Sharp Zaurus SL-5600 PDA Review

An anonymous reader sent us a link to a review of the Sharp Zaurus SL-5600 PDA. This Linux based handheld with a built in qwerty keyboard with decent connectivity. As with most PDAs, there are a lot of tradeoffs that have to be made yet. Read the review to see what they are.

Comments

Most notable tradeoff

[Anonymous Coward]

This PDA with a full screen, keyboard and linux support is the size of a regular computer.

Same tired post.....

[mao che minh]

I understand the convienence factor of PDAs, but a $499.99 price tag for the type of power and specs that you get with this Zaurus (and similiarly priced PDAs) is still too much. To truly get full functionality out of these PDAs (or at least do everything most people would want to do with them) you still need to purchase extra accessories and expanded memory/storage (considering that even the most expensive PDAs only have 64MB RAM native). In the end $499.99 quickly builds up to about $599.99.

I know that this comparing apples to oranges, but for $600 you can get a righteous laptop off Ebay or locally from a used reseller. This laptop is a full fledged computer with vast amounts more memory, storage, and room for improvement/expansion.

Considering that most people buy a new PDA every two to three years, why not just double your money now and buy a 15.4" Widescreen TFT LCD WXGA (1280 x 800 max. resolution) laptop that comes with an Athlon XP 2200+ CPU, 40GB of storage, 512MB DDR PC2100 RAM, CRDW/DVD drive, all the ports except IEEE 1394, and one of the best mobile graphics chipsets around, the ATI RADEON IGP 320M, for $1,250? It takes Mandrake 9.1 without any problems, and only demands slight tweaking from Red Hat 8.

I would rather have that laptop for four years then burn through two PDAs over the same period of time.

Re:Same tired post.....

[alue]

In the end $499.99 quickly builds up to about $599.99.

Actually to get full functionality of a PDA you have to spend a lot more than $600.

PDA$500
128M Memory Card$55
Wireless Card$140
Extra Battery$50
Battery Charger$45
Carrying Case$75
TOTAL: $865

And that doesn't include the opportunity cost spent on the hours it takes to get the thing to sync with Linux!

Re:Same tired post.....

[DoctorPepper]

Perhaps, but it's awful difficult to stick that laptop in your back pocket, which is where my trusty Handspring Visor resides every work day. And has been since I bought it in August of 2000.

Re:Same tired post.....

[Anonymous Coward]

Why do women carry a purse that costs $200 and they change every month instead of just buying a suitcase for $600 that will last several years. Maybe it is because they don't want to carry a suitcase.

You are paying for the convenience of having a SMALL device. Could you imagine walking down the street trying to schedule a meeting with somebody on a laptop?

Re:Same tired post.....

[questionlp]

Or if you aren't into eMachine computers, Gateway has something similar (M500 w/ 15.2" widescreen) with a P4, 512MB of RAM, 40GB hard drive, DVD/CD-RW and integrated 802.11b/Modem/Ethernet, dunno about FireWire for a little bit more.

Of course, a laptop isn't quite as portable as a PDA nor does it have an instant boot up that a Zaurus or any other PDA has. The C700 (IIRC) clamshell Zaurus is a nice cross between a tiny laptop, a clamshell Jornada/Psion, and the regular Zaurus. Too bad it's even more expensive than the 5600 :(

Re:Same tired post.....

[grimner]

There is some truth to that but as you said it's "comparing apples and oranges". You can't carry a laptop around with you like a PDA. While it is true, what most people use PDA's/handhelds for could be accomplished with a $100 Palm or (cringe) an pad and pencil, PDA's/handhelds are just becoming powerfull enough to run seriously useful apps. I recently wrote a flower recognition/classification app for the Zaurus which extracts data from an image captured from the Zaurus and runs it through a db all on the Zaurus. An enhanced app like this could be useful for many people from hobbyist to law enforcement (for face recognition). Can't run these on a traditional PDA and carrying around a laptop "in the field" would be impossible. Just an example where handheld computing may be heading, not just for address books. Your point about the price is well taken, they need to come down but keep in mind, realistically this is very early stage technology. These are not PDA's they are handheld computers. I think there is a major difference.

