The most important thing that the Pandora 2 needs over the original...

[takato14]

I don't see many people talking about this, but the Pandora's casing seems to have been left for last on the list of priorities during development.

I know it's plenty sturdy but the casing on the original Pandora doesn't look or feel like a $500 device, the silver version being a major offender in this area due to the thin/spotty paint job. I've only had it for a couple weeks and it already has a few scratches in the paint, with the black underneath showing through. The seams on the console are painfully obvious, it has a very pieced-together cheap look to it. Most people I've shown it to have been turned off by this almost exclusively.

The Pandora 2 could really use a proper casing design, to make the quality of the externals match the quality of the internals. There should be far more time put into a proper design that looks modern and attractive to the average consumer, because while I personally like the retro aesthetic of the original Pandora, everyone I've talked to says it looks archaic and outdated. Some have even said they wouldn't be able to use it simply because it looks so old. The Pandora 2 should be sleek and stylish. Integration of machined aluminum or maybe even magnesium instead of plastic to give it a little bit of extra weight and strength would be a plus.

It's not too thick for me, I like a thicker handheld because it's easier to use, but possibly something closer to the DSi XL as far as total thickness goes to make it look less bulky. Probably some sort of front/rear brushed metal plate over the plastic surrounding the ports to give it a nice flow. I'd say keep everything matte, because gloss looks too cheap, and go for flat, sharp edges on the top and bottom and rounded edges on the sides.

Fact of the matter is the Pandora doesn't look like a $500 handheld and the result is a negative first impression of the handheld for most people. It's a little late to fix this for the original Pandora, but it's not too late for the Pandora 2. This isn't just my own personal opinion, this is the main thing that people criticize about the handheld in my experience and I feel that if we change that, it would result in the handheld getting a much better reception with the general public.

Discuss!

 

[fusion_power]

Yupp, I also expect something better for the case than Pandora 1 had. Should be possible since it will not built again in China, I'm pretty sure. 
-Durable Case, can be any material for me, including plastic of course, as long as it is "rugged" and sturdy. Classic Gameboy sturdy at least!
-No painted case! Use coloured plastic instead! Paint kills the tolerances and looks ugly after wearing out we've learned.
-No LCD flat ribbon cable! Weak spot Nr.1 of the Pandora 1 and a weak spot in general. New technics allow normal cables to transfer the signal from base through the hinge to the LCD.
-A D-Pad that is NOT glued!  Seriously, it may work but there are better ways to make a decent D-Pad that does not fall off and still is "DaveC approved"    (I want this mainly because of much more easy replacement of D-Pad, independent of the keymatt and vice versa)
-more ergonomic case design, Holding Pandora hurts my palms after a while of playing, some edges and corners are just to sharp cut for my taste. Pic shows the critical spots:

 

[takato14]

Yupp, I also expect something better for the case than Pandora 1 had. Should be possible since it will not built again in China, I'm pretty sure. 


-Durable Case, can be any material for me, including plastic of course, as long as it is "rugged" and sturdy. Classic Gameboy sturdy at least!


-No painted case! Use coloured plastic instead! Paint kills the tolerances and looks ugly after wearing out we've learned.


-No LCD flat ribbon cable! Weak spot Nr.1 of the Pandora 1 and a weak spot in general. New technics allow normal cables to transfer the signal from base through the hinge to the LCD.


-A D-Pad that is NOT glued!  Seriously, it may work but there are better ways to make a decent D-Pad that does not fall off and still is "DaveC approved"    (I want this mainly because of much more easy replacement of D-Pad, independent of the keymatt and vice versa)


-more ergonomic case design, Holding Pandora hurts my palms after a while of playing, some edges and corners are just to sharp cut for my taste. Pic shows the critical spots:

I have no problems with good, colored ABS plastic. I do want to see some machined metals make its way onto the handheld somewhere, because it'd really give the P2 a proper weight and rigidity that plastic alone can not provide. However, anodized black, matte finish aluminum in place of black ABS would be absolutely gorgeous and feel like a dream. Maybe black Nextel coating on the bottom half of the handheld to keep it from getting scratched and from slipping out of your hands.

So far the only gripes I have with the controls are the analog sticks, which don't have enough resistance or range for my tastes. I'm going to try transplanting a pair of 3DS circle pads onto my Pandora in the future because of this. The buttons and D-Pad, however, are some of the nicest, smoothest, most responsive controls I have ever used.

