Zaurus SL-6000 Review

Bill Kendrick writes "BargainPDA has done a full review of Sharp's Zaurus SL-6000L Linux-based PDA, which was recently released to consumers in the US. There are six pages of review, lots of pretty photos, and comparisons with previous Zaurus models."

Comments

First postings....

[FaasNat]

So I guess there'll be a first post of "First post!" and a first post of "Can I ssh into my server with this?"

Re:DIE

[Anonymous Coward]

I want to have sex with hamburgers! Hobos unite and we will form a socialist hamburger colony. BURGESIA!
-Gizzmonic

don't buy a pda

[xintegerx]

they seem cool, but they are unpractical:

1) screens become easier and easier to break as they are already expensive enough that making sure the thing actualy lasts (i.e., quality control) would make it cost prohibitive to actually sell a ton of them--at the same time, people compare them to laptops or agendas or plain pieces of paper, so they res has to be good, everything else coming after it.

2) to get stockholders, the pda's have to sound awesome technologically. It doesn't matter to Palm if the screens break easily.

The problem with PDA's is that we assume that they are PDA's! Like actual things you can carry and not worry about. Like actual computers that are just smaller, that's all. Uh, no. You get the hassle not being able to leave it around by itself because it can be easily pocketed in .03 seconds while you could trust a friend to actually watch a notebook computer for you while you are away, on the other hand.
if you barely use one, there will still be a way to screw it up (probably the screen.) If you use one all-the-time, then think about that as well.

It is NOT a "$500 investment for the next five years" just because it has software that can open common file formats, and the screen is getting sharper. The freaking thing can drop and break instantly, like no other electronic object ever. Drop your watch, mp3 player, who cares? Even if you bust the LCD on the mp3 player, who cares, the player is still useful. However, on a pda, replacing such a part is very expensive, especially as these devices keep getting newer and never, the latest and most expensive of screens.

I would say to just save the money and buy an OLDER pda if you really need one, since technology is moving very fast and reviewers never care about it actually lasting the five years that would make a $500 purchase worth it. The thing is FRAGILE. Sony, HP, Dell, Palm are competing on tech specs to win the pda war, never mentioning that the new pdas are getting less about being a solid product and more on making it as loosely constructed as possible to accomodate all that crap while reducing the size.