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CNET editors' review
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CNET editors' rating:
stars
Good
Detailed editors' rating
- Reviewed on: 09/23/2002
- Updated on: 10/16/2002
- Released on: 12/03/2001
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| The Zaurus is fairly long. | It's roughly as thick as competing products. |
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 A sliding panel reveals a hidden keyboard. |
Along the Zaurus's top edge, you'll find the headphone jack, the CompactFlash Type II slot, and the stylus silo. The Secure Digital (SD) card slot is on the left edge beside the infrared port, while the latch for the removable lithium-ion battery is on the back, where you'd expect to find it.
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| The screen cover is translucent but not transparent. | Standard issue: The Zaurus uses a run-of-the-mill cradle. |
To protect the screen, Sharp provides a translucent, plastic cover; it isn't elegant, but it does the job. We would have preferred that the cover be a bit longer in order to hide the buttons below the screen so that there would be less chance of the Zaurus accidentally turning on while it's riding around in your pocket or your bag.
A USB desktop cradle is included for connecting the Zaurus to your PC. The only problem: the cradle is so light that it stays attached to the PDA when you try to undock, which can a bit of a nuisance. A standard AC adapter, which plugs either directly into the Zaurus or the cradle, also ships with the device.
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 The SD card slot (left) and the CompactFlash card slot (top). |
As noted, there are two expansion card slots to add more memory and accessories to the Zaurus. However, you may need a desktop SD-card reader and some technical know-how in order to reformat the file structure of the cards so that the Zaurus will recognize them. Similarly, many CompactFlash accessories such as Wi-Fi cards lack the appropriate drivers to work with the Zaurus. That said, since we first reviewed the device in April 2002, a few new drivers have been released, and compatibility with more accessories seems to be improving with time.
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 The Home screen: Squint at those small icons along the bottom. |
Those unfamiliar with Linux shouldn't be frightened by the Zaurus's operating system, as the Qtopia interface is surprisingly easy to use. Directly under the screen, there's a Home button--much like the one found on Palm OS devices--that brings you to a list of applications, settings, and documents. But the interface is peppered with lots of tiny icons and buttons, such as the minuscule X in the upper-right corner, which is used to close applications. These icons are a bit tough to see and demand precise taps of the stylus. If you feel comfortable with a Linux command-line prompt, you can install the X Windows interface instead of Qtopia.
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 The Opera Web browser. Note the tiny X in the upper-right-hand corner. |
Sharp also provides a healthy suite of software straight out of the box, including an address book, a calendar, an e-mail program, a to-do list, the Opera Web browser, an image viewer, and a media player that supports both MP3s and MPEG-1 files. If you need to get work done, there's HancomSheet, HancomWord, and HancomPresenter, which handle Excel, Word, and PowerPoint files respectively. You'll also find seven games preloaded on the SL-5500. There's a small but growing library of third-party software for the Zaurus, but unfortunately, you can't install apps made for Linux desktops.
The basic PIM applications need a bit more work before they equal those of the Palm and the Pocket PC. For instance, to look up a contact, you need to press the Address Book button, select Find from the Options drop-down menu, enter a few letters, and press Find Next. Palm and Pocket PC both require fewer steps to get to a contact. If you choose, there are alternative options that you can download instead of using the preinstalled apps.
We were also disappointed with USB syncing. For Windows desktops, Sharp provides Intellisync, which allows you to sync with Outlook but is not easy to use. There's also no software for Mac users, and the program for syncing to a Linux desktop isn't included on the CD.
Installing software via the desktop is a multistep hassle. You need to copy the application to a specific folder on your PC before launching Intellisync to transfer the file. Then you run the software installer on the Zaurus prior to using the application. We much prefer the way that you install Palm applications: simply double-clicking the file, then performing a HotSync. Trying to gauge the Zaurus's system performance proved to be a tricky challenge. By and large, we found that the SL-5500 worked quite well. Launching applications takes a second or two, as does loading large files, particularly PowerPoint presentations. But once they're on the PDA, documents and apps are quite responsive to taps of the stylus. You can also have several programs running at once and easily flip between them. Browsing a Web site while watching a movie taxes the system--you'll begin to notice some sluggishness and jerky video playback--but Pocket PCs suffer from this flaw as well.
We did notice a two- or three-second delay when turning the SL-5500 on or off. It's not a huge issue, but we've grown accustomed to the snappy response of Palm- and Pocket PC-powered devices.
The rechargeable lithium-ion battery lasted three hours in our drain test, which isn't too bad, although recently released Pocket PCs deliver significantly better battery life. We do like the fact that the battery is replaceable, which means that you can purchase an additional cell for a backup in a pinch.
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| The Zaurus's screen, photo- graphed indoors with the sidelight on. | Out with the old, in with the new: The Zaurus's battery is replaceable. |
With all the tiny icons and buttons in the Qtopia interface, it's a good thing that the 320x240-pixel reflective TFT screen on the Zaurus is, err, sharp. The screen's reflective properties make it easy to view outdoors in bright sunlight. A sidelight running along the right edge of the screen provides illumination in dimmer settings.
In most applications, we found the color to be a bit muted and dull, while white backgrounds had gray tinge. In the image viewer, however, really vibrant photos looked quite good. All in all, the screen is one of the better reflective TFT screens that we've reviewed, although it's not as bright and vibrant as the superior transflective LCDs on HP's iPaq H3900-series and Sony's CLIE NR70V.
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