What if we were to make a Pandora 2 that is more of an incremental step over the current Pandora?
The idea behind this is to re-use as much of the engineering and equipment that already exists as possible.
Working from the base up...
Same battery cover.
Same battery.
Same base plastic & stylus.
New motherboard (specs later in post)
Same keymat.
Same keymat surround plastics
New screen surround plastics to fit new screen
~4.5" touch screen - 1280x720? 1024x600?
Speakers -smaller so they fit under the screen - maybe more of them 2x per side since they're smaller?
Same lid top plastics
Motherboard - all external ports match to existing positions on the case plastics.
A dual or quad core ARM SoC @ 1.5Ghz or greater.
Two SDXC slots on front.
Same volume wheel.
Same on/off/standby switch.
Same headphone/mic jack.
Same awesome audio system MWeston already designed for the Pandora.
Same charging port.
USB 3.0 type A host port - in the same spot.
microUSB OTG port - in the same spot (flashing to fill the larger case hole)
miniHDMI port - where we currently have the weird video port. (yes we loose the other stuff)
802.11b/g/n (with 2.4ghz AND 5ghz antennas) - use what was learned to make it right.
Bluetooth 4.0
8GB onboard NAND
Since we're talking about cellphone SoC setups - a few things might be able to come along for the ride:
gyroscope/tilt/compass
GPS
rumble
Angstrom or Slackware or Ubuntu as the stock OS - Android can live on as a PND.
Anyway - I think you all get the idea. A new motherobard (and on-board components), new screen and -one- new plastic piece (screen surround and speaker placement changes).
Frankly, the current batch of cases isn't bad. Those issues seem to be fixed.
Ergonomically the current setup is pretty good.
We have the needed ports.
The controls are - excellent.
Most of the technology and design of the current unit is pretty darn good.
So, what's everyone think? Is it viable?
