Ok, I'll waste some time to report my Pyra experiences for you.
And to feel important with hopefully lots of likes and responses
University has started again and my holidays ended. I've been playing around with the Pyra a little but because of a bad keymat not as much as I've planned to do.
But now the interesting part begins: The first Pyra out in the wild in a real life scenario
Finally I will replace the Pandora and my oversized gaming Laptop and use the Pyra as my only device at University.
As some of you may know I've already done a Psychology Bachelor study mainly with my Pandora.
So what are my conclusions and reports after the first day:
Programs:
Here is what I already tested
Firefox
Works well, but the internal wifi is bad, so it will be better in the future I suppose. Anyways, it's a lot better than on the Pandora. And it feels great to simply copy the Firefox folder from my Laptop on the SD-Card and get the exact same feeling. I'm using some blocking add-ons and have some things to load (not hardcore level thou).
It runs and loads ok. Lighter browsers will be really fast I suppose and having it on the internal storage will also speed it up.
Thinderbird
Same as FireFox. It simply works as on my Laptop. Everything fits nicely on the screen.
I could copy my Laptop settings and it's the same as on my big machine.
Libreoffice
Starts really fast. As fast as on my Laptop.
Looks nice and everything fits on the screen.
Not used much more than for a quick test.
Xournal
This is the PDF annotation software I've used for my Psychology studies for years now.
Not much difference as it already run well on the Pandora.
It's bigger and smoother. Pages load faster.
As an extra as I'm now using the MATE desktop instead of XFCE the dark theme does not make the text entry fields black and doesn't block the sight any more.
So it works perfect
Geany
As I now study Computer Science I will test some heavier IDEs later.
Anyways, I like Geany a lot and it also works well on the Pyra.
The screen is big enough to display 30-40 lines of code at once. My 17'' full HD Laptop currently displays 45 lines.
So it's good and a lot better than on the Pandora.
WhatsApp Desktop
That might have been unexpected but as WhatsApp Desktop is in the Debian Repo I tried it.
It works.
I used it once during my first lecture to send and receive one message.
Telegram Desktop
I needed to add the Debian Backports Repo and then it installed without any issues and works fine out of the box.
Matlab
The Desktop version is only x64 Linux.
But there is a web app of the full version.
I could log in with Firefox and it is responsive.
Loading takes a while.
I will use it this Semester in class. More information will come.
MATE desktop
As I mentioned I now tried MATE despite of being a XFCE user since my first Pandora days and was convinced that it's the best desktop environment ever.
I need to say, MATE is better. Solely because it supports an integrated dark theme without any drawbacks. I like it a lot.
After deleting the top bar and adjusting the panel similar to my XFCE Panel there's not much difference.
I now use a fast SD-Card and everything feels responsive.
Syncthing
Syncthing is in the Pyra Debian repo and can be installed easily.
It works out of the box and I could set it up on my Laptop and Pyra in a short time.
I had no experience with the program. It was really simply.
There is one bug on the ARM build I came across. I had to set the maximal upload and download to any number instead of the default unlimited (0).
Else the devices did disconnect after some time.
The syncthing-gtk package was not in the Debian ARM repo but only in the Arch Repo.
However there is an official armhf deb file available to download (Link).
After installing the dependencies it works flawlessly so far.
All in all I need to say it's as easy as it can be.
It works on the same network and when both devices are on a different one.
Zotero
I installed Zotero on my Laptop and on my Pyra.
It's a nice tool for citation and manage a bibliography.
It has a Firefox extension and a LibreOffice extension.
Both did install automatically on the Pyra and my Laptop.
The Pyra could import the Library and edit the .fodt file I created on my Laptop.
It's a useful tool it seems.
The Firefox extension adds a Website with one click to the library with access date and extracts the author.
The LibreOffice extension allows to choose a citation style and adds. It can make a bibliography out of Zotero's library and add a reference to the text.
Everything is created automatically.
It seems to be pretty useful and to work well. Much better than the integrated one in LibreOffice.
