Pandora Feedback


WarmFluffyUK

The Big Wad Bolf.
Joined
Sep 4, 2004
Messages
3,384
Location
UK
Website
www.retrotech.one
With the first Pandoras hitting our homes, I thought it might be prudent to start a feedback/review thread.

The aim of this topic is to give our lucky Pandora owners a single point of feedback where the OP team can peruse quickly. Please follow the rules of this thread below.

  1. You must own a Pandora to post feedback about the unit.
  2. If you want to start a conversation from any feedback posted, please open a new thread quoting the feedback in question, quick replies are okay and I might merge them into one post if need be.
  3. Unrelated posts will be deleted or branched off to a separate thread appropriately.
  4. Try to give as much information as possible, we would love to hear all comments and love detailed info.
  5. Images and videos are most welcomed.
I'm sure our member as well as the OP team are very interested in your feedback, I know I am and I have high hopes for the Pandora. This is exciting stuff folks!
 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FzVaMoQJ9dc
ver 2.0
YouTube Video

Detailed Review to follow

EDIT:...

Got a knock at the door, and a Pandora was sitting out there in the rain.

SIZE: It's not something you'll want to put in your back pocket. My logic is shoulder buttons and fabric won't mix, nor will pocket lint and all the openings. But its small enough to still enjoy. Don't find pockets and electronics work all that well, I recommend a case of some sort for protection in a backpack etc.

WEIGHT: Not too heavy, but not flimsy either. Lid/display certainly not as heavy as bottom of unit due to battery.

FEEL: Like the matte finish, we'll see how well this paint can hold. Everything feels in place while the shoulders feel a little foreign but are easy to adjust to. My L shoulder button feels a little stiffer than the right one. L-Analog nub needed a little time to break in, it'll happen, just be gentle, ED had a better way of wording this. Haven't used a stylus since 2004, but it feels just right and it works really well for scrolling and clicking.

LOOKs: Gangster, be prepared to start answering questions. If you're speaking with law enforcement, its always good to answer a question with a question to not incriminate yourself. Pandora's may cause a ruckus at the airport as well. Be Prepared.

LCD is crisp, no dead pixels. No complaints here.

OS: First bootup was a bit hairy. I wound up going into the quick menu and it just hung because I had no SD card in and also didn't do the Hotfix yet. I reset it as it appeared to be hung at a blue screen Pandora square background with a crosshair, left it there for at least 20 minutes, probably not hung, morelike me not being prepared. After reboot, I went into Xfce and this worked. It kept my initial username/password from my first bootup mix up. I entered a 2nd one just to be safe.

These can be removed once inside the OS. The interface to do it just allowed me to remove the other USERNAME but it didn't list it, which could be confusing if more than two start using the Pandora and want separate logins.

OS is impressive other than web browser at the moment. My unit turns on when a power supply is plugged in, maybe I can find a way around this or most likely the OS doesn't support it yet.

Keyboard: Solid, rough in the dark, especially when you don't remember special character positions, but this will come along in time. Keys are the glossiest part of the unit, curious to see how they'll wear or if they'll wear.

Controls: I'm gonna have to say 95% due to the shoulder buttons. They are not as solid as ABYX or D-pad. Analogs I haven't used much yet. Shoulder buttons feel strange when holding around them and not using, if you're a tight grip, you might want to be easy on them and relax your grip.

Sound: Speakers, not the loudest things, but what do you expect with something that small. Super Metroid sounded better on this than it did on a big screen TV back in 94/95. As for headphones, they are clear and sound good, can get uncomfortably loud (tinnitus/hearing loss afflict me), much louder than my iphone 2G.

ISSUES: Case when closed isn't proportional, Left side near power switch is a little more elevated and has a noticeable gap. Also another disproportion on the case lid when closed, right side is past flush while left side is almost perfect.

OVERALL: I'm happy! I really want to thank the team and all those who've worked to support this. Can't wait to see what's ahead. I'm glad 2 months is no longer a reality. From what little I've played with it in the last day, the game play and control is a step above both the GP2X F-200 and Dingoo. That's what its all about, the rest is bonus. STOKED, will make some more video and try to put some more time into editing than the crash course unboxing.

Thoughts, ?s. Let me know, I'm still learning this puppy, and will take it out on business today to kill any down time while I'm in a waiting room.

Peace, pot, & Pandora,

Link

PS I'll be changing the URL as I did a little editing to the unboxing video. Sorry about the sound, need to work on that.
PPS The battery cases are the hardest thing to open IMHO, it must have took me 5+ minutes and I didn't want to break it first time opening it. Good luck on them.
 
I'll just review the lid/screen: very nice and crispy screen, the lid –at least mine- doesn’t hold straight very well and just tend to fall back.

I can't really review the rest of the pandoram yet as it doesn't really work for me....
 
Back
Top