What are Pandora's competitors?

[SteveInAustin]

Just curious, what other competitor products of Pandora have you seen out there? Pandora has a lot going for it, probably the best set of all features, but what have you seen out there that's tempted you?


I've run across the Archos 43 and the Viliv N5 recently. They looked nice.


What I saw that I especially liked was the optical trackball on the Viliv N5. That would be nice to have on a Pandora.


Of course neither of these two has a gaming feel to them. According to what I've read, they do emulators like MAME and such. And they have faster processors which should be very capable of game emulation. Without the joysticks that Pandora has, though, it's probably not going to impress a true gamer.


- Steve

 

[TrashyMG]

Trust me I wouldn't be still waiting for a Pandora if there was anything that could compete with the Pandora..

 

[Wrath Of Khan]

Just curious, what other competitor products of Pandora have you seen out there? Pandora has a lot going for it, probably the best set of all features, but what have you seen out there that's tempted you?


I've run across the Archos 43 and the Viliv N5 recently. They looked nice.


What I saw that I especially liked was the optical trackball on the Viliv N5. That would be nice to have on a Pandora.


Of course neither of these two has a gaming feel to them. According to what I've read, they do emulators like MAME and such. And they have faster processors which should be very capable of game emulation. Without the joysticks that Pandora has, though, it's probably not going to impress a true gamer.


- Steve

The viliv looks nice but like you say it has no gaming controls.The community aspect to the pandora is cool too.

 

[SNESFAN]

current competition:


1)GPH WIZ*


2)GPH Caanoo*


3)Hard Kernel: Odroid*


4)Nintendo DS (dsi & dsi xl)


5)Sony PSP


6)iPod/iPhone


7)Dingoo*


future competition:


8)Play Station Phone* (Sony Ericson Zeus 1)


9)Panasonic Jungle *?


*-open source handheld


------------------


my opinion of each


1)contols suck, esp the action buttons & screen tearing but probably the best open source alternative I feel currently available


2)I have one, it's fun, my battery life sucks, and the speed/quality of the available emulators are a litttle lack luster, other than that, great device, decent speeds etc.


3)I have one, controls suck, but android brings with it all the same emulators as the pandora and full speed (N64 emulator not available yet but it's actively being worked on) ps1 emulator is in a better state than pandora from what I gather.


4)I have one, with flashcart, if you get a dstwo it has full speed emulation for most older systems gba, snes, gb, gbc, sega, mame etc etc, but no ps1+ emulation. but it has the added benefit of being the only handheld to be able to play NDS games. Depending on your wants, this may be your best option.


5)I have one, used to be king as far as console emulation goes, but it has dropped to the least possible pandora competitor for what it does due to it's speed. It does have the best compatibility of ps1 games I know of due to sony releasing a full speed ps1 emulator for it.


6)I have one, if you hack it, it has most of the same emulators as the pandora, to include N64 emulator, but lets face it, touch screen controls knock this out of the competition. It was mentioned due to the amount of software it has, and it's MID like functions. If you add in the iControlPad then this becomes an option agian.


7)I have one, the stock emulators are good, but the speed is kinda lacking, if you get a minisd (rare/stupid format sd) and put dingux (linux) on it, the speed and compatibility goes way up, due to it's limitations in performance, and the fact you are currently unable to completely replace the OS with dingux it makes gaming on the fly kind of a pain in the ass to start up, and finally the shoulder buttons are bad, but it's real cheap and great bang for buck


8)all the available emulators of android but with decent gaming controls unlike odroid and it has a 3g modem built in. If sony makes a psp emulator for this like they did with the ps1 for the psp this console will be a mainstream king and would make me quit my pandora preorder without even blinking.


9)mmo's in a handheld, and focus around free online play, said to be android based, if this brings some decent mmo's to android or has some other unknown benifit. It's the pandora design I love and gaming controls that don't suck, 3g, and Android which I really wish the pandora had.


EDIT:forgot the dingoo (love that little guy)

 

[mrcranky]

The viliv looks nice but like you say it has no gaming controls.The community aspect to the pandora is cool too.

Adding to that, with the Viliv --with 1GB and Windows 7, it isn't going to be as fast as the Pandora and battery life on the Pandora is way better than the Viliv.


