Pandora's Design

[J201605]

i just realized how cool this thing will look closed with a usb controller and a tv out cable. Ittl be like a little external hard drive sized playstation. I hate that if i put the gp2x on the floor with things plugged into it the screen is exposed.

 

[cappuchok]

Clamshell is definitely the way to go. The design reminds me of the DS for some reason (probably the extra space for speakers on the sides of the screen...). The design as a whole was kinda... "meh", but workable and practical for the many intended uses of the device (console, PDA, UMPC...). I'll be buying it anyway, though certainly not on account of cutting-edge design. I do hope the device will be usable in it's folded state as Jackd suggested in his above post.

 

[Ravnos]

About the only complaint I have is that the keyboard isn't slide-out, but clamshell isn't really enough of a sticking point to bother me. I can agree with other people here though that clamshell might make touchscreen use a little awkward unless it can be rotated and folded over the rest of the device, but I'm sure that can be worked around.

 

[atomicthumbs]

 

[moxie]

First, small rant:

Now, lay off this "no keyboard" thing already! We've known that there was going to be a keyboard for the last freakin' THREE MONTHS. Newsflash: THERE IS GOING TO BE A KEYBOARD ON THIS THING!!! Get over it, already!!!

That was a small rant.

Now, onto the design - It's OK. The specs are excellent! This is what I want to replace my Psion and my gp2x and not having to carry around a laptop to do simple things lilke checking mail (or checking gamefaqs :lol: ). Bloody brilliant. Where do I sign up? When can I get it?

Necessary fixes: The keyboard needs a ctrl-key. I'd prefer a meta- (or alt or whatever you'd like to call it) key to, even though that would possibly be doable another way, but the ctrl must be on there.

Would it be possible to map keyboard keys to the gaming controls? It would be a solution (although not a good one) to have keys like meta on the action keys (in certain applications, of course, like in the shell or in emacs).

Not ctrl, though. Ctrl must be on the keyboard itself.

It would probably be preferable to have the a/v-out and the DC in on the back of the unit. At least, I imagine myself possibly playing on the tv but using the controls on the Pandora, and that would be awkward with cables hanging out towards me. If the current placements are an effect of the PCB design, I would prefer to turn it 180 degrees, so that the controls switch sides.

I don't mind the placement of the space key at all. Then again, I grew up with a ZX Spectrum. This will make an excellent spectrum emulator :lol:

 

[IcantDeleteThisAccount]

this is more something for the pandora website, any chance of a RSS feed?

 

[X-Code]

Voted, it's ok ( meaning that I like it but don't love it lol ).

We must consider that it is not only a gaming portable device, it is also a PDA, small computer, media player, communications device and so on.

So, melikes, I think that everything is placed in the correct areas

I'll have a black one with my coffee, thanks in advance B)

 

[Gr.Viper]

Gb part is gone now... h34r:
Now it's just "running Linux". And the render is black.

 

[atomicthumbs]

Yeah. The keyboard needs to be arranged to have a control key, and to have the keys (page up, page down, comma, period, number keys, and delete) in the proper places.

I'd also like an Alt key. And the spacebar to not be this tiny little thing at the side.

 

[torpor]

Just wanted to pitch in and say: LOVE IT!! Please hurry up and get it ready and sign me up for 3 of them already, in the pre-order queue .. I'm ready! I want it!

Anyone know, btw, what format the card-slots are? Still SD? I hope so - I don't want to give up all my GP2X SD cards ..

 

[Zeladin]

Weird... My first reaction to this design was "eww what is that?" Then I was reading on this thread, I saw the full render, and was like "mmh, all those expansion connectors". Then I thought about the controls again, and the clamshell design, and it actually made sense. At this stage, I think it's quite a good design - its not actually ugly, just not what I was expecting.

I think it is fair to say for really portable gaming the inbuilt screen protection is a must. If you can't throw it in your pocket - on a 20min bus journey its just not worth using.

The touch screen seems a distraction - it won't be very easy to use, and its not really needed, what with a keyboard and analog controllers. Mind you, everything under the sun has to have a touch screen nowadays, I guess.

Specs are great and I'm glad there'll be usb host, builtin wifi, and there's a TV-out. I'm nearly at the stage that i would buy one of these if I had the money...

The most concerning thing about this device and its viability - is its first impressions, which by and large seem to be negative. Luckily it seems also to grow on people, but maybe that's only us Gp2x Alternative console people?

 

[dontspam]

I've only noted 1 person who doesn't like the DC socket on the front. Surely it would be better on the back? In fact I think all of the sockets and buttons should be on the back except the volume control, would just make things a bit less messy.
Secondly, is there going to be a 3.5mm jack on this? I hope so.

