The Sharp Zaurus Linux-based PDA is both extremely powerful, and easy to use.The Zaurus's fast CPU, high quality full-color LCD, and excellent headphone sound output makes for an impressive photo viewer, MP3 and MOD music player, and video-clip displayer.
The slide-out keyboard has completely weaned me from using the handwriting system, which is unfortunate, because a lot of work was obviously put into it. Not only does the handwriting system have a help mode where you can practice strokes, but you can actually train it new, or alternate strokes for each character. But when you can type so quickly, why bother writing?
The dual expansion slots are great, allowing me to use an SD card for software installation, and still have my CF slot free for a RAM card full of MP3s or a network adapter.
Honestly, I was impressed by the capabilities of the Java system. In my opinion, Java has always been too slow and cumbersome to use, and the thought of running it on a 206MHz PDA seemed ridiculous. But from what I've seen of Java applications (even games!) running on the Zaurus, I'm beginning to realize there's a lot of potential in Java.
As a desktop Linux user, I'm also tickled to have the power and stability of my favorite OS underneath the hood. For the extremely geeky, you can get Java, C and C++ compilers that run ON the Zaurus!
The "Qtopia" environment and applications are as intuitive as they are nice to look at. The PIM applications have all the functionality I'm used to from my Palm device, and then some.
Until I can afford a wireless modem to stick in one of my Zaurus' two expansion slots, I've been using a Compact Flash ethernet dongle to get online while watching TV.
After using offline browsers on the Palm, I was shocked to find a full-fledge, desktop-quality browser built right into my Zaurus: Opera.
Opera's zoom-out feature can't be lived without. Frustratingly, most websites assume you have a screen capable of at least 800x600. On a small PDA screen, this would mean constantly scrolling left and right as you try to read. Under Opera, you can zoom out to get a better overview of the page, and still be able to read all of the text!
I've only used the Sync software (Qtopiadesktop I used the Linux version) a few times, since my pattern for PDA usage is to use them as stand-alone devices. It was quite intuitive, though, as it looked and felt just like a larger version of the PIM software built-into the Zaurus.
Finally, while there's obviously very little 3rd party software for the Zaurus so far, since it just came out, there's been what seems to be exponential growth. I've already installed almost 20 new applications, including games, a streaming Internet radio player, and an embedded version of the popular Linux browser, "Konqueror."
Software installation is usually a snap, too. Just as with Palm, all that's usually needed is one file downloaded off a website. Run the graphical installer, wait a few seconds, and the new app. is there, ready to run!
All in all, it's a great system. Powerful and slick hardware, in a beautiful form-factor, running powerful and slick software.
The Zaurus is basically a mini Linux workstation with a lot of functionality you would normally find only on a desktop. With the Zaurus, you can:
* Browse the web with a scalable and full featured browser
* Read and edit MS-Office documents (Word, Excel and Powepoint)
* Write and execute scripts and programs (including Java)
* Play music and video
* Control your desktop Windows PC (using VNC software)
It is so powerful that you can actually use it as a Web or file server (using Apache and Samba). I use my Zaurus to administrate my Linux server and Oracle database server when I am away from my desk.
Plus there are tons of applications, utilities, games, etc., that you can download. Zaurus has a very active user community forum (check the links from the Sharp Zaurus official web sites) where you can get a lot of useful tips from.
Having said all that, the PIM functions that came with the Zaurus were pretty poor compared with the Palm Pilot. This lead me to hang on to my Palm Vx for dear life. I even took the drastic step of downloading and installing a Palm Pilot emulator (called QPose) onto my Zaurus. The performance hit on the Zaurus was so bad that I had to delete QPose and instead carry both my Palm Vx and Zaurus with me.
However, now that Sharp has released a new ROM (v3.10, as of May 15, 2003, see below) the PIM functions have vastly improved. So much that I am now inclined to keep my Palm at home and take only the Zaurus along.
Upon getting your Zaurus, do yourself a favor and install the terminal and file manager applications that come in the CD. The terminal application enables you to do a lot of tweaking and is mandatory if you plan to use the Zaurus to its full capabilty. It actually comes with a basic Linux shell environment and comes with such neat utilities as vi editor, ftp and telnet clients, ping, and a large number of Linux/Unix tools.