Installation was simple as usual. Search "Zotero" in synaptic and install the standalone App and the LibreOffice extension.
When Zotero is open and I start Firefox it asks me if I want to install the extension.
Both did work well on the Pyra.
Hardware:
Build Quality
Better not talk about it. My case broke and I have the second one already.
The screen is not held in place and the logo is missing.
Well, it's a prototype with cheap plastic
Now the good things:
Screen
The resolution is great, it looks as if it was my big Laptop but only smaller. No giant buttons, nothing looks out of place or squeezed in.
It's glossy and I don't like that but it's not possible to have it mate.
Didn't use the touchscreen much as the Nubs are great.
The background lightning can be a lot darker than on the Pandora what is a good thing as it is eye friendly at night.
And it can be really bright.
I've used it in the bus during sunlight and it was OK to use.
Under direct sunlight I don't see anything. But it's the same on the Pandora and on my much brighter high end Smartphone (Blackberry Priv).
Case
The shoulderbuttons don't fit perfectly but 3 out of 4 do work flawlessly. So that's a great start. And they are not as oud as some Pandora shoulderbuttons are.
My Stylus doesn't hold in place properly and I can't find it at the moment (well I didn't look for it and I miaybe lost it during the case replacement at the Office)
The size feels great and the Pandora suddenly feels too thin.
The Battery fits perfectly in place.
Keymat
Either I have bad luck or that part is pretty broken.
Typing and positioning of the fingers feels good and having a "tab", "esc" and "delete" Key is fantastic.
Simply the buttons don't react well on mine no matter what revision of the Keymat I'm using. I've cleaned it a week ago and it's already getting worse again.
It's likely that it's a faulty main PCB.
Also a fault of the main PCB is that some buttons simply get stuck and are pressed forever until I press them again. SELECT and "." for example often hang. That needs to be fixed as that happens often for me.
An other thing is the Keymat revision. The older one with black paint is a lot better than the new one without.
The new one simply is too light, too clicky and has that shiny glowing rim around the keys.
It feels great on the dummy but under real typing conditions the older one is a lot better.
The new one has a better D-Pad and better gaming buttons, so a combination is the best solution: Gaming Buttons without paint and Keyboard with paint.
The backlight is a great addition.
Nubs
They feel good and work great. Nothing else to say.
Performance:
Mine currently runs at 1.5 GHz.
The Desktop is perfectly responsive.
LibreOffice starts as fast (or faster) as on my Laptop. Firefoy is a little slower but.
Those small programs that compile and run instantly on my Laptop take some seconds to start on the Pyra.
Sometime it feels laggy. For example searching in the Synaptics package manager takes long. Maybe it'll be better when using the internal storage.
Thanks to the bad Wifi connection I could "only" test 720p YouTube. It without any issues.
I won't mention especially Wifi as it currently is capped to about 260 kb/s. As EvilDragon mentioned in the newspost we will get a great new Antenna and chip and it will be a great experience.
Battery life:
It's already pretty good I think. I was connected to Wifi, had USB on, Frefox open, Xournal open and WhatsApp Desktop running. Keyboard backlight was turned off and the Screen at the second brightness level.
I did not do much as it was during the lecture. I downloaded some required files and opened the PDF.
The battery indicator told me I it will last about 7-8 hours.
Today I turned off USB and Networking and I got about 10-11 hours idle.
I expected less from an unoptimized Prototype, about 5-6 hours. So I'm surprised and like it a lot. My Gaming Laptop lasts 3 hours under best conditions...
Charging is very slow at the moment.
My Phone has a 3300 mAh Battery and charges within 1 - 1.5 hours completely using Qualcom Quickcharge 2. The Pyra takes much longer to charge. We need to unlock the USB port to get advantage of 2.5 or 3 amapre chagers.
Maintainability:
Even after repairing and building (maybe a lot) more than 1000 Pandoras I was still afraid to change the case when I saw the first cracks.
It was new to me. I was unfamiliar with the Pyra and had bad experiences with the early prototypes. Those were a pain to build, especially the LCD cable.
