Help.. My Resistance Is Weakening

[andyhamer]

I'm in a bit of an indecisive quandry at the moment - im hoping someone here can help me see the wood for the trees, a friend of mine has just won a HTC Desire Z (he's an iphone zealot) brand new still in the box and he is offering me first refusal for £120 - i've done a bit of research/asked on some forums, and the general consensus is that it's an awesome device with a huge range of functionality & easily overclockable etc.


I've been wavering for some time over asking for a refund - but recently decided to give the team at least until Xmas, but now in light of recent posts Ed has made, it's almost 99.9% guaranteed i won't be receiving my unit this year (i'm about 1500 in the queue) my allegiance to the project & team is beginning to crumble - i really love the Pandora project as a concept & have huge admiration for what the team has achieved so far, and visiting these forums (on an almost hourly basis, for as long as i can remember) has been a (sometimes painfull) blast...


But i digress, i know why the Pandora is such a potential little bundle of joy, but i was hoping i could ask for some other opinions/encouragement and reasons not to jump ship.


Any comments, both positive & negative would be welcome -


Thanks for listening.

 

[WizardStan]

I do not understand "first refusal". Is he willing to sell it to you for £120 you mean? If so, TAKE IT! It is a brilliant phone. I picked it up last weekend and couldn't be happier with a phone.


It is not a worthy substitute for the Pandora, however, depending on what you want to do with it. The screen is the same resolution and brightness, but the Pandora has about a quarter inch extra size for easier viewing of movies, but at the same time, the bigger screen and especially the speakers on the side make the whole thing much larger than the phone.


The physical keyboard on it, I've found, is great for short texts, but because they're necessarily flat, they're not as tactile as the Pandora's rounded keys, which I've found makes it easier to type for longer periods. Basically full sized keyboard I can type on for hours, Pandora keyboard I can use for about 45 minutes, the Desire's keyboard I have to break every 10 minutes. The Desire is also missing some keys that are essential if you're planning on doing any sort of remote administration or programming with it, but that was my use case and probably not yours.


And you really can't beat the d-pad and nubs on the Pandora when it comes to gaming. Yeah, the HTC Desire Z is a great phone with some gaming abilities, but it is still a phone: your thumb gts in the way of the touchscreen and the keys aren't responsive enough for jump and run like games. Maybe with an iControlPad like addition it could be similar enough to warrant comparison.


As said, I now have both, and they both fit their positions very well, especially now that my Pandora is fixed.

 

[Trip]

I'd say that what you should do depends on why you wanted a Pandora in the first place.


If you let us know what you wanted or expected to use the Pandora for, we can possibly offer better advice

 

[Link]

You've waited soo long, what is another few weeks. It is an amazing device and has improved since the first hundred and next 800. With improved nubs, i would not leave. The world is in a state of corporate dominated chaos, this is not part of that which is something i respect. You helped create this in your financial contribution and being there in the first day of preorders showing support.

 

[andyhamer]

You've waited soo long, what is another few weeks. It is an amazing device and has improved since the first hundred and next 800. With improved nubs, i would not leave. The world is in a state of corporate dominated chaos, this is not part of that which is something i respect. You helped create this in your financial contribution and being there in the first day of preorders showing support.

Thanks for that - i can't help smiling though whenever "a couple" is mentioned regarding estimated shipping.

I do not understand "first refusal". Is he willing to sell it to you for £120 you mean?

As far as the first refusal thing, Yes for £120 - he's a pretty good mate & he knows the sorry state of my iphone 3g, i think it's destined for Ebay if i decline.

I'd say that what you should do depends on why you wanted a Pandora in the first place.


If you let us know what you wanted or expected to use the Pandora for, we can possibly offer better advice

I saw the Pandora (in the early days) as a logical upgrade from the GP2X, which i used primarily for emulation & media playback - i don't think i would use it in a radically different way, i know it supports a lot more features, but my linux experience is pretty much non existant and the thought of tinkering around fills me with dread.


Unfortunately i'm not in WizardStans enviable position of being able to afford both, as i've just recently been made redundant - the Pandora refund would pay for the Desire Z.


Thanks for responding guys.

 

[- Theo -]

Take the HTC, then sell it to me for £150.


