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Review of the Sharp Zaurus SL-5500
Gothmolly writes "After reading the story and comments on Slashdot,
I went out and bought one from the Home Shopping Network. It's been a very fun and interesting jump into both the modern PDA (I owned the original Palm until this year) embedded Linux worlds. I've written a review about my experiences over the last few days with it. A lot of this information I found online, a lot is personal experience. HSN is now out of them, but they must still be available cheaply somewhere."
Zaurus 5500 reviews are so 2002. Why, this highly reputable site posted their first review nearly a year ago! I think I'll start reading it instead of Slashdot.
;-)
So long, suckers!
I was gonna shell out for one of these for a little recreational..um...let's call it wireless network vulnerability testing...
sig:- (wit >= sarcasm)
I missed the offer on HSN by a few hours, so I turned to Ebay. I managed to get one for a pretty good price ($220), but not as cheap as that HSN price.
I'm impatiently waiting for mine to arrive on Monday, according to UPS...
Check it out at www.openzaurus.org! The GUI is much more slick than Sharp's.
This looks like the kinda site to get /.ed soon. Full article text. he didn't have any pics.
Review of the Sharp Zaurus 5500
Ed Schernau, ed at schernau.com
No, there are no screenshots. I don't have a digital camera. It's all 1 giant page. I don't know if this works with OSX, and I don't care at the moment. It supposedly works with Linux, but I haven't tried it. This review is NOT exhaustive. All copyrights are owned by their owners, blah blah blah, I'm not trying to piss people off.
As seen here on Slashdot, the Sharp Zaurus 5500 recently went on sale at HSN due to the newer, Zaurus 5600 being released. Being a cheap geek, I purchased the 5500 model. First, I'd like to say that I was impressed with HSN - very good pricing, and a 15% off coupon for first time orders. Their website is easy to navigate and quick, and provided accurate package tracking. I paid 178USD for it, delivered.
Here's what you get in the package:
The Zaurus 5500
battery (950 mAh)
Getting started manual
User manual
CD of software and drivers
AC adapter
USB Sync cradle/charger - the cradle has a DC jack that you plug the AC adapter into - it does NOT use the USB port for charging power.
Impressions
The Zaurus looks very slick, a polished metal looking PDA. There's a translucent plastic flip-up lid over the touchscreen. The whole thing is about 1.5x the length of a deck of playing cards, and about as wide and thick. The stylus slides into a slot, there is an IR and SD port on 1 side of the unit, and a headphone jack and CF slot on the top of the unit. The bottom of the unit has the DC power jack and 'Sharp IO port', which is where it mates with its cradle.
Hardware/OS
The Z 5500 runs on the Intel StrongArm processor, running a version of Lineo - embedded Linux. It has a 2.4.6 kernel. Because of this, any Linux software compiled for ARM (like the whole Debian arm tree) will run. You get 64MB of memory, 1/2 of which is locked away by the Z, so you have 32MB to run in. This has not proved to be a problem, yet. It runs Qtopia, an embedded GUI system on a 320x240 color screen. Almost any linux-y thing you can think of, you can do. It has a shell, you can even make swapfiles to increase running memory (at the expense of storage of course). There are init scripts. Repeat after me: It's a miniaturized Linux box. Everything runs as root. It uses ext2fs for main storage, and minix and cramfs for its own purposes. You can type 'mount' to see what's what.
Keyboard
The keyboard is excellent. You hold the Zaurus in both hands and type with your thumbs. Clever use of 'Shift' and 'Function' keys give you nearly QWERTY layout. You can get about 1 letter every 3/4 of a second.
Handwriting
It also does handwriting recognition, in a certain area of the screen. You enable this by hitting a small icon on the screen, and scribble away. I've not spent much time with it, yet. It's fiddly, but not as bad as Palm's Grafiti.
Backlight
Good, but not great. The screen is lit from a flourescent light on the side, which can look weird if you hold the Z at an angle. Some parts of the screen are brighter than others.
Sync
The Z connects to its host via IP over USB. Syncing occurs completely over IP. This is slick, if you get a CF Ethernet card for it, you can (in theory) sync with your system anywhere in the world. My old Palm had a serial cable, so USB seemed like warp speed to me. Save yourself headache - set the Zaurus to NOT use DHCP, likewise your PC system. It defaults to 192.168.129.201, your PC defaults to 192.168.129.1. There's a GUI to configure all of this on the Z.
