[Gilly87]

Very true. The HTC One M7 and M8 are really good examples.



This is an M7, perfect really. Almost exactly the same as my old MotoG but all metal. Not too think, not too thin, beautiful back curve and squared edges. Nice and heavy and all metal. By far the best feeling (even though I said that about my Motog 2nd gen, buts the same heh)


The M8, still has that still unmatched build, all metal ect. But eventhough it's only a few milimeters thicker, I really really don't like it. Too much curve to the back, and the suuuuper round edges mixed with the slippery (but great feeling) metal makes it like holding a big heavy bar of soap.

So not only does a few milimeters make a difference, but even just shape

That being said. The few milimeters so a reasonibly sized device, should not make much difference as long as the shape is nice. The G3 does have a 5.5 inch display. Which is massive. The original G2 was only 5.2. Adding size to something big of course makes it worse

5 inch screens tend to be the perfect sweet spot (generally speaking, of course it's also dependent on bezels. Iphone 6+ has a 5.5 screen, but is as big as an oil tanker, where was the Nexus 6 rediculous 5.9 inch display isn't nearly as unwealdy as one might think, quite nice actually. Easier to hold them my Note Edge anyways)


EDIT: not that it will make much difference now that the materials are on order. But for the EX2 perhaps

Good saying: first release is a prototype to sell and fund the 2nd one.

Although that deffinatly doesn't mean the first one will be bad at all

 
 
I'm with you on that one; I thought the M8 was awkward to hold, mostly due to its length, but they needed to do it for the larger screen and stereo speakers to work.
 
Engineering this kind of stuff is a real challenge, and the results are never perfect, even when you have the money to do everything you want. Designing a portable device for audio is a bit like building a house on a peace of land you already own - you've already bought the property, so no matter what you dreamed your perfect house would look like, it's going to change based on how well it fits on your piece of land. If the build-able land is underneath a giant tree that's a protected species, you probably won't get 4 floors; if there's a big hill running across the damn property, well, you're gonna need some stilts. It's just the way it is.

 

[Gilly87]

  :O
You can't do that with the X5 unless you wear cargo pants.  How big are your pockets, btw?

 
I dunno. I wear jeans and shorts, mostly...not skinny jeans, fwiw.

 

[Gilly87]

  Guys, just received word from Gilly that they changed the EX1's design.  Check it out:
 
 

Spoiler: New design

 
If only ;_;

 

[SeEnCreaTive]

I'm with you on that one; I thought the M8 was awkward to hold, mostly due to its length, but they needed to do it for the larger screen and stereo speakers to work.

Engineering this kind of stuff is a real challenge, and the results are never perfect, even when you have the money to do everything you want. Designing a portable device for audio is a bit like building a house on a peace of land you already own - you've already bought the property, so no matter what you dreamed your perfect house would look like, it's going to change based on how well it fits on your piece of land. If the build-able land is underneath a giant tree that's a protected species, you probably won't get 4 floors; if there's a big hill running across the damn property, well, you're gonna need some stilts. It's just the way it is.

Yep :l But first editions always are a bit shakey... 2nd houses are always easier

Do you have the screen resolution set?

 

[Gilly87]

Yep :l But first editions always are a bit shakey... 2nd houses are always easier

Do you have the screen resolution set?

 
So true! My family actually built two houses while I was growing up, so I can attest to this from life experience ^_^ I will say, though, that our first house turned out with a certain charm that the second one could never match; even though it wound up being valued lower, it sold first, to a party that looked at both houses, and for whom money was not a primary concern. There's always something special about the original.
 
Screen res isn't a big deal for us; we're more focused on the sound. It might be as high as 720p, but it all depends on what we can do while maintaining our chosen pricepoint, adding a few of the features everyone has been suggesting (along with a few others I haven't talked much about yet), and making sure we don't push back our timeline too much ^_^

 

[SeEnCreaTive]

So true! My family actually built two houses while I was growing up, so I can attest to this from life experience ^_^ I will say, though, that our first house turned out with a certain charm that the second one could never match; even though it wound up being valued lower, it sold first, to a party that looked at both houses, and for whom money was not a primary concern. There's always something special about the original.

Screen res isn't a big deal for us; we're more focused on the sound. It might be as high as 720p, but it all depends on what we can do while maintaining our chosen pricepoint, adding a few of the features everyone has been suggesting (along with a few others I haven't talked much about yet), and making sure we don't push back our timeline too much ^_^

I was just going to say, screen rez doesn't matter much iphone screens are really low rez believe it or not. (The 6 is below normal HD, and the 6+ is 1080p) The reason they are called "Retina" is becuase at normal view distances, your eye can't see pixels at that resolution or higher. Epescially when you are dealing with a screen that is smaller then an average phone like the EX1. All about that PPI. (Heh considering the Edge is 539 ppi xD)


Lower resolution means better battery life , and lower cost. Hence why HTC went 1080 on the M9 instead of Samsung's new norm of 1440p minimum.... side by side from a bit of a distance, you won't notice a difference. Well Samsungs OLED does slay. But for different reasons.

