Rating: 
Summary: Great for Students
Review: I was reluctant to purchase this PDA when I was searching for one. The price, the size, and the OS weren't big selling points to me. I had never had much experience with any forms of Linux before. But after some persuasion by the salesperson at CompUSA, I decided to get it. I have yet to regret buying it. I had two other PDA's to compare to: the Toshiba e300 and the Palm m505. I must say that this one beat out the others hands down. Here are some of the selling points.
1) There is a lot of free software for the Zaurus, mostly because of the open-source code of Linux.
2) It came standard with versions of Word, Excel, and Powerpoint. Note that these aren't from MS, but from Hancom.
3) It is infinitely expandable, It has both a SD and CF slot. These are helpful if you happen to start installing too much software.
4) The keyboard is very helpful. While my classmates are using their graffiti, I am typing away.
5) Being able to hookup to a wireless network is as easy as plugging in a wireless adapter.
I reccomend this (or the updated SL-5600) to anyone who is searching for a reliable PDA.
Rating:
Summary: Hey it is a small linux PC!
Review: There is no better description for it. It is amazing to see I can carry my linux box in my pocket and out there hundreds of productivity software ready to install. For windows-only-people it may not mean much, but the power it gives to linux/unix aware people is great. Not every product is for everybody. The hardware is impressive too, very bright and crystal clear screen and the keyboard get 5 stars. I LUV MY ZAURUS! Cheers!
Rating: 
Summary: Terrible screen quality
Review: I had high hopes for this product when I ordered it from HSN, but to my dissapointment this device had the most terrible LCD screen I have ever seen. Since the unit is front-lit, it looks too bright or too dark if you hold it at an angle. The top-right corner also has a dark spot, and there is a grid of white pixels slightly visible on the display. The screen is also off center to accommodate for the front light (on the right side of the screen). On the unit I recieved, vertical lines would appear if I moved the Zaurus slightly left to right. Needless to say, I returned my Zaurus.
Rating: 
Summary: Software needs to be improved
Review: Don't get me wrong, it's a great little device. The hardware is intuitive, the expansion slots are brilliant, keyboard is very useable, and the layout is great.The problem, for me, lies with the software. The PIM software is cumbersome to enter data into, and it doesn't display things very nice. When you have things on the Palm, it gets more data on the screen by removing things like the gridlines on tables and the pretty borders -- after all, if you wanted that you'd use Windows, right? -- but the Zaurus has these and in my opinion clutters the screen with them. The Zaurus is a bit frightening to use at first, as you really don't know what to do with it. The first thing I wanted to do was customise it -- change its colours and appearance. Problem being, you only have a few select colour themes to choose from. The MP3 software is great, but the MPEG player always, without fail, locked the device up, resulting in it needing a reboot. After a few weeks of use, the device seemed to have a memory leak or something, as switching on or off took longer than usual, and sometimes the device would not switch off at all. Oh, and the top off my stylus has snapped. Do you think I can find a place easily that sells replacements? On the other hand, Opera, the web browser, is amazing. Second to none. It's great being able to see fully-fledged sites on such a little device. And yes, it *is* possible... This baby is just that -- a baby. It has a lot of growing up to do before it will become my companion. The only reason why I ditched my Palm IIIe for the Zaurus was because the Zaurus had more memory and expansion slots -- if my IIIe had these, I'd stick with it.
Rating:
Summary: To My Zaurus...
Review: Dear Sharp Zaurus SL-5500: I just wanted to take a minute to let you know how important you are to me. I probably don't tell you this enough, but you make a big difference to me in my life. It is strange to think that it was only a few short months ago that I first started thinking about buying you. You seemed so aloof at first, so distant. I didn't know what to expect. I mean, I was pretty sure that I wanted to be with you. But I wasn't sure we would click as well as we do now. I really enjoy being with you. Inputing data is so easy with you. And you came with so many great applications. True, at first, your battery didn't seem to last as long. But now that I have charged you a few times, it seems as though your battery is lasting longer and longer. You were fairly easy to sync with my Windows 2000 O.S. And I was easily able to transfer address book information from my old Palm IIIxe to you just by beaming. How bright your colors are! How fantastic the stereo sound performs! How fast your processor runs! How expandable you are! I have easily been able to find stuff to install on you, everything from games to mortgage calculators to task managers, etc. Many useful informational websites about you exist, and they all help me grow closer to you. Anyway, I just hope that we can continue our great relationship together for a long time to come. All my love,
Your owner
Rating:
Summary: Pathetic software implementation
Review: Unfortunately I've had to revise my opinion of the Zaurus way, way down as I started to learn its quirks more. The software is pathetic. It looks like the PIM and Sync software were hacked together by a bunch of college students over a weekend. They really did not have to do much... all that they had to do was copy feature-for-feature the Palms which have been around for close to a decade now. Backlighting is uneven. There is a dark area on the screen in the top right hand corner. Compare this to a screen from either the Palm Tungsten or any PocketPC and you will see what is missing. The battery indicator is useless; and so is the battery. It lasts about an hour with the backlight. And spare batteries cost a fortune. The fonts are poor. A lot of the screen is taken up by assorted 3-D buttons and scroll bars. The end result is that the effective resolution is more or less the same as a Palm 160x160 screen. The image viewer cannot open large files. Handwriting recognition is poor... on a PocketPC it recognizes all of my cursive handwriting without an issue. And Graffiti has worked for me since it first came out. Sharp better get its act together pretty darn soon. Does not look like they are going to sell much unless they _way_ improve the GUI and reduce the price point to a more affordable level.
