BargainPDA.com has published a thorough (and extensive) review of Sharp's Zaurus SL-6000, a Linux based PDA that began shipping in the US in the fall of last year.

Reviewer Ian Giblin begins the review with a comparison of Zaurus models currently available, including the 5500, 5600, C760/C780, and SL-6000. Giblin then raves about the SL-6000's LCD, demonstrating its superiority with several clever screenshots.

Giblin then looks at the SL-6000's keyboard, which he says is “just pretty good.” A photo of the keyboard next to the C-860 keyboard shows how much smaller it is. Amazingly, Giblin claims to have entire 8,000-word written the review on his C-860 using its tiny keyboard.

Giblin goes on to make many further observations, including:

• Battery life is okay, when not using Wi-Fi
• Software keyboard and handwriting recognition have a few quirks
• The audio jack is meant for a telephone headset, not stereo headphones
• New USB hosting enables connections to older Zaurus's USB device ports
• Infrared works fine
• It comes with OpenPDA from Metroworks, and Qtopia from Trolltech
• The display zoom feature is really cool
• Hancome Word and Spreadsheet are solid, especially with the hi-rez display
• The audio/mp3 player can't save playlists
• The stock video player is choppy, but can be replaced with third-party alternatives
• Email client is good, and Opera browser is “awesome.”
• Tons of free and commercial Zaurus software is available
• It comes with a bash shell, and you can telnet/ssh in
• It's pricey

For more details, see the whole lengthy review.

Read review of Sharp Zaurus SL-6000

 
This article was originally published on LinuxDevices.com and has been donated to the open source community by QuinStreet Inc. Please visit LinuxToday.com for up-to-date news and articles about Linux and open source.