Slashdot Mirror
Sharp Zaurus SL-C750 (P)reviewed
Bill Kendrick writes "Dynamism loaned the Japan-only 'C750' clamshell model Zaurus Linux PDA to the folks over at BargainPDA.com, and they've put up a mini-review, with the promise of a more in-depth review to come soon. The funniest part is they needed to scale down the screenshots to fit on their site."
Nothing new, and certainly nothing to write home about. It's a clamshell design which means that it's even less useful than the palm-top design. Chiclet keyboard, small screen, bad fonts.
I guess it's nice that it runs QT which means development for it should be a breeze, but seeing as how the source kit for this is still under lock and key (it's not the same source as the palm-sized Zaurus), it's not yet Free.
Other than that, it's pretty solidly built, although the salespeople don't like it when you "test drop" the demo devices.
The URL posted by the poster above is just a page that tries to crash those with the bug in Internet Explorer (I'm running Mozilla and can see it no problem though).
Sharp Zaurus SL-C750 English Conversion
New Sharp Zaurus SL-C760/C750 Linux PDAs
I think he might have enough kick-backs from slashvertisements to actually buy a couple of these units.
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Street price of theC750 is about $375, and $500 for the C760.
The review site looks to be /.ed so I've uploaded a mirror here:
Mirror
"I filter at +6, and have yet to miss out on an important comment." (#822545)
I still use my Psion Series 5mx, simply because I can type on it. Forget stylus devices for data entry. For meetings and note taking it is the best - I can type very nearly as fast as I can on a normal keyboard and its just perfect for long flights. Its also only slightly larger than a palm and fits in a jacket pocket. Much more convienient for many uses than a full laptop, not to mention it is up and working within 0.1 seconds of opening it. Of course running for 20 hours on a set of AA batteries....
You are welcome to read my review a couple weeks ago posted over at www.newmobilecomputing.com
davejenkins.com |
OK. That one appears to be down too so here's another to distribute the load further:
Mirror #2
"I filter at +6, and have yet to miss out on an important comment." (#822545)
Except that this is the size of a normal PDA. I believe it's somewhat smaller than an iPaq with its sleeve.
Of course, even if it *was* bigger, that may still hit the sweet spot for many people. Or perhaps we're all your clones, and not only do we actually *CARE* about what you don't need this device for (hahahaha), but we also have the exact same not-needs? :)
Barclay family motto:
Aut agere aut mori.
(Either action or death.)
Just wanted to let you know that the 5000 and 5500 have reached their end of life here in the USA and Sharp USA has no plans to release any new ROMS for those devices. In fact there are only three people still at Sharp USA who are working on the project (managers can't seem to fire other managers...) Yay for Anonymous Coward. P.S. Ask around and I know that you can confirm this.
I have to post. I feel it is my duty as a burned customer. Give me my -1 I don't care....if even one person reads this and doesn't buy a sharp product because of it it worked. Karma be damned:
Sharp Electronics: Buyer Beware
======== In the future, everything will be artificial. ========
I think there's another way to think about this.
How much computing power does a device have? How much computing power does it take to enable some range of tasks?
How portable is a device? How big/small does it have to be for it to be useful in various parts of your life?
I have been carrying around a Zaurus SL-C700 for the past four months. (The SL-C700, 750, and 760 all use the same form factor but have different hardware features.) The size helps a lot. Every time my car keys go in my pocket, the Zaurus goes in my pocket. It's *always there*. When I sit down I can barely feel the rounded corners, but they don't poke. The hinge isn't flimsy or weak at all. The screen is closed up inside the case, so there's no danger of damage that way. (Caveat: it's possible for a coin to wedge itself up in there between the screen and keyboard, but that's very rare. It's only happened to me twice, and I haven't noticed any scratches on the screen.)
The size is small enough that I have been allowed to use it on math tests at college. I showed the professor Maple on it, explained that I was using the 802.11b card to remotely control my home computer...even showed that I could switch from Maple to an internet browser. I was still allowed to use the machine on tests. It isn't big and bulky like a laptop -- it doesn't sprawl out and take up the whole desk.
The battery life, for me, is inconvenient but not insurmountable. With a power-hungry CF card in there you do only get about 90 minutes of runtime. That sounds kinda bad, but think about your own lifestyle and your own use of this device. How long are you away from a power outlet for 90 minutes in a stretch, if you just go between home and work?
I built a custom battery pack for my unit, and you should too. (We're slashdot readers -- this isn't mass market land.) http://mspencer.net/battery/ It's eight 9000 mAh capacity D cells (NiMH) in two four-D-cell holders, wired in parallel. In theory the numbers say I should have about 20 times the battery life of the internal battery pack. In practice I know I have to recharge the pack about every two to three weeks. It's about as heavy as a thick schoolbook, and sits in my backpack just fine, in a separate compartment that's too small for a full-size textbook but larger than the tiny pocket in back.
OK, that's the size. It's pretty much go-anywhere, once you realize the limitations of the battery size. If you want that kind of computing power (see below) available anywhere (for 1 to 4 hour stretches) or available any time you're with your backpack (for weeks of power), it might be worth hacking together a battery pack for yourself.
What computing power? The biggest feature is that beautiful screen and keyboard. The keyboard is better than most that size, but of course nowhere near the convenience of a full size keyboard. The screen is clean and bright -- on full battery-sucking brightness, it's brighter than my monitor. I can see some smudges when the screen is off, but they're completely invisible with the screen on. Slightly visible in direct sunlight (because it emits light, doesn't reflect) but it's useful as a flashlight in the dark. It's capable of truly tiny print. To see if you can tolerate text that small, take a screenshot, scale it to the correct size and print it out. Hold the paper out at various distances.
RAM is very limited, but you can use a swapfile. It's good for a few things at once. For school I've run mysql for database classes (and wished I had postgresql). ALL of my unix C programs were written, compiled, tested and emailed in from the C700. And then there's VNC in to the desktop, running Maple.
It's basically like a fiddly old resurrected linux PC, in your pocket. It has severe limitations, but they CAN be surmounted. Mount a swapfile. Close some programs. Stop that httpd you left running. It can do very impressive things, slowly and one at a time. It can do lots of little workstation things very w
Hardly, although apple coined the term PDA the first psion palmtops predated apple's newton by almost TEN years.
Si hoc legere scis nimium eruditionis habes.