Remember the Pandora? It's a new Linux-based handheld with a beefy 600Mhz processor, an 800x600 resolution, 4.3" touchscreen and a 43-key QWERTY keyboard that we told you about back in April. After a few months of quiet on the subject, word has come that it's going to be available in time for Christmas in a limited run of 3000 units.
It all sounds very impressive. In addition to the above specs, the device will feature dual analogs, 802.11 b/g, Bluetooth and two SDHC card slots. According to a developer on the project, this bad boy will be capable of running Doom III. And all of this can be yours for the low, low price of £199.99.
I'm interested but not optimistic about its success. This is a small fish going up against leviathans where the handheld space is concerned. I can see consumers who aren't amongst the geek elite being wary of an OS that requires more than plug-and-play. And, frankly, the design doesn't strike me as too appealing. The price isn't too bad, though, and I'd expect this to be a great general device for those who would have a use for what's essentially a pretty powerful palmtop computer.
[Via BeefJack]
Conrad Zimmerman is Destructoid's News Editor and home to the busiest mustache in the gaming press. An amateur historian and pop culture fanatic, Conrad possesses a nearly limitless wealth of videogame factoids and a passion for the power of games to teach, inspire and entertain. He enjoys reading, writing and turning things which should be fun into work.
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Contest:
6:48 AM on 09.03.2008
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sounds like a homebrewers wet dream
Why would a Linux head go for a new and untested product that so far has only been seen in concept render form and (to my knowledge) hasn't even had the distro announced yet when tried and tested alternatives like the EEEPC exist?
Why would a gamer go for a Linux based handheld with a touch-screen when they could have a 2 touchscreens with the DS or all the games and homebrew of the PSP without the hassle of getting games to work on Linux?
This looks to me like it could really suffer from a lack of focus. Either way, I'm versed in Linux so I'll be keeping an eye on it and may even end up picking one up out of curiosity if the reviews are favourable.
And that's about it.
What? 199 pounds is currently about 350 US dollars. You could buy a full on console for that and both the PSP and DS cost far less. That's not competitive at all regardless of how decent the hardware is.
@Serpentish - It isn't competitive if you expect them to compete with the DS and PSP, which I obviously do not. This will wind up being a novelty device for tech-heads.
http://openpandora.org/blog.php
Ah, the magic of video; I'm sold. Those graphics are amazingly smooth for a handheld
You're right, I just found a video from Leipzig of it running a few emulators from the terminal, though it wasn't fully assembled at the time.
You're probably also right about its target audience; I got mixed messages from a few tech blogs that claimed to was taking on the PSP and DS (which I don't think it has much of a chance at) but for homebrew developers (like me) it does seem pretty damn promising.
"Why would a gamer go for a Linux based handheld with a touch-screen when they could have a 2 touchscreens with the DS or all the games and homebrew of the PSP without the hassle of getting games to work on Linux?"
The DS has 2 touchscreens?
Disregard that, I'm an idiot.
Should just be 2 screens - 1 of which is a touchscreen.
I for one am all over the pandora b/c it isn't a "gaming machine" it is a linux umpc with gaming controls, there are already a number of people doing application dev for it and at the time of shipping it is supposed to have a nes, capcom, psp, snes, genesis emulator ready to go with it and has a tv out, bluetooth and full speed wi-fi.
The big draw for me is that it has dual SD slots and can be booted with whatever custom OS is on the card (I believe it will have a custom lixux OS, but I am not sure it iwill be chipped or if it is provided for the card). The cool thing also it that there is no eeprom for the OS, so it is "unbrickable" since the board contains only a bios and any changes to the OS or mods happen on the card level and not the eeprom.
all and all it does look awesome
Unless it's being sold as a compact laptop that has the horsepower play some games and not meltdown in your hands, I don't see how this is appealing to anyone except Linux junkies.
I'll pick one up in a year or so when they hit $50 on ebay.
It does sound like a homebrew developers wet dream. If it can run those arcade emus like Kawaks or MAME, I'm really getting one.
I just watched that video of Pandora running Final Burn emu. SF Alpha 2 and SF 3rd Strike in my pocket? Kerching! Sold.
Until my PSP can run these games (probably never), a Pandora will do it for me.
I'm getting one for emulators, firefox 3 and the msn messenger client all in something the size of a DS. Handy as crap. Also it has a better resolution than the psp's screen so i wont go blind reading webpages.