding the Pandora), just like gaming controls.

That is a point you have to consider if you think about choosing between a Pandora and a laptop.

Yes I totally agree. I think using the thumbs with controller positon is a more natural ergonomic holding position... you don't even have to move your legs together and bend your back with a laptop in public space.


I wonder if the pads on the pandora will be more practical then the touchpad on laptops.