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

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: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: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.