Battery


Genuine 10 hour full use battery

We're not kidding when we say 10 hours, but how did we do it?

Meet the Pandora battery. This 4200mAh behemoth is twice the capacity of even the Samsung Galaxy S3's battery.

And when we say 10 hours real use, we mean it, bright screen, using wifi, playing games, watching movies - no tricks.

If you use low power mode you can even reach 20 hours of use, a world first on a portable computer.

In standby mode it can last up to a week.

With this compact, but powerful custom-made battery the Pandora can not only last you a transatlantic flight without charging, but the return trip too.

The battery is also user replaceable, which means you can carry a spare or two and really keep your Pandora going.

Emulation


Play your favourite classics

Have you tried using emulators on your phone or tablet and been dissapointed with the poor controls or dejected that it just does not 'feel right'?

The Pandora changes that. Designed with emulation in mind, it faithfully recreates the controls and feeling of dozens of classic computers and games consoles.

Take the Amiga - 500 or 1200 - once the emulator is running, the Pandora controls 'just work' as if you're using a real portable Amiga. The keyboard becomes the Amiga keyboard, the gaming controls act exactly like an Amiga joystick and the nubs act as the mouse.

This is repeated for all supported emulation systems, from the ZX Spectrum to PC games up to Pentium75 era. It's one of the things which makes the Pandora truly unique among handhelds.

With over 50 free emulators currently available, the emulation potential of the Pandora is mind blowing.

PC ports and native games

As well as dozens of ports of classic PC games you can also play Android games with real controls, it makes a huge difference, and the Pandora can play most Android games very well:

The Pandora boasts engine ports like Theme Hospital, Quake, Doom, SCUMMVM and Descent. And last, but definitely not least, are the freeware, native games which you can grab straight from the repo and start playing with no additional files or content needed. Amongst these are the great 2d platformers: Frogatto and Cave Story, the scarily addictive turn-based strategy game: Battle for Wesnoth, and the excellent Hurrican: a Turrican-inspired jump and run game.

Between Emulation, Android and native ports the Pandora can play an absolute wealth of classic games in one form or another.

Movies, Music, Web & Productivity


On the go entertainment and productivity

With Android in the mix you can use Netflix and iPlayer on the Pandora alongside a variety of video and music apps in both Linux and Android.

But don't just consume content, create it! With the Pandora 1GHz you can take advantage of document editors, development tools, music sequencers, note managers, educational software and more to create and learn. Comprehensive C/C++ development tools enable on-device compilation, letting you literally write and compile your own games and software on the go.

Open OS & Active Community Forums


Open Pandora Community Forums

The community is here to help, and on the Pandora forums you'll find software news, firmware updates, general discussion and plenty of help and support.

You'll also find many of the Pandora developers and software maintainers/porters hanging about.

Lightweight custom linux OS or Android

Choose from a quick-launch, ultra minimalist OS, a fully-featured XFCE desktop environment with window management, multi-tasking and everything you would expect from a full linux laptop.

Need Android? No problem, the Pandora can run Android too - from within the XFCE desktop.

The more demanding desktop user can even use a Debian-linux Chroot or overlay and gain access to a vast number of additional and familiar linux applications in the Debian ARM repository.

Community driven development and support

Pandora has a constantly evolving library of community contributed software, almost all of which is available for free in the repository, plus all the Android apps you can eat.

Our forum and IRC channel are packed with people to give you a helping hand.

QWERTY Keyboard & Gaming Controls


From on the go productivity to gaming in moments

Sitting side-by-side, the full QWERTY keyboard and gaming controls offer the best of both worlds, be it business or pleasure. When you're not gaming, the analogue nubs make an excellent stand-in for a mouse and are much easier to use over long periods of time than the touch screen.

When you are gaming, the analogue gives you familiar games-console-like control over your 3D games, and the enthusiast-tweaked digital pad and face buttons are amongst the best of their kind.

The Pandora keyboard has been carefully thought out and includes all the characters you might require for emulation, gaming, on-device programming and, of course, command-line operation. A dedicated number row gives instant access to number keys and function keys.

