Pandora vs Tablet

[leathco]

So, I've been using both for a bit now.  I have an original CC Pandora and a Sero 7 Pro, noticing the strengths and weaknesses of both.

Pandora Pros

• Better controls.  Even using a Moga controller on the tablet, nothing matches Pandoras controls and full real keyboard.
• Fullsize USB port.  Plugging in addons is so easy.
• Free software.  Tons of software available with no need to pay.
• Full desktop.  Its a full computer, not just a media consumption device.
• Tons of storage.  Dual 64GB SD cards, PLUS USB Host for more storage!  Its wonderful.
• Battery Life.  8 to 10 hours without needing a charge.

Pandora Cons

• The 600 MHZ CPU is showing its age.  I'm sure the 1 GHZ is better, but is still lagging behind modern 1.2 to 1.5 GHZ dual to quad core.
• Most large devs don't even have Pandora on their radar.
• The Craig/OpenPandora LLC drama has many people confused about the project.

Tablet Pros

• Power.  Even using last gens quad core Tegra 3, it runs anything I throw at it with Dolphin being the only exception.
• Screen size.  I love the 7 inch form factor.
• Commercial support.  You may have to pay, but big devs like Sega, Square-Enix, EA, Namco, and SNK support it.  Plus netflix and Hulu.
• HDMI out.  While I love the Pandoras TV-Out, emulating N64 with hi res tectures and playing via HDMI out looks wonderful.

Tablet Cons

• Battery life.  While 5 hours is decent, I love having twice the time on Pandora
• Only 1 Micro SD slot.  I'm limited to 64 gigs of storage.  USB Host not supported on many tablets.
• Pricey.  The device itselt may be cheap, continually being nickel and dimed for new games and apps is not.
• The only controller option is via bluetooth.  The Moga controller is workable, but doesn't hold up to the Pandora setup.

So, while some people swear by Pandora, and others swear by tablets, for me they co-exist.  I love using my tablet for the larger screen, to play new games, and for streaming tv and movies.  I love my Pandora for retro games, new indie games, unique titles, and great control setup.

 

[Ian J]

The problem I have with Tablets is the vast choice available.

Each week a new device comes out so I feel that whatever I buy will be outdated/superseded within weeks.

The Pandora on the other hand only has 3 options, and even the lowest in the range cc version can run most software without issue.

 

[ingoreis]

Pandora VS Tablet.. .. ... Round One Fight!! ...ugh.. ..pow... ...kayokin.....

... ......see fun thing...... ... Punch... ...Jump and Kick.... .

...uuaaaaaaaaaarghhhhhhh........

...finish Him......dang..dong..bamm..bambambam..squirtsh

.... Pandora Win! Brutality  B)

Was only a Little Joke,please understand that Post not Wrong

Dont rekognize that Post,its only a little Joke.

Edit: When Mods want to delete it,then delete it Sorry for that little Offtopic.

 

[FaeMinx]

My tablet is great for productivity. Pandora is great for every thing cool about my life before I had to be responsible and manage my time.

 

[Binky]

My tablet is great for productivity

How so?

No keyboard.

No USB host.

No Libreoffice/GIMP/Firefox.

 

[Hồng Thất Công]

Tablets --> Apps/games sucked.  The only thing good is their screens are so shiny

 

[levi]

Meh, glossy screens suck.  I've always preferred matte, even if glossy does tend to make the colours look brighter.

 

[Askarus]

Meh, glossy screens suck. I've always preferred matte, even if glossy does tend to make the colours look brighter.

Totally agree.

 

[FaeMinx]

My tablet is great for productivity

How so?


No keyboard.


No USB host.


No Libreoffice/GIMP/Firefox.

Built in 3g, functions as a phone as well. Has a stylus - 1024 levels of pressure sensitivity. For my kind of creative work, this trumps having a physical keyboard by a long shot. 8" screen - fantastic for just about everything.


Built in camera, great for taking product photos, photos of things I need to sketch, or colours I need to lift for a design. Works as a portable hotspot, so can be my modem at work or at home.


Oh, and I have a dongle for converting my microUSB to a full usb if I need to.