 

[Deed]

This is worst than anything I could have imagined :blink: Don't wanna be rude, but adding a keyboard is a ridiculous idea. You should seriously reconsider it if you wanna earn some money with this device, because if you imagine you will take over the PDA market with this you are doomed. And if you imagine you will take over the nerd-hacker-tech-geek market you'er going to be really disappointed with sales, sorry ("how, so cool, I will be able to code on the fly, fantastic !")

I hope you all have noticed that one of the most successful portable devices of this year has no buttons at all ...

EDIT : just saw the white design and some more pics with the extra connectors and so on. It looks much more like a geekish ds lite this way, which is less bad than I have imagined at first glance, I have to admit

 

[gaterooze]

Functional side, I do think it would be much better to go without the keyboard. From what I can see, the device will be too small to have robust keyboard usage. If you have a USB connection, people can always hook up external keyboard.

Speaking as a GP32 Chatboard user, that's a horrible solution for a handheld.

I would probably still be interested in this without a keyboard, but it's a nice bonus to have - and helps differentiate it from other gaming devices.

QUOTE
This will also help you to turn this into a one piece device instead of the clamshell design.


Personally, the clamshell is a huge drawcard for me.

QUOTE
Another thing I suggest is not to put the speakers on the both sides of the screen. It creates unecessary space on the side and makes it look bad.


The DS does this, and to be honest, I never noticed it or considered it aesthetically unpleasing.

QUOTE
You can also go for this sort of design...


Please, no. For a start, it's not one-piece either, it's just a different mechanism to "open" -- and one that doesn't protect the screen. The "4 buttons instead of a D-pad" design is horrible.

I hope they take your advice about the super-strength hinges to support the touchscreen though.

You should seriously reconsider it if you wanna earn some money with this device, because if you imagine you will take over the PDA market with this you are doomed. And if you imagine you will take over the nerd-hacker-tech-geek market you'er going to be really disappointed with sales, sorry

Spoken like a proven industry genius :rolleyes:

 

[Yuglooc]

I hope you all have noticed that one of the most successful portable devices of this year has no buttons at all ...

And I hope you have noticed that it's pretty bad for playing games on ;P

 

[cappuchok]

I hope you all have noticed that one of the most successful portable devices of this year has no buttons at all ...

EDIT : just saw the white design and some more pics with the extra connectors and so on. It looks much more like a geekish ds lite this way, which is less bad than I have imagined at first glance, I have to admit

No buttons, hmm. That would go very well with all kinds of emulators, I'm sure...
</sarcasm>

Seriously though, yes in terms of design I would tend to think of this as the geek equivalent of the DS. The design is growing on me. I wonder if it'll be easy to take the casing apart and do a custom paintjob...

 

[Deed]

You should seriously reconsider it if you wanna earn some money with this device, because if you imagine you will take over the PDA market with this you are doomed. And if you imagine you will take over the nerd-hacker-tech-geek market you'er going to be really disappointed with sales, sorry

Spoken like a proven industry genius :rolleyes:

No need to be an industry genius. Only possible market for this device is the retro-gamer market (i.e. gp32 and gp2x market). You can forget the PDA market : no one wanting a PDA will buy this. Do you imagine some marketing or business guy using a DS lite instead of a proper PDA :lol: ? About the "I want to hack and code on the fly" market, I guess it exists but is a bit small

This said, I hated the design at first glance, but if it is really small and ergonomic, it may be OK as a good successor for the gp2x (when price will have come down to no more than 200$ of course). For the moment, I am glad I ordered a JXD301 (although I did not received it yet ), I believe there is a huge potential next year for blackfin powered PMPs

I hope you all have noticed that one of the most successful portable devices of this year has no buttons at all ...

And I hope you have noticed that it's pretty bad for playing games on ;P

I was thinking about business, not playability This said, I'd be curious to test snes, gba or psx emulators on the iPhone/iTouch. Maybe it is not so bad ? It is even possible that a 16/9 touch screen would be mroe than OK to play emulated games (controls would be on the left and right sides of the touch screen, without overwhelm too much game screen, if you see what I mean)

 

[emphyrio]

I've only noted 1 person who doesn't like the DC socket on the front. Surely it would be better on the back? In fact I think all of the sockets and buttons should be on the back except the volume control, would just make things a bit less messy.
Secondly, is there going to be a 3.5mm jack on this? I hope so.

I can see a possible reason for it to be in the back; if you connect to an external display you have the usb port for the gamepad and sd-cards in 'front', DC socket and a/v connector on the 'back'.

 

[moxie]

This is worst than anything I could have imagined :blink:

Good. Then it is probably just about right

 

[Null]

I voted Love it just to piss all the naysayers off. :lol:

+ skewing results = fun