2 SD slots & real USB host port


All the storage you'll ever need

We know movies, music and games chew through disk space, so we didn't put any fixed storage inside the Pandora. Instead, dual SD card slots mean you can double up on the storage and are future-proof up to a possible 4 terabytes of storage at the theoretical 2TB maximum capacity of SDXC cards.

The full-sized USB host port will let you use USB hard-drives, 3G adaptors and many more USB peripherals up to 500mA. The Pandora has a USB OTG Mini-AB port too which can be used for charging, usage of the SD Slots as mass storage device or as another host USB Port using an adaptor (up to 100mA).

1GHz+ ARM Cortex with NEON co-processor and SGX graphics


Lightning fast performance, for a laptop-like experience in your pocket.

X-Ray of the Pandora

The new 1GHz ARM Cortex brings the Pandora up to date and almost doubles its processing power. Unlike tablets and smartphones, you can use this power in the full linux desktop environment.

Now with 512MB RAM, the Pandora has plenty of memory for more demanding applications and more multitasking.

The NEON co-processor and SGX graphics chip are instrumental to top-notch emulator and 3D gaming performance. The open nature of the Pandora 1GHz lets developers get right down to the metal, squeezing out every iota of power.

Specifications

  • 1GHz (+ overclock support) ARM Cortex A8
  • PowerVR SGX GPU with OpenGL ES 2.0 support
  • 512MB DDR SDRAM RAM and 512MB internal NAND storage
  • 4.3-inch 800x480 touchscreen TFT-LCD
  • Stereo speakers, analogue volume wheel, microphone, high-quality DAC
  • QWERTY keyboard, gaming controls, dual analogue
  • 802.11b/g Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 2.0 + EDR
  • USB On-The-Go + full-sized USB 2.0 host port
  • Two SDHC/SDXC compatible SD slots
  • 4200mAh lithium-ion polymer battery, 10 hour battery life

Frequently Asked Questions

The Pandora is quite expensive, why is this?

  • The Pandora is completely bespoke; designed by gamers, for gamers
  • It boasts a custom battery with a genuine 10 hour average run-time
  • Substantially more functionality than a similarly priced Phone
  • Top-notch sound quality, 100dB SNR with low gain, Burr-Brown DAC & an analogue volume wheel
  • Almost all of the Pandora software is free
  • Everything but the case is manufactured and assembled in Europe
  • A cheaper "Rebirth Edition" 600Mhz/512mb RAM Pandora is also available

What? The Pandora isn't made in China, is this true?

Yes. The Pandora, thoughout its life, has been made in either the UK or Germany. Only some of the plastics are made in China and we are aiming to move this to Europe too.

So the Pandora is a tiny computer with gaming controls. Is it *really* a computer?

Yes. It is a real computer with a full desktop Linux or, if you prefer, Android. You can edit documents as easily as you can play games, use the web or watch movies and listen to music. You can also, if you really want to torture yourself, emulate Windows.

And it has a real 10 hour battery life?

Yes. 10 hours of proper use; not '10 hours in exact circumstances', 10 hours average and closer to 15 with optimisation (ie: low volume, low screen brightness).

It will also sit in standby with the lid closed for over 100 hours.

So the default speed is 1Ghz, isn't this a little slow?

Not at all, along with the custom design the Pandora boasts highly optimised software, this leads to huge jumps in speed over other systems. Plus you can overclock the Pandora if you want to; many users run theirs at 1.2Ghz.

We recommend you watch some videos of Emulators and games in action here to appreciate how quick the Pandora is.

Ah yes, Emulation, is the Pandora good at this?

It's as good as it gets; not only does it have some of the best emulators on the planet, it also has the controls to back them up.

For the first time on a portable device you can experience things like the Commodore 64, Amiga, ZX Spectrum and PC as if you were holding the real thing; with full keyboard support and gaming.

What about Android games, do these run well?

Generally they run very well - and they use the physical Pandora controls - no more touch screen inaccuracy, while we can't document how every game runs, have a look at this video of the exceptionally popular GTA3 and Max Payne :

Finally what about customer service? Are you a small company? Is this an issue?

With customer service you often get to speak right to us, the creators of the Pandora, and we, along with the community, will try to help you get where you want to be.

If you think your Pandora has a fault or issue then we will repair or replace it.

It's all quite pain free!