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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."
It's pretty long. Please rate on the Slashdot scale where 8 = teh suck, 9 = OK and 10 = good. Thanks.
That is ALL that I needed to see. This is finally a PDA I want!
I know running Linux is cool and all, but does anyone really spend $650-700 on a PDA? I'm not being sarcastic, I'm really curious.
I love being able to know that many of the advances people make for the new SL-6000 will be equally applicable to my SL-5500, because the source is open!
In contrast, my roommate's older WinCE PDA, even though it has some nice hardware, is stuck with old software. There will never be anything new that he can do with it, because there is no upgrade path.
The answer would be: "Yes, yes you can." I've used my trusty old SL-5500 (with CF wi-fi) to ssh into my desktop many-a-time.
no Zaurus is complete without Zaurus Freeciv on it!
Click Here
I ran my SL-5500 as a web server for a few days just to test it. There is an apache distribution for it, with php included, but it does tend to run a little slow, probably due to the lack of physical ram on it.
I hope that OpenZaurus/OpenEmbedded get their act together soon and release a new version that supports the SL-5600/SL-6000. The current version of OpenZaurus is unstable on my SL-5600 and the Sharp ROM is crap. I am thinking about trying Gentoo for Zaurus.
Are there any other free Zaurus distros out there?
i use my sl-6000l in ways i could never use a pda: actually computing while standing, in some cases while walking; no bothering with pda-friendly websites
... i just hang it around my neck like a japanese tourist with a camera (and the japanese usually bow in deference to my techno-bob aura)
the transflective screen alone makes it useful in many situations where my laptop will fail: outdoors in different lighting; the ruggedness (survives much droppage) is another reason i can take it outdoors
just local.google.com makes it worthwhile at my new home at carnegie mellon, where there is wifi everywhere and i can find all essential services on a map quite easily
So if we order it with Linux pre-installed, we get the hardware for free?
"Ask not what your country can do for you." --John F. Kennedy
I'll probably get some flak for this but what the hell.
I own both a Palm PDA and a Zaurus (Treo 90 and SL-5000), the former is a perfect organiser whereas I hardly consider the latter to be. My Zaurus is let down by many things, firstly the fact that there exists relatively little up to date organiser software for it that even comes anything close to many of the free Palm apps out there.
Secondly, installing some of the more interesting applications on the Zaurus requires you to jump through herculian hoops to get things working.
Lastly, people'll probably point to webpages chocked full of Zaurus applications (http://www.killefiz.de/zaurus/ being one) but one closer inspection you'll find that many of the more useful applications are either in a half finished state or haven't been maintained in several years and lack features needed to work with newer desktop versions.
Don't get me wrong, I love my Zaurus. There's nothing like pulling it out of your pocket, firing up the WiFi, ssh'ing into your box and synching your local MySQL server. Just don't buy it if you're looking for an organiser, you'll be bitterly disappointed.
- Sadiq
SysWear - Geek T-shirts (UK/Europe)
When the headline says "Check out the article, it provides a great read" the site stays up. When it says anything about "screenshots" or "pretty pictures", the site disappears.
Does that state something of our mentality (ooooh, prettty!!!) or do we just not RTFA..
Inquiring minds want to know..
(and dammit, I wanted to see the pictures, too!)
= Grow a brain...
Review of Sharp Zaurus SL-6000
Reviewed for bargainPDA by Ian Giblin.
Thanks to offroadgeek from The Zaurus User Group for input and discussion.
Overview and Introduction
The new Zaurus SL-6000 from Sharp is a versatile, linux-based PDA incorporating an Intel XScale (PXA255) CPU at 400 MHz. In some respects it is a hybrid of the Zaurus SL-5600, which became available in the U.S. in April of 2003, and the SL-C750/760/860 which is only available as a special import and was reviewed here in September of 2003. The main enhancements to the SL-6000 are a better screen, some ruggedisation, built-in Wi-Fi and/or bluetooth, and a degree of expandability. There's also a USB host built into it using a Mini A connector on the bottom of the device. Oh, and a longer stylus.
The device I'm reviewing here is the SL-6000L, which has only Wi-Fi. We spoke to Sharp's representative about the other models - specifically the SL-6000N (Bluetooth only) and the SL-6000W, which was billed as the combo product with both 802.11b Wireless and Bluetooth. The representative told us that the only version which will be made available to the general consumer is the 6000L Wi-Fi variant.