Re:Same tired post.....

[FatRatBastard]

I happened to get my 5500 from the HSN deal a few months ago. At less than $200 I could justify it (and the extra $60 for the wireless card). Basically, its my ultra portable web browser/e-mail/ssh client for when I head to a coffee shop. I don't use it for PIM functions (nor did I really use my Palm III when I had it). In fact, the closest thing I have to a PDA is my iPod, which I find perfect for storing my contacts and notes.

The Z5500 is nice, but only at the sub $200 price I paid for it.

Re:Same tired post.....

[vjmurphy]

"Actually to get full functionality of a PDA you have to spend a lot more than $600.

PDA$500
128M Memory Card$55
Wireless Card$140
Extra Battery$50
Battery Charger$45
Carrying Case$75
TOTAL: $865"

Running a porn server off your PDA: Priceless.

Re:Same tired post.....

[Tin Weasil]

If you don't go for the newest hardware, you can get up and running with the "full functionality of a PDA" for a lot less then you quote:

Sharp Zaurus SL-5500 - $199.99 (tigerdirect.com)
256MB Memory Card - $54.99 (tigerdirect.com)
Wireless Card - $29.99 (tigerdirect.com)
Battery Extender - $6.99 (semsons.com)
Battery Charger - $16.59 (Radio Shack)
Carrying Case - $24.50 (hsn.com)
TOTAL: $333.05

You just have to be willing to look for deals. Sure, the SL-5500 is not the 'latest' model. But it suits me fine. I've owned 5 PDA's prior to my Zaurus, and the Zaurus is the first one that has allowed me to leave my laptop behind.

The "battery extender" mentioned is actually a much better solution then keeping up with an extra battery. It can be used to either run or charge the Zaurus and can be instantly replinished anywhere there's a supply of "AA" batteries.

My SL-5500 runs OpenZaurus 3.1 and syncs just fine with Linux and Windows. I'm sure that putting an OpenZaurus ROM on the SL-5600 will also produce the same results. Flashing to OpenZaurus is easy. It takes under 10 minutes and requires no user interaction to setup.

But...

[Anonymous Coward]

does it run Linu^H^H^H^HWindows?

ObSlashdotting Reference

[vjmurphy]

Looks like their web server is running off their PDA. *ba-da dum*

5600 is old news. C700, 750, 760 are new

[dbowden]

The 5600 is little more than an upgrade of the 5500. That's been out for a year and a half.

Shoot -- I'm not an early adopter and I've had mine for over a year. This is not news.

On the other hand, the C700, 750, and 760's are hot, and I want one!

Nice, but...

[rekkanoryo]

This is the first PDA I've ever considered as worth the purchase price, but I still think PDAs have a long way to go. I'd prefer to see a PDA with a 640x480 screen capable of at least 65k colors, but preferably capable of the 24-bit "true color" laptop TFT displays are. I'd even settle for 480x640.

I'll still wait a while before purchasing any PDA.

Re:Nice, but...

[dbowden]

See my post above re: the C700, C750 and c760 models.

640x480 65k screen w/ clamshell keyboard. Plus all the goodies (Linux, OpenZaurus, etc.) from the 5500/5600 series.

Aw, what the heck. Here's the link again.

Re:Nice, but...

[The Other White Boy]

I'd prefer to see a PDA with a 640x480 ... I'd even settle for 480x640.

...wha?

Re:Nice, but...

[Cpt_Kirks]

You forgot the hard drive. Dammit, ipods and nomads have a HD, why can't *ANYBODY* bring out a PDA with one?

I want a 400mhz+ XSCALE CPU, lots of RAM, a nice, big color screen and some decent storage (for a lot less than a laptop).

Games, video and pr0n on the go!

Re:Nice, but...