 

[Gilly87]

I was just going to say, screen rez doesn't matter much

iphone screens are really low rez believe it or not. (The 6 is below normal HD, and the 6+ is 1080p) The reason they are called "Retina" is becuase at normal view distances, your eye can't see pixels at that resolution or higher. Epescially when you are dealing with a screen that is smaller then an average phone like the EX1. All about that PPI. (Heh considering the Edge is 539 ppi xD)


Lower resolution means better battery life , and lower cost. Hence why HTC went 1080 on the M9 instead of Samsung's new norm of 1440p minimum.... side by side from a bit of a distance, you won't notice a difference. Well Samsungs OLED does slay. But for different reasons.

 
Agreed. We're way more concerned with battery life than making it super fancy.
 
Totally agree with the choice to stick with 1080p too, it just makes sense IMO; battery life is a way bigger deal for smartphones than that last percent of image quality. I feel like few apps are even adapted for higher than 1080p resolution.

 

[SeEnCreaTive]

   
Agreed. We're way more concerned with battery life than making it super fancy.
 
Totally agree with the choice to stick with 1080p too, it just makes sense IMO; battery life is a way bigger deal for smartphones than that last percent of image quality. I feel like few apps are even adapted for higher than 1080p resolution.

Almost nothing is. You-Tube now only streams at 720p on phones, used to go as high as you wanted, and Netflix is also 720p, All games that I play are not intended for 1440p, even some widgets don't work on my QHD screen :l

 

[Gilly87]

  Almost nothing is. You-Tube now only streams at 720p on phones, used to go as high as you wanted, and Netflix is also 720p, All games that I play are not intended for 1440p, even some widgets don't work on my QHD screen :l

Yep. My Asus Zenbook has a 2k screen and it's the weirdest thing ever. So many weird resolution/compatibility issues. Don't get me wrong, it looks amazing, but most icons aren't optimized and look bad, and when I first set it up, it was a pain to get SWTOR configured properly, and things get whacky sometimes when I unlug my monitor.
 
TBH I could easily live with 720p everything forever. Movies shot in 1080p on a big 1080p screen lose their magic because instead of watching a movie, it feels like you're there recording the movie, and that takes away some of the magic for me; uncanny valley FTL.

 

[Q Mass]

I'm kinda surprised that there haven't been many impressions of the Echobox posted from Canjam.
Did anyone here get a chance to audition the current proto?

 

[Gilly87]

I'm kinda surprised that there haven't been many impressions of the Echobox posted from Canjam.
Did anyone here get a chance to audition the current proto?

 
Would love to hear any feedback folks have, positive or negative. We've got a few month til launch still, so it's not too late for any great ideas

 

[Uberclocked]

   
Would love to hear any feedback folks have, positive or negative. We've got a few month til launch still, so it's not too late for any great ideas

Any pictures of the UI?
Thanks!
I can't really thing of anything atm aside from preloading that mp3 I sent you via email a while back on every device and making it impossible to delete.

 

[crafty0121]

Gilly87 it seems that no one visited you at Cam jam? Cos there's no reviews about!!!

 

[Gilly87]

Gilly87 it seems that no one visited you at Cam jam? Cos there's no reviews about!!!

 
We had tons of visitors! We were actually on the SHaG list, so tons of people came by and gave us some good feedback. I think nobody is thinking too hard about us at the moment because we don't actually have anything for sale; I'm sure that will change when the Finder launches Most people seemed more interested in the Explorer, which is not a surprise, considering we're offering sound that competes with stuff as much as 6 times our price with a pretty unique form factor, but the only thing final about it at the moment is the sound! But the Explorer is a long way from launch; we're looking at June at the moment, but even so, I've already gotten dozens of emails from folks wanting to get on our mailing list, so the interest is there! About 75% of people who visit Head-Fi never even post, though, so it's not really surprising that there haven't been many impressions.

 

[SeEnCreaTive]

We had tons of visitors! We were actually on the SHaG list, so tons of people came by and gave us some good feedback. I think nobody is thinking too hard about us at the moment because we don't actually have anything for sale; I'm sure that will change when the Finder launches Most people seemed more interested in the Explorer, which is not a surprise, considering we're offering sound that competes with stuff as much as 6 times our price with a pretty unique form factor, but the only thing final about it at the moment is the sound! But the Explorer is a long way from launch; we're looking at June at the moment, but even so, I've already gotten dozens of emails from folks wanting to get on our mailing list, so the interest is there! About 75% of people who visit Head-Fi never even post, though, so it's not really surprising that there haven't been many impressions.

The compitition in the IEM market is filled and tough. When you have UE showcasing their custom iems with cool single IEMs that can emulate all their line....


Whereas the high quality DAP market is few and far between. Epescially when you're as unique as the product you guys have