Yet another Pandora review

[sirthunder516]

Ok, I'll start with the best, and work my way down from there, I'm reviewing several catagories.


Community- 10/10


You guys rock! Enough said.


Software/Games availability- 9/10


There's a lot of my favorite programs ported to the Pandora, like FireFox and Picodrive. This right here is, in my opinion, the Pandora's selling point: lots of powerful programs and awesome game ports, at your fingertips!


Design- 9/10


This console has an amazing design. Having all of those buttons is great. The touchscreen comes in handy too. I'm surprised that there are no Android devices that even come close to this. Gaming with so many options and design features is really nice.


Specs- 7/10


Sorry guys, had to take off a few stars here. I know that Pandora still does N64, DOSBox, and PS1 better than all those Android phones even if they have twice the power, but still, the Pandora's TI processor seems pretty weak compared to what we're seeing in the latest smart phones.


Build quality- 5/10


Let the flame wars begin!


But seriously, in my opinion this really needs to be addressed. There are a lot of things that a Pandora buyer has to do (rubbing the stylus and analog nubs on paper, sometimes the "toilet paper trick" to get the battery working, etc. ) that shouldn't be necessary. I know I'm comparing my Pandora to things like my Nintendo DS lite, which I suppose is unfair, but still things like these shouldn't be a problem. My Pandora even has some issues, the charge and power lights don't work, pressing "up" on the d-pad feels weak even though it works (I asked about these in the Support section). There are other small things too.


Overall value for money- 8/10


Like I said, work on the build quality! Other than that, this handheld is truly amazing! I'm trying to get some of my Android gaming/PSP homebrew friends into this!

 

[Nintendo]

Are you aware that Pandora doesn't have the backing of a BILLION dollar company?

 

[hakmanplayer]

Are you aware that Pandora doesn't have the backing of a BILLION dollar company?

True.

 

[Kaepora Gaebora]

Nice review . I agree with it for the most part. The build quality is certainly not perfect, but it gets the job done for me I suppose.


And just because the product is not backed by a BILLION dollar company, it should not affect the review you have as the end user - as implied in the comments... Anyways, enjoy!

 

[sirthunder516]

True, true. Just writing an honest review, that's all. But to be honest as an end user the issues are very inconvienent and I wouldn't mind paying an extra $50 if that makes Pandoras have a higher build quality (trust me, device build quality is really important to me... I'm incredibly clumsy and drop things a lot)

 

[PeeZapp]

Good review and agreed the financial backing shouldnt have anything to do with the review.


With the build quality issue i have to say ive had none of those problems so for me the build quality is quite good however. This i suppose is the downfall of having a handbuilt handheld just don't know if the quality is going to be consistant.

 

[TomVS]

I had a gp32 and a gp2x. The quality of the Pandora is better.


True it is not like a Nintendo 3ds (My son just bought one) But the pandora performs well.


All games are perfectly playable with the pandora controls.


I remember my frustrating days with the gp2x, bad controls, scanline headaches from the screen etc...


All history thanks to this wonderful piece of community hardware !

 

[Blue Protoman]

Agreed, I'm impressed by the tenacity behind this little thing.

 

[Nintendo]

Yeah, the Pandora build quality, imho screams out, "Built to last".

 

[Cobalt]

Considering that the review unit has some hardware defects, I think the 5/10 is pretty reasonable.


My own experience from owning a Pandora for two weeks (I haven't written a review) is that I'm pleased by how well it works. On some level, I'm kind of shocked that it actually works at all. It's really a unique device.

 

[Blue Protoman]

Forget working; I'm surprised that the thing works well, given the resources.

 

[Nintendo]

I don't think anyone else (from here or gp32x.de) could have successfully pulled off such a massive feat such as the Pandora. The OPT are second to none.

 

[sirthunder516]

I don't think anyone else (from here or gp32x.de) could have successfully pulled off such a massive feat such as the Pandora. The OPT are second to none.

Haha I don't think anyone here can argue with that. The OPT really is amazing!


Considering the odds I don't think that most people really expected them to get this far, but to think that they have and all of a sudden Pandoras are shipping only 7 days after ordering and they've got a fresh, new, dedicated, and best of all really helpful and nice community (...ever messed with the PSP or iPhone homebrew community to compare?) and there's already a lot of great ports and software, I'd say that the OPT have done something awesome that is impossible to beat. I can't wait to see what the OPT accomplishes in the years to come!