[Lord_Slepnir]

480x640 is a special screen resolution for the dyslyxic. Everything is displayed as though it was rotated 90 degrees. Since dyslexics can tell top from bottom easier than left from right, it makes it easier for them to read lines of text that go from the top to the bottom. There is still the problem where they have problems deciding which line to go to next, but the new PDAs with this resolution will have arrows on the bottom to help them choose.

Re:Nice, but...

[Cpt_Kirks]

You are all mising my point. I owned an iPaq right after they came out, with a microdrive.

If the ipod and nomad have a *LARGE*, *INTERNAL* harddrive, why not put one *INSIDE* a pda?

How long does the battery last in an ipod? No cart needed there.

I have a GP32 now. It takes SMC cards up to 128MB. Nice, but too small. I want 20GB+.

Not a KWhore

[Anonymous Coward]

The site seems to be /.'ed, so here's the first page of the article:

Sharp Zaurus SL-5600 PDA

Category
Systems / Servers / PDAs

Product name
Sharp Zaurus SL-5600

Model number
SL-5600

Manufacturer name
Sharp Electronics Corporation

Provided by
Sharp Electronics Corporation

Price
499.99

Review by
Jon

A long time ago, when I first heard about Sharp releasing the Linux based Zaurus 5500 PDA, my interest was peaked. I was just dying to see what it could do. Alas, I never had a chance to try one out for myself. Over the next few months I plan on purchasing a new PDA to take over from my Palm IIIc, and just recently, Sharp was good enough to send us one of the newly upgraded Zaurus SL-5600 units and I was able to finally give it a whirl. Let's see how things shaped up.

Inside the Zaurus SL-5600 Box

Meet the Zaurus SL-5600:

Included in the box is what you'd expect for any new PDA including cradle, power cord, instruction booklet, and of course your standard Windows software CD-ROM.

At first glance, I was surprised at the size of the PDA Unit, measuring 13.8cm x 7.4cm (5.4" x 2.9") and a thickness varying from 1.8cm to 2.3cm (0.7" to 0.9"). It also weighs in at a hefty 203g (7.1 oz). This is pretty big for a new PDA, and it's even bigger than my old Palm IIIc. With size comes issues like how to carry it (pocket, bag, briefcase, etc.), but size can also mean more features. Lets leave the size issue for later, and take a better look at the unit itself.

The Zaurus SL-5600 is a very large PDA.

Right from the start I liked the appearance of the Zaurus. The plastic silver casing is attractive to look at, but its resistance to scratching would worry me. It doesn't look like it could take much of a beating from use. The big 3.5" reflective TFT screen (320 x 240 resolution, 65,536 colors) is sharp and clear. It displays well in various lighting situations, something I can't say about my Palm IIIc. Also included is a clear protective cover for the screen - a nice feature. The colours are bright and vibrant, and contrast very well. Below the screen are indicator lights for E-mail and Battery indicator lights, a very useful addition in my opinion.

The Zaurus boasts a big 3.5" display at 320 x 240 resolution

At this point, there is a break in the casing, and my favourite feature of the Zaurus comes into light. Sliding down the bottom section of the case reveals the QWERTY keyboard. The trend for most new PDAs is to move away from the stylus based text-input to a finger-keyboard type input method, a move I totally agree on. The keyboard on the Zaurus is quite responsive, and it has a pretty good layout. One of my only gripes is a lack of an 'Esc' key, as I struggled to use a port of Vim which I installed on the unit. A stylus is still a good idea for navigating menus and selections, and a software based graffiti-like text input method is also available. A neat feature of the software-based keyboard is the option to customize it to recognize your own personal handwriting. This could allow you to write more naturally, than say, writing using Graffiti on a Palm device. I definitely found that I could input text faster using the Zaurus's keyboard using my thumbs than with a stylus.

Sliding down the bottom of the PDA reveals a QWERTY keyboard

Under the keyboard is the usual set of easy access keys, included with almost every PDA. These include Calendar, Address Book, Home, Menu, and E-mail. Keys for Cancel/OK are also included on either side of the "cursor key", a navigation button that allows you to scroll your cursor up/down, left/right in any of the applications. This is a nice addition, and I found it quite handy.