GUI
Very cool. Touch once to run an app, touch and hold to bring up properties. A combination of thumb and thumbnail will get everything done.
I hooked it up and let it charge for a while, then loaded the software onto my PC. I have Windows2000 running on an ABit BP6 motherboard, with 2 USB 1.0 ports. This m
I jumped on the HSN deal as well and incredibly short review: I like it. I'm not much of a PDA person (had a palm, played with it for a week, just sold it on eBay) but its worth its weight in gold for its wireless ability (with appropriate CF wireless adapter). My GF *always* grabs my iBook when she's at my place, now I can go back to surfing on the couch. Its also easier to carry to the local coffee shop (that has free access) so I can grab a cuppa tea and flame idiots on Plastic.
For me, for $160 (+$80 for the wireless card) it's been $$$ well spent.
I don't know much about these devices (yet), but I do remember reading about the changes from the 5500 to the 5600, and one of them is that it's no longer necessary to run everything as root. The 5600 looks pretty sweet...
Cheers,
Jeremy
Yes, everything runs as root. No need for a root kit, etc.
There is an app for th Z that gives you a login screen, I have not tested it, so I do not know if it provides user-id with different privledges than root.
This is functionally a single user multi-tasking device. It happens to run a multi-user capable OS, however that does not require that that feature be used.
Does this create potential problems? Sure. However the system files can not be removed by the user, though certain configuration files can. Even so, if you really care, you can reset the platform to it's original (or last flash rom) state by completely draining the battery. Make regular backups to cf memory.
-Rusty
You never know...
I also grabbed a Zaurus 5500 from the HSN special. Guess those paid-u-tainment slash-vertisements work.
First thing I did was to look for the terminal package. One version came on the CDs, so I installed that.
Second thing I did was to find the OpenZaurus installer (now 3.1-rc3.1), but after finding with several problematic .ipk's from the Zaurus Software Index, I went back to the stock Sharp ROM image. Can you imagine holding the C and D chicklet keys on one side, and poking a recessed reset button on the other? All with the DC power plug attached? I had to do this operation a few times in my experiments, and I can safely say they chose a combination quite apt at avoiding the accidental re-flash.
I still haven't gotten the USB networking worked out. It apparently needs the usbdnet module, which is not in the Red Hat stock kernels (latest errata nor the last beta). I prefer to stick to my distro's official kernels, rather than rebuilding a kernel just so I can ssh to a pda. Maybe eventually.
I noticed that if I install a new ipk file, it restarts Qtopia, which loses the icons for any other already-running tasks. (ps aux) still shows the tasks, they just have no gui anymore.
I noticed that if I click an app button to switch away from the terminal, some key cruft like ~3 or ~4 appears in the terminal. Also, if the unit gets suspended (low power, power off button, etc.), then whatever console app was running gets sent to the background and I have to (fg 1) when I return. This screws up some console programs which don't have a convenient "redraw all" key for when you return. (Example app: frotz.)
I noticed that the text editor opens to what looks like an empty note which is ready for typing, but no, it's in a no-document state and you must tap for a "New" text document before starting.
I figured out how to retrain the handwriting, but not sure how often I'll use it. The real keyboard, virtual keyboard and pickboard are quite enough for text entry, thanks. Weird that you can tap the Fn key prefix then tap the desired key for a function, but you have to HOLD a shift key while tapping a letter. Supporting tap-shift-tap-letter would probably been nicer given the form factor.
I would never have purchased this kind of device anywhere near its original price-- it's a toy to me, not a tool. But it's worth the money I put into it.
[
http://www.linuxjournal.com/article.php?sid=5902 and follow up on http://www.linuxjournal.com/article.php?sid=6184
But does it run linux?
Whatever you do, don't buy from HSN. They have no return policy, nor do they have a warranty.
I know, I know. I tell myself the same thing every night before going to bed. Yet the very next day I always find myself frantically dailing those numbers when the happy-faced person on the TV warns me that they only have a limited supply left and they're going fast!
In my own opinion, CF memory has two handy features that make it a reasonable purchase.
First of all, my Z runs with a wifi card in the CF slot most of the time. However I have several situations where that is of little or no use. My low-power cf card does not support Kismet, so I can not use it to scan for open nets. For the most part I do not need the additional battery drain either.