If you put it into Google you can find the SL-6000W but you can't actually buy one yet (May 2004).
The Sharp Zaurus SL-6000 and You
You might wonder - what's the target market for this device? It is large, expensive and ruggedised. If you haven't already guessed, the answer is "Enterprise". Sharp collaborated with IBM on this project, but the only evidence on the consumer device is the link to IBM's page when you open the Opera web browser. A little nosing about on IBM's site yields some other interesting pages like this one on cross-developement. But I digress...
An ongoing aspect of the Enterprise factor is RailDocs, a system "designed to enable users to efficiently design, build, and maintain the fixed transportation infrastructure of a railroad". Not for the average user, obviously, but it speaks volumes for the stability and versatility of the Zaurus product.
It is something of a surprise that Sharp have made the SL-6000 available to the consumer market, particularly after a Sharp marketing representative originally told bargainPDA "Please keep in mind that this product is designed exclusively for the corporate market and will not be sold through the direct to consumer channel. It will be used by businesses for business applications.".
Whether the Sharp Zaurus is right for you depends upon the type of role you see for it. The Zaurus is probably the best linux-based handheld computer available, and the software is almost the same across models. It may not be the best PDA, in fact most Zaurus users wouldn't even call it a PDA. Sharp themselves call the Zaurus a Personal Mobile Tool. If you decide to buy a Zaurus you can find one to fit your budget. The table below summarises the features of key members of the Sharp Zaurus range, plus a very rough indication of their current prices. Links will open the bargainPDA reviews where available.
The C760 and C860 differ only in that the 860 has a Japanese/English dictionary on it, and it has a silver case rather than the white one on the 760. The C750 is like the C760, but has a smaller battery and less memory; reading the SL-C750 review will give you a very good idea of those three Zaurus "clamshell" devices. Some of the software section of this review is just an updated and edited version of the C750 software review.
Anyone looking at the SL-6000 should consider the alternative of buying an imported SL-C860 or C760 plus an 802.11b wireless card. This would give you the same functionality as the SL-6000L model reviewed here (plus an extra 64MB of internal flash memory), but you may have to risk some major inconvenience if the C model Zaurus breaks down - even when you buy through high-end channels such as Dynamism where the C860 costs $849, or ShirtPocket where it is 565. As well as the currency conversion you're doing in your hea
Agenda, IIRC, was released in 2001, and the company making it soon after went out of business. The fact is, if it weren't for open-source, there wouldn't be anything new you'd be doing with your PDA. The fact that you can still find software for it after 4 years says something.
I've owned several Zaurus machines (although only one of them ran Linux) and I've been quite pleased with all of them. They are well built and last a long time.
The Linux based one was a solid machine PLUS it had the ability to satisfy my compulsive need to change things all the time. I also liked the fact that I could use it to SSH into my web server to make changes. Very cool in my opinion.
OS and Basic Screen Navigation
.vcf files. I was hoping that I'd be able to hold the Zaurus near a telephone and have it tone-dial a number for me, but it can't do that.
At the top level, this looks like any PDA OS. The underlying Operating System is OpenPDA from Metrowerks (a company owned by Motorola). The GUI is Qtopia from Trolltech. This is a very well established system and has a good user and developer base. It also benefits from a certain amount of cross-platform portability, meaning that software can easily be translated from other systems to this one.
The main functionality is organised into four Home Pages or "Tabs": Applications, Java, Settings and Files. The Java Tab seems completely pointless, and I was glad to find that it disappears if you reset the flash memory as I have done several times while testing the device (if you want it back, you can reinstall from a package on the CD). I won't bore you with describing the three Java "applications " on the SL-6000. Their only worthy feature is that Java apps run in resizable and movable windows, which is a big deal when you have this much screen real estate. One day all windows will be movable and resizable (imagine that!).
You can add your own Home tabs, including a custom icon from a choice of what looks like hundreds. You cannot edit the system tabs. The pictures below show the four default Home Tabs; clicking on each one will open a new window in your browser showing the actual screenshot. All these screen shots are in portrait mode, but I only did this so they'd fit the review page better. They work just as well with the screen rotated 90 degrees.