Features:

The Zaurus SL-5600 contains an Intel XScale processor at a speed of 400Mhz. I found this processor very powerful, and the Zaurus was very responsive. Applications launched quickly, and I was easily able to p

Re:Not a KWhore

[mschoolbus]

Not a KWhore

KWhore? Probably just a new application in KOffice...

Re:Not a KWhore

[RevAaron]

I gave up on a SL-5500 as well. Granted, unlike most Zaurus users who actually like their Zs, I was (un)fortuante enough to have used good PDAs before I got the Z- A Newton 2100, Jornada 720, and an iPAQ 3150. Even though WinCE is worse than PalmOS in a lot of PIM-ish areas, it resembles a "real OS" far more than PalmOS does. It's the little things that make it better for power users- multitasking, being able to allocate more than 64K of RAM in a chunk... :)

Disclaimer: Contrary to the tone of the rest of this post, I feel the need to clarify, less the less intelligent and more 1337 members of our communtiy get confused.

I am not a fan of WinCE. I've used it because it was the only real option for me for the time being. I do not use Windows on the desktop. Or the server. I use Mac OS X and Linux. But I am not shamed to admit that I use WindowsCE. Perhaps I should be embarassed for the sorry state of PDA Linux software.

so it begins...
I've said it on here a 1000 times- I can do just about all of the things Zaurus users boast on any Windows CE PDA. On my Jornada 720 WinCE 3.0 palmtop (aka Handheld PC 2000), I've been able to:
browse the web well (IE is much better than PocketIE for PocketPC 2k and 2k2), do my email and admin via a real 80x24 SSH and telnet terminal (in a readable font, even), run apps remotely using XFree86 for CE and VNC Rdesktop/Windows Terminal Server Client, IRC and IM (AIM, Yahoo, ICQ, MSN and Jabber), play MP3s and OGGs, share files with FTP/FTPD and Samba, go wardriving on my bike, write papers in LaTeX (and compiling and viewing w/ WinDVI), serve with Apache, and lots of other stuff I can't remember now.

Especially snazzy is developing on the PDA. Thanks to the really nice keyboard and the big screen, I've written, compiled, debug and ran quite a bit of code on the WinCE Jornada 720 itself. I've done most of my PDA-coding using: Squeak Smalltalk, Dialect, and Perl (w/ Perl/Tk). However, there are a lot of other options- a number of BASIC implementations, Java (compiling supported too), Python, Ruby, Caml, Scheme, OpenLisp/ISLISP, Common Lisp (GCL), PocketC, and plenty of others.

One thing of note that AFAIK you can do on the Z but can't on a WinCE device- compile and run C. While entirely slow and unwieldy, there is a port of GCC to the Z. IIRC, the GCC StrongARM WinCE port was aborted a while back.

And yes, you can do all of that stuff on the keyboard-less and smaller-screened PocketPC too- they're both WinCE 3.0. Some of it isn't as useful with the smaller screen and real keyboard, but it's just as useful as it'd be if done on the Zaurus.

Sorry for the rant, but I'm sick of the pattern these Zaurus discussions take: "Oooh, cool Zaurus review!" -> "Dude, Zaurus sucks- get a Palm or PocketPC and get a usable PDA!" -> "STFU! I can do all these l33t things that you can't on anything else!" In most cases, that's where the discussion ends; the PalmOS or WinCE users just assume that the Zaurus user is right, regardless of the actual utility of the "l33t thing" in question. That isn't to say there aren't things you can do on the Z you can't do elsewhere, but that's the case with all platforms- there are things you can't do with Linux that you can with CP/M. :)

I hope the screen on the SL-5600 is better than that on the SL-5500, which was absolutely horrible. While the Zaurus has *no* real handwriting recognition or decent notetaking apps (no, IQNotes or DrawPad don't do the job), at least the character recognition got less sucky (read: faster, no longer taking .5 seconds+ to recognize a character!) in the new 5500 ROM and on the 5600.

All of that said, I will be getting a C760 soon. Even though I think most of the software for the Z is incredibly immature, I am getting it for the development of a new PDA platform called Dynapad. The C760 is an incredi

I looked at one of these.

