What Would Be The Pandora Alternative

[Gaeryc]

Alot of the time when people rule out netbooks as Pandora competitors, I really find myself wishing I could have some of what they're smoking too

Its not as if you couldn't also carry around a decent USB pad, and enjoy controls at least as good as a Pandora on a larger screen and at a higher speed!

Using a usb controller would be daft with a small screen though, you'd have to balance the device on your lap and squint down past the controller to see what was going on, I can't see it working. Maybe you could strap it around your neck with a harmonica brace.

I agree with you

"hmm, we have 5 minutes before next class, so I'll take my netbook from my bag, turn it on, plug in the controller and I'm ready to game!"

And while you are opening your bag I've already taken my DS from my jacketpocket and I'm playing some tetris.

 

[dsleaf67]

Based on the current generation of netbooks, which contrary to an early post - can commonly be found for less than $300 in the US, sometimes close to $200 - the only advantages the Pandora has is pocketability and built in controls. Battery life is not the issue some claim with netbooks since both the Samsung and Acer netbooks offer 9 cell batteries if wanted. With those, users have claimed upwards of 10 hours of battery life. And that's with a 9 or 10" screen.

Yes, battery life is an issue because you're looking at least $100 more for those extra batteries. I've checked for the 6 cell for acer one and it was $130 and the model with included 6 cell was usually $100 more.

 

[cobaltage]

I don't personally feel that netbooks and handhelds are similar enough to be directly compared, except in terms of price. Specifically, netbooks are like notebooks: they are operated by placing them on top of a surface. The reason they're so inexpensive is that they are stripped down, undersized notebooks. (I have no problem with undersized notebooks, and I have a Fujitsu P1510 convertible 8.9" tablet PC, but it's totally different from having a handheld device like the Nokia internet tablet.)

There are a few handheld Atom based computers. The Sharp Willcom D4 cost $1500+ and has a battery life of an hour and a half. The Wibrain UMPCs are a little larger but similar in that they are also handheld. Handheld computers typically run between $600 to $1500. The new Atom-based OQO 2+ will cost $1500 to $2000 or so.

A lot of this has to do with the war over low-power CPUs between ARM, working its way up in CPU capability, and Intel, working its way down in power consumption. Based on what I've heard about the Cortex A8 and what I've seen so far, it seems to me that for a handheld device, Cortex A8 plus SGX plus TI DSP should outperform the Atom with an Intel chipset for the sorts of things I want to do: full version of Firefox, simple text editing, multimedia playback, and games. I have no idea if that's true though, I'm just guessing. But it seems like you can't cram an Atom CPU and a battery into a portable, handheld case and get it to run for more than a couple hours. Apparently, you can do that with a Cortex A8 CPU.

Edit -- My thought is that if you want a netbook or a notebook, of course you should get one. Speaking as someone who has a tiny tablet PC, though, I don't think a small notebook replaces a handheld or vice versa.

 

[TaG]

There is no "alternative" to the Pandora that ticks all the important check boxes at any price...
Chip is, as always, right. But whenever this topic has come up it depends which angle you look at it from. There is nothing comparable at all to Pandora. If on the other hand you can raise x £/$/€ and you want to do a, b and c which devices fit your personal requirements then you get different answers. Previous discussions then seemede to degenerate into gamers vs umpcers. Both have valid points of view.

I have bought a Samsung NC10 as a notebook recently. And I tested its battery life... With less demanding applications running you could probably get even more hours of batterly life out of it.
Mine is getting switched on in the morning and lasting until the evening for simple stuff with a bit of music. It's set to sleep after a few minutes and the brightness is low but perfectly readable.

 

[MaxSteiner]

Ok heres some more alternatives on the horizon;

Sega Vision.
thats right a Sega vision. Sega's UMPC will have gaming controls, legitimate access to all of Sega's back catalogue, standard UMPC functions. Etc.
Out some time next year apparantly, so potentially I could buy this via CC before i could buy a secound batch Pandora.
http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2008/10/03/sega_vision/
And look theres a couple in a crane machine in London right now

The OSWALD http://beaversource.oregonstate.edu/projects/cspfl
Although admitadly thats not actually a consumer device

viliv s5 and the Viliv s7
These are more expensive, and not out yet.
But the seem to tick all of the boxes the Pandoras doing. With a higher speed Atom processor at the cost of 4 hours battery life.
The S6 has what looks to me like perfectly functional gaming controls. Whilst the S7 has a keyboard.
http://www.umpcportal.com/2008/08/viliv-s5-mid

Obviously no idea what the community will be like on any of these.
But thats the Pandoras unique selling point in many ways.

Im incredibly supprised that noones mentioned the Sega Vision as a Pandora competitor though.
Seems to me that a device intended to bridge the gap between UMPC and handheld games console would be worthy of a mention.

 

[ashdjones]

I don't even see a single D-Pad on the Sega Vision, how is it a serious gaming machine?

 

[MaxSteiner]

Total bumwad.
internet speculation is bad

Theres a review by some guy who managed to get one on Ebay somehow:

turns out its just a glorified mp3 player
Sega decided against having gaming controls lest people think they were competing with sony and nintendo.
I was all set for the glourious return of Sega in the secound decade of the new millenium

 

[Prometheus]

For what it's worth, max, my understanding is that it's just a generic Chinese PMP which Sega has rebadged just as some other companies do with such things - they're often sold "blank" by the suppliers specifically for that purpose.

They've been in the UFO Catcher machines in some London arcades for some months now.

EDIT: Arg, the double-apostrophe strikes!

 

[Samalthos]

The difference between the netbooks and the pandora is optimization. Unless you feel like getting nitty gritty with the hardware and software the pandora will have more horsepower than those machines for the simple fact that it uses all availiable resources