Smach Z will pose some serious competition to the Pyra


I guess we can expect more trolls as we get more traffic over here with the Pyra hype.



GoldenSun3DS is no fresh troll, he already posted a thread much like this in April. But I'd love to see some back and forth discussion with him here, it's a lot more fun to engage in this :p


It's kind of an interesting topic, maybe in ways he doesn't really realize, because both are niche products with their detractors. And the things he thinks are pluses for the Smach Z may not be as real as he thinks.. they have a release date but after seeing their state of development I will buy and eat a hat if anyone gets their unit in October (or 2016 at all for that matter). This is a KS just rife with promises on things they haven't really worked out and I hope for their sake they didn't screw up the pricing like Pandora did. I expect at least some drama to ensue from the KS, going to get a good supply of popcorn. I mean just looking at things like "2GB of dedicated GPU VRAM" really raises my eyebrows.


The funny thing is, for both products we can talk a lot about where they seem to be lacking vs other stuff on the market. But when push comes to shove they both do specific things that nothing else does, and if you want those things you have to get those products.
 
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The pricing is where I fear calculations might not pan out. At funding it would take the price up to a similar amount of what jolla asks for their slate tablet.


Jolla breaks even on those sales, leaving very little margin for costly mistakes on what is a comparable product.


The controller part looks unprecedented, much in the same way valves controller looked. Which valve were even able to make prototypes of. I just seem to remember production units dragging on. Very unclear as to what the resolution of the planning is here.


To my knowledge no product with this kind of processor has ever been a success, much less from AMD. So it hasn't really been done. What the smachz team has done before is anyones guess.


AMD has the capacity, and maybe the shoestring budget is something up their alley nowadays, who knows.


Really nice that AMD do business with projects like this. Leaves some hope that their ARM-variants will be on offer when they ship.
 
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they have a release date but after seeing their state of development I will buy and eat a hat if anyone gets their unit in October (or 2016 at all for that matter). This is a KS just rife with promises on things they haven't really worked ou



I am pretty sure your comment is spot on. Even ImaDs the manfuacturer has still not delivered on their tablet they had announced back in March, that was supposed to be available by October 2015... so in terms of trust it's already faring very low all around in their project. 
 
Oh nice troll mods, when I go to reply after I got off work, it's closed but then I later check my email and I'm still getting notifications from this thread.


Well I'm going to sleep now, I'll reply in the morning.
 
Ah, it's time again for the devices that are better than ours even though they're completely different ones (see the missing keyboard...)?


Nice :)


The closest competitor to the Pandora was the Panasonic Jungle... and I'm still waiting for that release :)

It got lost in the Jungle...
 
Oh nice troll mods, when I go to reply after I got off work, it's closed but then I later check my email and I'm still getting notifications from this thread.


Well I'm going to sleep now, I'll reply in the morning.



I nagged and got it unlocked, you're welcome ;p


Now we get to have our little debate.
 
I want Pandora because of:


1: Keyboard


2: Clamshell Design


3: 2 Full SD Slots (very important)


4: Linux


Of course the processor is not the latest and I really would like to have a more recent one.


But I doubt they will offer so much more with the AMD one. Gamecube and PS2 emulation? Prove it. Not only some games but lots of games.
 
 But I doubt they will offer so much more with the AMD one. Gamecube and PS2 emulation? Prove it. Not only some games but lots of games.

I agree, the smash thing will offer more recent windows games, and I think that's it. For emulation, I don't see it enabling any other machine than what the Pyra will provide. Maybe SSF will run on it for better Saturn emulation than Yabause but I doubt the CPU will be beefy enough for SSF.
 
Wonderfull!!


"It's running Desktop OS not ARM OS" ROTFL, to stupid to seperate OS and hardware...


Best of all (as far as I can see, because no youtube here): Again a kickstarter project that violates the rules! Or did I mis the mentioning of the running prototype???


-> does kickstarter still don't give a shit about their own rules?


If I were to be forsed to place a bett, it would be vapoware.
 
...the smash thing will offer more recent windows games...

I just want to point out that it will NOT run Windows (at least not as it will be released) but "Steam OS", so it will offer "more recent windows games that runs on Linux" (the ones that will run using wine and similar softwares maybe will run slower than the native linux ones...)
 
Considering it's using AMD graphics, you probably want to install windows on that thing ASAP anyway if you want to play games on it. AMD graphics drivers are craptastic on linux, and I very much doubt AMD will fix them for this one product.
 
Anyone noticed the thickness of that thing? It looks huge! It's going to be much harder to carry it in a pocket than a pandora. Had they used larger screen it would've make more sense.


By the way 'reply' function doesn't work on current iceweasel (38.2.1) in debian stable. The editor doesn't show up.
 
Smach Z is everything the Pyra wants to be, is cheaper* and it has greater specs and runs desktop OS, not ARM OSs.


*base model compared to estimate of Pyra's price, and the Pro model with more RAM and HD space is about on par with Pyra's estimated price.


Plus, Smach Z has a confirmed release date (Oct 2016 for pre orders and December 2016 retail release) and Pyra keeps dragging its feet so that by the time it releases, it's far outdated.


Pyra is just going to be another Pandora: 3+ years in development and releasing with 3+ year old tech.


Just compare Pyra to Smach Z, and you know that the Pyra is toast:


https://boards.openpandora.org/pyramain/pyraspecs.html


https://kickstarter.com/projects/smachteam/smach-z-the-first-handheld-steam-machine/

This sums up the truly bizarre attitude a lot of people seem to have relating to video games systems.

Would people say that the Ford XYZ was toast because it was vastly outsold by the Toyota ABC? Or would we say that the Ford XYZ was a successful car because it sold enough to generate good profit for Ford and it's owners were happy with their purchase.

Sure the Smach Z might appeal to the mass market more than Pyra and therefore sell more units than Pyra but that would not in any way mean that Pyra was 'toast'. Pyra is aiming for a pretty specific niche, those who want a pocketable system with hardware keyboard & gaming controls, as far as I know there is no other such system available (other than Pandora).

After experiencing the release of the Pandora a bit of 'feet dragging' is understandable, the last thing we want to see is a repeat of the hardware problems that hit the Pandora at launch (faulty nubs / unsuitable case plastic etc.).
 
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Ehm guys this topic is a joke. (If not op is a retard)


This whole kickstarter page is an april fools joke. 


Look at the quotes, look at the parts. 


Legit as a duck. 
 
I just want to point out that it will NOT run Windows (at least not as it will be released) but "Steam OS", so it will offer "more recent windows games that runs on Linux" (the ones that will run using wine and similar softwares maybe will run slower than the native linux ones...)



their 4M goal has Windows support though.
 
Considering it's using AMD graphics, you probably want to install windows on that thing ASAP anyway if you want to play games on it. AMD graphics drivers are craptastic on linux, and I very much doubt AMD will fix them for this one product.



Even on Windows this is a low powered chip, you should not expect wonders with it.
 
I've had AMD cards struggling to keep a solid framerate with glxgears. AMD propriatary drivers are quite something on linux.



radeonsi drivers on Linux are actually getting decent. Even for gaming (provided you accept the lower framerate, but compliance to OpenGL is getting better everyday).
 
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