[Meat Blaster]

Kind of nifty, coming from a PalmOS standpoint. I like the idea of being able to leverage my knowledge of Linux when I'm jotting down a note or looking up an address.

Irregardless, the usage factor is one of the things that's been getting to me lately with these handhelds and cellphones -- I know that Dick Tracy concept of having a computer on your wrist is chic, but nobody seems to notice that these things are getting pretty cramped! But one of the things I got to see lately that I'm thinking about picking up is the TabletPC.

Really, a tablet is the logical super-portable version of a notebook -- not too expensive to lose, big enough to work with, simple enough to ink a document as quickly as you need to. So when I tried out the TabletPC, I guess I wasn't that surprised that it seemed much more natural than these handhelds. Any area much smaller than a computer monitor is unworkable these days, particularly with web applications... but I think a TabletPC with WiFi fits the bill.

Re:I looked at one of these.

[ColdGrits]

This is not an attempt to troll or flame or anything, but I really have to question the statement "I like the idea of being able to leverage my knowledge of Linux when I'm jotting down a note or looking up an address."

Sorry, but no matter how geeky I am feeling, when I want to jot down a note or look up an address on my PDA, I don't want to have to "leverage my knowledge" of the underlying OS, I want to jot down a note or look up an address.

Can you clarify what you mean, please? I'm genuinely lost as to how you "leverage your knowledge" of Linux when jotting doiwn a note on a PDA!

After I read the review...

[teamhasnoi]

I see that the Sharp Zaurus SL-5600 would make a perfect server for a school server. Definitely not overkill.

However, these reviewers need to stop hosting on the devices they review.

Re:Cool

[Jad LaFields]

You bring up a good point about the linux install... the article blurb made it seem that the PDA comes w/ Linux pre-installed, but the first page of the article seems to say it comes w/ a Windows CD. I can't seem to see the second page of the article, it appears to be /.'ed. Anyone else know how it turned out?

Most Insightful post ever

[tomstdenis]

Only x posts and slashdotted! Must be running their site on product "A".

Imagine a beowolf cluster of item "B", on a "C".

Just wait till the RIAA hears about this! and/or Just wait till the MPAA sees this! and/or Just wait till the **AA hears and/or sees this!

Something SCO would do....Or Sue! Sue! call SCO

BSD is dying, only a few million users left!

Oh and MS knows security like they know open competition.

I used Mozilla once!

1. Action "D"
2. ???
3. Result "E"

MS sucks. or MSFT sucks. or Microsoft sucks. or Micro$oft sucks or Micro$loth sucks.

Linux has a far superior kitch factor.

I'm going to patent patenting. I'm going to patent the wheel, air, fire, water, item "F". Quick hide it from bezos.

I'm going to sue for violating my first post (patent|copyright).

Check my l33t signature!

Accomplishing goal L: Cost "G". Accomplishing goal M: Cost "H", for everything else there is item "I".

Something, something, something, private part [giggle like the school child you are], something, something, something.

something, other, something, Natalie Portman, something

Boochicka wowwow, something, hot grits and person "J", who may or not be Natalie Portman

Some guys widespread anus [goatse.cx]

In Soviet Russia, Item "J" does "K" to YOU!

Apple R0xx0rs!

Apple Sucks!

Kde!

Gnome!

Amigas aren't dead!

Polling:
[options a-g] ...
h. [unable to participate] you insensitive clod!
i. [cowboy neal poll option]

Re:Most Insightful post ever

[tekrat]

Dude, you friggin rule. That was the funniest post I have ever read on Slashdot, bar none. You have distilled the very essence of the entire site to as few words as possible. Poetry, sheer poetry.

Now I have to clean up all the coke that just came shooting out of my nose...

Re:Most Insightful post ever

[nakaduct]

> In Soviet Russia, Item "J" does "K" to YOU!

No. Item "K" does "J" to YOU! Fool.

