One Month Later: Pandora Impressions As Time Goes On


Prometheus

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I realised today that it's been precisely one month since I received my Pandora, and I also recalled something that Craig said almost a month ago;

craigix said:
I'm hoping many people will 're-review' the Pandora after about a month of ownership, once they are used to how it works and have had time to try some software and have seen how we are constantly working to make the OS as near to perfect as we can.

To that end, I figured I'd start off a thread for "One Month Later" re-reviews. :p

I'll begin by saying that I spent a good hour or so playing Rockman & Forte in Snes9x4D4P last night, and since I don't have my SNES permanently set up at the moment (my desk is covered with sewing projects :p ), my Pandora has represented the perfect chance to play through it again. I still think that the Pandora's controls are excellent - they helped me to effortlessly mow through four Robot Masters (Ground Man, Tengu Man, Magic Man, and Astro Man, if you're interested :p ) with no trouble at all. The same has been the case with any game I've thrown at them, as well as their use during non-gaming tasks. I'm constantly impressed at how seamlessly I can go between gaming and computing with the same controls - they've been a great help with my writing, as well.

The software side of things continues to impress me - I've already lost count of the number of new features and tweaks that have been added to the OS, both officially and unofficially, over the last month, as well as the amount of software released during that time. There's been something new to try every day, and there's still plenty that I haven't checked out just yet. My favourites so far, off of the top of my head, are Snes9x4D4P (obviously :p ), NesEmu, uae4all (although unfortunately it seems that Sleepwalker, which is one of my favourite Amiga games, can freeze up in this emulator at the moment), PicoDrive, and OpenBOR (I've been spending a bit of time playing this mod, which should come as no surprise to anyone).

Another important thing I feel I should make note of is the excellent customer service, as I think that this is also an important part of the experience. I was without a Pandora for about four or five days at one point (I hope my one-month-later re-review counts in spite of being without one for a few days!), due to my original one developing a fault on its left nub and needing to be replaced. It was set right promptly, and a replacement unit arrived with me the day after my original machine was received back at OpenPandora Ltd.'s Newcastle office. I'm also impressed by how hands-on the team - especially EvilDragon - are in the "I need help" section. The same kudos go to the forum members and software authors who spend their time assisting, as well - I've been helped out myself, and I hope to be able to assist others, too. I've learned plenty of things there, and have had fun trying to write things like my quick-and-simple DVD-ripping guide, as well.

My views on the hardware have not changed, and as I noted in my mini-review of my replacement Pandora when I received it, it's clear to me that quality-assurance has been constantly improving, as my replacement unit was built even better than my first one was. I still think it's a wonderfully solid little device, and it's quite the contrast to my ThinkPad (my main computer), where you can rest a hand on some parts of the casing and actually see them slightly flex! All of the buttons, keys, and other inputs on my unit are good, as you may already have inferred from my continued praise of the controls a couple of paragraphs above this one.

After a few days, I couldn't imagine life without my Pandora. After a month, I don't ever even want to entertain the notion of being without it! It's the first machine I've owned in many years that has genuinely made my life better for being there - I've been able to get back into writing again for the first time in almost a decade, it helps me with my toy-making hobby (which often involves making dolls of obscure video game characters, which has previously made fabric-shopping a bit difficult because I was unable to carry all of my reference materials with me), and it finally allows me to fit watching my DVD collection into my life in a way that doesn't disrupt my way of working - something that has simply not been possible before. In fact, I'm only writing this on my Macintosh right now because I'm ripping more of my DVDs to watch on my Pandora!

To sum it up in one sentence: It's science-fiction come to life, and the return of the microcomputer in every sense of the word.

It's really been amazing to see how things have changed over the course of one month. It's mindboggling to imagine how much they will improve in the future.

You'll have to pardon anything that may sound to you like hyperbole - this really is how I feel and how enthusiastic this little machine has made me. :p I don't see it changing.
 
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What ThinkPad do you own? I have a T60p (15 inch UXGA) and the NMB keyboard is pretty robust with only a little flex on the left side of the first 3 F keys downwards.
 
