Clamshell Sharp Zaurus Reviewed

Bill Kendrick writes "The Gadgeteer has a review of the new clamshell-style Sharp Zaurus SL-C700 Linux-based PDA. This new model, currently only officially available in Japan, sports a larger keyboard than the SL-5500 we have in the US, as well as a full 640x480 screen and 400MHz XScale CPU. The review mostly compares it against the HP200. The reviewer got his hands on an 'English version,' made available by Dynamism for a hefty pricetag of USD$700." (See this earlier story for more screenshots from the English conversion of this device.)

Comments

Well

[FS1]

This is certainly something that should set off a couple alarms in the Micro$oft camp. I really do love competition in such a under-emphasized market. I can't wait for these things to have as much processing power as my home computer has now. I would love to be able to carry around all my games, apps, schedules, and communication gear on something this big without making sacrifices in some form or another.

What i really think is hurting PDAs today is un-inspired designs, and i love to see someone with a new twist on an old idea. But i think that they need to work on new user interface, alot more than they need to work on making them more powerful. A good user interface would make all the difference. There simply is no blueprint for an interface for such a device, but a "windows"ish interface is not the answer.

Re:Well

[Moofie]

For real, have you used the Palm interface? The basic UI for launching apps and changing preferences is pretty bombproof. Obviously, the UI for individual apps varies according to how much the writer hates you, but the stuff that comes in the box is pretty darn good. (Now, I can rattle off a bunch of stuff that's just NOT very good, but on the whole...it's good, FAST, UI.)

You'll pry PalmOS out of my cold dead hands. It's cheap, the batteries last forever, and it does everything I need it to. YMMV.

Hmmm...

[foo fighter]

I'm very tempted by this. My current PDA is the original 2MB Handspring Visor which my life has come to depend upon. I'm in the market for a replacement because I'm running out of room for my appointments, contacts, and notes.

My requirements for my new PDA are that it supports compact flash (I have tons of these cards for my and my wife's mp3 players, digital camera, and removable storage for her iBook), have more than 2MB memory (at least 8mb), have a battery life that will get me through an 8-5 workday (~3-4 hours of use before recharge), and have a usability that is at least close to that of the Palm platform (everything just works very quickly).

My wishlist items include built-in or available Wi-Fi, twice my required battery life, and a built-in MP3 player (one-less digital lifestyle device).

I think these are reasonable expectations for a modern PDA. I speculate many, many PDA owners and potential PDA owners would agree with these.

My choice up until I read this review was the Toshiba e740. It's tiny & light, accepts compact flash, has more than 2mb memory, has acceptable battery life, comes with built-in Wi-Fi (that can very easily be switched between my home and work setups), and can play MP3s.

This review made me think twice, but I'll still be buying the Toshiba when my company's next buying cycle comes around. Why?

The Zaurus gets some credentials for running on linux and having a sweet form-factor with a usable, built-on keyboard. The Pocket PC operating system is much closer to just working than the Linux version (though Pocket PC doesn't work well with my Linux & Mac desktops at home). I can get the Toshiba brand new for half the price of the Zaurus. The Zaurus doesn't offer anything to make up for the price difference. The cool form-factor is moot because the Toshiba is smaller and lighter.

Nothing else in the market comes close to the e740 except for this Zaurus. The e704 was released last June! I can't believe making a good PDA is so hard. Are there really that few EE's, embedded system programmers, and UI engineer's that it takes a company 3/4ths of a year to come up with a close, but ultimately inferior product?

Nice try Sharp. Try harder next time.

Unobtrusive 802.11 sniffing...

[TWX_the_Linux_Zealot]

Since it's a linux machine out of the box, and appears to have decent connectors on it for peripherals (like in the CF slot), wouldn't this be an idea candidate for 802.11a/b sniffing? I mean, it's small, so small that it fits in a coat pocket, and since it's a PDA, generally people won't think to look if it's attempting to wiggle into their network or not. It also looks more useful than an IPaq, by having a keyboard, and could probably make a helluva good network diagnostic tool if not used for malovelent purposes.

Re:Hello, $300 more and you can get an iBook

[mrob2002]

That's to miss the point of the form factor though. I'd love a C700, but currently have the 5500. What I love about it is that it really is small enough to fit into a coat pocket, or be dropped into the bottom of a bag, so that it's there when I need it. I don't have to worry about where I'm going to leave it if I want to go out for the evening after work say.

Also, even with the smaller screen on the 5500, I find it very comfortable to lie back on my sofa and do a bit of email reading and web browsing, something only the far more expensive Tablet PCs come somewhere near.

A laptop is good for where you need to get lots of typing or editing done, but seeing as 90% of my leisure PC use is web surfing, the small form is what I love. But if I need to, I can fire up a shell, ssh into my servers for some emergency work, fire up VNC to get into my Windows servers, start Kismet to see what's in the area. If I'm sat in a small cramped train seat I can even watch a divx off of a compact flash card, and with a lot lower profile than a mugger enticing iBook.