ROM 3.10 available for SL5500

[mirko]

SL5500 users can now benefits from the same application set as SL5600.
check here

Re:Cool

[dbowden]

The 5600 is native Linux -- it uses an embedix distro w/ Qtopia for the front end. There's also an Open Source distribution, which frankly, I prefer.

geek.com has another review of this

[gosand]

Funny, just before seeing this posted, I had just finished reading a review of the 5600 at geek.com . Since the review posted is slashdotted, maybe you can check that one out.

I adore my SL5500

[Glyndwr]

It's not really a PDA, it's a pocketable Linux computer.

First, the PDA side of things. People criticise it for having weak PDA features which, compared to Palms, and that's somewhat true; my previous Psion PDAs had a few extra features around the edges that I miss, but by and large the PIM features are fine for my moderately advanced use.

But there's so much more! SCUMMVM in the palm of your hand with mp3-encoded talkie versions of Fate of Atlantis or Day of the Tentacle is pretty nifty.Add a Wifi card, install Wellenwreiter or Kismet, and go low-profile warwalking. I have a Pocketop IR folding keyboard for long documentation on the go; the screen rotation software Just Works, unlike a lot of PocketPCs.

Unlike Palm owners, I can handle DOC and XLS files native on the device; this is particularly key because the Zaurus is a computer in its own right and not a PDA. The Hancom office apps shipped with it are usable enough for quick on-the-go editing and creation. I could do with one of these now for instant printing of invoices when I'm out at a client's site.

The big compelling piece of software is OpenZaurus, a completely open source and regularly updated distro to replace the Sharp ROM. It's a bit like trading Debian stable for unstable; kinda hacky at times, kinda buggy at others, but it's so exciting to get a massive batch of upgrades every few weeks full of improvements. It's never been buggy enough to lose my PDA data, and in any event with multisync, unison and rsync my data is backed up six ways to Sunday.

Other people like apps like opie-reader for ebooks, portable Ogg players (there are a few), portable DivX playback, email (this is noticeable ropy under OpenZaurus, but getting better), and many more... For more ideas, see this thread on zaurus.com.

Downsides? I find the QWERTY keyboard wearing after a few minutes, hence I have the Pocketop, and I've managed to scratch the screen under the handwriting recognition area so I can't really use it any more (I think that was my fault, to be fair). The battery life sucks too, but then it does on all these colour mobile devices. Apparently, the SL5600 is better.

So basically, if you want a PDA, get a Palm. If you want a pocketable Linux computer in a PDA form factor with respectable PIM features and a mountain of open source apps, get a Zaurus.

Re:I adore my SL5500

[Minna Kirai]

OpenZaurus, a completely open source

Open source, eh? Do you happen to know what license it's under, then?

Their website doesn't mention anything about that.

Since it's apparently based on Linux, I'd expect it to be under the GPL (at least in part). But that obviously isn't the case. Look at the Openzaurus download page. There are links to 20 different binary packages, but no links to source code. According to the GPL, you must put source links in the same place as binary ones.

Downloading an unpacking those binaries won't reveal any licensing information, nor "an offer good for three years to supply source to any third party".

Searching around on the Openzaurus site for source code, I find an intriguing FAQ entry which claims that Openzaurus code is GPL, and another which explains a way to get the source. Or rather... a way to get some source code. Actually... patches against other, 3rd party distributions. Which if you had those distributions, you might be able to assemble into the Openzaurus source code... The code to some version of Openzaurus, not necessarily the same code that built the binaries you have.

All of that is completely against the GPL.

You can't give out patches- it must be the whole source.
The source code and binaries you provide must correspond exactly (same revision).

Re:Cool

[pheph]

There is a very decent, free, Linux Desktop Sync software for the Zaurus called Qtopia by TrollTech

Re:Cool

[Locutus]

The new 5600 and the new ROM for the older 5500 nolonger can sync with a Linux PC. Sharp has changed the internal data structures for the PIM apps( ON THE ZAURUS ) from standard XML to their own database format.

The QtopiaDesktop for Linux will not sync with the new Zaurii. But people are working on this. Not Sharp though.

