[takato14]

Whatever, I'm still buying one for myself. 
 
/threadcap

 

[Whippler]

It's a cool idea. but to run android fine u should have like 1.2Ghz. I got Desire Z (800Mhz) android phone myself. Rooted and custom roms.. OC:d to 1Ghz, and definately could use more power to run android smooth.
 
Hmm also they got resistive screen on that thing.
 
For ultimate linux hacker thats a damn sweet device. I would like to play around with one, but the price is just too high.

 

[takato14]

Quote:

It's a cool idea. but to run android fine u should have like 1.2Ghz. I got Desire Z (800Mhz) android phone myself. Rooted and custom roms.. OC:d to 1Ghz, and definately could use more power to run android smooth.
 
Hmm also they got resistive screen on that thing.
 
For ultimate linux hacker thats a damn sweet device. I would like to play around with one, but the price is just too high.

Android Gingerbread runs great on my Droid A855. 600MHz.
 
Resistive is better than capacitive in many ways, and vice-versa. For a PocketPC, resistive is best.

 

[suicidal_orange]

There's a "classic" option on the European site for only 280.00 €, do you know if the sound has always been good or only on the new version? 
 
60 hours of battery playing music and Linux will mean gapless - it's a shame it's huge but I'm nearly tempted anyway...

 

[takato14]

Quote:

There's a "classic" option on the European site for only 280.00 €, do you know if the sound has always been good or only on the new version?
 
60 hours of battery playing music and Linux will mean gapless - it's a shame it's huge but I'm nearly tempted anyway...

The thing is, the classic option doesn't have a stable stock as those are the <original> units with only 256MB of RAM. They are refurbished and are only available once a unit has been fully repaired, tested, and reassembled.
 
Everything else, including the audio chips, are the same. 

 

[sswam]

I have purchased several Pandora computers, and wrote a Pandora game.
 
I'm very keen on the device, I will wax enthusiastic!  Please forgive me for that.
 
First a couple of links, about the Pandora's excellent audio:
- http://boards.openpandora.org/index.php?/topic/9335-what-did-the-team-do-in-order-to-make-pandora-audio-output-so-good/
- http://boards.openpandora.org/index.php?/topic/1762-a-review-of-the-pandoras-sound-and-music-capability/
 
If you love music, retro gaming, and programming, there is nothing else like Pandora.
With full keyboard, excellent audio, and gaming controls, she is in a class of her own.
 
If you love music, but don't care for gaming or programming... well you might want to look elsewhere!
Pandora is really an excellent music player, but not designed specifically for that single purpose.
It's still well worth considering the Pandora.  The audio is excellent, and while you listen
you might also want to run Firefox, type documents, edit audio, compose music, play a game...
 
audio
- excellent audio hardware, much better than phones, ipods; competitive to the best portable players
- audio is much better and more powerful than any other device or computer I've used
- sounds very good with my Shure SE535 earbuds
- my only concern: if the volume is set too loud, it really is VERY loud!
 
ergonomics
- larger than a phone, but much smaller than a netbook!
- fits comfortably in a jacket or trouser pocket; not so comfy in a shirt or jeans pocket
- a proper volume wheel, better than volume buttons
- two 'shoulder buttons', can be used to switch tracks without opening the keyboard
- an 'input lock' switch, prevents interrupting your music when you don't want to
- styling, well it's a matter of taste; for me I really like it, more classic muscle car than sports car
- my only concern: the keys are shiny!  not a big deal
 
performance
- runs really very well with Pandora Linux, Android, Debian, ...
- my "600Mz" Pandoras can overclock happily to ~1GHz, and the 1Ghz Pandora can overclock to ~1.2GHz
- the CPU is a bit slower than you'll find in the fastest new phones, but the software is good and it doesn't feel slow at all
- the Pandora system seems to perform very well, better than many PCs and netbooks
 
price
- it's the first product of a small company, they had major troubles with manufacture, and had to raise the price
- a barely-used "rebirth edition" 512MB Pandora sold recently for ~$300 on e-bay
- you can buy a 1st edition 256MB Pandora for <$300 at dragonbox.de, there's very little practical difference
- my conerns: SD storage costs a bit extra, if you want
 