And of course it's one of the special Prototypes. I didn't want to risk to damage it. It might sell at a high price on ebay at some time
Yesterday I was forced to chance the case as the hinge completely broke.
It was one of the best experiences, if not the best experience I had with the Pyra so far.
It was so easy. I can't describe how easy it was. It's so much better than the Pandora.
I could easily open it up and that's it. No brute force required to get the lid open (some Pandoras are really hard to open). No buttons and small parts to put in afterwards.
The LCD-Cable feels so undestructable despite of being so tiny.
I felt special because I could build a Pandora and because I can fix 90% of all hardware bugs.
I think I will never feel special to be able to assemble a Pyra. It's so easy.
Conclusion:
After one year studying with my Laptop and barely using the Pandora for much more than a music payer and after 3 years of waiting I was not much excited any more. I wasn't that excited as I got the prototype. At the same day I got my new Smartphone and setting that up was a lot fun. I could do anything with it and my Laptop is better for typing and programming. And I have a Nintendo Swtich for gaming and don't care about older games any more. So does the Pyra have much use now? Will it ever be able to influence me as much as the Pandora or will I go an other way?
Then I used it for one day at University...
... It's the best thing ever. I'm so happy to finally have one.
It is a REAL PC. Not a slow, broken, old device. It feels like having my PC with me.
Who needs that other crap any more (well, except the Nintendo). This will be my main device.
It's perfect as soon as I get a main PCB with proper Keyboard and the LTE module.
The Pandora feeling is coming back.
And this time I do know a lot more than 7 years ago and finally study the right subject to use even more of the Pyra's potential.
That's it for now.
If something interesting will happen I'll report it for you.
I won't do screenshots of WhatsApp or ThunderBird as it's vontains private Data of myself and others.
For anything else you may ask me to do pictures.
Sound seems broken on my unit so I cant test how loud the headphones are compared to the Pandora.
Feel free to ask what you want to know. I'm pretty lazy when it comes to post things on my own.
And to feel important with hopefully lots of likes and responses
University has started again and my holidays ended. I've been playing around with the Pyra a little but because of a bad keymat not as much as I've planned to do.
But now the interesting part begins: The first Pyra out in the wild in a real life scenario
Finally I will replace the Pandora and my oversized gaming Laptop and use the Pyra as my only device at University.
As some of you may know I've already done a Psychology Bachelor study mainly with my Pandora.
So what are my conclusions and reports after the first day:
Programs:
Here is what I already tested
Firefox
Works well, but the internal wifi is bad, so it will be better in the future I suppose. Anyways, it's a lot better than on the Pandora. And it feels great to simply copy the Firefox folder from my Laptop on the SD-Card and get the exact same feeling. I'm using some blocking add-ons and have some things to load (not hardcore level thou).
It runs and loads ok. Lighter browsers will be really fast I suppose and having it on the internal storage will also speed it up.
Thinderbird
Same as FireFox. It simply works as on my Laptop. Everything fits nicely on the screen.
I could copy my Laptop settings and it's the same as on my big machine.
Libreoffice
Starts really fast. As fast as on my Laptop.
Looks nice and everything fits on the screen.
Not used much more than for a quick test.
Xournal
This is the PDF annotation software I've used for my Psychology studies for years now.
Not much difference as it already run well on the Pandora.
It's bigger and smoother. Pages load faster.
As an extra as I'm now using the MATE desktop instead of XFCE the dark theme does not make the text entry fields black and doesn't block the sight any more.
So it works perfect
Geany
As I now study Computer Science I will test some heavier IDEs later.
Anyways, I like Geany a lot and it also works well on the Pyra.
The screen is big enough to display 30-40 lines of code at once. My 17'' full HD Laptop currently displays 45 lines.
So it's good and a lot better than on the Pandora.
WhatsApp Desktop
That might have been unexpected but as WhatsApp Desktop is in the Debian Repo I tried it.
It works.
I used it once during my first lecture to send and receive one message.
