New Zaurus Linux PDA Available In the U.S.

pdawerks writes "The Sharp Zaurus SL-6000L handheld, which runs Linux in the Trolltech's Qtopia environment, has finally made it to the U.S. at a pricepoint of $699, according to a PDALive.com article. It has a 4-inch 480 x 640 CG Silicon reflective screen that is much larger than the one in the 5x00 models, and the screen supports rotation on the fly (portrait and landscape modes). Sharp has also incorporated a sliding thumb keyboard into this model."

Comments

Cool widget, but WTF would buy it?

[laird]

This looks like a great geek toy, but aside from that who on earth would buy this thing? It's $699, and huge. If all you need is a PDA, you can get much, much nicer machines from Sony, Palm, or even (dare I mention it) WinCE licensees.

Open Zaurus

[I_Want_This_ID]

Open Zaurus is going to have some fun with this one.

It's a tad on the pricey side though as an SL-5500 can be had for under $200 and the SL-5600 (which has the 400 MHz xscale proc and 64 MB of RAM) is under $400 last time I checked

Re:Open Zaurus

[megan_of_wutai]

Just a little correction.

The 5500 has 64MB RAM (all of which can be used with OZ if you have a flash card) and 16MB internal flash . The 5600 has 32MB RAM and 64MB internal flash, the internal flash is faster than an SD or CF card but personally I think they made the wrong choice with it. The SL-6000 also uses a PXA-255 which was basically released as a bug fix for the PXA-250 (that the 5600 uses) which had several bugs (cache and pcmcia I seem to recall).

The SL-6000 is much better of course :), with 64MB of both (although I seem to recall a marketing pdf with several different models, one of which had 128MB of flash, others didn't have the 802.11b and some had BT in addition, they don't seem to be offering that choice here).

Of course this is all coming from a happy SL-5500 owner who doesn't need any newfangled XScale ;)... I'd kill for the screen though.

Re:Trolltech???

[mabinogi]

How can you not have heard of trolltech before?

The makers of QT, the toolkit behind KDE, and the QTopia environment.

Re:must be a good PDA

[KatTran]

considering that none of that $699 pays for an OS

Sharp does have to pay an undisclosed amount of money to TrollTech to use the Qtopia interface.

From Qtopia Pricing page

For prices, conditions and licensing terms on building a Qtopia device, please contact Trolltech Sales to discuss available packages.

Re:Flip that...

[mirko]

I agree with the above post, except that I have one reproach that'd mak me prefer a smart phone, next time I need a new PDA: The Zaurus doesn't sync with OSX!

Re:Flip that...

[stankyho]

There is a Qtopia desktop for OS X, but it doesn't sync OS X address book, iCal and stuff.

There are 3rd party apps that kinda sync with address book and iCal.

eBay

[Anonymous Coward]

You could also pick up an older model off eBay for about $50.

That is if you don't mind less RAM.

Re:eBay

[megan_of_wutai]

The only Zaurus you're going to get for $50 is one of the ZR series. These being devices with some unspecified 16bit cpu and 2MB RAM. Personally that's a tad less RAM than I'd be happy with. Oh, and good luck running linux on one ;).

A Zaurus of the SL series tends to go for around $170 for an SL-5500 and $300 for an SL-5600.

Re:nice, but i'd really like

[mrseigen]

Most of the other non-Palm PDAs I've seen have wireless capabilities on an external add-in card, so I'm sure this is available (along with a USB port) for your consumption. The additional cost is a pain, though.

rsync

[SHEENmaster]

rsync -ave ssh ~/mypdastuff root@zaurus:/mnt/card/

Is one line to sync from Linux, or Solaris in my case, to the pda really that difficult? The entire point of a Linux pda is that it's just a small computer; what works for a Linux server works for a Linux pda.

Re:rsync

[MS_is_the_best]

Use CVS (or similar) on your homedir. With automount you can automate the behaviour.

It is nice that as a nerd, you have been doing the stuff that is now 'cool' in proprietary software land for ten years, with some small shell scripts.

Re:699? i can get a laptop for this

[Tet]

The 5500 has all of the above except the 400 mhz xscale processor, and can be had "new in original packaging" for less than $200 if you keep your eyes open on e-bay.

True, but it doesn't have the screen. I have both an SL-5500 and a SL-C860. The 860's screen is so much better it's really not funny. It has to be seen to be believed. It's an amazingly crisp display, and at 640x480, it's able to give me an 80x24 text console, which the 5500 couldn't manage even with the smallest font size. Sharp are coming so close to making the perfect machine. The only thing lacking from the 860 is builtin bluetooth -- I have to use a separate CF card for that (I'd rather be putting extra storage in that slot). Now the 6000 has all the features, but for reasons that I don't understand, has reverted to the sliding keyboard form factor, rather than the clamshell design of the 860. If they could just put the 6000 in a clamshell case with the larger keyboard, I'd be very happy indeed...

Get a Nokia 92x0 instead.

[Moderation abuser]

You get the lot in a single package. The best PDA OS and UI in the market, hundreds of third party applications and the phone is integrated right into the system. The cost sans connection is $699. If you get a connection with it, $50. Use the other $650 for something else.

Re:Get a Nokia 92x0 instead.

[megan_of_wutai]

Do you have the original Sharp ROM? The UI *was* a tad fugly, but now with OZ it looks like an OSX clone, in my pocket ;).

Apparently you're astonishingly rich if you can use HSCSD as an 802.11b replacement. As far as GPRS, have you never wanted to be 24hrs contactable by the net as well as by mobile phone? with an IM app or IRC open all the time? If you don't *want* to be contactable I suggest that a communicator is the wrong device for you.

See, I didn't want a PDA, I wanted a mobile computer, and that's what I got. The PDA apps are just a bonus, and honestly not that awful, the calendar in particular is quite good.

In the event of something being a mobile computer, CPU and RAM *are* relevant. When was the last time you emulated a SNES on your communicator or used a VOIP app? lots of RAM is also highly useful for multitasking, email and IM and IRC and office app open at the same time is perfectly feasible and the Zaurus makes switching between apps easy.

You perhaps made a poor choice buying a Zaurus, a Palm of some description would have prolly fitted you much better, if the Zaurus is in good condition you could get 170USD+ for it, and be able to buy a Palm Tungsten, Palm OS 5 and the PDA apps sound like a much better fit to what you want.

The open source bonus being relatively excellent hardware support (for a handheld), the fact you can write or port programs (native, not java) without paying a licensing fee. The Zauruses are amazingly flexible devices that admittedly need some nous to set up.

Also, I'm wondering what BT equipment you've been trying to use, most BT devices can pair with eachother, it's mostly stupid crap like some nokias that have problems. If you mean hardware compatibility, well, the Zaurus has the same hardware compatibility as any other linux machine running the 24.21 kernel (unless you're running the ancient sharp rom, 2.6 will come around at some point), that being most of the BT cards available (not to mention 802.11b, USB devices [through a usb card, or with the built in USB host of the SL-6000] and all sorts of other things).

The SL-5500 keyboard is fine, unless you have gigantic fingers, and if you do you can get fold up keyboards. Hancom office is the best handheld WP I've used, .doc and all. The spreadsheet I haven't personally used. The contacts, well fine, write your own.

And what's wrong with toastie makers? Nothing wrong, toasties are great, you just need to be ok with cleaning things.

Re:699? i can get a laptop for this

[nightfire-unique]

Though I'd give anything for internal bluetooth, have you seen this?

I got one for my C760 a couple months ago, and can't live without it. Serial-over-bluetooth without taking the CF slot, and pairs with every phone I've tried (plus your PC, using the included USB adapter).