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Sharp Zaurus SL-C750 English Conversion

Posted by timothy on from the palm-of-your-hand dept.

DavonZ writes "I have just released a small review/information on the Sharp Zaurus SL-C750 and the Dynamism English conversion. This is one sweet unit. You can check it out at nvmax.com."

6 of 106 comments (clear)

  1. Older Zaurus more innovative ... this 1 promising by adzoox · · Score: 4, Interesting
    I wish they'd have kept the innovative design of the previous Zaurus rather than gone BACK to the Mini Laptop. (The previous version just made me feel like I had the Newton of my dreams) Hiding the keyboard quickly was great if you want to "printtype" (handwriting recognition & typing for special characters quickly), plus there's a balance and weight issue in the hand since the back of the new unit will weigh more leverage wise.

    Still, the Zaurus IMHO is now superceded by the Sony Clie NZ90. When the new Clies hit the street this summer (an NZ90 slimmer version with integrated 802.11b and 400Mhz Xscale) I'm a buyer.

    About the only thing I think exciting about this model is its ability to possibly run a scaled down version of Mac On Linux or the Mac System 6 emulator that already exists. Using Photoshop and REAL Word on a PDA is pretty neat!

    --
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  2. I've seen an English Zaurus 7500 (same as J:C750) by rjamestaylor · · Score: 4, Interesting
    I've seen an English market Zaurus 7500. Funnily enough it was at a meeting promoting the Z 5600, and one of the reps was on the sidelines using the 7500...no, he wasn't a marketing-type -- a marketing-type would never have made that mistake :) So, after the presentation of the (nice) 5600 I approached the rep and made him show me the 7500.

    My advice: restrain your impulsive nature and wait a few months (at most?) for the English market version. It will be a very different -- and lower cost -- beast. Well worth the wait, if you are interested in this flipin' mini unit.

    It is cool, that's for sure.

    --
    -- @rjamestaylor on Ello
  3. More information by terzyva · · Score: 2, Interesting
    While the information in DavonZ's report is accurate, keep in mind that he was paid by Dynamism to do the English conversion, so this isn't an entirely unbiased review.

    If you don't need a full English conversion, you can buy the units a lot cheaper at conics.net. Then, you can change one line in a config file to set the default locale to English (which changes most of the text, but isn't nearly as complete as the dynamism conversion), or install Debian on it (see my web page at www.w-m-p.com/pocketworkstation/).

    I'm not being paid by Dynamism or Conics (or Sharp for that matter), but have bought from and can recommend both suppliers.

    The C750 is an excellent machine, it's a Linux workstation you can put in your shirt pocket. The landscape form factor along with the 640x480 screen can display 80x30 characters in a well-legible font, with a full keyboard that's easy to type on despite the small size. With 64 MB RAM and a 512 MB SD card for storage, along with a 400 MHz XScale CPU, its performance is equivalent to desktop PCs a couple of years ago.

    The C750 finally has a PXA255 with a 200 MHz memory clock, which is the main reason for the improved speed compared to the older C700, along with the doubled RAM.

    Note that the display is flippable 180 degrees, so you can also use the system with a portrait display and no keyboard if you prefer that.

    -Klaus

  4. Re:Is it just me.... by SomeOtherGuy · · Score: 4, Interesting

    $800 ? They must be smokin crack. Is this what we have come to in order to use PDA's that run Linux? I can get a Dell Axim (That has to pay the Msoft tax for PPC 2002) and the same specs hardware wise (CPU, Memory, Expansion Slots, etc.) sans the keyboard for about $500 dollars cheaper. I could buy a nice thumboard for $500!! And as the message I am replying to already stated -- I could get in on a good laptop for about $900. I bet I could get a lot more out of a 40 Gig HD, Full Screen, 256 Meg $800 laptop than I could a 64 meg "pocket" device that costs the same.

    --
    (+1 Funny) only if I laugh out loud.
  5. Pocket PC 2002 by pXgray · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Not to be sarcastic, and at the risk of being nailed to a cross, I wonder if anyone has tried to flash one of these guys with a Pocket PC 2002 ROM. I have used many devices with Pocket PC, and the software, as well as visuals are incredible. It's very responsive with the Xscale processor, as well as on the older ARM 206 mHz processors. I am likely to get one of these Zaurus devices, and probably will enjoy the Linux operating system on it, but still I think that maybe it would be interesting to screw around with Pocket PC on it.

    pxgray

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  6. Just bought one in Tokyo by FromWithin · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I'm in Japan. Just bought one for 60000 yen (about 300 quid, probably about 450 dollars).

    If you edit /home/zaurus/Settings/locale.conf so that it says "en" instead of "jp", the whole thing, apart from HancomWord and HancomSheet, switches over to English. Dynamism are putting a serious premium on it. I'd avoid them and order direct from Japan.

    By the way, the thing as absolutely fantastic. The screen is unbelievable!