Telegram Desktop
I needed to add the Debian Backports Repo and then it installed without any issues and works fine out of the box.
Matlab
The Desktop version is only x64 Linux.
But there is a web app of the full version.
I could log in with Firefox and it is responsive.
Loading takes a while.
I will use it this Semester in class. More information will come.
MATE desktop
As I mentioned I now tried MATE despite of being a XFCE user since my first Pandora days and was convinced that it's the best desktop environment ever.
I need to say, MATE is better. Solely because it supports an integrated dark theme without any drawbacks. I like it a lot.
After deleting the top bar and adjusting the panel similar to my XFCE Panel there's not much difference.
I now use a fast SD-Card and everything feels responsive.
Syncthing
Syncthing is in the Pyra Debian repo and can be installed easily.
It works out of the box and I could set it up on my Laptop and Pyra in a short time.
I had no experience with the program. It was really simply.
There is one bug on the ARM build I came across. I had to set the maximal upload and download to any number instead of the default unlimited (0).
Else the devices did disconnect after some time.
The syncthing-gtk package was not in the Debian ARM repo but only in the Arch Repo.
However there is an official armhf deb file available to download (Link).
After installing the dependencies it works flawlessly so far.
All in all I need to say it's as easy as it can be.
It works on the same network and when both devices are on a different one.
Zotero
I installed Zotero on my Laptop and on my Pyra.
It's a nice tool for citation and manage a bibliography.
It has a Firefox extension and a LibreOffice extension.
Both did install automatically on the Pyra and my Laptop.
The Pyra could import the Library and edit the .fodt file I created on my Laptop.
It's a useful tool it seems.
The Firefox extension adds a Website with one click to the library with access date and extracts the author.
The LibreOffice extension allows to choose a citation style and adds. It can make a bibliography out of Zotero's library and add a reference to the text.
Everything is created automatically.
It seems to be pretty useful and to work well. Much better than the integrated one in LibreOffice.
Installation was simple as usual. Search "Zotero" in synaptic and install the standalone App and the LibreOffice extension.
When Zotero is open and I start Firefox it asks me if I want to install the extension.
Both did work well on the Pyra.
Hardware:
Build Quality
Better not talk about it. My case broke and I have the second one already.
The screen is not held in place and the logo is missing.
Well, it's a prototype with cheap plastic
Now the good things:
Screen
The resolution is great, it looks as if it was my big Laptop but only smaller. No giant buttons, nothing looks out of place or squeezed in.
It's glossy and I don't like that but it's not possible to have it mate.
Didn't use the touchscreen much as the Nubs are great.
The background lightning can be a lot darker than on the Pandora what is a good thing as it is eye friendly at night.
And it can be really bright.
I've used it in the bus during sunlight and it was OK to use.
Under direct sunlight I don't see anything. But it's the same on the Pandora and on my much brighter high end Smartphone (Blackberry Priv).
Case
The shoulderbuttons don't fit perfectly but 3 out of 4 do work flawlessly. So that's a great start. And they are not as oud as some Pandora shoulderbuttons are.
My Stylus doesn't hold in place properly and I can't find it at the moment (well I didn't look for it and I miaybe lost it during the case replacement at the Office)
The size feels great and the Pandora suddenly feels too thin
.The Battery fits perfectly in place.
Keymat
Either I have bad luck or that part is pretty broken.
Typing and positioning of the fingers feels good and having a "tab", "esc" and "delete" Key is fantastic.
Simply the buttons don't react well on mine no matter what revision of the Keymat I'm using. I've cleaned it a week ago and it's already getting worse again.
It's likely that it's a faulty main PCB.
Also a fault of the main PCB is that some buttons simply get stuck and are pressed forever until I press them again. SELECT and "." for example often hang. That needs to be fixed as that happens often for me.
An other thing is the Keymat revision. The older one with black paint is a lot better than the new one without.
The new one simply is too light, too clicky and has that shiny glowing rim around the keys.