You can change the theme of the interface easily using the Appearance tool in the Settings Home Page; the differences are significant but not Earth-shattering. You can also set a graphical backdrop to the Home Tabs (other than the File Manager). This doesn't seem to slow the interface down, and it has the potential to look great on this display.
Zoom Zoom
One feature of the SL-6000 which affects many applications is the "zoom" capability. Using the Qtopia menu items (ZoomIn and ZoomOut you can zoom in and out in most application displays. What this really means is scaling the font and usually some other window furniture (e.g. column markers in a spreadsheet). It is very effective, and only limited by the font you are using. I made an animation of this when I reviewed the C750 last year - click here to see it.
Help System
The Qtopia GUI includes a customised help system which offers help on just about anything with an icon. It looks like a basic web browser and would be very useful to someone just starting out with the PDA. Once you've skimmed the manual I doubt it would be much help, but it does provide a good introduction.
(back to contents)
Personal Information Management (PIM) Tools
PIM Applications: Address Book, Calendar, ToDo List.
The Address book is pretty standard - adding, deleting and editing entries is easy. You can choose which fields appear on the list and their order, as well as the overall sort order. The display uses colour very well.
Contacts can be beamed back and forth between the Zaurus and any other IR-capable PDA easily, although only one at a time from what I could tell, using
The Calendar allows a day, week, month and year view and you can set up reminders, repeating events, and so on. In the month view you can have a text format (which soon gets crowded) or graphical, which uses colour coded stripes to show events. This works well. Having used the application for some time on my 5600, I have found a few things which are annoying. For example, setting an appointment to repeat daily results in an entry in the calendar for every day forever. It would be so much nicer if it just updated each day to indicate the next scheduled event.
The ToDo list, like the Calendar and Adress book, is adequate. It syncs with Outlook or Qtopia Desktop and is fairly useful f
you can now sync zaurus' with ical and mail, etc. I am extremely happy about this. http://www.dsitri.de/wiki.php?page=Projects
Choosing the lesser of two evils is a choice for evil.
It's been a year now, guys. The completely unrelated SCO comments are old. The "wow, only 699 dollars" comments were funny for like a week. First post, GNAA, and other completely random stuff gets modded down quickly, so why doesn't this? There was a SCO story today. Make all the stupid comments there. They don't belong in every story.
There are six pages of review, lots of pretty photos
yep, lots of pretty photos for better slashdotting.
The SL-600 changes that. In theory, you should now be able to connect any USB device that Linux supports to the SL-6000 and use it. So far, unfortunately, I've heard no sucess doing this yet...though the hardware is there.
Anyone have sucess using random devices with the Zaurus?
I'd expect that the following should work without much trouble;
USB splitter
Keyboard
disk drives (including flash)
Some may require software tweaks or added support as the Zaurus is intentionally a minimalist device.
A firewall can not protect you from yourself. Turn off what you do not need. Do not use the firewall to do your work.
WOW you can't possible be serious?!
.03 seconds...uh so would your laptop if you left it on a bench inthe middle of nowhere...in fact if you took your home desktop and left it by itself in some random place it'd get stolen just as quickly...so uh yeah whats the point? Don't leave your shit lieing around.
Note: I have owned a Zaurus 5500 since 2002 and paid $400 for it new.
1) - Are you like a lead hand when pressing on touch screens? You must be, because I've never had a problem with my screen breaking. But i've also never broken my laptop screen either.
2) - I've never owned a Palm but my friend has one and he's a pretty big guy, and has never broken his screen.
PDA's = PDA's...um yeah Personal Data Assistant, sounds right to me.
As far as it getting pocketed in
Dropping it would definately break it I agree...but so would your laptop unless you got some extra "ruggid" type. As for an mp3 player - uh yeah most of them if you drop them they will break, and if you bust the LCD on an iPod your kinda screwed. Also if you reak it, why replace it? These types of items are NOT meant to be repaired like that, it's usually cheeper and more efficient to just replace the item.
I have a feeling you must be really clumsy and break a LOT of items. No one I know that has owned a PDA has broken anything on it...but we also have never dropped them, never left them on a park bench, and never flushed them down the toilet...apparently some people do it looks like....
