PGS Windows 10 gaming handheld - GPD WIN competitor

[Exophase]

Yeah I know its a z8300 thats $20 cheaper than a z8700, but its also $90 inc delivery tablet at retail. But yes, I agree on the extras in the PGS, I guess we wont know what those extras cost.

By the way, people seem to be looking at the wrong person in the PGS team, you should be looking up the only person that matters -> Sergei kirimov.

I cannot find a single thing on him. In fact google says there is only one person in the world with that precise name, and it aint him. But my search skills are not the best, so I challenge everyone else to the challenge of finding him. Maybe he guys by the russian translation of his name or something - don't know. But if he has worked on a 3D priner quadrocopter , then he should be findable

Lola's going to matter when she finds herself in the unenviable position that Link had with iCP2.

Here's the Cyrillic for Sergei Kirimov.. maybe.. Сергей Киримов Have fun

 

[comradekingu]

hmmm

Are we meant to believe he from Sakhalin or thereabouts?

 

[vcoleiro1]

Hmm, new comment from PGS is from someone not on their company team posted just yesterday. New guy?

 

[Gr8one]

Hmm, new comment from PGS is from someone not on their company team posted just yesterday. New guy?

Yeah that is strange, another manager i suppose. Must be the missing 7th member.... although his sentences and expressions seem a little similar to Nadir.

I actually like this development as I would like to see a tech journalist do some investigating into PGS. It's quite an interesting story, lots of mystery, with Russian mobster ballerina daughter, mysterious Japanese engineer that has no evidence of existence on the internet. Plus covering the story now would beat everyone for the scoop if/when the project eventually fails.

 

[vcoleiro1]

I have been speaking with an editor of a tech site that I know. We talked about the PGS since they first announced it on forums way back.. He doesn't want to cover it until they show a real working prototype. PGS even contacted him to run a story on their KS, but he refused.

 

[comradekingu]

Another PR guy… Why would a company that provides zero trustable data allow any journalist to talk to them?
Thats right, they just said they wouldn't. What a surprise. If you take a look at just surface-level detail, you see there isn't much more to it.
They respond to people on KS with the non-answer because that is the bare minimum of what they have to do.

Its not even mid-day yet, and we are knee deep into episode 7
Edit: seems one episode was mentioned twice, we have had 7 installments already.

 

[lukey]

Its not even mid-day yet, and we are knee deep into episode 6

Better Split that Stuff up into Spoilers.

 

[slimeycat]

This will end in tears -- mark my words.

I have said my peace!

 

[FlapJack]

I dunno, these and other cheap Windows tablets have very little in common with PGS.. pretty much every component there is going to be significantly cheaper including the SoC which is barely half the cost as x7-Z8750. There are so many factors that would push up their price in comparison.

I also don't think heavily (and possibly temporarily) slashed prices tell the whole story.

What do I think is PGSLab themselves are closely looking at pricing for these Chinese tablets, many of which they've torn up to use as proof of concept, and basing their pricing around this. I doubt they're based on actual quotes from suppliers.

That is what it seems to be - they have taken apart a few devices and realized the costs and figured/HOPED that they can disassemble them and fit the components into their own (3-D printed?) case design, OR hope that a Chinese company will do ALL of it for them. Obviously they will have to lose the retractable joystick/nub and other bizarre features that were promised. They haven't collected enough $$$ to satisfy most of their promises. There is no way.

 

[Exophase]

Interesting contrast on something.

PGSLab has been steadily promising that they will produce an updated PGS that uses Apollo Lake.

GPD, on the other hand, has pushed the Win to use x7-87xx, because they rightfully realize that Apollo Lake will likely not be power optimized to the extent Cedar Trail was or Broxton would have been. Much in the same way Braswell wasn't.

That more or less sums up the difference in engineering knowledge between the two.

Also:

We'll solve these issues anyway, it is not a big problem to dissipate 2 watts. Assuming that the limited titanium series of 10 pieces will be made and tested by hand.

They seem to think the entire unit's power consumption will not exceed 2W, as if the SoC is the only thing running. They also naively think that 2W is a guarantee regardless of thermal solution/form factor, not really understanding what "Scenario Design Power" is supposed to mean.

 

[FlapJack]

Interesting contrast on something.

PGSLab has been steadily promising that they will produce an updated PGS that uses Apollo Lake.

GPD, on the other hand, has pushed the Win to use x7-87xx, because they rightfully realize that Apollo Lake will likely not be power optimized to the extent Cedar Trail was or Broxton would have been. Much in the same way Braswell wasn't.

That more or less sums up the difference in engineering knowledge between the two.

Also:



They seem to think the entire unit's power consumption will not exceed 2W, as if the SoC is the only thing running. They also naively think that 2W is a guarantee regardless of thermal solution/form factor, not really understanding what "Scenario Design Power" is supposed to mean.

We already know that they're dreamers and not engineers. The word "scammers" has also been tossed around. This is more of the same. They have no idea what they're doing, but maybe that's not important to them, because in the end, they get the money and then they ride off into the sunset and some poor sod is left holding the empty bag of promises.

 

[comradekingu]

Stage 8 up Cool down, I can't hear you. Is that you Nintendo?

For a company aiming for handhelds, for games, I don't understand how they make these errors.

"The history of PGS began at the moment when the era of Sony portable consoles was almost over."