When I do not need the wifi card, I have found that having a couple of hours of music on a 128M cf memory card can help while away longer bus rides, without affecting how much application space is available on my SD card.
Also I have several CF interfaces for my computers, being able to read/write the CF to transfer stuff when I don't want to use a wifi card is also handy.
As noted in the article sd/mmc cards cost more and tend to have lower capacity than CF cards.
As a last note, there are bluetooth interfaces built to run in sd/mmc slots, which may be of interest to people using blutooth enabled network, phone, printer, or even headset devices. In that case the memory expansion opportunity would be the CF slot.
Then again, that's just my opnion. You will have to make up your own mind.
-Rusty
You never know...
If you have a Zaurus, at some point you really should check out OpenZaurus, which is a complete replacement ROM. If you have a CompactFlash card, then making the switch is very easy and if you don't like it, it's also trivial to switch back to Sharp's ROM. So my suggestion is to try it out early before you get too comfortable and spend a lot of time setting up the PDA just the way you like it.
Who said Freedom was Fair?
Some more useful links:
Zaurus DevNet forums
The Zaurus Notebook (tips and tricks)
Zaurus Loves Linux
Now what I really want, is a portable device to connect the usb cable from the phone described in this article to the Zaurus dataport.
Sometime while I'm in Japan for the next year I'm going to buy an SL-C700.
All the features of the SL-5600 with a nice big screen and full keyboard.
I know Dynamism wants $700 for theirs, but if you can get it for less, there are guides online that have reverse engineered their localization process. I don't know what their markup is but I've seen it put at around $200 (!!)
I was in the market for a laptop so I could read email, surf, and SSH from anywhere (including when on the shitter). Wanted WiFi as well.
.. about 1/10 of the time it will lock up and you have to hard reset (clears the memory!). Do the following:
.. that would rock.
.. give 'em a couple more years to improve (software, processor speed, battery life) and they will positively ROCK. Hopefully now that more folks are using them there will be more software. I'm personally looking out for an RSS newsreader and a simple outliner (like OmniOutliner on the mac). Also an SFTP graphical client would be cool.
But then the HSN special came up, and DAMN I had to try it out.
It's a very cool device which is perfect for my needs but a little lacking as a general purpose PDA. However it has a LOT of potential.
Hint: don't bother with OpenZaurus unless you like to experiment. It breaks everything. Stick with the stock ROM if you want to use PIM functions. I had problems with Opera, Konqurer, TheKompany's apps, and pretty much anything that didn't come with OZ. Too bad, because the base components of OZ are much better than the stock ROM (for instance it actually shows how much battery you have left as %-age).
I set up wireless, set it up to do backups with rsync+SSH, and to NFS mount my MP3 directory. I have it running through my privoxy proxy, filtering out ads and cookies... Sweeeeeeeeet!
Hint: to set up your WCF12 card (if you have one of those), set up syslog to log somewhere, run syslog, and plug in your card. You'll see the necessary parameters to set up the card in the logs.
Another hint: DON'T EVER REBOOT FROM THE GUI
1) quit Qtopia
2) while it's counting down, hit '/'
3) hit 'a' at the menu to get a console login
4) log in
5) type "telinit 6"
Be sure to back up often anyway, since your stuff is stored in a ramdisk.
Anyway this is LOTS of fun for linux geeks, I haven't had this much fun since I installed OS X (UNIX COMMAND LINE.. ON A MAC??? AND NOW ON A PDA??? *spurt*). In fact I often think to myself.. whoa...what if APPLE made one of these bad boys with Mac OS X and apps that "just work"
Unfortunately it doesn't work with OS X / iSync but you can at least set up USB networking with this driver. Tell Apple you'd like them to support the zaurus, since many Zaurus geeks are probably also OS X geeks!
Anyway, these things are super-fun
I've had my Zaurus 5500 for about a year now, but only recently switched to the OpenZaurus firmware. It's faster and more polished than the firmware that comes with the Zaurus, with the advantage of being constantly updated and running better Free Software equivalents like Konqueror Embedded. It's just a matter of copying the ROM images to CF and rebooting the Zaurus to flash the ROM; I'd recommend it to any Zaurus owner, including the author of the article.
FYA, your modern PDA is outdated ... out-dated.