LoB

Whoa...

[bdesham]

This Linux based handheld with a built in qwerty keyboard with decent connectivity.

That sentence no verb!

Re:Cool

[N4m0r]

The 5600 is a great PDA, I really like mine. As far as syncing with Linux though, forget it. The CD comes with software to sync with Outlook, that's it. Apparently the Qtopia-Desktop software for Linux allows you to backup data, no syncing though. I say apparently because I cannot get it to run on my Redhat 9 system. From what people are saying in the Sharp forums, not too many people have had success with it. Also, with the 5600 and the latest ROM update to the 5500 the PIM data format is different so if you were syncing your PIM data in Linux you won't be able to any more. The people who were working on syncing software have had to start over. It appears Sharp is leaving Linux desktop support for the Zaurus up to the community, and they are not being all that cooperative. The Kompany apparently has syncing on their list of features to add to their tkc PIM apps for the Zaurus. Of course they are only worried about making sure it syncs with their product Aethera. Its really too bad, I'm sure if Sharp would just cooperate enough to create some sort of libraries or tools for getting the Zaurus data to and from the desktop people would be writing sync software for every PIM desktop app under the sun.

Re:5600 is old news. C700, 750, 760 are new

[The AtomicPunk]

Has Netcraft confirmed this? :)

Re:Zaurus eBook support

[dbowden]

I've been using Opie Reader on the 5500, and I've been very happy with it. It doesn't read all the formats, but I haven't found anything yet that I can't read either in its original format or by using a conversion utility.

Opie Reader supports: (from the above web site)

• "Doc" format - also known as the original Aportis or AportisDoc format.
• Weasel or ztxt format.
• Plucker format.
• gzipped text.
• ppms text.
• Plain text with special handling of PML or HTML marked-up text.

It doesn't support:

• iSilo
• TealDoc (afaik)
• PalmReader/Peanut - although the early versions of these files were based on "Doc" format and Opie-Reader can manage some of the free files.
• EZReader.

The newest version even has a nifty new scroll function where it "paints" over text instead of scrolling it. It's a lot more like reading a book, in that the text doesn't actually move -- the text you've already read is gradually replaced by the next page, while you finish reading the previous page. Very nifty.

I had the 5500 and returned it...

[no_such_user]

I bought the 5500 when HSN was clearing them out a few months ago... but I ended up returning it. While I really loved being able to hold linux in my hand, I quickly realized that it just wasn't a replacement for my Palm Vx.

The most limiting factor was battery life... which the 5600 claims to improve. Any linux geek who will play with one of these things will be playing HARD... ogg decoding, game playing, etc. These things burn up battery life, and you quickly need to make a run for the nearest AC plug.

The other thing that discouraged me was filesystem management. Installing packages wasn't smooth and required some fancy footwork to install them on CF/MMC cards. And if you drain your battery and don't recharge within 24 hours (perhaps less), you'll lose anything not in flash ROM or on a memory card. Sure it's the same with any other PDA... but my palm can go for weeks w/o a charge... and I can recharge it with a 9v battery if I'm desperate.

There are hacks to setup backups to a CF card or whatever, and hacks for wireless connectivity, and hacks for getting X apps to run, and hacks... and hacks... but you start to realize that the entire thing is about hacks... it's not clean. It made me miss my Newton. Flexibility? No... but sure was slick!

Two things would have made me keep it:
1. Better battery life (fixed in 5600?)
2. Ability to boot off the CF card and turn the device into a full-speed, fully functioning palm emulator (the ones I tried had serious limitations). A dual-boot pda!

Just my $.02 - I look forward to trying again in a couple of years :)

Re:Cool

[dbowden]

Yeah - I've had to tell a number of people not to buy one for that very reason.

Everyone's impressed when I pull out my 5500 and tell them it's running Linux, (especially since I got a pocketop keyboard), but then I have to tell them that the synchronization bites, and that they're better off with a Palm if they want to keep track of addresses/meetings.

I'm really hoping someone will come up with a better synchronization option soon.

