Sun, 28 Apr 2002
Sharp Zaurus Mini-Review
I was tooling around in Staples last night when I noticed that they had just gotten a fresh Sharp Zaurus put out on display. This is the one with the color screen, pen and keyboard input, running linux. When I read the early reviews of this device, I was skeptical about what could be done on a Palm sized device with embedded linux. Well, I'm happy to report that my skepticism was unfounded. This thing is hinting at what the oqo could be, should be, would be; if it has the kind of design wizardry that sharp has put into this device.
First of all, the screen is, well, sharp. Very sharp. Nextly, the thumb keyboard is actually usable, and the slick slider design doesn't compromise the form factor of the device. My perception was that the form factor's about the same as a Visor Edge, meaning thin, extremely thin, and light too. The machine responded quickly to all of my inputs whether I was using the keyboard or the stylus. Video performance on the included asteroids game was admirable. In fact, so admirable that I couldn't seem to keep the ship intact for more than one shot at the asteroids before I was blown to bits. Input with the stylus was very smooth in some instances, not so smooth in others. I'm accustomed to the graffiti system on Palm so the keystrokes that I used didn't translate 100%. The majority worked but the ones that are a bit odd on graffiti didn't work on the Zaurus. I'd probably have to study the manual to comprehend the differences.
This device is also representative of the new range of devices that go way beyond what original PDA designs were capable of in terms of handling complex applications. The linux variant that this device ships with seems to have taken a lot of the rough edges out of typical X-windows-on-linux GUI applications. That's a huge step forward for linux here as this device is now very competitive with, if not superior to, current Pocket PC and Palm offerings. I'd be curious about the development platform for the simple reason that various efforts to enable application development for these devices have been very complex (Sun's Java effort comes to mind) and reducing that complexity for developers, IMHO, would do a lot to further adoption of the platform.
Quoting Sharp's FAQ:
The Sharp SL-5xxx series Personal Mobile Tool is powered by Embedix Plus PDA and the Qtopia. Embedix Plus integrates Embedix Linux from Lineo Inc, Qt/Embedded GUI application framework from Trolltech, Opera web browser from Opera Software and Jeode JVM from Insignia Solutions. Trolltech also provides Qtopia, the user interface and application suite for the Sharp SL-5xxx series.
The machine was priced at $499 which is reasonable considering it's power. However, I already have a Kyocera smart phone so another PDA's a bit ridiculous, at least the wife would think so. ;->
Posted at: 21:55 | permalink