This is such a troll, a complete troll. They might not have had one 3 years ago, but they have an impressive one now. They take returns and will refund shipping as well. In fact, when I got my Zaurus from them they included a return shipping label!
Please research before you post 3 year old "facts"
I lucked out, and ordered mine a few hours earlier than the article came out on slashdot. (www.slickdeals.net - probably giving a good secret away.) I actually had 2 hours to research it before deciding to buy it.
Mostly I bought this since besides my old Palm III that I use for a remote control at home, I am PDA-less. The crowd at our M$ shop at work are all getting PocketPC's. So far I've been able to prove it's worthiness except to those with the brand-spanking-new ones. But for the price, I have them all whipped.
I immediately bought a 256MB SD card, since even if this turned out useless, I could find another use for the memory card. There was a spare CF wireless card at work (D-Link DCF-650W). It DHCP'ed instantly. My only complaint is that when it's in you have no access to insert or remove the stylus. I tried someone else's thinner 660W, which gives access to the stylus, and that worked equally as well.
I spent the first day with it getting Kismet to work, making the guy with netstumbler on his laptop jealous.
Next, I had to try the Quake port. Yes, it's neat, since it's Quake on a PDA, but don't bother doing anything with it other than saying "Look! It's Quake! On a PDA!"
I must say, the most novel thing is being able to telnet and VNC to it. I find Zsafe extremely useful. I've yet in my position to need access to e-mail on a PDA, since at home I already have access. Wardriving with it is great. This has proven to be an extremely worthwhile toy.
I mean, read the review:
-Portable web server
-Wireless networking capable
-SSH
-Able to connect by USB or LAN
This will be a tool at the disposal of every al Qaeda foot soldier and Iraqi intelligence officer.
Sharp must be stopped and sanctioned for this negligence.
My God... think of the children, man!
Good thing I have Homeland Security on speed dial.
Life is tough. It's tougher if you're stupid. --John Wayne
What's wrong with Sharp Zaurus - mainly battery life, applications crashing when dealing with lartge documents, inconvenient thumb keyboard.
What's good and bad about Dell Axim - mainly problems with battery reporting, problems with ActiveSync and infamous battery reporting bug.
It is a very bad idea, because those devices are advertised as using frequent, wireless network access.
This is especially bad because the default root password is "". And changing the root password breaks the default sync software!
If you bring a Zaurus running the OEM software into a location offering 802.11b wireless, you can easily be rooted by any script kiddy who recognizes your PDA.
Zauruses are so obscure that this risk is low, today, but it's still a major design problem. Hopefully, the 5600 version has fixed this. The software patch for the prior model was inadequate.
Call 'em up on the phone -- (800) 284 3100. Give them the item number (694341) and you can order. They've got thousands, but for some reason it's not on the web site right now. Unfortunately, the 15% off coupon is web-only, but you can use 594321 to get $15 off.
I'm not buying one of these (or any pda for that matter) until it is smart enough to tell me that the stylus is more than three feet from it and is danger of being lost.
Prospecting Stinks. Stop Wasting Time on Cold Calling.
That's the first I've heard of OpenPDA. Anyone know if their claim is true that the Sharp Zaurus uses their software?
Send/track messages to 100K people: www.xPressAlert.com
I just got Zaurus from HSN couple days ago.
/mnt/card and it works great. opie-mediaplayer2 is based on Xine and plays DIVX files nicely. OZ has SSH installed by default, nicer UI, separate power/backlight settings for AC and battery mode, hostap driver for WIFI. The only problem is it is stuck on 2.4.6 kernel because of binary only SD-MMC driver.
Played for one day with factory ROM, experienced lots of freezes with WIFI cards.
Then I flashed OpenZaurus 3.1rc3.1, and now 3.2.
All the hangs are gone, most programs are much better, internal flash is writable. I added 256MB SD-MMC card and moved part of the system to
There is no pause on the Zaurus as it converts text.
Wrong again. It's actually extremely easy to train it to new methods. Check the PDF manual available at the official site for more information.
I find the built in keyboard very usable. In fact, that's what I use the most. There are however external keyboards available including one that uses infrared(!)--no wires/cables.
Wrong yet again. The batteries cost $50 retail. They're available even cheaper if you do a bit of searching. And the Zaurus's batteries (it has more than one) are fully replaceable.
Try to write based on facts next time.