utility
- input: nice touchscreen, full keyboard, excellent gaming controls
- large battery, for very good battery life
- programming: full OS based on Ångström Linux; can also run Debian, Slackware, Android
- retro gaming: SNES, PS1, Amiga, Nintendo 64, MAME arcarde, DOS, Win9x, ScummVM, ...
- modern gaming: ports, homebrew, open source, commercial, Android games
- video: plays movies nicely at 800x480, you might need to re-code larger movies
- two SD card slots for pluggable storage, up to 128GB on each card: that's a lot of music, movies and games in your pocket!
- I have two Sandisk C10 32GB SD cards for mine, plenty of space.  This is an additional expense, from $20 to $80 per card depending on the capacity.
- software and settings go on the SD media; you can re-flash the Pandora operating system without losing anything
 
The Pandora has a very enthusiastic community of users and developers.  Some of them are even more enthusiastic than me!
More than 600 apps have been ported or specifically written for Pandora, and released on the Pandora repo.
She can run almost all Linux open-source software, and can emulate tens of thousands of classic games.
 

For ultimate linux hacker thats a damn sweet device. I would like to play around with one, but the price is just too high.

 
It is damn sweet indeed.  I'm not getting paid for this glowing review, it's how I really feel!
You might be able to get one second-hand or "almost brand new" for a low price, and the "classic" edition is only $300.
 

do you know if the sound has always been good or only on the new version?
60 hours of battery playing music and Linux will mean gapless - it's a shame it's huge but I'm nearly tempted anyway...

 
The sound has always been good.  It is larger than a phone, but I don't find it "huge", it's comfortable to use.
If you might want to watch a movie, play a game, use the internet, or do some typing / work on it, the larger size is an advantage.
I find it much more usable than my N900 phone which is smaller and also has a keyboard.  I think it's much better for web browsing than any phone.
 
Well that's more than enough from me, thanks for reading; I hope I've shown how much I love this little gadget!
Yeah I came and joined these forums just to praise it.  I promise not to spam you too much more about it! 

 

[tds101]

And here come the salesmen,...

 

[CantScareMe]

Quote:

And here come the salesmen,...

 
lol. You can read my mind

 

[RAFA]

It is charming. Would be unfair to compare it to Hifimans/iBasso/etc. Yet the price is something that does not let me consider this one.

 

[sswam]

nywytboy68 /img/forum/go_quote.gif  And here come the salesmen,...

 
I guess I might be called an amateur salesman!  lol

 

[CoryGillmore]

I think it looks promising. It's just the pricepoint. If I were going to spend that much $$, I'd go for the iBasso. Even though this device does more stuff, and some really cool stuff at that. If you're gonna buy it, don't buy it solely as a portable music player. Buy it for the many other cool things it does and also enjoy its' audio quality as a little added bonus. But if you're looking for a top of the line DAP and have the $$, go for the iBasso. Thanks for this thread though. Will be keeping an eye on it

 

[takato14]

Quote:

I think it looks promising. It's just the pricepoint. If I were going to spend that much $$, I'd go for the iBasso. Even though this device does more stuff, and some really cool stuff at that. If you're gonna buy it, don't buy it solely as a portable music player. Buy it for the many other cool things it does and also enjoy its' audio quality as a little added bonus. But if you're looking for a top of the line DAP and have the $$, go for the iBasso. Thanks for this thread though. Will be keeping an eye on it

While I would agree that it's a bit out of the price range for most, for those who really like retro gaming, the Pandora is capable of reproducing the sounds of old games at a level the consoles themselves never could. This is among one of the many reasons I'm getting one. I just wanted to share it here because it can do a lot, and everything it does, it does amazingly well. That includes music.

 

[takato14]

Ker-bump.

 

[qusp]

suspect, only a developer would keep bumping like this... sorry but the audio spec is pretty ordinary. HD600 is actually pretty easy to drive, if you have enough voltage swing, which this doesnt. 1.7v p2p is not even close to line level. line level is 2.1VRMS 1.7v peak to peak is only 0.601vrms…

 

[goodvibes]

Looks like it's made for cans. It will have an output impedance better suited to things over 100 ohms and doesn't do hidef. Neither should be a deal breakers for the right customer.