I do however think the holding issue is just with you, I've never had my hands hurt with the Pandora or any other brick-style handheld (DS, DSi, XL, 3DS, etc etc etc).

 

[ghostpatch]

one good thing about the casing is that it scares off people who would return it anyway. They expect it works out of the box, having an interface even a 5 year old child can handle. By now I've seen a few post abouts failing to prepare a proper SD card -.-

I'm affraid an awesome casing would force us to put a sticker on it saying !!!WARNING: Linux inside!!!

 

[takato14]

one good thing about the casing is that it scares off people who would return it anyway. They expect it works out of the box, having an interface even a 5 year old child can handle. By now I've seen a few post abouts failing to prepare a proper SD card -.-

I'm affraid an awesome casing would force us to put a sticker on it saying !!!WARNING: Linux inside!!!

But that doesn't mean that we have to suffer because most people are too stupid to use it. Besides, as long as the user has even a small amount of experience with a computer of any kind, they should be able to figure out the Pandora. I had never used Linux before I got the Pandora, not even once, and I figured it out very quickly. 

Just to make sure my point is getting across: I'm not trying to make this device appeal to the consumer market. My aim is to address everything about the original Pandora that isn't perfect and make it perfect for the Pandora 2. That's what I want to see from the new Pandora.

 

[AnimatedFreak]

I don't see many people talking about this, but the Pandora's casing seems to have been left for last on the list of priorities during development.

I know it's plenty sturdy but the casing on the original Pandora doesn't look or feel like a $500 device, the silver version being a major offender in this area due to the thin/spotty paint job. I've only had it for a couple weeks and it already has a few scratches in the paint, with the black underneath showing through. The seams on the console are painfully obvious, it has a very pieced-together cheap look to it. Most people I've shown it to have been turned off by this almost exclusively.

The Pandora 2 could really use a proper casing design, to make the quality of the externals match the quality of the internals. There should be far more time put into a proper design that looks modern and attractive to the average consumer, because while I personally like the retro aesthetic of the original Pandora, everyone I've talked to says it looks archaic and outdated. Some have even said they wouldn't be able to use it simply because it looks so old. The Pandora 2 should be sleek and stylish. Integration of machined aluminum or maybe even magnesium instead of plastic to give it a little bit of extra weight and strength would be a plus.

It's not too thick for me, I like a thicker handheld because it's easier to use, but possibly something closer to the DSi XL as far as total thickness goes to make it look less bulky. Probably some sort of front/rear brushed metal plate over the plastic surrounding the ports to give it a nice flow. I'd say keep everything matte, because gloss looks too cheap, and go for flat, sharp edges on the top and bottom and rounded edges on the sides.

Fact of the matter is the Pandora doesn't look like a $500 handheld and the result is a negative first impression of the handheld for most people. It's a little late to fix this for the original Pandora, but it's not too late for the Pandora 2. This isn't just my own personal opinion, this is the main thing that people criticize about the handheld in my experience and I feel that if we change that, it would result in the handheld getting a much better reception with the general public.

Discuss!

Agree 100%!

At first I liked the texture felling of the plastic. But just after a week it looks like a Game Boy I still want it to be texture and not glossy finger print magnet. I don't understand why Sony used that glossy plastic for the PSP. I mean it's a handheld!,                                                              

 

[klapse]

Designing a case as complex as the Pandoras' and perfecting the manufacturing is not as easy as you imagine it to be. It is more complicated than the case of a slab tablet or phone. Also the amount of money available for research and development was tiny compared to what Sony invests in a handheld. Given the real world constraints OPT did a fine job with design. During actual production there were many, many problems to overcome with the chinese case manufacturer, some of which were only partially solved.


It is very easy, and meaningless, and ignorant to sit back and say, "they should have made it better!"

 

[thatgui]

The Pandoras case is definitly not

It is very easy, and meaningless, and ignorant to sit back and say, "they should have made it better!"

This sure wasn't the OPs intention, more a summary of what he thinks could be improved for the P2
@OP

Please no aluminium casing - I got a Asus transformer prime and the back side of it just cries out for scratches.

I also don't see the need for the Pandora to be heavier, rather the other way round.

Last but not least, I'll digg out an old statement of mine: "If they are already turned away by the outside, they sure won't spent a minute on 'the inside'"

 

[fusion_power]

Designing a case as complex as the Pandoras' and perfecting the manufacturing is not as easy as you imagine it to be. It is more complicated than the case of a slab tablet or phone. Also the amount of money available for research and development was tiny compared to what Sony invests in a handheld. Given the real world constraints OPT did a fine job with design. During actual production there were many, many problems to overcome with the chinese case manufacturer, some of which were only partially solved.


