InfoSync Reviews Sharp Zaurus

Bill Kendrick writes "infoSync has just posted a very well-rounded (and long) review of the Sharp Zaurus PDA. Get out the kleenex - you'll be drooling." Gotta say, thats a sharp looking little device.

Comments

Zaurus's history

[eples]

The Zaurus has traditionally been a lousy PDA.

I'd be interested to see what they are offering in the newest incarnation that makes it so great.
Last time I checked, it didn't run PalmOS orWinCE.
Whatever happened to Psion?

page one of review

[moojin]

Review: Sharp Zaurus SL-5000D
By: Larry Garfield, 07.01.02 10:02

The developer edition of what will become
the most advanced Linux consumer PDA to
date is here; we've taken a closer look at
the heart and the soul of Sharp's new
SL-5000D.

Sharp recently released the developer edition of their new
Linux-based PDA, the Zaurus SL-5000D - and the company, by
positioning it as the Linux answer to Pocket PC and Palm OS
devices, is trying to take the business and "prosumer" markets by
storm. We take a closer look at the SL-5000D, both from the point
of view of a Linux-based system and a PDA.

Bear in mind, the software for
the Zaurus SL-5000D is still in
development, so it is a moving
target for now. Some of the
points mentioned here may
change by the time the
consumer version, the Sharp
Zaurus SL-5500, is released in
the coming months.

The hardware

The Zaurus measures 2.90 x
5.40 x 0.80 in. (74 x 138 x 21
mm), and weighs in at 7.3 oz
(206 g). It's larger than typical
Palm OS devices, but has a
comfortable size compared to
most Pocket PCs. The front
panel below the screen slides
down to reveal the thumb
keyboard, which makes the
device about 2 inches longer
than when it's closed. The front
panel itself has eight hardware
shortcut buttons and one disk-rocker. Calendar, Contact, Home,
Menu, and Email run across the top, Palm-like, with an
On/Off/Cancel button and OK button flanking the silver rocker
below them. The rocker itself is a 4-way disk rocker with another
button in the center. The rocker feels very good in the hand and is
very easy to use. Note that the front panel buttons function only
when the panel is fully extended or fully retracted.

The keyboard is a QWERTY layout in a downward "frown", with a few
modifications. A "FN" (function) button in the lower left acts as a
shift key to the numeric and symbol characters listed above each
character. The backspace key is where the Enter key normally is,
while Enter is relegated to the bottom right corner. The ".", ":", ",",
and ";" characters are also grouped and arranged differently. The
pipe character, standard fare on any Linux-based system, is the
FN-shift from the spacebar, although it is not marked as such. The
keys are small, but we found them easy to use, unless you have
very large fingers.

The top of the device includes a Type II Compact Flash (CF) slot,
headphone/microphone jack, and silo for the included all-plastic
stylus, which we found to be a bit short. An included plastic slug in
the CF slot keeps it free from dirt when not in use. It works, but we
prefer devices that use a small door or cover so that there is no
extra plastic. On the left side of the device, there is a Secure
Digital (SD) slot, which lacks a plastic slug, and an IrDA port.