Should I Wait?

[Daedueleus]

By now I've pretty much been sold on the Pandora. Read through the FAQ and all, so far I am impressed (Drool). But what I am unsure about is when I should put money down on one?

What do ya'll think? Buy one from the second batch or wait until the third to see what happens?


Dev's keep up the good work.

 

[adamorjames]

There will be some canceled orders so it is possible to get in on the first batch. I'd say if you are wanting to wait a little while go for the second batch.

 

[Game_over]

Make sure you sign up for the newsletter, Craig and co will tell you when they take orders. Just putting that here, I'm sure you knew that already.

 

[PhillipJ]

The time between the first batch shipping and the second being opened for pre-order will probably be long enough to decide if the available software meets your needs. There are no planned hardware changes so I don't see any advantage in waiting for the third batch unless you're really hanging out for a specific piece of software.

 

[eksasol]

If I followed this project closed enough, I don't remember there were ever mentioned of the word 'third batch' by the pandora team. I wonder how much production has they planned for this device. From wiki it said by September, 2008 60k of GP2X devices has been sold. That's no where in comparision to nintendo and PSP, and I don't think the pandora was built to even compete with the GP2X in term of marketing, so imagine even less for the Pandora will be produce. I could be wrong, this device has become more popular than I expected.

Sorry to go off topic a bit.

As for your question, just wait till the people from the first batch get their Pandora and they'll be a load of videos on youtube. We can't fully answer your question if you don't let use know why you are unsure to get it. Are you unsure about the reliability of the device? The support it will get, the softwares qualities, your need for it practical use, etc?

 

[Mjlink]

If the Cc page was live, I'd buy a backup in case some punk kid gets wise on the BART (subway/rail)!

 

[Frogboy]

If I followed this project closed enough, I don't remember there were ever mentioned of the word 'third batch' by the pandora team. I wonder how much production has they planned for this device. From wiki it said by September, 2008 60k of GP2X devices has been sold. That's no where in comparision to nintendo and PSP, and I don't think the pandora was built to even compete with the GP2X in term of marketing, so imagine even less for the Pandora will be produce. I could be wrong, this device has become more popular than I expected.

If they can get this thing rolling, they've got two huge advantages over the GP2X. When the GP2X came out, it was already underpowered on launch day. The PSP was already an established homebrew device and had a lot more horsepower. There wasn't really any reason for anyone to switch. Pandora should be able to blow the PSP away when it comes to raw power. It also will appeal to people who are looking for portable internet and like the gaming features. Add in the capability to expand the storage to 32gb - 64gb and dual analog sticks and you've got a handheld that could easily stay on the market for a good five years or so before it starts to look dated, about the same as the PSP.

On the down side, they are now sharing the market with the GP2X Wiz whereas GPH didn't have to contend with that the first time around. That and this pesky global financial crisis.

It'll be interesting to see how well it does in the long run.

 

[audovoice]

I could easily imagine some minor version differences in a hypothetical third batch. Namely different color cases, a GPS, or a tiny web cam built into the lid for extra. There could also be things like an LCD that is cheaper but the same quality or better at the same price... The same could also happen to the battery though both sound unlikely. Speakers could also probably be switched out for some thing more substantial/high end. These all sound like things that could be changed with out really redesigning the Pandora but honestly only extra case colors sound likely to me.

 

[JayFoxRox]

On the down side, they are now sharing the market with the GP2X Wiz whereas GPH didn't have to contend with that the first time around. That and this pesky global financial crisis.

no, they don't. Isn't this one of the reason why the pandora project was started? I didn't own any GPH device myself so I might not be a good source,
but from what I have heard, the GP2X was buggy and people complained, on the other hand GPH focused too much on the asian market by leaving the EU / US shops without much support - they had to pay for GPHs problems. And then there was the discussion that the target in asia is not only gaming. GPH devices are used for translations and learning games in asia while people in EU / US ask for "real" games etc.

 

[mali]

Don't forget the UMPC interested consumers. That's a part of the market, the Gp2x and PSP couldn't address at all.
Hardware changes won't happen between the batches.

 

[MiniSinisterMinister]

I am not sure whether there will even be a "third batch". At some point thery are probably going to produce enough units so that cutormers can simply order it on their website and get one immdiatley from their stocks. That would also be the only sensible way to sell Pandoras because the pre-ordering and long waits would turn many customers off Imo. And it would also be too sluggish to achieve a decent user base even for niche handheld standards.

 

[Frogboy]

On the down side, they are now sharing the market with the GP2X Wiz whereas GPH didn't have to contend with that the first time around. That and this pesky global financial crisis.

no, they don't...


