As you all know, I've had the the Pyra prototype for about a week now. What were my experiences so far?

Well, don't expect me to tell you how it can be used in everyday life! We're still setting everything up, so my main focus is getting a basic working system first and testing the hardware itself.

Here are some results:

Case: -----

It seems to be pretty robust. Like the Pandora, I've had it with me in the pockets and it survived that. One little thing is that the LCD-to-LCD-PCB connector came off one time, but that can be fixed easily by doing a minor modification in the case (so that it keeps the connector in place).

It's a bit thicker than the Pandora, but that's not really an issue (at least not for me). It feels a bit weird at the beginning, but you quickly get used to it. The rounded edges are great when you hold it in your hand for a longer time.

The weight is similar to the above: It WILL be a bit heavier than the Pandora. We can't change that. The battery itself weighs 30g more. The mainboard and cases are almost the same, but right now, the LCD-PCB adds another 20g. These can be brought down a lot though. as that PCB is full-sized and takes has a few copper layers. We can cut out large areas (as not much space it needed) and remove a lot of copper, which will reduce the weight down to probably 5g or something like that.

The Pandora weighs about 320g, btw.

Heating: --------

I can't say too much about the heat it produces yet, but it can be quite a handwarmer. Right now, we have done nothing yet to spread or reduce the heat. We haven't put any heat spreader in there or connected it to the SD Card slots, so we're in the worst possible state now.

I will do some tests with that and different heat dissipation methods once I've finished setting up the basic stuff. Additionally, right now, all components are active (so that they can be tested) and there are nearly no powersaving features included in the OS right now (the OMAP itself doesn't do any powersaving at the moment!), so that's also the worst possible state now.

I can't say much about the battery life right now, as we haven't calibrated the battery yet (so I don't know when it's fully charged or empty) and as we run everything without power saving now, it wouldn't be a very accurate result.

OS: ---

I got our own OS to work (with MATE desktop), but haven't done much. I want to implement our keyboard layout first. WIthout it, I can't even enter my Wifi password. Yes, I know I could use a normal keyboard, but I want a mobile Pyra experience :)

I'll create the keyboard layout next week so I can fully enjoy the OS.

Nubs: -----

As the upper part of the case is still partly printed (and therefore a bit fragile) and I don't have a tool to calibrate the touchscreen yet, I mostly use the nubs for mouse navigation.

And geez, these really rock! They're a hundred times better than Pandoras nubs, very accurate, and really usable as mouse replacement. I have issues controlling the mouse when I take the Pandora into my hands, after I've gotten used to those. They're a huge improvement!

LCD / Touchscreen: ------------------

Well, since it can't all be rainbows all the time, here is my currently biggest concern. The LCD is great, but I'm not happy with the touchscreen yet.

It is VERY grainy, sadly, it decreases the picture quality quite a bit. So that's something we need to fix.

The bad thing is: 1000 LCDs exist with that touchscreen already applied to, so they need to be reworked. This is going to cost us a bit (probably between 5000 and 10.000 USD), but it seems we can't prevent that...

How did that happen? Well, when we tested the touchscreen, the OS we were using had a black background. And you don't see the grain before black, only with bright colors. So when we approved it, we thought it was good... but now, when running the normal OS, I can see it isn't.

Well, I'm trying to find out who the manufacturer of Pandoras touchscreen is (the last ones were also custom made for us), as that one really really rocks.

I guess even if you try to do your best, some fallbacks happen... and here it seems we didn't test it good enough (though I have to admit I've never seen so much grain in ANY touchscreen I've ever seen, so I didn't expect that and we mostly tested the function of it).

Besides cost (and more work for me), it shouldn't do any delays, as replacing the touchscreens can be done within a week and the leadtime for the PCBs is a lot longer.

So, I'm mostly content with the Pyra right now, except for the touchscreen (which really frustrates me right now!), but we'll get that right as well!

Heating is still a bit of a concern, but I'll concentrate on that one too, and the battery manufacturer has agreed to help us here when we provide them case data and informations where the heat spots are, so we should be fine with that.

What I'm really looking forward to is when we have the system released: Improvements in the future. Thanks to the fact that everything is replaceable, it'll be fun working on new CPU boards, etc. to improve the system.

Preordering: ------------

As so many of you are asking about preorders: I'm having a meeting with Global Components next week to find out the production cost details. I can then continue to work on the prototype during the easter holidays (keyboard layout, etc.) so that I'll have a good feeling about it.

So preorders should start shortly after the easter holidays. Oh, ans as many mentioned they would like to get two or more: I'll probably make a discount for that. Can't say how much though until I got the final prices, right? :)

https://pyra-handheld.com/boards/threads/one-week-with-the-pyra.77116/