Brighthand Reviews the Sharp Zaurus SL-C760

Steve · 08-25-2003, 07:40 AM

The Zaurus SL-C760 uses a clamshell design with a VGA color screen on one side and a keyboard on the other. Brighthand's Editor-in-Chief found it to be packed with great features, but with a price tag to match.

Read the full review at http://www.brighthand.com/article/Sharp_SL-C760_Review

pocketfactory · 08-25-2003, 09:09 AM

Love the hardware....hate the software.

robrecht · 08-25-2003, 09:47 AM

Hmmm ... I had heard that syncing MS Outlook on a Linux device was a real pain, involving some complicated work-around for a one time sync that you wouldn't want to repeat too often.

Maybe Linux isn't so bad?

ucfgrad93 · 08-25-2003, 10:24 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by Foo Fighter
Love the hardware....hate the software.

I agree! I'd seriously consider this if it was PPC or Palm.

Price is a bit steep, but its hardware is quite impressive.

Lucky Bob · 08-25-2003, 10:46 AM

I'd rather buy this than a NZ90...that is, if I had lots of money and all.

imported_sevans · 08-25-2003, 12:20 PM

The price is somewhat steep but you can do quite a bit better if you're willing to tackle the english conversion yourself. There are several guides available to do it and it's really quite simple. I'd guess it took me about 30 minutes to convert my 760. I purchased mine from conics.net and it was roughly $680 delivered to the U.S. If you can live with the smaller battery and less flash space the 750 was about $550 delivered. Conics has a very good english translation guide on their site.

I've had mine about a month now and I'd say I love the hardware, love the OS, and hate the software availability. This machine is flexible and powerful in ways that no other handheld can't match. Browsing is very close to desktop quality and Samba doesn't even hesitate at mounting volumes and transfering 100+ meg movies. Vnc (client and server) is nearly as fast and as useful as on my laptop. Client and server ftp and ssh are also available. Once it's setup most people could use this device all day without ever realizing it's running Linux.

The drawback is there isn't much software available and most of it that isn't that polished. The PIM apps are the worst I've seen. Contacts can't even be sorted by name and e-mail has no way to check only headers or even check at intervals! But one of the great things about this pda is that it's an open system so people are working on improving these drawbacks. Finally a pda that you can actually upgrade. The openzaurus project is not officially running on the 750 or 760 yet but will be soon which would allow flashing to a complete english os and applications.

It's not for everybody and I still may go back to a Clie myself but if you get a chance to play with one I highly recommend it. Sharp has pretty much decided that an english version isn't going to be released which is unfortunate. I'd love to see where this platform could go with a larger english audience. Any Palm OS or Pocket PC vendor that manages to copy the form factor gets my money today. (and the UX clie doesn't quite reach that...) 640x480 is now a must for all my future handhelds.

pixelator · 08-25-2003, 02:48 PM

I agree with much of the above - ultimate hardware, great OS, little third party development to speak of. If this thing somehow caught fire, or was able to run one of the other OS systems in a shell mode for larger software base, I'd be all over it.

Instead, it's a very handy PIM/Office tool with MP3 and WiFi browsing - and not much more that I can tell.

Mark One · 08-25-2003, 03:53 PM

Wot no bluetooth?

So how do I connect to my GPRS account to enjoy the browser & that display.

Another one bites the dust....

imported_zorg · 08-25-2003, 05:49 PM

Dear Mark One,

Sorry to hear you have bitten the dust. Unlike you, the SL-C760 has not done so.

By the way, Bluetooth is currently available for the SL-C760 via CF (see, for instance, socketcom.com and killefiz.de). If you bother to read any other Brighthand headlines today, you may surmise that SD will happen soon.

One thing I like about SL-C760 is that it provides the flexibility of two slots and uses most of its tiny weight on battery and display, letting me choose whatever else I want to add.

ArchiMark · 08-25-2003, 08:55 PM

I've had my C760 since the end of June and I REALLY love using it!

I've had LOTS of PDA's from several Newtons, a WinCE HPC, several PPC's, several Palms, Handsprings, and Clies...

I sold my Clie NZ90 about 2 weeks ago and haven't missed it...

The C760 does everything most people would want from a PDA and then some.

The display is great and the form factor and flexibility to use as laptop or PDA table style is excellent.

WiFi works great and was very easy to setup. My D-Link CF WiFi card was automatically recognized by the C760. Just had to setup some connection info. Works great with my AirPort network!

While you can use it as a PDA ala Palm or PPC you also have the option to do more with it ala a little Linux laptop!

As for software, while the built-in contacts and calendar are fairly simple, there are reasonably priced and good 3rd party apps from theKompany.com.

www.theKompany.com/embedded

While there isn't the sheer number of 3rd party apps available compared to Palm, there are quite a lot available and many are good.

Besides the shareware/freeware site mentioned earlier, there are othe apps available thru Handango in their Sharp section.

http://www.handango.com/sharp/

Also, I've found there's an excellent user community out there and have been very helpful.

The C760/C750 have been a big seller in Japan and there's a large user base there. It's just unfortunate that Sharp hasn't released them here already converted to English.

Check it out if you want something better than a Palm or PPC !!

Mark
Very Happy C760 User