There was a lot of buzz when Sharp released its first Zaurus Linux-based PDA a few years ago. Today the new Zaurus models only sell through selected channels in the US, but apparently you can get the most successful Linux-Zaurus model, the SL-5500, for real cheap (Geeks.com sell it for just $140). So how does the SL-5500 compares to other similarly priced PDAs today? Find out at TuxTops.
Review of the Linux-Based Sharp Zaurus SL-5500
About The Author
Eugenia Loli
Ex-programmer, ex-editor in chief at OSNews.com, now a visual artist/filmmaker.
Follow me on Twitter @EugeniaLoli
Especially when you consider the comments from the kernel engineer and the sound problems.
There are no “sound” problems.
Can’t somebody pick up the Agenda VR3? That was a great little device, reminded me somewhat of my old Palm III. These new PDAs all feel more like I’m going to break them, but those nice old hunks of plastic (or metal in the case of the venerable HP Jornada 520/540) felt… solid.
I was expecting him to talk about something recent. Who would lug a PDA these days that needs a separate card to do wireless. Sony was perfect till it pulled plugs. And the retarded direction in which Palm is going would do nothing but strengthen PPC.
There *are* new PDAs released today with neither WiFi or Bluetooth in them. Dell has some, HP has some, Palm has some too. In fact, some of the NEW Zauruses (the handtop ones) don’t come with either WiFi or BT either! So this SL-5500 is very relevant still, especially for the price.
I use a Sharp Zaurus at college, I think it was the SL-5500, not 100% sure though.
It was a nightmare for what we were trying to use it for.
But, then again, remotely controlling a roving Lego Mindstorms robot with a video camera over WiFi from the comfort of your desk isn’t exactly an everyday application.
🙂
I am typing this response from my 5500 right now. It is a capable computer (read: not PDA). I have the Qtopia GUI running and a full ARM-based Debian installation running from a 1 gig SD card with an X server within Qtopia. I can apt-get many packages compiled for ARM. Icewm is the window manager, I have Dillo working with my wifi card, and I even have the current version of Abiword installed. Try to do that on your Palm or PPC. BTW OSNews reads great within Opera 7.30.
>BTW OSNews reads great within Opera 7.30.
Thanks. We have added special support for Opera for PDAs/phones. You are getting the ad-free, no horizontal-scrollbars version, right?
If yes, I saw you in our mobile stats: Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Qt embedded; Linux armv4l; 240×320) Opera 7.30 [en]
It sounds like you’ve got things setup much better than I do. Do you have a web site?
I wish to see more of Linux on embedded consumer devices. It seems as if there is some sort of blacklist that keeps Linux embedded products off the shelf and relegated to the feature section of Tech news sites. Good read, hope to see more on the topic.
You must go outside and turn on your sl-5500 in direct sunlight. You will be amazed how good the screen becomes its like the sun gives it an extra burst!
It do own a: sl5000D a sl5000 a sl5600 and a sl6000.
I love hacking on those devices.
I currently run xpdarom 10K on my sl6000, i run the gimp firefox, tuxpaint, quake etc. on it and love the stability and speed of this rom. 128bit key are still not supported for the built in wirelesscard in this rom that is a pitty…
>You must go outside and turn on your sl-5500 in direct sunlight.
>You will be amazed how good the screen becomes its like the sun gives it an extra burst!
Yes, just like with our gameboy screen. Thing is though, that any other PDA screen I tried on the sunlight has the SAME quality when under the sun (all very readable and such). But the Zaurus loses points indoors and when in the shade.
What about syncing the Zaurus with applications like Outlook, Evolution or Kontakt … this for me (amongst others) would be a decisive factor.
I have not tried the original Sharp ROMs, so YMMV, but with OpenZaurus ROMs, you can sync a Zaurus through MultiSync. AFAIK MultiSync supports Evolution.
Yes, by using MultiSync: http://multisync.sourceforge.net/news.php (that’s your best bet, the Qtopia Desktop from Trolltech doesn’t work on all distros).
Actually, the MultiSync only supports Opie with OpenZaurus/Familiar, and NOT the 3.10 version of the official Zaurus ROM (that is the latest stable from Sharp).
Your last bet if if you manage to make the Trolltech version or Qtopia Sync to work on your Linux: ftp://ftp.trolltech.com/qtopia/desktop/ (the version from around 2003 that is).
Otherwise, someone will have to write a plugin for Multisync for the v3.10 Sharp ROM, or don’t sync at all…
More info here:
http://www.oesf.org/forums/index.php?showtopic=12327
I have only used OpenZaurus ROMs and the USB was in network mode (not sure in supports a different mode at all) and I have experienced no problems. I had SSH sessions open all day, installed a lot of packages through it.
Only problem, besides of battery life, I have experienced was, when the internal RAM was getting too full. Then the system spiralled into load ~3.0 and still nothing was getting written. Since I noticed this, I install all my packages onto the SD card.
If you want a PDA that can do what all other PDAs do. It can’t
Availability: Out of Stock
I loved that PDA. Back in Dec. I bought it a new battery from sharp, when I installed the Z died. Sharp wouldn’t fix my PDA, so I got a HP ipaq. Out of the box the HP has a better user experience, and I liked the HWR much better. In the end, the difference between a ipaq and a Zaurus is similar to the difference between a Linux desktop and an windows desktop. Windows desktops and PDAs are set up very nicely out of the box, but limited by what you can do. Linux, on the other hand, seems only adequate out of the box, but can be modified/customized to suit the user’s needs perfectly with a little more effort. No offense to anyone who thinks differently but the Z could do anything the other PDA’s could, and more. It just takes a little effort to get things set up initially.
The 5500 should not be reviewed as a PDA. If you want a cheap PDA, get a zire.
However, this device is an amazing mini-computer. I have a full phpnuke installation on mine. I can do php development on my lunch break. I stream movies from my computer. It can run a full debian installation. These are pretty cool things for a device under $150.
I also have a 760 that just rocks. They are expensive and does not have a good media chip, but otherwise the clamshell zaurii are the perfect Linux handhelds.
Sounds like quite a generous score of 7/10 for the thing crashing so often and all the other problems mentioned in the review…
Can Mozilla run on it? GnuCash? VLC? Will any ARM build run on it or do you need to compile from source (ok by me)?
If it uses standard ARM binaries, what package manager does it use? apt-get? RPM? Something else?
How do you make a useful programming environment out of a box whose keyboard lacks {|}?
How does the Zaurus compare to Linux on the iPaq?
In short:
1. How forward compatible are the OS and apps? We’ve already been underwhelmed by Palm and MS here.
2. Is this article’s argument that it’s the best implementation of Linux on a handheld, or just that L-o-h is neat (no argument there)?
>Can Mozilla run on it? GnuCash? VLC?
No, of course not. It’s an embedded platform. However, if you get OpenBSD or Debian on it, you might get these apps, but of course they will be unusable, as they are not customized for QVGA resolutions.
>Will any ARM build run on it or do you need to compile from source (ok by me)?
No, you have to get a build that’s specific to the 5500.
>If it uses standard ARM binaries, what package manager does it use? apt-get? RPM? Something else?
It’s called ipkg. It’s similar to apt-get, but not quite.
>How do you make a useful programming environment out of a box whose keyboard lacks {|}?
You use the virtual keyboard, or you re-program the keyboard. There might be even combinations that we don’t know of (like SHIFT+Fn+SomethingElse for example).
>How does the Zaurus compare to Linux on the iPaq?
The front-end is similar. They runs Opie/QPE which are simmilar. The Familliar Linux distro uses a 2.6.x kernel though instead of a highly patched 2.4.18.
>1. How forward compatible are the OS and apps? We’ve already been underwhelmed by Palm and MS here.
I find Palm’s and Windows’ OSes way more forward compatible than any Zaurus, when it comes to its apps. The thing with the Zaurus is, you pick a distribution/version and you stick with it.
>2. Is this article’s argument that it’s the best implementation of Linux on a handheld, or just that L-o-h is neat (no argument there)?
This review simply reviews the DEFAULT ROM on a Zaurus. It is not the best in terms of features, but it is definetely the most STABLE one (for this model).
Thanks for clearing that up. Looks like if I were made of money and had Japanese friends the SL-C3000 would be what I was looking for:
http://www.users.on.net/~hluc/myZaurus/
Mozilla, Thunderbird, Apache… He’s even got a build of OpenOffice 1.1.4 on his, and he hasn’t replaced the OS with pdaXrom (which has no native GCC, so you’re back to “build on desktop” there).
Don’t get me wrong, the 5500 is neat, but a frozen implementation of *any* PDA is why I never bought the first-gen crap gadgets that Sharp came out with in the late 80s and early 90s. $150 for a used PDA with a buttload of software on it is cool, but not a longterm product for me, and I’m all about the ROI.
I already answered to the original article. The assumption that there’s no speaker ist wrong. The claim that you cannot type various characters that you’d need for programming/using a shell is wrong. That the author only used the original ROM and didn’t say anything about the OpenZaurus version or the possibility to run a complete distro (debian..) on the device seems to indicate that this review is not – well researched.
Concerning the statement “the original ROM is definetely (..) the most stable one”: I seriously doubt that.
Conclusion: I own one of those devices for years. Yes, battery is a problem. There are battery packs out there to compensate that. But – it’s still fun, I have a CF WLAN card, a CF ethernet card, a bunch of CF and SD media cards and enjoy showing of with a device smaller than some modern “smart phones” that runs apache (to answer that question.. Yes, it can run apache), mysql, php – whatever I want. I even used it with the A/C adapter for routing(FW/NAT), while I waited for a better suited device.
Now do this with any Win CE device. Seriously: I never used this thing to do “business stuff”. It’s a toy for me, but I doubt that there are better toys out there in the same category..
>I already answered to the original article.
And I have answered back.
>The assumption that there’s no speaker ist wrong.
There is NO speaker on the Zaurus 5500. There is only a BUZZER. The buzzer is NOT a speaker.
>The claim that you cannot type various characters that you’d need for programming/using a shell is wrong.
I already wrote in my reply to your previous comment: “To write the special characters you have to use Fn+Spacebar which brings up the Unicode dialog, it does NOT have the characters pre-wired in the keyboard itself.”
>That the author only used the original ROM and didn’t say anything about the OpenZaurus version or the
>possibility to run a complete distro (debian..)
I HAVE used the OZ ROM, didn’t you read my reply to you? http://tuxtops.com/?q=node/246
I find the OZ distribution bad in terms of stability. Especially when used with GPE!
> on the device seems to indicate that this review is not – well researched.
Someone wrote the truth about your beloved Zaurus and you get all defensive.
>Concerning the statement “the original ROM is definetely (..) the most stable one”: I seriously doubt that.
Well, I don’t. I have used three flavors of the latest OZ and two of Sharp’s. Sharp’s 3.10 is the most stable one. It is NOT the most feature-complete one, but the OZ versions created NEW BUGS in their quest to fix Sharp’s own bugs. At the end, it’s a decision one has to make, and I have made mine.
>There are battery packs out there to compensate that.
Right. And do you think that people will want to carry around something like this: http://shop.store.yahoo.com/semsons-inc/batexwitusb.html
when the Zaurus is already bigger than the current PDAs? You must be dreaming, of course. These battery packs, do have a useful usage, but not for everyday usage of a PDA. I won’t go around at work looking like Batman with a gazillion crap around my waist!
Add the mp3 player to that, the phone, the PDA & its battery pack, and here we go looking like Batman indeed.
>It’s a toy for me, but I doubt that there are better toys out there in the same category..
Personally, I find the Axim x50v the best toy one can have today. With a 16 MB 3D card, a VGA screen and dual wireless, it’s a joy to use. It does not have the geek factor that the Zaurus has, but it’s definetely more trouble-free.
>There is NO speaker on the Zaurus 5500. There is only a BUZZER. The buzzer is NOT a speaker.
Okay, let’s rephrase my statement as “there’s a device that – in spite of sounding crappy as I admitted – does produce sound without having plugged in anything else”
If you call it buzzer, speaker – whatever.
>I already wrote in my reply to your previous comment: “To write the special characters you have to use Fn+Spacebar which brings up the Unicode dialog, it does NOT have the characters pre-wired in the keyboard itself.”
I read this reply of yours as “You cannot press a key combination of 2 or 3 keys to get a |”. If that’s what you said: That’s plain wrong. I suggest looking at http://www.oesf.org/forums/index.php?showtopic=8342&hl=keyassign to check that again. I find every needed key in that table, {|} being no exception. Without a screen popup (Not sure where you get that?).
Regarding the reply: No, I really didn’t read it before I postet here – it was late in the night here, I didn’t check the original page again, sorry for that.
Stability: This version “both have bugs and everyone needs to find out which ROM he/she can accept/use” of your comment sounds a lot better than “Sharp ROM is definitely the best in terms of stability” to me. It’s even more true, I think.
Battery pack: Uhm – yes, they are big. So no – if you want a tiny PDA you wouldn’t want to carry such a thing. Anyway: This is a review. If you complain about the battery life and know about a solution you should name it – else it’s a bad review for me. That you wouldn’t want to use it doesn’t mean that nobody else would. Well – with a Z you wouldn’t put a MP3 player to your belt, nor a PDA and there are even CF GSM modules for those crazy people that want to hack away to get a Zaurus mobile.. I’m not aware of anyone really doing this, though.
Axim: I don’t know anything about this device, so I’ll be cautious here. But I’m not sure about the value of a portable 3D card for instance..
Conclusion: My points are still true and I don’t like being tagged as “geek, trying to defend his toy” for pointing out serious mistakes/subjective things that are taken as fact in a review (mistake: Keys. subjective opinion as fact: “definitely the best in terms of stability”). So please reread this post and comment on the facts only.
Ben
>I find every needed key in that table
I just checked the manual again. That table is NOT in the manual. This is important for many people.
>If you call it buzzer, speaker – whatever.
No, it is not “whatever”. You pretty much called me a liar when I said that there is no speaker, while I CLEARLY said in my article that there is a buzzer but NO speaker. The buzzer is not a speaker and please try to understand this. The speaker is able to do more than “zzzzz”, the buzzer can only do that instead and NOTHING else. Not being able to listen to a game’s sounds for example while on a bus or something, it’s a big thing. The buzzer can only do the same sound, bzzz bzzz bzzz. It is NOT comparable to a real speaker.
>This is a review. If you complain about the battery life and know about a solution you should name it – else it’s a bad review for me.
First of all, I found out about the battery pack just today — accidentally. Secondly, EVEN if i knew about it before, I wouldn’t mention it, because the battery pack is ONLY useful on SOME special occasions (e.g. going to the mountains or sail in the sea for long time). NORMAL people, don’t CARE about such addons, because it’s like having to carry an extra PDA. The bottom line is, 5500’s battery life, sucks. Besides, there are many addons for each PDA, a review can not mention everything. I reviewed the actual item, as is, not its accessories.
>with a Z you wouldn’t put a MP3 player to your belt,
You got to be joking me. The Zaurus does barely 3 hours of battery life with the screen OFF when playing mp3s. This is far cry from my iPod’s 11 hours and my Sansa’s 15 hours.
Look, I am not saying that the Zaurus is bad. I was the one who DEFENDED its purchase towards other PDAs that are similarly priced. It is a cool machine. But you DO come out as someone who wants to defend his toy, no matter what. You don’t like to see a 7/10, you wanted to see a 10/10. Sorry, but all this is not fair for neither me, or my readers. The Zaurus does have its problems, like ANY product. I have yet to find ONE product that it’s “perfect” in everything. You will have to accept the fact that the Zaurus is not that.
Eugenia
Eugenia, you misread me and capital letters don’t make it better. I’d probably rate the Z worse than you, but that’s because of several glitches I dislike about it after playing with it for about 2-3 years. It’s not a “uber-toy”. So no defense because of a “Hey, I bought this. This has to be great.” nonsense.
I just want to hear a “Yes, I made mistakes in the review”.
Reasons:
– Speaker: You didn’t catch me the first three times, so I write it in one easy statement: I listened to mp3 files on my Z 5500 SL with the internal speaker (I didn’t write buzzer, since I don’t know the word and you use it like “PC Speaker” that only can beep. That’s wrong, see above).
Details: Yes, you don’t do this with most of the players and I’m not sure if anything on the Sharp ROM for example can do it. If you don’t believe me, please check for yourself with a litte bit of effort (ask the oz gurus, for example).
– Keys: You were clearly wrong with your initial statement. Instead of saying “Sorry – missed that” (Nobody would mock about that) you now retreat to the “Well – anyway.. It’s not in the manual” point. Yes, it is not in the manual. No, that’s no reason for false claims. 1 minute and a google search term give you exactly what you need.
Nobody argued about the Z’s crappy battery life. I could start a new discussion about “What are normal people for you?” and “do you think normal people would buy a Z anyway?”, but that’s quite off-topic..
Is it a replacement for an iPod? Probably not (I don’t own one, but I wouldn’t guess so anyway). My statement about all the things on your belt might have been a silly try to be witty..
Again: Please don’t argue with me on a “You only want to defend the device” base. That’s not true. To return to the first statement: The Z would get less than 7/10 from me. It has bugs, glitches and is not the casual PDA to carry around and use like all the cousins.
Personally I cannot fault the Zaurus. In fact it is extremely useful, it’s the tools that make it so useful, like Grep. I don’t use it for browsing but email it handles multiple accounts as easy as anything else I have tried. It is reliable. It just works.
I used to be a Psion user, I still believe the Psion machines were world-beaters the 3mx and 5mx and the 7 – why on earth did they pack it all in? Earlier models had lousy quality control, flaking paint and bad hinges. But the keyboards! Add those to a Zaurus and you have a world-beater.
geeks.com now has them in stock again!