What Would Be The Pandora Alternative

[mild546]

sony p-series

 

[Kekerot]

There is skype for the nokia internet tablets so its already on ARM at least

 

[Lorkile]

Yes, but as Skype hasn't been proven to work yet and it will be awhile until the Pandora's start to ship you must assume it won't work until proven otherwise.

 

[hch]

this is the one i am tempted by:

http://www.pocketables.net/2009/01/hands-on-with-1.html

batery life may suck and very regrettably it has no video out, but otherwiese - hey!



Would that be roughly the same size as the Pandora? (For the sake of getting an estimate on the size of the Pandora when held.)


it is slightly larger (4.8" screen and 6.2" wide), but still in the upper range of pocketable, so yes, it should be roughly the same size.

 

[GoodLawd]

Firstly, El Chippo's right, there's no altentaive. However..

Fujitsu U810

This one seems to be really awesome. And that UMID M1, but you can't really pocket either nicely. Backpack, perhaps.

I was hoping the Panda would look a bit like the U810. You know, kinda badass.

 

[Elanzer]

Besides the ARM-based Nokia tablets like the N800/N810 (and later this year N900?), there are some x86 intel-atom based MIDs that came on the market recently, but they can only be obtained directly from china at the moment:

http://www.gigabyte.com.tw/Products/Notebo...?ProductID=2833
http://en.aigo.com/en/ProductInformation-618.aspx

The battery life is atrocious (~2-3hr), will perform worse than the Pandora, have cramped keyboard layouts, and they cost roughly ~$800 USD I think.




There is also the OQO

http://www.oqo.com/products/model2+/specifications.html

It's also x86 with a weak battery life and is known to have heat problems, but it will perform better than the Pandora. It goes for $999-$1499 USD (depending on the model).




All in all, Pandora is the only one to properly bridge the gap of netbook + gaming capability in such a small form factor, low cost and high battery life. Even if you were to pay DOUBLE, Pandora is still currently better than the competition as far as priceerformance goes.

 

[MiniSinisterMinister]

I have bought a Samsung NC10 as a notebook recently. And I tested its battery life. With wifi switched on and medium screen brightness and volume I could get 4 hours of video playback until it switched itself off. With less demanding applications running you could probably get even more hours of batterly life out of it. It is not true that all Atom devices have a short battery life. Also, I do not understand why the alleged 8-10 hours of battery life of the Pandora are so important. Come on, nobody uses a handheld in one stretch for that long. You head and back would be aching. Everytime I play a videogame for so many hours in one stretch on the sofa using a big TV, I feel sick afterwards.

 

[JakeK]

I don't really care for 'pocket sized' as even though you might call the GP2X 'pocket sized' I couldn't lug it around without the case for protection which pushes it beyond 'pocket sized.'

The screen size on the Pandora really has me second guessing it. That is the ONLY feature I am concerned about.

 

[Elanzer]

Also, I do not understand why the alleged 8-10 hours of battery life of the Pandora are so important. Come on, nobody uses a handheld in one stretch for that long. You head and back would be aching. Everytime I play a videogame for so many hours in one stretch on the sofa using a big TV, I feel sick afterwards.

Have you ever used a portable mp3 player that only had a ~3 hour battery life? I had one that would only last about 6 hours before, and within 2 days the battery would be drained. Some days, I would drain it from 100% to 0% in one day if I listened to alot of music. I only used it going to/from work and on break for the most part.

Now for the Pandora, even with 8-10 hours the charge would run out within 2 days because of how much I would use the thing - not just for gaming during lunch breaks, but for remote access, email, PDA functions, skype etc. 8-10 hours means I'm ensured it will last an entire day, 2-3 hrs means it will die before I'm done with it for the day. Since it's effectively a UMPC not everybody will only using it for games, it's a multi-purpose system.

 

[dsraa]

every time I see somebody whip one out, I can't help but feel a little envy

I get that too, perhaps we should start a 3 inch and under support group.


Fail. :rolleyes:



Dude, that would be great!

DSR

 

[cobaltage]

Also, I do not understand why the alleged 8-10 hours of battery life of the Pandora are so important. Come on, nobody uses a handheld in one stretch for that long. You head and back would be aching. Everytime I play a videogame for so many hours in one stretch on the sofa using a big TV, I feel sick afterwards.

Have you ever used a portable mp3 player that only had a ~3 hour battery life? I had one that would only last about 6 hours before, and within 2 days the battery would be drained. Some days, I would drain it from 100% to 0% in one day if I listened to alot of music. I only used it going to/from work and on break for the most part.

Now for the Pandora, even with 8-10 hours the charge would run out within 2 days because of how much I would use the thing - not just for gaming during lunch breaks, but for remote access, email, PDA functions, skype etc. 8-10 hours means I'm ensured it will last an entire day, 2-3 hrs means it will die before I'm done with it for the day. Since it's effectively a UMPC not everybody will only using it for games, it's a multi-purpose system.


I agree completely. A pocket sized couch surfing device that has less than 5 hours of battery life is pretty irritating in the long run. You might not be able to game for 5 hours per day, but you can probably surf the internet, check your email, watch online videos, listen to mp3s or internet radio, etc. for more than 5 hours in a day.