 

[Gr8one]

Stage 8 up Cool down, I can't hear you. Is that you Nintendo?

For a company aiming for handhelds, for games, I don't understand how they make these errors.

I don't think they have a clue at this point. I still think Exophase's idea that they are trying to get bought out is the most logical strategy they have. They keep mentioning looking for partners and investors, i'm curious if they are looking to go an Oculus route and get their device bought by a larger firm, that can swallow the R&D costs of the device as well as the low (if any margins) that they are selling it on kickstarter. I can't imagine a device like the PGS having a MSRP at $320 unless they use the supply chain of a much larger experienced company.

Personally I don't see a one shot x86 handheld in a niche market like this being that interesting to any established firms. Especially since Sony abandoned gaming handhelds, intel has bailed, and analysts believe the tablet market has reached maturity. Seems like risky business for any key decision maker in the tech industry. No risk for PGS though to try with others money on a kickstarter.

 

[comradekingu]

Look at it this way, what we know is they have a render based on a 3D model, which they have made into a partial 3D-print with some tablet-parts. If they were serious about anything, even saying it themselves they would have one, they would postpone the KS till they had that prototype.
A group of scenarios starting out at what we see, then applying wishful thinking onwards

Either they are,

A. Doing the least amount of actual work to be able to cash out.
Everything they have done, CGI renders, video, website, suggests this. Also the way it is done.
Or
B. They are utterly clueless beyond doing what they have done so far
Doesn't really matter does it. Nobody wants to touch those promises with that budget, and there couldn't be more ways for it to vanish everywhere. It is easy to go from B. to A. otherwise this is the end of the road, unless E.

What else do we know? The registered company is from 2015.

C. Bleeding money by having lots of managers and need to go NOW
Having this team suggests A. from the get-go, with a potential D. first. or B.
Or
D. Lost their investment backing and are C.

Alternative ending:
E. They didn't know they were clueless and will repay everyone once they fathom what this is.
Not a chance, the arrogance displayed and the sheer consistency in avoiding things is not an accident at this point. It would have changed if it was going to.

-----------------

Remember Craig setting out this way, assuming all is ideal and all will go well, starting to slip, having half-answers, killing one thing with the other, being arrogant, cooking up new and crazy plans, getting bailed out, refusing to answer, smoke and mirrors, getting helped out, being allowed to hang himself, refusing to answer, going silent.

This is not that, this can not be saved, otherwise its the exact same thing to an extreme, the marketeer with an inflated ego, lacking the skills to make up for or avoid how it is applied.

We are at the point where sharing anything will knowingly open yet more doors to further questioning. If they (thought they) had end-game answers or good intentions, you would hear something.

Instead it's avoid all issues till the Kickstarter ends. Burning promises and keep upping the ante to focus on something new.

I predict, More pandering and answering yes in the comment-section, "Spread this campaign" and focus on the items you can win, focus on stretch-goals, talking about them if they are met, something about the Amoled/IPS situation, some JK we don't have a modem only a SMS/voice gateway, announcing hardware, unrelated stuff like bootsplash animations, something about the t-shirt that is bundled with everything (I just noticed), a last fanfare that costs money, a new video about progress, damage control.

 

[jeeks]

Stage 8 up Cool down, I can't hear you. Is that you Nintendo?

Whew, that is one long post. But nicely done summary/record

Not even the button layout was final? Aww. They should 3D print two dummies with the proposed layouts and film people holding them and awkwardly pressing the fake buttons. It's hard to tell from the pictures which one's more comfortable to use or if the button positions make sense.

 

[comradekingu]

You mean like in their video

Another, and even longer episode 9 up
Would you like some marketing with that nonsense?

They can't get beyond where they promise something, stick to it, or even know what it is.

 

[Løra (Lolla)]

I think they're tripping up over themselves left, right and centre. Eventually they'll tangle themselves up with their own web of deceit and gosh knows what else.

Liking the summaries and all the information given in kingu's posts.

Keep them coming, and please notify when updates have been made (it's too far back for me to find it to keep checking it etc).

 

[jeeks]

You mean like in their video

Yup, but holding it as if they're doing a review about it or playing stuff :> I'm super bad at guessing how big handhelds are and how far apart their components are, so I like watching videos of people holding them (dunno why I prefer hands instead of rulers, other gaming devices or bananas; maybe I'm just weird). I hoped that the person in the "prototype" video would pick up the thing at one point, but that didn't happen :/

 

[Gr8one]

A poster on Neogaf named MJPIA who might be a member here as well just shared some damning evidence against PGS and their credibility:

BTW meet Alan Williams aka Kostas Valov aka Kostas Lucky

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?f...type=3&theater
https://www.facebook.com/kostas.valov?fref=ufi
https://new.vk.com/id261598200
Not the one who found him but it was someone who wishes to remain anonymous.
Anyone care to try to track down the rest of the team?

 

[MechaBouncer]

I wanted to thank everyone here and on the NeoGAF forum for following this and digging up the information. (I would have registered over there too, but my primary email is through Gmail, so it wouldn't let me register.) From the information you all have gathered, including what Gr8one just posted, I'm pretty convinced this is now a scam. Even if it's not, it shows that they don't have a team, just a bunch of actors pretending as much. So any funding from this will most likely go nowhere.

I'll probably go for a GDP Win instead because I still want a Windows handheld. Otherwise the Pyra looks awesome.

Thanks again!