I know that we've been saying that they are very different devices that target different markets and that is true to an extent. Let's face it though. This community is split on the matter of which one they want. Fortunately for OpenPandora and the those of us here, the split seems fairly uneven in favor of Pandora. I could be wrong though. I'm only basing this on forum activity and some very inaccurate polls but interest level does appear much higher for Pandora.

Don't forget the UMPC interested consumers. That's a part of the market, the Gp2x and PSP couldn't address at all.

Yeah, I kind of meant that too. Mobile internet is what most people will use it for outside of gaming but yeah, you're right. It'll be fun and exciting to see what you can do with such a small computer.

 

[Daedueleus]

Sorry I should have been more specific in my question. My mistake.

I'm not worried so much about the software as that can be patched if a bug comes along. More about the lifespan of the hardware itself. I don't want to buy a Pandora and have the memory go out on me. If all the folks from the first batch get theirs and a while down the road nothing like that has happened then I probably will go for one.

I just don't want to put $330+ down and have it fail on me. For $330 it had better last for a long time. My intention is to use it as a UMPC and it'll probably be used extensively by myself.

Thanks for all the replies.

Edit: I tried signing up for the newsletter but get a 404 Error

 

[audovoice]

As I understand it, by law there is a minimum one year manufacturers warranty. This would not cover accidents and I have read that people can tell if you have over clocked your hardware, thus voiding your warranty. So I don't know the details but it sounds like you will be covered for some things. In the US there is a 30 day manufacturers warranty in most states (in some it is even more ~90days). However Pandora is a product of England and I don't know how their laws affect products exported to the states and elsewhere.

You do bring up a very good point.

The one thought that comes to mind is that Pandora is supposed to be a very power efficient device, meaning as a fringe benefit it will run very cool. Heat eventual kills devices. To make something last longer they find ways to get the heat out, and also to get devices running on lower voltages.

A brushed aluminum case would be so sweet and make the whole case into a heat sink but it sounds like it won't need it.

One more thought that I just had is that a charging battery can be quite warm. If you really wanted to be on the safe side you might not want to use your Pandora wile it is charging, and it might be good to have it turned off if that is even possible. I DO NOT think you would need to but it is a thought.

 

[Frogboy]

I'm not worried so much about the software as that can be patched if a bug comes along. More about the lifespan of the hardware itself. I don't want to buy a Pandora and have the memory go out on me. If all the folks from the first batch get theirs and a while down the road nothing like that has happened then I probably will go for one.

I just don't want to put $330+ down and have it fail on me. For $330 it had better last for a long time. My intention is to use it as a UMPC and it'll probably be used extensively by myself.

From what I can tell, they are using high quality part in the Pandora. The SoC (system on a chip) is made by Texas Instruments. This is where the CPU, RAM and most of the primary components that deal with computer functionality will be coming from. They've also stated repeatedly that they will not be using any components that are made in China due to quality concerns. Unless you're unlucky (stuff happens), your Pandora should last until you're ready to get the next latest and greatest thing that comes out 5+ years from now, probably much longer. Hopefully around then, Pandora II will come out with a dual core 2ghz processor (with overclocking) and a gig or two of ram. Mmmmmm.

One thing that I am not worried about is quality.

 

[jpenguin]

What if the world ends before a 3rd batch comes. Then you'd be in (where ever your going) with nothin to do, LOL

 

[typs lik dis]

Huh? The world's end, by definition, leaves no time to do anything. You don't have unlimited time, you have no concept of time.

 

[CandidStan]

By now I've pretty much been sold on the Pandora. Read through the FAQ and all, so far I am impressed (Drool). But what I am unsure about is when I should put money down on one?

What do ya'll think? Buy one from the second batch or wait until the third to see what happens?

Dev's keep up the good work.



I will buy you 64 Pandoras as long as you develop a full speed N64 Emu for it, and I am not a man of my word.

 

[krooked]

QUOTE
I will buy you 64 Pandoras as long as you develop a full speed N64 Emu for it, and I am not a man of my word.

i will develop a n64 emu for the Pandora, i expect my 64 Pandoras in the mail by March '09, and i am not a man of my word

 

[eksasol]

I wonder how much heat the pandora really does output and if it's an issue at all. I don't see any major cooling needed for the Nintendo DS, PSP, WIZ, and the new Archos which also used really powerful stuff with a complete shut case. The ARchos that I used had aluminum case and it got really hot, but it was all from the battery. I don't own any other powerful ARM based cpu devices to tell, but the video presentation for the beagle board state their cpu don't even need a heatsink. I have only used some ARM based pocket pc but at 300mhz, they never heat up. I think the main concern for heat is the lithium battery and usb ports usage on high current demanding devices?