 

[hedwards]

I had a tablet last year and I hardly used it. My Pandy, OTOH, gets regular use and I'm still finding new uses for it.

Then again, I don't use it to read books as I've got a proper ebook reader for that.

 

[Ian J]

I do feel there is a place for tablets and that they fill a gap in the market as a device to consume material on, but I don't think they are the replacement for laptops that some people believe they are.

The only use I could think of would be viewing PDF's and the odd TV show.

 

[Hồng Thất Công]

Meh, glossy screens suck. I've always preferred matte, even if glossy does tend to make the colours look brighter.

Totally agree.

You 2 just don't get it ....

 

[Klumpen]

• Tons of storage.  Dual 64GB SD cards, PLUS USB Host for more storage!  Its wonderful.

I just want to mention, that Pandora supports even larger SD-cards than "only" 64gb.

 

[Asiyura]

I tend to use my 10" android tablet for quick internet search, touch-based games (pulse, fractal, …), to read pen & paper rulebooks that I bought in PDF format (shadorun, D & D, …), learning to play musical instruments (metronome, chromatic tuner, displaying tabs, …) and to use some electronic tools (droid tesla, electrodroid, …).

For everything else, I use the pandora or my computer.

 

[ekianjo]

So, while some people swear by Pandora, and others swear by tablets, for me they co-exist

Just like a car and a truck, they have different form size and different purposes. Nothing really new here.

 

[hedwards]

Meh, glossy screens suck. I've always preferred matte, even if glossy does tend to make the colours look brighter.

Totally agree.

You 2 just don't get it ....

Not really, glossy screen sell better because they look better in the showroom. Despite the fact that they're much worse in rooms where you have any glare at all. But, since they're shinier they tend to sell well.


I'm not sure why anybody would question the obvious superiority of matte screens.

 

[Hồng Thất Công]

^ While Pandora's screen is excellent, don't tell me it's better than the PS Vita's screen or Shield's screen ...(Here we go again )

 

[hedwards]

^ While Pandora's screen is excellent, don't tell me it's better than the PS Vita's screen or Shield's screen ...(Here we go again )

As long as you don't intend to use it outdoors or where you don't have control over the glare. Otherwise the devices that use a glossy screen are more or less unusable.

 

[___]

Power.  Even using last gens quad core Tegra 3, it runs anything I throw at it with Dolphin being the only exception.

Power is a relative thing here! I bought a quadcore tegra 3 device (asus tf201) on release thinking that I would be able to run all the cool games they had promised for thd devices. Well... there wasn't a lot coming out. And still android feels horribly sluggish on the tablet, and I've tried loads of different custom roms and android iterations on it. I would gladly sacrifice all the shinyness of the stupid touch UI that steals away the actual processing power for a stable and decent OS which android sure as heck is not.

Even with a keyboard as with the tf201 android is completely useless to me. Frequent crashes (FCs, random reboots and hangups) while editing documents make android devices a no-go. I have been using android as a power user for years on several devices (motorola droid 2/milestone 2 and lately an imported droid 4) and these stability issues are an old hat. I would have switched long ago if there was an alternative smartphone OS that would fit me. I was happily using webOS on my first palm pre until I had to send it in for repairs pretty much every second week since the freaking POS was built like a Lego toy.

So my tablet is being used for quick google searches, assistance while soldering (nice to have blue prints, how tos or whatever handy and readily available) and porn. Really not worth the 600 bucks I had to pay for it.

Pandora on the other hand is a decent gaming device (thanks, I'd rather play doom on a gp32 than dead trigger on any touch screen) that emulates all I need (btw: why would anyone want dolphin to run on a touchscreen tablet device?????) and an actual linux computer. It's far more powerful than any of my android devices by sheer stability and full user control. And we all know: Thou shalt not compare different cpu architectures by their clock speed! Because it doesn't mean shit that you have a 2ghz octacore device if it's only capable of surfing the web and playing youtube videos...

I cannot however speak for x86 tablets. I always wanted one but now am thinking it won't really be useful to me. I still feel like I wouldn't miss my tablet at all. While I need my qwerty android phone for work.