Ave Molech Setting
The survey from BargainPDA about shops, which offer SHARP Linux PDAs seems not to be fully complete. Here is an international distributor survey for PDAs pre-equipped with Linux. BTW: If you are looking for a pre-installed Linux laptop or notebook you may find distributors there, too.
DamnExpensivePDA.com ?
If you could reason with religious people, there would be no religious people
There's a living review at Mobile Tech News.
And don't forget Sharp's site.
People at Zaurus User Group have claimed some success at hooking up select hard drives and flash readers.
LilMikey.com... I'll stop doing it when you sto
cat /proc/cpuinfo
Processor : Intel XScale-PXA255 rev 6 (v5l)
BogoMIPS : 397.31
Features : swp half thumb fastmult edsp
CPU implementor : 0x69
CPU architecture: 5TE
CPU variant : 0x0
CPU part : 0x2d0
CPU revision : 6
Cache type : undefined 5
Cache clean : undefined 5
Cache lockdown : undefined 5
Cache unified : harvard
I size : 16384
I assoc : 16
I line length : 32
I sets : 32
D size : 16384
D assoc : 16
D line length : 32
D sets : 32
Hardware : SHARP Tosa
Revision : 0000
Serial : 0000000000000000
I would *love* to own a Zaurus (I'd kill for a 6000 especially) as a powerful, portable complement to a powerful, sit-on-the-floor desktop box, but having owned an 8MB Handspring Visor Deluxe for the last few years and given that I write a lot (both code and regular text messages), I compromised between a PDA's portability and my desktop's power and got a laptop recently for primarily the following 2 reasons:
:)
1) Can't really develop on a PDA. Got *full* compilers for Java, C++, C#, etc.? Nope. [1]
2) Keyboard. Do I really want to write code on the Zaurus' small keyboard - or worse, via handwriting recognition or the on-screen software keyboard? No way. Emails, short (less than 1000 words) messages, sure, but code? No. That said, the Zaurus 6000's USB host capability means I could plug in a USB keyboard and use that instead. That would help alleviate the problem quite a bit IMO.
The above ignores the problem of PDAs having a necessarily-small screen size. My Visor can only display about 10 lines of text at a time, though maybe the Zaurus is better here... But my laptop, at 1024x768 res. can display about 35 lines (the more code on screen without needing to squint, the better of course).
PDAs are great for what they're designed for - storing and displaying contact info, notes, books, etc., but for serious computing (i.e. that which requires lots of user input, CPU-usage, storage space, etc.), unfortunately we're not quite up to laptop levels yet, even if something like the Zaurus' USB host feature allows connecting to external HDDs...
I have to admit though, the USB host capability theoretically offers a *lot* of potential for expansion, and I think that's probably a slightly-underplayed advantage of the Zaurus 6000...
[1] I know GCC has been ported to the Zaurus, and if you have a CF or SD card to run it off of, you can actually do your compiles on the Zaurus. Admittedly, that's pretty close to what I'd like to do. And Perl is available for the Zaurus too, albeit, at a hefty 34MB (again, need a CF or SD card). But again, what about Java? I think the best one could do is to use gcj, which AFAIK is not really a serious alternative to the Sun or Blackdown javac's...
And then there's the mere 400MHz CPU speed vs. my laptop's 2.4GHz, although, running distcc (if you have network access to distcc-running systems) would help immensely...
My $0.02.
Is Capitalism Good for the Poor?
One place that you can see the IBM influence is that the SL-6000 dropped the Insignia Jeode Java Virtual Machine that was used in the 5000 series and used the IBM J9 VM.
:(
Unfortunately, both are J2ME Personal Profile VM's, so most java programs have to be ported to work on them. It's too bad that SUN laid down the law and told SavaJe and others that handheld devices are only allowed to run J2ME and not J2SE, even if SavaJe did manage to port it and make it work. So, no applets in your web browser
Another Java issue is that you can't simply tap on a jar file and expect it to run. Instead, you have to jump through all sorts of hoops to create a special installation package just for the Zaurus. This makes it difficult to use PersonalJava applications that were designed to work on any platform without doing some re-packaging. Although I understand the impetus to use the linux-ish packaging system they use for linux based applictions, it's disappointing that they didn't use something like JNLP for PersonalJava applications.
Signatures are a waste of bandwi (buffering...)