Post picks and first impressions of your shiny new Pandora here!


@DynaMight - lovely photo - really shows how good the Pandora looks


@Alpha2 - Loving the Super Metroid photo


@Dennis - If it was me I would be sending it back because of the crack. But the thought of having to send it back just after it's arrived :-(
 
A lot of negativity here....


I must say that I do not agree with the negative reviews.


The screen is magnificent, better than any handheld that I have owned, including various apple kit and better than all laptops I have ever owned except for the latest macbook pro which is slightly better.


I use it all the time and my battery time is awesome! As I use it, and put it down to do some work and then pick it up again, my battery time is closer to 20 hours than to 10.... almost miraculous according to my standards.


Until I can get gphoto compiled and working on the pandy, my main use is as a portable ebook reader, and it is the first truly portable unit that i have ever used that actually makes a great job at this,


the clamshell allows you to set the pandora down and you are still able to read the screen. Thanks to the awesome resolution it is just great for reading comics and other ebooks.


The controls are so far awesome, the keyboard is just perfect, the gamepad controls are just perfectly designed, by far the best I have ever used, and I own several handhelds. The joypad is just unimaginably smooth but at the same time exact. I have not used the nubs much, but when I have, they seemed solid.


I really love this unit, and carry it with me all the time.


Are there ANY negatives?


I have a few minor problems in the OS:


* When you get the unit it is more or less necessary to browse the forums to find a way to scroll the screen to hit the on-screen buttons.


* I would love to have a nice tool to change the button config so I can use the shoulders as mouse buttons, as it stands currently, it requires a lot of tinkering


* The fact that you have to place your pnds in a pandora folder on your SD could be made even clearer in the OS, or the OS should prompt you to make the folder automatically for an unknown card.


With the unit itself and its construction:


The plastic seems unnecessarily brittle. I imagine that there exists some other plastic blend that is less brittle.


Other than that, nothing.


Happy as a clam, I am only annoyed that I did not get it sooner....


AWESOME job guys. Thanks for sticking it in there and making this wonderful piece of kit!
 
kaiserpc said:
@Dennis - If it was me I would be sending it back because of the crack. But the thought of having to send it back just after it's arrived :-(
Click to expand...
I've already sent a mail and are waiting for an answer.
 
Got mine yesterday. My first impression after playing with it for a bit is that the hardware is exceptionally well-done. Seriously, Nintendo and Sony could learn some things about how to do mobile game buttons right.


The d-pad in particular is silky smooth. I will say that my big hands are finding the buttons rather small, but for most things it's not an issue. You may also have to break in the buttons a bit, but after a couple hours of use they travel well. The case itself is generally free of flaws, at least as free of imperfections as any DS or other handheld you'll find. The nubs are wonderful too, although I haven't encountered much software that really uses them. Perhaps, in time. But they just work for me: No need to calibrate or anything. And that big 'ol battery sure packs a lot of hours' worth of power. The screen makes a lot of these games look better than they did on the old TV my parents had when I was a kid.


I would caution anyone who has yet to receive their machine that you temper your expectations around software. The OS has some little quirks and takes some learning, and the emulators I've used need some work. You'll find many without a GUI or much guidance as to how to do things, like save or quit. Others are looking a little better but currently rely on overclocking (which, the Pandora cheerfully warns, could burn your house down . . .) to achieve full speed. And at least a few could benefit from more options, such as scaling (e.g. wider than 1:1 but not the full width of the LCD) or more accurate audio, etc.


But, that's not to take away from the good work of the developers. This is an area I would expect will improve over time, and as long as you're patient and don't expect miracles from Day 1, you'll get a lot of enjoyment out of the Pandora in the long run.
 
EvilDragon said:
Wow, that's an interesting crack :eek:


Haven't seen that one before. Doesn't look like it came from the screw, looks more like this came out of the moulding machine like that and shouldn't have made it to our place.
Click to expand...
Hmmm, I actually have the same kind of crack. It starts from the screw, and continues to the usb port. And next to the shift, and above the '<' I got a similar too tight crack.


Otherwise, I am very happy with the pandora.


(Ok, I second the screen, and the wifi, which is weird in a way, since IPv6 seems to work OK , but IPv4 has some problems ;-). Probably something with multicast-neighbour-lookup, vs broadcast-neighbour-lookup).
 
Dennis said:
Nowadays, multimedia is expected to work out of the box on any fairly advanced device.
Click to expand...
It does WORK after you install the software. If OPT included the software, they would have to pay a licensing fee which would increase the cost of the Pandora units. When you install it yourself, you save us all some coin. IIRC I had to install DoubleTwist on my Droid X to get music to work and sync from my MBP.


Sorry to hear about your case. I'm sure you'll get hooked up with a nice Pandora.
 
Link said:
It does WORK after you install the software.
Click to expand...
Which is something we have already established.


I'm glad to say that my video collection for my iPhone works unalterd. No need to reconvert my DVD:s then :)


More iPhone for me and more movies for the kids :)
 
@ Dennis: Thanks for the unboxing pics! Sorry to hear you've got all of these negatives... The crack would absolutely drive me insane, but I'm sure OPT will replace that for you.


I'm actually waiting to get mine and making notes of which software I'd remove, and which software to replace. I trust OPT's judgment in software, but as software evolves, some things just surpass others...
 
Last edited by a moderator:
I had an awesome reaction today when I pulled my Pandora out in a group (10 people) at the restaurant! My friend's wife gave me a belated and somewhat unexpected Christmas present for one of my toddlers so in exchange I showed her some pictures of the children I kept on my Pandora. Immediately someone down the end of our table said "Whoa! What is THAT???" and I said it was a "Linux handheld gaming box", knowing full well that most people there would understand that. Then I tilted it towards them and showcased the "dedicated gaming controls" and they were amazed! It went around the table where people took turns playing an MAME game or two! One guy's wife played a game with full volume (it rang aloud a few tables away!) and got a high score (well, doesn't everyone, for the first 10 games?), my friend tried another game. A blast was had by all!
 
Received my Pandora wednesday. After an awkward hour of getting used to each other, we're best buddies now.


The left shoulderbutton sometimes needs a little bit of extra force to register. I will probably open it up sometime in the next weeks. Should be an easy fix. Other than that, it's absolutely perfect!


Compared to the stock Angstrom image for the beagleboard, the Pandora software feels way more polished already.


Compared to the N900, the Pandora feels like a device I can actually *use*. The N900 feels very clumsy, with its tiny screen and keyboard.


A BIG thank you to everyone involved in making this happen! I've been waiting at least 15 years for a device like this. Now it's here.
 
Thanks for the review Panik!


I'm expecting to get alot of reactions like sverm got when I finally get mine. I ride the subway quite often and there is no such thing as privacy there... I've also got at least 6 people that are waiting to see mine before they order one.
 
In the meanwhile you can enjoy some more lovely Pandora pictures: http://www.wootsontv.com/gallery/Pandora/ :p


001.jpg



During the coming weeks and months I'm also going to make a whole bunch of videos (gameplay, tutorials, etc). If you are interested, I suggest you head over to my YouTube channel and click on subscribe.


But first I need to make some school exams next week, and (hopefully not) the week after that.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
@ Wootson: Thanks for the great picks! Love the closeup ones! Can't wait to see the videos, and good luck with your exams!
 
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