Developers get a Discount

[Martok7]

I own the SL-5500 (and love it) and received an email from Sharp stating that people who participate in the Sharp open source app development can receive a nice discount on both the SL-5500 and SL-5600. If I remember it was a pretty good deal too.

SL-5600 Synchronization Problem

[Erwos]

Not sure if anyone brought this up, but Sharp changed the method of storing PIM data from XML to binary for the 5600, which promptly broke all current open-source methods of doing synchronization. For the record, TrollTech didn't seem too happy about the change, either.

Thus, if you want an open-source synch tool for Linux, you may be out of luck for a while.

-Erwos

Re:SL-5600 Synchronization Problem

[Minna Kirai]

1. The storage was never actually XML, just a similar looking arbitrary format. The filename ended in .xml, and XML parsers worked on it, but it wasn't fully compliant. There were no DTDs supplied, for example, and some fields were totally undocumented. However, since the data was all fat ascii, it was trivial to reverse-engineer the important parts.
   
2. From a performance perspective, switching away from XML is a big win. You can't really argue it, technically. The pseudo-XML format wasted space and was slow. If they'd just provide documentation on the binary format (and also a prediction as to how long that format will be remaining unchanged), then everything would be fine.
   
   In fact, since the system is based on Free Software, they should just release the whole source code to their PIM apps and be done with it. A programmer would jump up from the "community" to take care of their Linux synchronization needs- and probably someone else would volunteer to improve the UI on the PIM itself (which needs a lot of work in comparison to the competition from Palm)
   
   By selling a Linux PDA, but not distributing the code to most of the applications, Sharp is getting the worst of both worlds in terms of user acceptance.
   

Some more technical detail:
Why does pseudo-XML waste space?
Because more than 50% of the total file is repetitive boilerplate. The addressbook.xml looks like this:
< Contact FirstName="Bob" MiddleName="Mack" LastName="Dobbs" FileAs="Dobbs, Bob Mack" Company="CoSG" BusinessPhone="866-512-7801" >
Not only are strings like "FirstName" and "BusinessPhone" repeated for every entry, but each person's name is stored twice! And remember, on a handheld portable, file size is more precious than on desktops or laptops.

Why is pseudo-XML slow?
Because XML is a linear file format. If you have 900 entries in the contact list (not at all unrealistic), and you add a new email address to contact #356, then the entire file past that point will have to be re-written. (Unless the programmer was extra-careful and used specialized file-shifting code, which still won't help in all cases). In practice, this meant that Zaurus users with thousands of contacts had to withstand startup or shutdown times of 20+ seconds.

I depend on my Zaurus

[allrong]

I spend about 4 hours travelling on trains everyday and my Zaurus has made a big difference to my productivity. I used to lug a laptop around with me, but it is heavy and slow to boot up (suspend not really working under Linux).

I sit in the train or lie in bed and use tckEditor to write PHP applications. It's extra hours of productivity that I would otherwise not have available to use when I need it (like right now).

When I want to test something I can run (an old version of) Apache, PHP and MySQL. I started teaching myself Python on the Zaurus.

I listen to Oggs on it.

Okay it's battery life may not be the best and perhaps some of the "productivity" apps could be improved. I hardly use them. But I don't think of the Zaurus as a tool for the paper shuffling executive. They have enough wanky gadgets already. I consider the Zaurus a very useful tool for the Linux developer. And I don't mind playing the odd game on it either!

Umm, no. It's a shite PDA

[Moderation abuser]

I have it's predecessor and that's a shite PDA too.

Nice big colour screen and can play MP3s which is all very cool and impressive for 5 minutes, but a truly crap user interface, buggy software and excruciatingly limited feature set make it almost useless as a day to day Personal Digital Assistant.

Yeah, and I'm a unix admin and Linux advocate too.

If you're coming from a Palm/Wince, you'll think it's the best thing since sliced bread, if you're coming from a Psion, you'll be beating your head against the nearest brick wall with the badly integrated clunkyness of it.

Seriously, save your dosh, it isn't worth it. Unless you get it in a sale with a big discount.