Evil Dragon’s Pyra Reaches Prototype Stage

Sort of…

In all seriousness, I can’t imagine the amount of work it has taken to get to this stage, so kudos to them.

It seems ED has been in Greece recently checking out the plant that are producing the cases. The molds are done, but they require tweaking to get a better finish than the cases that housed yesteryear’s Pandora.

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Release date? Not for a long while yet…

Click here to read the latest update in full.

8 thoughts on “Evil Dragon’s Pyra Reaches Prototype Stage”

  1. Has anyone seen the GPD UMPC prototype? They’re billing it as a handheld gaming PC. You can go check it out at Lilliputing. Windows 10 software and an Intel Atom Cherry Trail processor. It’d be cool if it could play the GOG catalog.

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  2. The only umpc left. I picked up a Pandora on the cheap and it’s great. There’s nothing else like it. I look forward to seeing a finished product

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  3. Two more years since the last update on this piece of garbage.

    It was outdated at the time it was last talked about.

    It is proudly compared to a piece of garbage device that was used to lie, cheat, and steal from thousands of people.

    I am looking forward to the update-after-next. The next update will be about the “Release Date / Price” for the Pyra. The update after that will be the horrible fallout of the scandal, and the -1 out of 10 reviews of the “Prototype / Alpha / Pre-release” versions that are slower than last year’s bargain basement smartphones.

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    • You must remember Ed (Germany) never ripped any one off. It was Craig (USA) that stole every ones money.
      And do not forget if the Pandora met its original set date for release it would have been the fastest device on the market. I believe the Pyra will be awesome for the niche of people it is built for. How awesome is it that the “Maker” community can get a device like this. Oh and by the way read all the posts on how the Pandora came to be and the pitfalls it hit. Does any major corporation let you see inside the drama of how a product comes into being? This is a great road map for anyone wanting to get into the business of bringing a device to consumers.

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      • Craig was actually from the UK, and even in his case at first it was more about inexperience/incompetence than an actual plan to rip anybody off. He eventually became desperate and took financial shortcuts (which don’t work) and then bitter about the backlash of both his failures and dishonesty and stopped trying altogether. After that, Ed tried to supply units for as many of Craig’s customers as he could, but eventually he ran out of parts that just aren’t made anymore. Ed still gives credits in his shop for people who had an order in to Craig and never got it. Craig never had realistic expectations about how making Pandoras would work.

        Anyone who ordered a Pandora from Ed had a completely different experience, and Ed is the only one in charge now. Ed didn’t know what to expect when he became involved in making Pandoras, but he adjusted and never made obligations regarding it that he couldn’t keep. At this point, Ed knows a lot more about manufacturing this kind of device, and the Pyra is not failing to meet any promises that Ed has made about it. Right now, it looks to me like a second or third quarter of 2016 release for the Pyra, but that is not guaranteed.

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    • What else should it be compared to if not to the Pandora? The Pyra was never meant to be a competition to all those android devices out there. I don’t understand, why you would compare it to smartphones.
      The Pandora (I’m still using mine) really has some flaws (crap USB port, very weak wifi, no way to attach a modern extern display to name a few). The Pyra is improving on that and providing better specs which are not high end, but looking pretty useable. The Pyra will be pretty much as good as it can get with such a small scale production. Remember that there is no big company behind it pumping out millions and millions of devices.
      Without Craig (btw he’s really from UK) there won’t be that much drama, so think twice before buying some pop-corn.

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    • In addition to what Barry stated: while EvilDragon can’t pay back the money that Craig stole, he has been quite proactive about getting Pandoras and Pyras to the people Craig left in the cold. Over the years, he has made his way through the list of Craig’s unfulfilled customers and sent free 1 GHz upgraded units to them. Now that those units are sold out, anyone who is left on the list can claim their “Craig cheated me” status and get a severely discounted Pyra at cost. Honestly, when it comes to failed crowd-funding projects, I believe EvilDragon has done much better than almost any of the failed Kickstarter and Indiegogo campaigns that are now everywhere. (Now over 2 years after collecting money, it looks like Smarty Ring just gave an update 12 days ago saying they “will soon post working prototype.”)

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    • There won’t be any scandal about the Pyra because the person now in charge has the resources and experience necessary to carry out its release.

      The SoC is not brand new, being initially released a little over two and a half years ago (though that means not appearing in any product until at least 6 months later). Still, it is a Cortex A15 processor, which is still used in a number of devices. Also, a device running GNU/Linux (regular Linux) has less overhead than an Android device and tends to feel faster. It’s difficult for a device to be outdated when there is nothing like it that is not based on much older technology. I still use my Pandora just about every day, and it’s based on 2008 technology. I have a Samsung Galaxy S5, but it can’t replace my Pandora; it’s just not the same thing. A palmtop with additional physical controls for gaming is just not the same thing as a smartphone.

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