Rating:
Summary: I love my Zaurus
Review: I'd just like to say that this PDA is working out like a champ. I have had a very pleasant experience with it. It synchronizes flawlessly with Outlook 2000. It plays music. I bought a Netgear MA701 CF wireless card for it, configured TCP/IP networking using the easy to use internet connection wizard, plugged it in, and within 3 minutes I was browsing the web at my local coffee shop. I tried a Toshiba e335, and returned it after a week. This PDA is great.
Rating:
Summary: Amazing! Ultimate PDA!
Review: I am absolutly amazed what this little and cheap thing
can do. It can do all standard PDA can (
calendar/office/e-mail/internet) but then there is a lot
of things that leave other PDAs in the dust: 0. Little keyboard rocks - VERY convenient
1. It is Linux/Java - powerful combination with a lot
of free, easy to install software. (It is Linux but
installation is as simple as PlamOS/Windows based PDAs -
no difference - download file and click on it!)
2. It has both commercial and free movie(divx including)
and mp3 players - my favorite is free mplayer you can get from
the web, you can encode DVD on Linux/Mac with mencoder
and fit 3 hours of VHS quality movies on a single 256MB
CF card !!!
3. Just snap a CF wireless card and you get network!
4. It has VoIP application (need to pay extra) tkcPhone
5. Both openssh and vnc are avalaible so you can use it
as remote terminal to your desktop in text and graphical
mode. Imagine using PDA on the couch in the living
room to control your PC in the office!
6. Uses SD and CF. CF is cheap and large - great for storing
movies. You can also connect network card/modem with it.
SD can be used for more permanent storage. I can't imagine what more I would want from a PDA ...
I can think only about TV-out and TV-in so I can play
moveis from it on TV and watch movies on it from DVD player..
But I think this is something that even most notebooks
do not have and not a single PDA ...
Rating:
Summary: The best unit for the cost
Review: If you are looking at the Zaurus SL-5500 or any of the Zaurus SL series, you are either interested in something running Linux or are just fed up with all the other PDAs out there. I was both. What I found here was something that offered me more than I had at first imagined... The principle of the device is simple: a windows manager (QTopia) that runs on a minimal amount of memory, allows for reasonable expandibility, and is updatable. Rather than just stopping with expandibility, however, Sharp decided to included anything they seemed to think of: flash ROM, an IR port, and one Compact Flash and SD card slot each. The result is an ability to expand the unit in terms of not only memory, but also peripherals through the CF port and even replace the preinstalled ROM with one from the Open Zaurus project. Whether you choose to use the Open Zaurus (Opie) rom is up to you, of course, but with or without it there is currently a larger population of people writing software that will run on the Zaurus than there is for either Palm or CE devices. Palm's old community of experimental software programmers seem to have shifted back to their C language roots in Linux, meaning that there will be pleanty of new developments for a while to come. The only draw back is that everyone seems to be writing for this unit only, and not making their programs more universal, which will create problems when other devices come out (for example, many programs out now do not run well on the SL-C700, the big brother of the 5500, only available in Japan). The largest complaint people have, especially if they come from Palm simplicity, is the time it takes for software to load. Depending on how heavily the unit is loaded down, this can become a problem. If things are kept light, or if a swap file is added (a few tools around for doing this automatically), this is not such a big deal. My advice would be to try it out at a local computer store if possible and seeing what you think of it. If you can live with it, or say "What delay?" you have found your PDA. Handwriting recognition is another thing that sets the Zaurus apart. Sharp has been using handwriting recognition in their units for almost a decade and have it down to an art. A person can enter data just as fast as they can write it, with a high degree of accuracy, and without using a modified alphabet for input or spending ages getting the device to recognize your handwriting quirks. I am giving this 5 stars right now in the absence of better models, but if the SL-C700 ever finds its way to the US, that will be taking the top.
Rating:
Summary: This changes everything
Review: Its important for people not familiar to the open source way of life to understand right away that this device will destroy PalmOS outright. CE will stay because of the backing but is going to be playing catch up by the second generation of this device. As an example, one small feature of the Z is the TCP USB sync. That feature is symbolic of most of the Z's features. If you know what to do with it, it makes the Z something that no other PDA can be. If you only use it to sync to a desktop it will do that too. My point, with some effort on the users' part (or previous computer knowledge) you can do things with the Z that simply cannot be done with CE or Palm. For the people that just want to use this like the other PDA's it is priced inline with the competition. The true value of this lay ahead. The software dev community will put distance between the competing OS's all the while you can sit back and try it all instead of waiting to see if someone will port insert_cool_app_here to the dying OS's. (Oh and charge me for it if they do) Your interest in software increases the rating of this exponentially. If you don't need a PDA right now.... wait for round two of this fight. The difference will be stark. BTW Nokia is moving its cell phones to the linux/java platform. I know palm was not even an option, CE is shriveling on the vine in that market and I can already make voice-over-IP calls with the Z. Lastly, this was authored and submitted with the Zaurus.
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