Now seriously, I'm sorry to hear about you being made redundant. Crap crisis. Which kind of job are you doing? Any prospect of finding anything else soon? I know you'll regret it if you cancel the Pandora now, although the HTC seems to be a pretty awesome device (and I'm an iPhone zealot too).


And don't worry about Linux, it grows on you.

 

[Link]

I don't know much Linux. The OS is very stable and gonna get better over time, .PNDs make life easy, XFCE is much like Windows and MiniMenu is faster for things you mentioned via GP2X upgrade.

 

[Coldbird]

I sure would take the HTC, I've always wanted one myself cause my phone, much like yours, is breaking apart - literally.


For such a price - TAKE IT. You would regret it if you don't.


I don't really see the phone as a replacement to the pandora though... but seriously, if your phone is in a as sorry state as mine, it might be a good chance to fix that problem of yours.


I would buy it off ya myself, but I'm pretty low on cash over here.

 

[Eridger]

Well... you NEED a working phone... you probably don't neccessarily need a Pandora...

 

[andyhamer]

I'm sorry to hear about you being made redundant. Crap crisis. Which kind of job are you doing? Any prospect of finding anything else soon?

Thanks for that -


I'm under no illusion it's going to be a struggle finding something else where i live or the surrounding area (small village) as i work in the Mental health & care sector, and these aren't the kind of jobs you can just walk into - ironic really as i had just finished re-training & had re-located from London in order to do this work, but you know how it is.. last in - first out!


I will probably just try to get some part-time unskilled work in the meantime whilst looking... Hey Ed, how about an early Pandora? (i promise i will keep it discrete) - surely i'm a worthy sympathy vote candidate? (i'll settle for a one nubber)


...apologies for that! i was born in Lancashire gallows humour, is endemic there...

 

[WizardStan]

Unfortunately i'm not in WizardStans enviable position of being able to afford both, as i've just recently been made redundant - the Pandora refund would pay for the Desire Z.

Ooof, yeah, in that case take the phone. The Pandora is awesome and it is quite unlikely to be completely replaced by the HTC, but it should have enough to keep you occupied. Plus, it's a phone, a far more useful device than a "mere" gaming machine.

 

[Stingray]

So someone has a device they don’t like and wants to sell it to you. That’s not surprising. You say the device has a wide range of function. That’s code for the device has limitations. My experience has been that it is impossible to find a phone that lets you connect to your own WiFi without buying into their proprietary plan toward world domination. It’s rubbish.

 

[- Theo -]

So someone has a device they don’t like and wants to sell it to you. That’s not surprising. You say the device has a wide range of function. That’s code for the device has limitations. My experience has been that it is impossible to find a phone that lets you connect to your own WiFi without buying into their proprietary plan toward world domination. It’s rubbish.

Well, everything you buy (apart from the Pandora ) is buying into some big company plan to dominate the market, that's (unfortunately) the whole point of any company in this day and age. But there are ways to escape (at least a bit) this plan: jailbreaking an iPhone, rooting an Android, etc. That's lots of fun too, while waiting for the Pandora.

 

[elwing]

resistance is futile, that HTC will be assimilated

 

[WizardStan]

My experience has been that it is impossible to find a phone that lets you connect to your own WiFi without buying into their proprietary plan toward world domination. It’s rubbish.

The Desire Z lets me do this. It let me do so before I unlocked it, even. After I unlocked it, it even lets me turn it into a wifi hotspot and share it's 3G connection. It probably would have let me do that before I unlocked it, but I wasn't able to use the 3G before I unlocked it. Bought it out of contract. Hate contracts.

 

[Emnasut]

Personally I only know the Desire (without Z) but that is a very nice phone already and £120 is a good price for the Z from what I've read. You could always get a Pandora from a later batch maybe? Or ask your good friend if he's willing to wait some time for you to give hime the money (or rest of the money or something), maybe he'll go for it if he doesn't need it imemdiately.

 

[emcee]

Is it possible to buy someone's queue position? If so, I'll buy your position at the price you'd be refunded ($315 USD, right?). That way, I get a second Pandora a little sooner, you get your money back, OPT doesn't lose any money and... well that's it.