Almost every portable device with an internet browser has a battery life of 5 hours or less -- usually less. That includes the Nokia series tablets, the iPhone or any smart phone, netbooks, and notebook PCs.

 

[d3v]

There is no real alternative, but any netbook with an Intel Atom processor has the same gen of low-power-consumption PowerVR SGX graphics chip combined in SoC.
So, that simply means, you'd get decent graphics performance and featureset in a portable machine with a decent battery life.

 

[RajTakhar]

Firstly, El Chippo's right, there's no altentaive. However..

Fujitsu U810

This one seems to be really awesome. And that UMID M1, but you can't really pocket either nicely. Backpack, perhaps.

I was hoping the Panda would look a bit like the U810. You know, kinda badass.



Unfortunately I had one of these, sold it last year - the lack of tab button was a real pain in the ass. The battery kind of sucked. Overall great build as you could switch to tablet mode, but small hard drive meant it was a pain in the the butt to rip out old hard drive and update

==
http://gp2xwizandpandora.blogspot.com/

 

[GoodLawd]

@RajTakhar: actually I should have said N820. It fixes some of the problems: got a neat little TAB button and you might be able to squeeze ~7hrs out of it.

I would've loved this design on the Pandora even if it cost a few hundred $ more. Hell, I wouldn't mind if they ripped off the design entirely!

 

[MaxSteiner]

I'm not sure therte really is no alternative to the pandora to be honest
Had chip said there is no SINGLE alternative he'd be right.
But claiming theres nothing else in the world which does all it does....
when you can get a variety of devices, which tick ALL the boxes the Pandora does, for less than the price of a Pandora, and have them delivered this week, as opposed to.... when they're ready.
I think its just narrowing the scope of the answer too much to be honest.

So heres the questions:
Do you NEED all these features in a clamshell case, which may, or may not fit inside the pocked of your favourite jacket?
Are you fine with waiting an unspecified period of time, until its all ready and device ships?

If your answer is YES: Wait to get a Pandora. If you've missed out on the first wave, wait until the secvound batch is released and order the best device available at that time (Alot of stuff can come out in half a year, and alot can change as well)

If your answer is NO to either of those questions:
Step back and take a serious look at what you want the Pandora for.
It could well be that you can scratch that itch with one or more specialised devices, this very week!

As has already been said, the Nokia internet tablets are running on very similar hardware to a Pandora, have good battery life (for all the same reasons a Pandora will have good battery life), and you can get the N770 for about £40 off ebay.
That has a thumbstick, touch screen, bluetooth, wi-fi etc. Not so great for emulation, but does tick alot of boxes (And we've still got £230 left on our Pandora price budget!).

Hmmm, but whats that, you'd like to play some games? Get a GP2x, or a Gamei x760+ http://www.jgadgets.com/2008/07/08/gemei-x...le-media-player , or a Smart TQ http://asia.cnet.com/reviews/musicplay/0,3...3440572p,00.htm.
Once again these devices are less powerful, but are available NOW, will emulate up to CPS2, snes, neo geo and megadrive, have gaming controls and all the rest of that gunf, plus they all support TV out (hell you can get an external pad for the Smart tQ (plus you'd be paying around £60 for them).
Basically, if you are one of those people who like emulation, but just want to emulate the decent consoles before the death of gaming, any one of those will be fine.
(Added to which, N64, CPS3 and Saturn emulation are a long way off for any handheld, best to wait and see if those are all you want)

So £100, we've got two things which ticks most of the boxes the Pandora does, we've got £170 left to spend....
Well why not take a girl out or something?
Or should you still have features you want fulfilled, get yet another device
At the end of the day, if you don't mind carrying around a couple of extra devices, theres plenty of alternatives to the Pandora.
Especially, if you really don't want to pay by bank order.

Infact look at it this way, if you don't really care about being a first wave adopter, but you want some portable computing goodness to tide you over till Open Pandora can finally take a payment method which you don't mind using, why not hold of your yearnings with a few cheap devices to tide you over till the second batch?

 

[PolloLoco]

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.

 

[MaxSteiner]

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!

 

[clippa]

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.

 

[hedwards]

I'm not sure therte really is no alternative to the pandora to be honest
Had chip said there is no SINGLE alternative he'd be right.
But claiming theres nothing else in the world which does all it does....
when you can get a variety of devices, which tick ALL the boxes the Pandora does, for less than the price of a Pandora, and have them delivered this week, as opposed to.... when they're ready.
I think its just narrowing the scope of the answer too much to be honest.

Umm, you do realize that neither or those products do all that the OP does, right? I mean that was his point, it would be asinine to suggest that a product that does things that have already been done couldn't be replicated with a half dozen devices. The point is that you'd only need the one and you get all of those points met.

Of course if you don't care about it being open or having the game controls the field is going to be quite a bit wider, I don't think that there's any logical reason why that wouldn't be the case.

 

[torpor]

QUOTE

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!



Good point. I use a Logitech gamepad with my Aspire One to play MAME and SNES and other nice games - it works quite comfortably, to be honest ..