Pandora's Design

[jeekl]

From what I can see, I think the design looks very neat. It's not iPodish, and I'm very thankful for that. This looks very practical and thought through aswell as pretty stylish if you ask me.

 

[Eolair]

Just a quick and dirty. I think it would much better in black:

 

[MWeston]

The white color is one possibility. I like black too. I have renders in black, white, red and pink..... well ed did pink as a joke and I didn't keep that one!

The plastic injection molds are the big cost, choosing which color pellets to load in the machine is the easy part. Don't sweat the color. White always showed off the details the best in the drawing so it stayed that way for previews.

 

[atomicthumbs]

Eolair: that looks awesome.

MWeston: I hope you haven't made the molds yet, so you can maybe implement some of the things we've been saying. Did you see my earlier post?

Ditch the keyboard, it doesn't belong in a gaming device.

gtfo

 

[Dead Ghost]

Anyway, is the design final? If it is, then we should stop with the design/ergonomics suggestions, or at least with the radical ones, like remove the keyboard or make it a slider....We should know this, because this will save a lot of useless posts and pages on this thread.

atomicthumbs: As long as Pandora emulates a lot of console games, which don't have a keyboard, then yes, it's useless from this point of view. If it can play Dos games, then maybe. Or homegrew games, wtih keyboard support. But i think 90% of the games will be emulated console games, so there's no need for it. And for other stuff, other then gaming, i prefer a notebook or a EEE pc, thank you. If i really need a keyboard, it can be on screen. If you think anyone will type novels or chat on that tiny keyboard, you're wrong.
And please, don't be rude if i have i different opinion then yours.

 

[Tobriand]

I must say, if the screen could rotate to give a tablet-esque effect, most of my fears about usability in other situations would be allayed. That said, I can't see that happening with the current design.

As an observation, this is almost the opposite to the GP2x reaction. The GP2x, in comparisson to the GP32, looked awesome. It was just that it's specs didn't hold up under scrutiny.

This looks kinda weird (not bad, but there are things to be concerned about). But the specs are in the bag!

 

[J201605]

When i first saw this i thought that it was horribly ugly but there are things that i know will look better on the final. For example, the analog sticks look terribly crappy on the render but from the youtube video of the stick i know it is of much higher quality and looks much better. A clamshell seemed strange at first but if it is compact enough that it could be held like a larger ds and less like a zaurus then it is ok by me especially because i am so paranoid about scratching the screen. I think we were all imagining something that somehow looked sony quality with a great sliding keyboard and keys like a n800's etc. but the truth is this couldnt have had enough funding and couldnt have gotten around many of the patents and things to look like that. I realize now that my expectations were rediculous for an open gaming machine and i was looking at this project the wrong way. I will still most likely buy this but really want to see a real picture of someone with it in there hands to judge if its actually holdable.

 

[atomicthumbs]

atomicthumbs: As long as Pandora emulates a lot of console games, which don't have a keyboard, then yes, it's useless from this point of view. If it can play Dos games, then maybe. Or homegrew games, wtih keyboard support. But i think 90% of the games will be emulated console games, so there's no need for it. And for other stuff, other then gaming, i prefer a notebook or a EEE pc, thank you. If i really need a keyboard, it's can be on screen. If you think anyone will type novels or chat on that tiny keyboard, you're wrong.
And please, don't be rude if i have i different opinion then yours.

Well, excluding the fact that it can install the entire library of Debian packages, Zodttd said he'd work on a dynarec'd DosBox. Not to mention the home computer emulators, which will probably be very popular.

And I will be typing chat and forum posts on that keyboard.

 

[Yuglooc]

The white color is one possibility. I like black too. I have renders in black, white, red and pink..... well ed did pink as a joke and I didn't keep that one!

The plastic injection molds are the big cost, choosing which color pellets to load in the machine is the easy part. Don't sweat the color. White always showed off the details the best in the drawing so it stayed that way for previews.

Oh god, If I get a look at the official render of a black pandora, I might have to order 2 Z_z

 

[leggymcjeggy]

I'm gonna cast my vote as "Its OK" although my first reaction was "Eugh"

The Colour and the Keyboard put me off at first, black sounds like a much better idea. (Or blue, red or green, everything seems to be black white or silver these days! Imagine a black and yellow console! )

That keyboard..... it looks so big, so.... in the way! It's been mentioned before but console games will probably be this machine's bread and butter. I wouldn't ditch the keyboard though, I'd shrink the keys, stick 'em right in the middle of the Pandora. Kinda like where the touch screen goes on the ds. That leaves your sides free for face buttons, dpad, start/select and MAYBE the sticks. Surely they'd benefit, coz right now they look thumb-stretchingly hard to use.

But the keys gotta change, people text off phones with keys one third the size! This ain't a laptop, baby!

I will still buy this, but I'm hoping for some design changes.

Oh, and agreeing with Tobriand on the specs. Hole in one. Screen and Clamshell are great ideas too.

 

[Eolair]

Color coordination would help too.

 

[CoMiKe]

The black Pandora looks a lot better, IMHO.

Anyway, I suppose the design is already decided, but I would vote to change the following things:

- Keyboard characters should be smaller for sure, LOL.
- Game controls should be at both sides of the screen, as in GP2X, PSP, etc.
- Then, the screen part should be rotable when opened, and laid over the keyboard when playing things that don't require a keyboard.
- This last point would also help when using the pen over the touchscreen.

I would draw my design, but I'm no good using Inkscape!

Anyway, I'm very interested in the Pandora as it is already designed, as it has all I need in a handheld.

Thanks for your efforts! Great work!

 

[Shiny]

But the keys gotta change, people text off phones with keys one third the size! This ain't a laptop, baby!

Exactly!
The keys should be smaller, and closer to the sides, so people can actually reach them while holding the unit!
(this may also provide sufficient room to lower the analogs)

 

[Patch]

So much for being able to control FPS games using the touch screen then?

 

[atomicthumbs]

leggymcjeggy, I agree. I'd rather the console be more wide than square.

 

[Julius]

A rotatable screen would be much more fragile at the hinge and probably almost unusable as a touchscreen in any other way than flat down (but that way you can use the buttons the same time).

 

[evilwallpaper]

So much for being able to control FPS games using the touch screen then?

no but you can use the dual analogues which is pretty much the touch screen would emulate if you used it in a fps.

 

[MWeston]

Well, let's give everyone a chance to rip on the design some more

Check out my site for some more renders: openpandora.ca

The final molds are not made yet. There are some great and inexpensive plastics prototyping companies that are so useful in preventing mold commitments until everything is decided. I'm not going to say much will change at this point, but nothing is falling on deaf ears

 

[J201605]

awesome renders on your site mweston i now definetly want this again.

 

[Shiny]

Are those two SD lights really necessary? I don't want a lights display going on while trying to use this thing

EDIT: Why is the Z key missing from the later renders? (LINK)
EDIT EDIT: The power switch is missing from them as well.