Mine's a Lenovo ThinkPad R61i. The keyboard on it is fantastic - it's the wrist-rest and sides that flex a little. :p (By contrast, my MacBook doesn't do that. And the Pandora feels even more solid and sturdy than that. :p )

[/Off-topic] :)

I hope we get some other one-month-on impressions in here - I'm really curious as to how others are getting on, myself.
 
dang, I so want it now! Hope those darn Chinese are not sitting on their backends munching noodles and making someone else's cases. I've "only" been waiting since last August but now I'm starting to feel all those "delay"-thread pangs after every review. Knowing that some folks have been enjoying it for a whole month already makes me want to..... /me holds back a sob.....cry.
 
Sorry, I'm probably going to make you feel worse now - I've got some photographs to add, too (because I finally mastered how to take pictures with the flash, without obscuring the screen too badly - I still have the same terrible photography skills and unco-operative photo-box as I did a month ago, though). :p

Pandora_RF.png

My Pandora playing Rockman & Forte, along with the cartridge for a size comparison. :p Mega Man, there, is attached to my wrist-strap, which is out of shot.

Pandora_with_Keyboard_and_Mouse.png

It may seem slightly redundant, but this is quite useful when travelling, and considerably less weighty than taking a laptop.

Pandora_Mega_Man_2.png

Mega Man 2 on the Pandora, complete with the cartridge, which isn't anywhere near as pocket-sized as the Pandora is!

Still hoping more people drop in! I can't be the only one with one-month-later impressions, now, surely? :p
 
I'm so glad that I ordered day one and some people have had theirs for a month.... but aside from that great review! It's awesome to see the software evolve and whatnot
 
Gawd, you've already had yours for a month, it feels like it's gonna take forever for mine to arrive.
 
Prometheus said:
Pandora_with_Keyboard_and_Mouse.png

It may seem slightly redundant, but this is quite useful when travelling, and considerably less weighty than taking a laptop.
see, that right there is my idea of a personal computer these days. i still wish pandora had a bit more modern video out (not necessarily digital either - VGA would've been ok), but since making the LVDS switchable between internal and external displays would have likely made the design considerably more expensive (think HDMI transmitters like this one), i'd still take it the way it is.

ed: so i had this suspicion and looked up in the beagleboard specs to see if my assumption the omap was outputting LVDS was wrong - an it was. omap produces plain DVI and thus takes a framer IC to transform to HDMI, so no HDMI transmitters needed. but i have no idea what the BOM implications from something like BB's TFP410 would be.
 
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I really can't wait for my TV-out cable to arrive so I can complete that ridiculous-looking (but honestly very functional) setup. :lol:
 
How are the nubs? I've noticed several posts mentioning that the nubs end up needing readjustment every so often and was wondering if that was just a case by case issue or something that all of the units have.
 
Gotham said:
How are the nubs? I've noticed several posts mentioning that the nubs end up needing readjustment every so often and was wondering if that was just a case by case issue or something that all of the units have.

They work great on mine, I don't even need to do the calibration UPLR.

GBAx service - excellent: sent my first Pandora to them at 4pm, replacement arrived the next day!
 
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Gotham said:
How are the nubs? I've noticed several posts mentioning that the nubs end up needing readjustment every so often and was wondering if that was just a case by case issue or something that all of the units have.
Absolutely fine, although they do tend to need calibration on boot-up - bear in mind that they're designed to be "always-on", but suspend-to-RAM isn't there at the moment, which sort of scuppers that. :p Sometimes I forget to calibrate, though, and mine are fine so long as they were centred before power-up.
 
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Come on Prom, I want to read something negative from you at least once! I'm getting worried now, as this might mean you let out your bad thoughts by kicking your pets or something :p

ned-flanders-picture.jpg


Edit:

Why don't you use XP on your Thinkpad, it will run much better than Linux.
 
I'm sorry, but I have nothing negative to say. I got precisely what I always expected, I'm happy, and I have no complaints to make. :p
 
Prometheus said:
I'm sorry, but I have nothing negative to say. I got precisely what I always expected, I'm happy, and I have no complaints to make. :p

Come on, there must be one thing you don't like about it?

Do you like the queues at the Post Office?
 
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You've had yours a day or two longer than mine, haven't you, SomeGuy? How about some one-month Pandora impressions from you? :p
 
Prometheus said:
You've had yours a day or two longer than mine, haven't you, SomeGuy? How about some one-month Pandora impressions from you? :p

Careful what you wish for!
 
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Mithrildor said:
... 1 month already and you were like 350 at craig and Im 600 and I dont have mine yet :(
I'm 350-450 and I don't have mine either. I think when the new nubs arrive, they should be able to start sending them out again... I guess it'll be this week or next.
 
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