Another application I found very useful is called "rotation". It enables you to rotate the application screens by 90 degrees, making such things as web browsing, file editing and using the terminal appication a lot more pleasing and functional. You can download the "qpe-rotation" and "qt-embedded-rotation" files (ipks) from the ZaurusSoft website.
Also, an important suggestion to existing SL-5500 users:
Sharp has just released the latest ROM (v3.10, May 15, 2003) which makes the SL-5500 look and behave like the newer SL-5600. I *strongly urge* SL-5500 users with the old ROM (v2.38) to download and install this new ROM. The user interface with the new ROM is a lot cleaner and neater and has more stable applications (including a vastly improved Opera browser and much better PIM applications).
Buy Sharp Zaurus SL-5500 PDA Now
I've been trying to use the Zaurus for the last week or so. The product has turned out to be a mixed blessing.The Good:
1) This is without a doubt the ultimate programmer's PDA.
2) You can write code, compile, and execute on the Zaurus (hard to believe but it's true).
3) There is quite a bit of good free software, including neocalc, which is a great calculator.
4) Amazon.com had a stellar deal on it.
5) Contrary to some of the reviews I've seen, the screen is very nice looking.
The not so good:
1) The software to sync with a PC (Win2K in this case) stinks. It crashes, hangs, intermittently refuses to connect, and requires special knowledge not included in the manual to get it to work. I've tried both Intellisync and Qtopia Desktop. Intellisync appears to be a hopeless basket case, but I was able to get Qtopia Desktop to work as long as I didn't have too many files on my CF (too many files causes a nasty crash on the PC side). Too bad I need to sync with Outlook.
2) I've managed to fry a 128Meg SD Flash by leaving it in during a hard reset of the Zaurus. That shouldn't happen, but it did.
3) The Hancom Suite (MS compatible Word processor, spreadsheet, and presentation viewer) is weak but usable.
4) The battery life is short (especially with a Wireless LAN adapter).
5) The MP3 software wouldn't play any of my variable bit rate files. I don't believe there is anything terribly unusual about them (other than they have been encoded using LAME).
6) The MP1 video is very slow and choppy at Video CD bit rates (like ~1 frame/sec). I've found it difficult to get a bit rate the works well for me when trying to take full advantage of the screen resolution. Perhaps the DiVX decoder that is being developed will solve this problem.
Even with these serious problems, I'd still consider it a great tool for a programmer and will give it 4 stars. For non-programmer types, I'd give it 1 star.
Read Best Reviews of Sharp Zaurus SL-5500 PDA Here
I just received mine two days ago and after 'playing' with it I can tell you that it's an extremely powerful PDA. Im not a Linux user nor do I know Java. I simply needed a quick way to input data because I'm in grad school. It took about 15 minutes to get used to the keyboard, but after that I was away.It comes with a Word application that is compatible with MS Word. So while on the bus I was able to work on my research and simply sync it back to my main document on my PC.
Also I purchased a wireless network card because my dorm is wired and Im able to surf the Internet at blazing speeds. I even cut and pasted a Map into my Word application with no problems!
Truly this is a great little 'computer' and the price is good. I look forward to more applications in the future..
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This review is with reference to the Zaurus SL-5500 along with the Linksys wireless CF cardFirst the pros...
(1) Screen is very easy to see and the colors are just gorgeous.
(2) Sound via the headphones is outstanding.
(3) Auto scaling of images is impressive.
(4) The web browser scaling is very good and the text is readable even at it's smallest setting.
(5) Keyboard is quite comfortable and I find myself using it more than handwriting.
(6) Transfer from Palm is very easy just beam the entire category over and it takes care of the rest.
(7) Availability of software is quite good... have ssh, wap browser amd mysql running on it. Download the command tool and you get your hands on all the standard UNIX utilities, including tar, grep and vi.
Now the cons:
(1) More memory would certainly help. Given that this thing has a built in mp3 player and a mpeg player 64MB of usable memory would be good. Of the 64, only 32 is really available.
(2) I would have prefered a regular Type II PCMCIA slot over the CF slot, but then again this is a pet peeve of mine.
(3) The built in PIM applications do need some work.
Overall impression... It's a really nice piece of engineering. The fact that it has a built in keyboard without sacrificing screen estate in my view makes it stand out from the Handspring, CE and Palm devices. That coupled with Linux makes it a winning combination in my book.
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