It is very easy, and meaningless, and ignorant to sit back and say, "they should have made it better!"

It is easy to say because it was mainly not OPs fault. They are not professionals, thats true, but this doesn't matter as long as a professional company actualy builds the parts.  I don't blame OP team, I blame the actual manufacturer Companies.

Professional companies should be able to handle a case like this, and usualy they do. I don't find the case to complex, but maybe it is, maybe it can be designed much simpler, unified single hole for the keyboard area for example but these parts never were a problem at the end. Tiny stuff like sharp edges and non smoothed corners here and there and of course ther wrong plastic material are the worse things and you don't need much afford to make these things right actualy. But we know that the problem was mainly at the (professional) chinese Case Company and this should not happen again. 

 

[takato14]

The Pandoras case is definitly not

It is very easy, and meaningless, and ignorant to sit back and say, "they should have made it better!"

This sure wasn't the OPs intention, more a summary of what he thinks could be improved for the P2

@OP


Please no aluminium casing - I got a Asus transformer prime and the back side of it just cries out for scratches.


I also don't see the need for the Pandora to be heavier, rather the other way round.


Last but not least, I'll digg out an old statement of mine: "If they are already turned away by the outside, they sure won't spent a minute on 'the inside'"

Of course, that's why I said Nextel coating on the back. Its a rubbery substance that would prevent scratches and keep it from slipping around.

Heavier feels better in the hand. Light feels too rickety and cheap. Case in point: PSP-1000 vs PSP-3000. I don't think the current Pandora is too light by any means, and I'm not saying that the Pandora 2 should be heavier, what I'm saying is that it should be at least as heavy as the original Pandora.

This is a bad thing that leads to less interest and less sales for the Pandora. We need to prevent this by making the outside attractive and the insides even moreso. Someone who thinks something is pretty will look into it further. The more that happens the more popular the Pandora 2 will become.

 

[takato14]

Designing a case as complex as the Pandoras' and perfecting the manufacturing is not as easy as you imagine it to be. It is more complicated than the case of a slab tablet or phone. Also the amount of money available for research and development was tiny compared to what Sony invests in a handheld. Given the real world constraints OPT did a fine job with design. During actual production there were many, many problems to overcome with the chinese case manufacturer, some of which were only partially solved.


It is very easy, and meaningless, and ignorant to sit back and say, "they should have made it better!"

Like I said, I have absolutely no problems with the Pandora 1's case. It's strong and it works well, and I like the retro aesthetic. I have absolutely no concerns about the durability of the Pandora.

Normal consumers don't care about that. They want it to look modern, fancy, and expensive. 

 

[FRZ]

Yupp, I also expect something better for the case than Pandora 1 had. Should be possible since it will not built again in China, I'm pretty sure. 

Don't hate on the Chinese manufactures as everything you own was build there. They're not at fault. It is the designers who are responsible for how the case turned out. If they had designed it better in the first place, to be more DS ish in size like it was suppose to be, we wouldn't be complaining about it now.

Sent from my N860 using Tapatalk 2

 

[3_bit]

The case could use work. I'd definitely wait an extra 4 months for a better case, so long as the delay doesn't make the hardware inside the P2 not "top of the line". Perhaps we should have the case and peripherals come first, then design the motherboard around that? That way, the latest and greatest won't be delayed by changes to the case. When was the last time some new analog nubs went obsolete and everyone complained?

 

[Binky]

The keyboard has already been designed, but in general the case should be the _last_ thing you do.

1. Decide what hardware we need (SDXC cards, USB3.0, wifi, bluetooth, keyboard, nice screen, speakers, game controls, battery, SOC (praps OMAP5) etc
2. cram it onto the smallest PCB possible
3. Design a case around it
4. is it too big? if so return to step one and get community feedback
5. ????
6. Profit!

 

[Grench]

The keyboard has already been designed, but in general the case should be the _last_ thing you do.

1. Decide what hardware we need (SDXC cards, USB3.0, wifi, bluetooth, keyboard, nice screen, speakers, game controls, battery, SOC (praps OMAP5) etc
2. cram it onto the smallest PCB possible
3. Design a case around it
4. is it too big? if so return to step one and get community feedback
5. ????
6. Profit!

That would be far too logical.  

I thought we had to design a super-compact keyboard & controller then force everything else to fit in it's footprint.