It feels great on the dummy but under real typing conditions the older one is a lot better.
The new one has a better D-Pad and better gaming buttons, so a combination is the best solution: Gaming Buttons without paint and Keyboard with paint.
The backlight is a great addition.
Nubs
They feel good and work great. Nothing else to say.
Performance:
Mine currently runs at 1.5 GHz.
The Desktop is perfectly responsive.
LibreOffice starts as fast (or faster) as on my Laptop. Firefoy is a little slower but.
Those small programs that compile and run instantly on my Laptop take some seconds to start on the Pyra.
Sometime it feels laggy. For example searching in the Synaptics package manager takes long. Maybe it'll be better when using the internal storage.
Thanks to the bad Wifi connection I could "only" test 720p YouTube. It without any issues.
I won't mention especially Wifi as it currently is capped to about 260 kb/s. As EvilDragon mentioned in the newspost we will get a great new Antenna and chip and it will be a great experience.
Battery life:
It's already pretty good I think. I was connected to Wifi, had USB on, Frefox open, Xournal open and WhatsApp Desktop running. Keyboard backlight was turned off and the Screen at the second brightness level.
I did not do much as it was during the lecture. I downloaded some required files and opened the PDF.
The battery indicator told me I it will last about 7-8 hours.
Today I turned off USB and Networking and I got about 10-11 hours idle.
I expected less from an unoptimized Prototype, about 5-6 hours. So I'm surprised and like it a lot. My Gaming Laptop lasts 3 hours under best conditions...
Charging is very slow at the moment.
My Phone has a 3300 mAh Battery and charges within 1 - 1.5 hours completely using Qualcom Quickcharge 2. The Pyra takes much longer to charge. We need to unlock the USB port to get advantage of 2.5 or 3 amapre chagers.
Maintainability:
Even after repairing and building (maybe a lot) more than 1000 Pandoras I was still afraid to change the case when I saw the first cracks.
It was new to me. I was unfamiliar with the Pyra and had bad experiences with the early prototypes. Those were a pain to build, especially the LCD cable.
And of course it's one of the special Prototypes. I didn't want to risk to damage it. It might sell at a high price on ebay at some time
Yesterday I was forced to chance the case as the hinge completely broke.
It was one of the best experiences, if not the best experience I had with the Pyra so far.
It was so easy. I can't describe how easy it was. It's so much better than the Pandora.
I could easily open it up and that's it. No brute force required to get the lid open (some Pandoras are really hard to open). No buttons and small parts to put in afterwards.
The LCD-Cable feels so undestructable despite of being so tiny.
I felt special because I could build a Pandora and because I can fix 90% of all hardware bugs.
I think I will never feel special to be able to assemble a Pyra. It's so easy.
Conclusion:
After one year studying with my Laptop and barely using the Pandora for much more than a music payer and after 3 years of waiting I was not much excited any more. I wasn't that excited as I got the prototype. At the same day I got my new Smartphone and setting that up was a lot fun. I could do anything with it and my Laptop is better for typing and programming. And I have a Nintendo Swtich for gaming and don't care about older games any more. So does the Pyra have much use now? Will it ever be able to influence me as much as the Pandora or will I go an other way?
Then I used it for one day at University...
... It's the best thing ever. I'm so happy to finally have one.
It is a REAL PC. Not a slow, broken, old device. It feels like having my PC with me.
Who needs that other crap any more (well, except the Nintendo
). This will be my main device.It's perfect as soon as I get a main PCB with proper Keyboard and the LTE module.
The Pandora feeling is coming back.
And this time I do know a lot more than 7 years ago and finally study the right subject to use even more of the Pyra's potential.
That's it for now.
If something interesting will happen I'll report it for you.
I won't do screenshots of WhatsApp or ThunderBird as it's vontains private Data of myself and others.
For anything else you may ask me to do pictures.
Sound seems broken on my unit so I cant test how loud the headphones are compared to the Pandora.
Feel free to ask what you want to know. I'm pretty lazy when it comes to post things on my own.
Last edited:
