Sharp Zaurus SL-5600 PDA

The Sharp Zaurus SL-5600 combines state-of-the-art Sharp technology and Sharp innovation to deliver a unique and compelling PDA solution. The Sharp Zaurus SL-5600 offers everything from mobile communications to mobile multimedia; keyboard integration and dual expansion delivering one of the most versatile and flexible PDA solutions on the market today.Sharp's color LCD technology and high-powered processor deliver top quality multimedia for all corporate and personal needs. The SL-5600 has a 3.5" 65,536 Color Reflective TFT Front-Lit Screen with 240 x 320 resolution for outstanding graphics and clarity. Sharp's clever integrated keyboard design allows easy data input without sacrificing space. Edit text or e-mail effortlessly with a standard QWERTY keyboard. In addition to the SL-5600 built-in QWERTY keyboard, the stylus and touch screen allows you to navigate through applications with ease. With optional Compact Flash modems and Sharp Mobile Services you can have wireless connectivity virtually anytime, anywhere. With its replaceable 1700mAH Li-ION battery, larger than any other battery in a smart handheld device, the Zaurus provides extra long battery life so you can be mobile longer. Linux and Java based architecture provides a powerful and open operating environment - allowing many Linux and Java developers to write applications for the SL-5600, and integrated into various enterprise environments.

With its replaceable 1700mAH Lithium-Ion battery--larger than any other battery in a smart handheld device--the Zaurus provides extra long battery life so you can be mobile longer.

Display
The SL-5600 has a 3.5-inch, 65,536, color reflective TFT front-lit screen with a 240 x 320 pixel resolution for outstanding graphics and clarity, indoors or out.

Operating System
The Zaurus SL-5600's Linux- and Java-based embedded OS Qtopia Linux, provides a powerful and open operating environment--allowing many Linux and Java developers to write applications for the SL-5600.

Expansion
The Zaurus features both a Compact Flash and Secure Digital slot to offer the best of both worlds. Two slots allow you to add two peripherals simultaneously such as a Compact Flash modem card and Secure Digital memory card. This seamless design makes upgrading easy and simple

What's in the box

Zaurus SL-5600
Handheld device
EA-70S AC adapter
Docking station (USB)
Power cord
Rechargeable Lithium-Ion battery
Stylus
Display protection cover
CF slot-protection card

1 Great little Linux box
The SL-5600 comes with QTopia, an embedded version of Linux. It looks really good, and the software ROCKS! It can read and write Microsoft Word and Excel files, etc.

Synchronization leaves a bit to be desired. It doesn't work flawlessly, and only works with Windows.

HOWEVER, the Z's true strength is in Open Source softare. You can keep the included QTopia and install Linux apps. Or, you can replace QTopia with one of the OpenSource Linux distributions, and have a Linux workstation that gives you complete control. With the large amount of available RAM and two expansion slots (SD cards at least to 512 MB and CompactFlash cards), you have room to install anything you need. A huge amount of OpenSource Linux software is available for the Z, and most of it has been scaled down so that it takes a lot less space than it would on a full-sized machine. What this equates to, is that a 256 MB SD "hard drive" is equivalent to a 5-10 gigabyte hard drive on a full-sized computer.

OpenEmbedded (www.OpenEmbedded.org) and now Debian Pocket Workstation (http://www.pocketworkstation.org/) are two of the available Linux distributions. What's exciting about Debian Pocket Workstation is that you can run QTopia and a complete Debian distribution on the same machine. Switch back and forth as you need to. You can also build a complete cross-compilation tree on your own Linux computer, and compile and/or modify available open-source software for the Z.

If you want a simple, turn-key organizer, the Z probably isn't for you. But if you want a complete, powerful computer that fits in your pocket, the Z is the best machine you can get. Definitely worth its purchase price.

2 Good but beware the screen
Pros:
-Hella fast
-Runs anything you throw at it
-Stable
-Nice keyboard design
-I read in a review..."unlike some with Win CE saying that they have something like a pc in the palm of their hand, the Sharp Zaurus SL-5600 IS a PC.
-Bought from Amazon and box is clearly marked PXA255. Thats an intel 400mhz process....the best in the PDA business for under $300..are you kidding me!
-Will take CF I&II (which means you can buy a Creative Muvo2, rip out the microdrive and use it in this PDA...in fact Hitachi has already tested the 4gb MD with this unit).
-Will take SD (yeah, it'll take both).
-Memory it comes with is incredible.
-Software possibilities are enormous.

Cons
-Screen (Poor quality)
-Screen (You will see a dark spot in the top right corner since the technology used for the TFT does not fully and properly illuminate the complete screen)
-Screen (did I say the screen is bad...oh yeah.
-Bulky (its light, but dont plan on putting this in your pants pocket unless you have cargo pants.
-Yeah - try using your stylus to close a program...for some reason it frequently takes more than 1 tap......

I'll try for a couple of weeks...if the cons outweigh the pros then its returnamundo...

3 Not worth the trouble
Hardware:

This thing is bulkier and has a smaller screen than comparable products. The thumb keyboard is comfortable and surprsingly fast but is of questionable utility as an integrated feature. Mine had a defective battery and frequently needed hard resets, returning it to its factory state and wiping the internal memory (which had everything I downloaded for it). Sharp directed me to the retailer and the retailer directed me to Sharp. Rinse, repeat. Then call your credit card...

Software:

OS
The directory structures are ridiculously deep and don't intuitively correspond to the folders in the windowing system. It doesn't come with any reasonable tool for browsing your directory tree either - you will have to buy or download one.

Hancom suite
This is a pathetic attempt to allow some MS office compatibility. It is useless for any powerpoint presentation over about 1MB, with fonts under about 28 pt, or with any graphics, and it throws away half your screen real estate by not rotating the display for slideshows. The Outlook app will really, really screw up your calendar, meetings, and contacts if you dare import anything back to a PC that you modified on the Zaurus - for example, it will make all recurring appointments into individual ones, meaning you must keep deleting them until infinity if it changes, or it will want to duplicate all of your contacts with new screwed-up, truncated copies.

Linux is one of the only reasons to buy this device. There is a nice base of avid users, and you will be able to find a ton of free applications for this device. I am confident there will be a support base of hackers for the Zaurus for a long time. If you don't tinker with programming enough to appreciate the open OS or aren't a pathological Windows basher, I think you will be dissappointed.

4 Exactly what i Want
This device is almost perfect for the linux user who wants something smaller than his\her laptop. In order to appreciate this device, you really have to like linux. If you have never used linux, dont bother, get yourself an M$ windows pda.

If you're like me and love linux, you'll love the zaurus. You can get virtually all main stream linux apps for it (gcc, make, apache, mysql...the list goes on and on). I especially like that fact that it has a java runtime, and with the addition of compiler (try ibm's Jikes compiled for zaurus) you have a pocket java development environment.

The fact that it has CF and SD slots means you can have your wifi and your extra storage in at the same time, which is a great plus.

The fold out keyboard is slightly slower than a full size, but still light years ahead of stupid handwriting recognition on other devices (although the z has that too)

There are tons of different roms availible, from sharp and others. One that fixes the pxa250 cache errata is definatly required, as you may have heard this is a bug which affects performance. But if you flash with a special kernel it fixes this bug and allows you to clock the device up to 471 mhz! NICE!

The Only thing I would add to this device is a built in DOWNSTREAM usb port, so that you can plug in usb devices. A Compact flash Usb card is availible from ratoc (for $150). I bought that too and now i can connect external HD's, Gamepads, Keyboards, Extra Wifi's, and maybe even printers or cd burners.

While Pocket PC Users can say things like "my Ipaq is LIKE a pc!" The zaurus user can say "my zaurus IS a PC".
There really isnt anything you cant do on the zaurus since its a full linux OS.

I would whole heartedly reccomend this product to EVERY linux user

5 Very nice PDA
Picked up my Zaurus last week. So far so good. I believe most of the 5600 have the PXA250 with the cache bug in it. The PXA255 fixes the issue and has been reported seen in some Zaurus 5600 but not all. The one I received is an older one based ont the information I found in the /proc/cpuinfo file on the device. B2 stepping which was available up until around March of 2003 - about the time these went out the door probably. While the speed is not intolerable, the idea that it can be faster makes you want it to scream along. There are patches that with good instructions available that can increase the speed should you take the time to research it. The main thing that I like with the Zaurus is the flexibility - Its linux - add what apps work for you, ditch the rest. Your not stuck with some inferior thing because its part of the system.

As a side note, installing additional apps is quite easy - I used the provided ftp program and dropped on a new package...

6 Ok this one is good
Much better then 5500 model!

7 defect not disclosed
I was outraged when I recieved my zaurus sl-5600 that I bought NEW from amazon at $289 when I discovered there is a KNOWN BUG in the 250 chip it was shipped with that has even been discontinued. The defect causes the processor to run at a fraction of it's intended speed. When I called Sharp to ask about this bug I was asked what chip my Z had in it and I told them I was then put on hold for a long time and told "Sharp is currently unaware of the presence of and defect in your model". The saving factor is that there is a third party patch available you can apply to the kernel which will double the speed of the processor. Know that you are getting what you pay for!!!!! If you want a Z without a defective chip be sure to buy one with a 255 chip. I will never buy another product from Sharp or Amazon ever again. I find such a way of doing bussiness to be immoral and unethical. I sugest you do the same.

8 Awesome -- Unix in your palm.
Let me preface this review by stating that I am a long time Unix user/developer and navigating Unix-based OS's is second nature to me.

I finally caved-in and purchased the Zaurus 5600 after Amazon lowered the price. When I finally received the item, I was disappointed to find that unit had the PX250 processor (you can definitively determine your processor type by entering the following command from your terminal application: grep Processor /proc/cpuinfo). Nevertheless, I forged ahead and installed the WCF12 LAN card, rebooted the handheld and I was up and surfing the net and reading reviews for the 5600 on Amazon.com (I have a Netgear MR-814 wireless router)! I downloaded the Konsole application and I was exploring the filesystem using the default bash shell commands. Out of the box, the 5600 does not support X applications. No problem! I downloaded and installed Qtopia-X, Keypebble, IceWM, and XFree86. I started up QTopia-X (which is a VNCServer), started up the window-manager, set the display to the localhost on VNC server and fired up Xterm. Way too cool!! I am looking forward to installing gcc/g++ after I add a SD card to the unit. I am completely blown away that I have fully functioning Unix/X station on the little 5600.

For the more Windows oriented users, I successfully used Hancom sheet to open an Excel spreadsheet, Hancom Word to open a MSWord document and was able to sync with Outlook with no problems.

The keyboard is very usable (vi users, the cancel button is the ESC key and Unix users, pipe is shift-space) and the overall design of the PDA is fantastic and well thought out.

There has been no noticable lapse in performance due to the PX250 processor. I am normally loathe to use a plethora of exclamation points in my writing, but the presence of them in this review is an indication of my affection for the "Little Unix Box(!!!!)."

9 The best in class and best value to boot.
This is a really good PDA. The colour screen is bright and clear, and you have a choice of input mechanisms. You can use the built in micro key board, an on screen keyboard that tries to guess the word you are picking out with the stylus, a pick board, or handwriting recognition. It also has a bunch of really good apps that include:

MSWord compatible doc tool,
To List,
Excel comaptible Spreadsheet,
Calculator,
Media player (mp3 and movies),
Voice recorder,
Web browser,
Email,
Power point compatible tool called Presenter,
Adress book,
Calender,
Text Editor,

as well as some nice games; Asteroids, Go, Mastermind, Scrabble, Mines, 2 types of Patience and Snake, to while away the commute with.

I have found the PC sofware that comes with it great. This means that I can manage and deal with the data entry on a full size keyboard and simply transfer it from my Windows PC (I am sure that mac software it comes with is just as good). I have also transfered files to it from my Windows Laptop using the IR port (first time I had ever tried using an IR connection and it worked first time). I also bought the PocketTop portable wireless (IR) keyboard and and this worked first time.

It is really easy to install new software. You just have to transfer the program you want to install using the supplied software (when you plug your Zaurus into your PC the file tranfer software just makes it look like another folder browser) to the a directory call install_files, click on the "add/remove software" icon and follow the instructions. Really easy.

It has a good size battery that I means that I have had no problems with one charge every day or so (The charger is small and light anyway). When you use as an MP3 player you can switch of the screen to get longer battery time.

To top it all it is .... cheaper than any similarly spec'd PDA on the market. A great bargin!

10 find a better vendor
Unless you get lucky, Amazon is shipping Sharp's pxa250 processors that they discontinued over a year ago. The processors are buggy and don't use a lot of software correctly. There are kernel work-arounds if you are linux savy which are quite stable, but paying for a product that has been discontinued over a year ago doesn't make much sense, especially when you have to jump through hoops and recompile a kernel just to get the unit working correctly.
For those that want an awesome pda and the challenge of building their own, this is a great unit. If you are looking for something fast and stable out of the box, get a vendor with the 400mz pxa 255 processor. The Z is an awesome pda, I have SQL, Python and java running from mine, I'd just suggest you look for the more recent version you don't have to fix out of the box.

11 rgbman
After searching far and wide for a TRUE handheld PC, I finally found it in the Zaurus 5600. With the recent price reduction I thought I'd give it a try. I am so glad I did! In the past week it has done all that I've asked it to, web surfing, email, calendar, task management, games (ultima7 via exult) and even network troubleshooting. I was able to troubleshoot and reconfigure a client wireless IP network (two AP's, repeater, and one firewall) all from the little Z. Doesn't sound like much, but in the past my ipaq couldn't keep up, frequently stumbling when loosing signal or releasing a DHCP address (softreset needed.) The Z had no problems and quickly stood out as a tool, not a toy. Laptop stayed in bag :)

This thing is a sleeper hit. If you are a moderate linux person or wanting to learn, and are seeking a truely capable handheld, give the Z a try. Although I say moderate linux person, you don't need to know linux, but will need a solid understanding of handhelds, PC's and the sync process as this is a rough spot for the Z. It will sync ith outlook and it's own desktop (like palm desktop), but getting things going first time can be rough for the newbie.

If you know what you're doing, however, syncing can be done via CF, SD, USB, Serial, or even network.

I bought the Zaurus SL-5600 to replace my ipaq 5455, which was complete garbage in comparision. The Z is simply the best handheld tool and it being linux based is part of that success.. IMHO.

12 The Zaurus shows the power of Open Source
I have had the Zaurus for 2 days. This device is simply amazing. Just a few things to mention
1) WI-FI support, I just plugin my Linksys wireless CF card, and it worked, on Pocket PC, I had to install software.
2) The wirelsss connection and the browser work great. On Pocket PC, the buggy MS software frequently quit working for no reason, and I had to reset the Pocket PC unit. The Linux based Zaurus is rock soild.
3) The USB syncing is reliable. The Pocket PC won't even work via the USB hub, you have to connect it directly to a USB port. Furthermore, activesync frequently stops working, and I had to reboot both the PC and PDA.

Now let me tell you something I have done:
1) installed OpenSSH onto the unit. After that, I leave the unit downstairs, upstairs using a notebook I wirelessly sshed into the PDA, it's just another UNIX server, at the bash promopt, I use wget to download a bunch of files from the net, including PERL, APACHE, and MYSQL. MySQL is only a few hundred kilio bytes, I created a few tables and run some SQL queries. Great!
2) Installed a VNC server on the PDA, then on my PC I use vncviewer to connect to the PDA, the PDA screen shows up on the PC, and I can remotely operate it via its GUI interface.

On the net, I found all sorts of applications ported to Zaurus, even including things like XFfree86 and Courier-mail server. Maybe we should do some web and mail benchmarking on this 400MHZ device.

In conclusion, this PDA is a true Linux machine with a small keyboard and screen that can be put in your pocket, you can use it to listen to mp3, browser web or serve web and email.....or whatever open source.

13 A linux desktop crammed into a PDA
This PDA is more than any other PDA out there save of course another later zaurus model. I bought it simply to have a personal PC while I am on the road so I dont have to lug my laptop all the time. The linux operating system offers wondrous opportunities to use this device using open source software ( as in free!). So what have I been using it for : so far I have installed Mplayer and am running 2pass divx encoded video off of a 512 MB CF card which can hold up to 5 hours of movies. The quality is excellent. I use it to connect to my home network wirelessly and securely using Freeswan IPSEC vpn implementation. I use it to browse the web using Opera which has a handy zoom button. Qftp allows me to download files from local and remote ftp servers. I can ssh into and from the Zaurus into other machines on the network. Rotation package from Opie allow me to rotate the display between portrait and landscape modes. I installed opie pacman. Opie player plays my mp3's. There are developers out there working on custom version of ROMS for this device with added featrues. I have barely tapped into all the possibilities that this machine can be used for. Try to do that on a non linux PDA. Definitely a geek toy.

14 The Ultimate Pocket Tool
The Zaurus SL-5600 is a network engineer's dream. I work with Cisco routers and used to lug a heavy laptop from customer to customer. The zaurus software forums offer many tools (FTP, SSH, VPN, sniffer..etc) FREE and the zaurus is so very easy to work with (I'm a unix geek, so anyone with a unix back ground will love it !!). Since I've started using the Zaurus, I now never need a laptop !! (saves going through security at airports with 50 pounds of gear). If you're looking for something that runs windows..forget the zaurus. If you're a network engineer like me that needs what unix can offer....the Zaurus can't be beat !!!!

15 Best in class for my needs.
I have used practically every version of the iPaq, and each one has let me down with the usual Microsoft "features"/frustrations . The Zaurus is fast enough, and has all the utilities and apps I need to stay organized, play MP3's, video, store password and account information, create documents and spreadsheets, etc. If you feel you need toys and colorful utilities on your PDA, then you probably need to stay with the Windows CE versions...and back it up often, but for me the Zaurus does it all. I have owned the SL550 (which met with a traumatic demise on a family vacation), and now own the SL5600. The Zaurus is stable, full featured and does not require you to spend extra $$ on a keyboard. Good battery life too. In my opinion, it is the biggest bang for the buck for its indended use as a PDA. Besides, what other PDA can you compile code on and write your own apps if so inclined, as easily as Linux and the Zaurus?

16 Most powerful & useful PDA ever!
The SL-5600 is an incredibly powerful PDA. With it's vastly updated software & OS (over the previous SL-5500 model), and the upgraded hardware.. its a much more practical and useful device than it's predecessor. The 1,700mA battery means long battery life, the screen is crisp and clear. The Web Browser is the best I've ever seen on any PDA! The e-mail client is awesome, allowing me to connect to multiple POP & IMAP mail boxes. The Office Suite is compatible with Word, Excel, Powerpoint. Throw in a pocketop (www.pocketop.com) portable keyboard and you can get rid of your laptop for good! This PDA is easier to use and more powerful than any PocketPC device out there.

17 A real good start but...
I saw a friend's Zaurus SL-5500 and thought it was awesome, so I decided to try out the SL-5600. I have had it for about 6 months now and have had some time to fool around with it. I love the quality of the graphics, and the games are great. Figuring out how to get documents into and out of it can be a little tricky, especially for someone like me that has never owned a PDA before and is only slightly computer literate. I am sure it can do a lot more than I have managed to figure out. My biggest dissapointment is the assistance that I have gotten with it. My installation CD met an unfortunate demise, and now getting the replacement downloads is pretty much impossible. I have called Sharp, one of the registered maintance centers, checked the internet, and talked to people at Best Buy... noone has been able to help me or even give me any advice. The download for the Installation CD on the Sharp web page is for the SL-5500 and won't work. The drivers for this model are nowhere to be found. It is really exasperating! I hope they find a way to fix this soon.

18 Beware
Linux PDA!! Sounds cool, does n't it. Well, only till you
buy the junk and bring it home to realize no drivers are
available for any of the add-ons. I bought this SL-5600,
along with a Socket WLAN card (which was addvertised at Sharp's
website). I bought an infrared keyboard as well. None of them
work with the PDA. Sharp's site has no support for the WLAN
card or the keyboard and Socket's website says they have drivers
for every other PDA except Zaurus SL-5600. Same for the infrared
keyboard. Not to mention that all the cool things like c compiler
etc are not available for this version (they are available for
SL-5500). Bummer!

I bought this about 5 months back. I guess sometimes later, some
one will write the drivers for Zaurus SL-5600. But until then,
check the availability of drivers for whatever you want to add
on before you buy the PDA otherwise it will just gather dust.
BTW sharp's web site says downloads for SL-5600 coming soon.
Its been saying that for the past 5 months.

To me the only attractive thing about this PDA was that I could
program on it. If you want to use the PDA just as a personal
assistant, there are much better alternatives than this one.

19 Great for Linux Users
For the Linux junkie, the 5600 is a "must-have". I mean how cool is it to run a website from your pocket! If you feel pretty comfortable with Linux/Unix, then you will love it. Add on a wireless CF card and you can surf wirelessly and connect to wireless hotspots.

The Personal Information Manager (PIM) definitely isn't as mature as PalmOS and it can show at times in terms of the features and usability of the grahical interface. There are also the standard issues that go along with installing software packages on linux. For the person who just wants a PDA that you can keep phone numbers in and play the latest version of foo-bar-tastic Mega-Brickout2004 on, go with a Palm or Windows based PDA.

If you are comfortable with linux, then this is your product. It is essentially a mini-desktop computer that can run Apache, OpenSSH, FTPd, etc and at the time I'm writing this it's the fastest PDA in terms of CPU speed. The internal ROM is a little small, so you may want to look into adding a SD card for additional storage. But to be honest, I love mine.

20 Awesome PDA
The Zaurus does everything and more that I could do on my Handspring Visor...which is now retired. The greatest feature is using the infrared port with the infrared port on my cell phone. I can now surf the web from anywhere I get a cell phone signal, in full color and full screen (okay, you have to do a lot of scrolling), and just use regular minutes without having to pay for additional wifi/web access from my cellular phone service provider. The connection is not as fast as a wifi connection, but for pulling up email and just basic surfing, it works great!

21 Useless pseudo PDA.
This is another attempt to invite bicycle. The device is clear battery killer. it drains batteries in 3 hours of the normal usedge and my HP Jornada 720 runs on the small battery for near 10 hours. The software is poor and few. My college who bought this crap still ask me the telephone numbers he needs. This expensive toy for those who cares to see Linux on PDA but doesn't care what is capable to do. don't mess with that. It is already dead, it was dead even before it came to the market.
This has nothing to offer. No readers, no compatibility, no usability.
Avoid it, save you money for something really cool. take new SONY things or anything else.

22 You'd be dumb to turn this away!
A great product...Sharp knew what they were doing. I'm a hardcore linux geek. I only use Gentoo linux and found this thing to be great. I just got it, and was impressed right away. It is sleek, and elegant. The colors were simply outstanding, it was miraculous. I love how the keyboard is there but doesn't cramp the screen, or prevent button use. It makes typing easier. With the IR port I can use a real keyboard in addition to handwriting, and QWERTY. I think I'm low on space here so in conclusion...buy it and don't look back!

23 This PDA is for anyone, not just us geeks
My first PDA was the Zaurus 5000D (developer version of this 5600). I really wanted to like it but it was limited on space for installing apps and I had trouble synching it with my Outlook. But enter the 5600... as soon as I heard it announced I had my eye on it and finally broke down and bought it. What a dream! Straight out of the box I plugged in my Linksys CF WAN card and in no time I was connected to my wireless network and surfing the net with the pre-installed Opera browser. I even checked and sent email. For about $ I was able to enter complete geek-dom and downloaded tkcJabber, an instant messenger package that connects to AIM, MSN, IRC and Yahoo chats. (this and many free software for the Zaurus are available at [website].) And within minutes I was chatting online as well.

The true test was then the synching feature. I installed the Intellisync software on my machine from the CD that came with my Zaurus, plugged in the docking station, put my Zaurus on there and hit the synch button. It all Synched without one problem! What a breeze!

The battery life on the 5600 is much improved over the 5000D and the 5500. Other things I love about the Zaurus: I can read and edit Word and Excel documents on it; can view PowerPoint presentations; the sliding QWERTY keyboard is convenient and, although it looks small and hard to use, it really is quite handy and easy to use. I also like the fact that you can use a compactflash card (CF) and/or a SecureDigital (SD) card. I could list more but I think my word limit is about up for this review! Bottomline: Highly recommend!

24 excellent product
Linux OS and the keyboard are the best features of this PDA. The keyboard beats any software input methods by a mile. The Linux OS provides stability and easy commuication with the linux desktops I have. The netgear ma701 wi-fi card simply works after plugging in and the configuration for connecting to my wi-fi access point is straightforward; after installing the free qpe-terminal and openssh packages, I can easily access the PDA from my desktop. The battery life is great without the wi-fi card (I guess I should have bought a low-power card).

25 Every Promise Fullfilled
Everything that Sharp announced is as I imagined while reading. The SL 5600 is an outstanding product. Wish it also had a strong and rough case, leather or plastic. Hector

26 Best PDA I've used
I've tried a couple Palms, tried an HP Jornada 548 for a bit, but nothing gives you the ease of use, power, and selection of good powerful software like the Zaurus (in my opinion). I just got my wireless CF card for it, and it integrated flawlessly into my wireless network, pop email works great, and browsing pages couldn't be easier with the packaged Opera client. Also, a big plus is that you can even install alternate operating systems on it, since it's open source!!! I highly recommend it!

27 Reserved for the Geek
This "Palm" isn't for everybody. I mean its linux so the UI has somewhat of a learning curve and i know people have complained about the last of software on other sites but the fact is I havn't seen a more open snappy pda yet. I put it on my wireless network and bam I found that my computer had little use anymore aside from building new software for my Zaurus. If you are a hacker/programmer you are probably allready aware of the power of linux. Now you can have Tux in the palm of your hand. But face the facts if you want tons of apps and other software then the Zaurus is still good but maybe you should go for one of the other brands of PDA as far as i am concerned this is a Pocket PC not a pda infact this "pda" can run the Pocket PC OS.

28 Very friendly user
I am in love with my Zaurus. I have never owned a PDA before and was scared I couldn't figure out how to use it. Well, I was pleasantly surprised. It has been very easy to use and no problems communicating with mircosoft on my computer. I have been typing files in Hamcon Word and then transfering to my computer. It works like a charm. The screen it bright and clear. I downloaded some games from the internet and now I am entertained on the train into NYC. I have not tried the internet card or the media player (future adventures). After much investigation into the Zaurus (compared to sony), I am happy with my decision.

29 Problematic PX-250 proccessor
This PDA is very nice except for the PX-250 CPU it uses. The PX-250 proccessor unforuntely runs ARM4 code (programs compiled for the Zaurus SL-5500) at half speed (around 200mhz instead of expected 400mhz). The only software that will run full-speed on the PX-250 CPU are the default applications on the Sharp ROM, some software from Thekompany, and programs compiled exclusively for ARM5 (PX-250). Intel has made a PX-255 CPU which fixes the half-speed problem on older apps, but it is currently only used in new PDAs such as the Tungsten "C", the Toshiba e755 pocket PC, and the newer Dell Axim X5 Advanced.

Sharp has no word on if they will switch to the PX-255 CPU in a new model.

Casual users may not notice this problem, but many will.

30 A wonderfull tool for everyone
Got it from Amazon.com with free shipping, it arrived very quickly. Worked right out of the box, just plugged the USB in and installed the software, and outlook was synchronized in 5 minutes. The user interface is the best in the market today. You can either work with the stylus or do all the navigation with the joystick...that's a real time saver when you want to fetch a phone number or check on a meeting next week without having to use the stlyus.
I have my important documents loaded along with lots of MP3's, so there is never a dull moment. I also got the linksys wireless card, and some extra memory (SanDisk 256MB SD card), and they all worked right out of the box...no messing with configuration files or anything. This PDA rocks.

31 Very, very cool! A PDA for UNIX geeks
I've been using Palm PDAs for about five years now and wanted to upgrade to something new. I had seen the Zaurus 5500 and was going to purchase one before I heard that the 5600 was being released. The 5600 is fast, applications load quickly and the OS seems to be very stable. I haven't had anything crash yet. Setting up wireless networking with a CF card is trivial, plug the card in, run the network config application and type in your WEP key and you're on the net. Surfing with Opera is excellent, you can zoom in and out on web pages and I haven't found any pages that it won't display. I have yet to try the Hancom applications for reading and writing Word and Excel docs but everything else works very well. Now I just need to find an SSH client for it and I'll really be in business.

32 Great PDA
I've been looking for a replacement for my Visor Platinum for a while now, and this one caught my eye. Aside from the fact that this model carries a faster processor and a longer lasting battery compared to the 5500, the size of the unit "may" look identical from the face, but the extended battery comes with a small price. The back of the unit sticks out slightly to accomodate for the larger battery. It's still one of the most feature rich PDA's out there with a pretty impressive onboard speaker and microphone. Transferring files to the CF or SD memory cards is pretty "clunky" so purchasing a 6-in-1 type reader is the best way to go if you want to transfer larger files. The box itself includes the Zaurus + a removable clear flip top similar to the old Palm III, a usb sync cradle, a laptop style ac adapter which can be used independantly of the cradle, a stylus, sync software, and manuals.