As to the Archos...I've had a few Archos devices in the past (last one was the Archos 5 Internet Tablet), and I wasn't impressed with them at all. Too many bugs, they haven't updated the Archos 5 beyond Android 1.6.


The Pandora gives you a handheld Linux computer with a great battery life that is also a gaming machine. Nothing that I've seen comes close to this.

 

[Link]

If BooBoo releases Linux for the Gemei A330 has a decent gaming feel to it. The Dingoo A320 was a great mental break from Pandora boards & waiting angst. RIP Dingoo A320

 

[lulzfish]

I was thinking pretty seriously about getting Nokia's N900, since I only need the Pandora to be a portable PC, but the odd keyboard and nonremovable storage turned me off to it.

 

[Jumpman]

For me......NONE!


Chris

 

[Blue Protoman]

Things that have a mostly-serious shot? There are netbooks and...netbooks. Oh, and Caanoo too, I guess.

 

[moz]

the only thing that comes close in my mind is this:

 

[pokitfoxx]

If BooBoo releases Linux for the Gemei A330 has a decent gaming feel to it. The Dingoo A320 was a great mental break from Pandora boards & waiting angst. RIP Dingoo A320

I feel your pain, 2 of my dingoo's have been... taken out of my equation... im not sure if i should get a 330, whats the difference? i thought it was a different company making it. Im fairly sure i just want my old A320 while i wait for my pandora also i much preferred my dingoo's firmware as opposed to the linux

 

[second exodous]

I also don't think there is anything quite competing with the Pandora. It is a clamshell, has a keyboard, is a touch screen, has gaming controls, runs a pretty standard Linux build, has a huge battery. . . It just has no competitors.


Having said that it is not for everyone, it is an important point to make. So people are perfectly happy with commercial games and don't care about emulation on the game side. On the computing side some people are perfectly happy not to have game controls and a physical keyboard is not important.


I know for me this is like the best handheld for me.

 

[Bosbeetle]

I think time is the biggest competitor.

 

[Blue Protoman]

the only thing that comes close in my mind is this:

A diet version of John Doe's Portable Gaming System.

 

[Timstertoo]

Can't find a lot of info on the Panasonic but it looks interesting.


They market it as a portable MMO machine but basically you could do the same for the Pandora if you think that will attract a lot of attention.


Anyone found anything more recent the the october 2010 reports on it? Specs? Anything?

 

[SNESFAN]

Can't find a lot of info on the Panasonic but it looks interesting.


They market it as a portable MMO machine but basically you could do the same for the Pandora if you think that will attract a lot of attention.


Anyone found anything more recent the the october 2010 reports on it? Specs? Anything?

nope, but as I find more info about it I'll update the thread





I follow all handheld gaming computers, not just the pandora, so the jungle and the playstation phone get the same treatment, as I dig up more info I post it. Everything in that thread is basically all the info that's currently pubically available.


also here's a dedicated news blog about all current info.


http://www.panasonicjungle.org/

 

[Timstertoo]

nope, but as I find more info about it I'll update the thread





I follow all handheld gaming computers, not just the pandora, so the jungle and the playstation phone get the same treatment, as I dig up more info I post it. Everything in that thread is basically all the info that's currently pubically available.


also here's a dedicated news blog about all current info.


http://www.panasonicjungle.org/

I've never made it that far down the forum before. Have some reading to do!

 

[chole]

The Sharp Netwalker is the only other device that has raised by eyebrows. It's pretty similar to the Pandora, except everything's a bit upsized -- larger screen, larger keyboard, faster default cpu clock, more RAM. I could use it for my primary Pandora uses, and it'd be slightly superior for most of them (general computing plus video playing, so these have a better chance of handling some types of video files). I had to rule it out because (A) it's just too big for a pocket, ( B) the battery isn't removable, and © it's a little bit out of my price range.


It's also not made for gaming, but that's not so important for me.

 

[second exodous]

Holy crap, that Viliv N5 is over $800, why does it cost that much? It is just an Atom CPU. There is no way that it costs even $300 to make. It has to be a windows addiction thing, it can cost that much because there are those people out there that can not use anything but. I really don't see MIDs like this lasting long when the next generation of ARM cpus start appearing in handhelds that size.


Then again this is really a niche market which might explain why the Pandora doesn't have any competitors. Everyone seems to be happy with touch screens.

 

[Blue Protoman]

The Pandy gives the best of both worlds.