My Pandora has arrived. :D

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Sonict

Sonict

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Yes, you heard me right. You know that device that you all thought didn't exist, quality was poor, had major delays, etc...

Well, fuck you all :P It really exists!

For people who have no idea what it is and what specs it has can look here: http://www.openpandora.org

Now for a mini review since I'm horrible with them.

First off, I tested the buttons and the nubs and boy, do they ever feel nice. The d-pad on this is just sweet. My A-button is sticky though, but it has been a known issue and usually gets better with use. I turned it on and went through the setup process. Battery percent was where it should be which was just over 40% and according to the gage while just idling at the desktop, it say I had over 4 hours of life. I Kept it on, installed some programs on my 16GB SD card, tried out a movie player, tested out a few emulators and most of them ran quite well. I haven't tried out the Playstation and N64 emulator yet.

Typing on it using thumbs is interesting and I'm slow at it since some keys are in different places because of how small it is, but everything is a good size for me.

I made a crappy video, but it shows off part of what I can do with it. It was well worth my money when I pre-ordered it 2 years ago. It is an amazing piece of kit.

Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vjnb6tlyBXM
 
With SRB2, try going everywhere to see if it's worth it on the Pandora or not. Like in DSZ and ERZ. Also try running Dreamcast games to see if it's also worth it. Frankly, I've forgotten about the Pandora until you brought it up again. Now I'm once again interested in getting one. Too bad I still have to preorder and wait for a few years until I get it in the mail.
 
Sonict's brick arrives and DNF released this year?

This is quite obviously the end of the world.
 
Cue said:
This is quite obviously the end of the world.
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2012's coming brotha.

Nah not really, I never really watched that movie... =X

And man this thing's tiny. It's in the size of about 2~3 DS consoles, right?
 
CZ64. I'm not counting on it ever being able to play dreamcast stuff. It is just too much for it. N64 emulation is cutting it as it is. Also, CZ64. You are dead wrong about how long it will take them now. Production is going at a good rate right now and this means it will only be a few months to finish all 8000 units. You can actually buy one now if you wanted to (They call it "Premium" since you pay more to have one built and shipped out of where it is made within 7 days. They have a limited amount of them.) The new price on it is harsh from the old one when I got it, but they looked at other options, but had to do it. Other devices were selling at around the new price for a reason.

[02:21:33] <Cue> So I just read Sonict's thread on his Pandora, looked at the Pandora site
[02:21:46] <Cue> And had this awkward moment of "My phone has more power than that..."
[02:22:15] <Alam_Squeeze> what phone?
[02:22:31] <ST218> ...what
[02:22:38] <Cue> iPhone 4
[02:22:56] <Cue> It's only a shade off the price difference =P
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Cue (From IRC)... Welcome to two years later! Even though this technology is 2 years old and devices like the iphone may have more power than it, that doesn't mean much when you are comparing a phone with a OS that is bloated, non-opensource, won't suit a persons need for why he wants a Pandora to a Pandora IMO. You may have a powerful phone, but you can barely use it well at all since it has all sorts of limitations like for example: Gaming controls (Touchscreen isn't one, stop saying it is. This goes for everyone, not really directed at Cue.) Funny enough, you can now get an icontrolpad which is made by the same people and it will work on more than just iphones. :P

Metal-Rawr. The size of it is no bigger than a normal Nintendo DS, the fat one. Hell, the Pandora is just a bit smaller than the original Gameboy.
 
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When I saw the topic title I thought you found the Pandora's Box. No kidding.

Now wait a sec, is that a console, or a PC? 0_o
 
'Cause it ain't a phone. It's a PANDORA! *inserts holy music*
Where did they mention emulated console games on iPhone?
And holy *** at this thing's size.
 
Its so tiny! God I would probably barely even be able to see the words on the screen unless I zoom in x200
 
Here is a native screenshot of the Pandora.

Pandora1.png


I'll take another screenshot when the battery is at 100% so you can see how long it would last just idling at the desktop with WiFi disabled (Since I doubt many people would want to have it enabled all of the time anyways)

On another note, the uptime there is from when I turned it on this morning and the battery was around 80 - 90% or something. I don't really remember. I put it on to charge when it was at 6%, uptime said it hit 13 hours. The screen wasn't on the whole time, but even if it was, it would still be 10+ hours. :)
Unlike most products out there where the battery life estimates are overstated and not what it can really do, the Pandora does exactly what the battery life is estimated at and tech sites can't believe it. Believe it!
 
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Sonict said:
Here is a native screenshot of the Pandora.

Pandora1.png


I'll take another screenshot when the battery is at 100% so you can see how long it would last just idling at the desktop with WiFi disabled (Since I doubt many people would want to have it enabled all of the time anyways)

On another note, the uptime there is from when I turned it on this morning and the battery was around 80 - 90% or something. I don't really remember. I put it on to charge when it was at 6%, uptime said it hit 13 hours. The screen wasn't on the whole time, but even if it was, it would still be 10+ hours. :)
Unlike most products out there where the battery life estimates are overstated and not what it can really do, the Pandora does exactly what the battery life is estimated at and tech sites can't believe it. Believe it!
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Ooh, that screenshot looks nice. I'd sorta want one for emulation, and the battery life sounds really good from what you've said.
 
Oh wow...I actually really want one of these...I could play Chrono Cross, Chrono Trigger, and much more on the go o.o That battery life is pretty nice.
And $500 isn't too bad for it in my opinion.
 
If you are playing games and stuff, then the battery life takes a beating, but according to people who have played games and stuff, you can still get around 6 - 9 hours (assuming you were playing it full blast at the default CPU speed). This is all just a guess from me. Since it is unlikely you would ever play something for that long all at once, it shows that the battery life in this thing is what the 3DS should be getting. :P

I am almost ready to give you a new screenshot of the Pandora. Battery percent is at 93 atm.
 
Wow, that last screenshot helped me visualize the resolution better...that is really nice for something about as small as a ds. *wants one even more now*
Also, I assumed the battery life would be cut in half when gaming...6-9 hours is much more than I was expecting.

EDIT: Is there any kind of warranty on the pandora?
 
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Yes. By law in the UK, it has to be at least one year which it is. Hopefully, they will sort out the last few issues (like the A button not feeling right and the shoulder buttons) in the coming months. And... I paid $330 US for this back in 2008. It sucks that if you guys want one, it isn't that cheap, but they were losing too much money on every unit and for a small company like this, it would kill the project before the second batch was shipped.
 
Hey guys.

I'm just posting to show off something that I can do with my Pandora now. I can now connect a Wiimote to it and use it for stuff. I set up the IR to be a mouse pointer and it works fine. I tried to play Commander Keen with it and I didn't do well since I was holding the video camera at the same time.

Video is here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n7n4wtcY_ns

In other news. Warpshade got his Pandora!

[12:22:42] <Warpshade> Sonict: It arrived. ^_^
[12:28:41] <Sonict> Nice, Warpshade. Hopefully, you won't run into many hardware issues. At least most of them are sorted out now
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Hopefully at the rate they are going, Blitzzo and Boinciel should be getting theirs in about a month or two. I hope I see them write a small review about it soon.
 
this is entirely too bitchin'... but the question is, how does it hold up against stuff like a good newer android phone.
Though I heard that newer android are coming without keyboards and are going all digital, which is terrible IMO. At least the pandora has a keyboard AND sticks!
 
Considering the technology in this is from 2008, I can't really say how well it holds up and the Pandora isn't a phone either. :P Now, people have been attempting to port the android OS to the Pandora. I dunno how far they got.
 
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