Review summary of the :
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Full Review:
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Applications
The Zaurus includes a number of bundled applications, some Free Software and some commercial. There is the usual assortment of PIM applications, although notably missing is a memo app. There is a text editor, but the interface is still lacking at this point and it does not tie into the conduit (more on that later). No system would be complete without a solitaire game, and the Zaurus includes seven other games as well. There is also a calculator, image viewer, and simple but effective file manager.
 | Windows users can give the interface a Windows-like look, or alternatively QPE or LightStep looks
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As you would expect from a Linux-based system, there is a terminal applet with a bash prompt. All the usual command line tools are present, although at the moment the only bundled text editor is vi. Emacs and pico are available as free downloads from other developers. (Emacs, pico, and vi are three of the most popular console text editors for Unix-like operating systems.) One drawback, however, is that most command line tools assume a desktop-sized monitor, and haven't been redesigned for a 240x320 screen. For example, the common command "ps aux" (which shows a list of all running processes on the device) will wrap on the display, making it extremely hard to read. 16 common commands are available from a drop down menu above the text area.
An included media player will play MP3 audio files as well as MPEG-4 video files, although audio will only play through the headphone/microphone jack. Amazingly, it doesn't support Ogg Vorbis files as of yet. There is support for a single playlist only. The quality of our sample MPEG-4 video files was quite good, and looked sharp and crisp on the 240x320 display. Audio quality was excellent. In jury testing, depending on the volume level, the Zaurus produced crisper sound than a Sony CLIE 760C, although it was a bit too sharp to listen to continually. At a lower volume, however, it was almost indistinguishable. At maximum volume, several testers were unable to tell the difference between the Zaurus and a Creative Labs SoundBlaster Live! card when played through the same speakers, which is quite a feat for a handheld device.
There is also a Voice Recorder application that requires that you plug a microphone into the headphone/microphone jack. It can save in a variety of different mono formats, ranging from 8 KHz, 64 kbps all the way to 22 KHz, 352 kbps encoding. It can save files to RAM or either storage card.
 | Media Player is capable of playing audio and video, with surprisingly
good quality
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The Zaurus also includes the commercial web browser Opera in ROM. Opera for the Zaurus is based on the Opera 5 engine, the same engine used in the desktop versions of Opera until recently. (Opera 6 for Windows was released in late November.) It includes almost complete HTML 4.0, XHTML 1.0, CSS 1, and CSS 2 support, equal to or better than Internet Explorer does. The interface is redesigned for a handheld form factor, however. It also includes the ability to reformat a page to a 240x320 screen, including frames. For large pages that do not reformat easily, Opera includes the ability to zoom in or out, making the entire page smaller or larger.
The Zaurus uses a package system based very closely on the Familiar Linux distribution for the Compaq iPAQ, even borrowing the name ipkg. An included package manager applet allows you to install *.ipk package files located in RAM or on a memory card and uninstall packages that you have added. You can also configure remote ipk servers, and upgrade installed packages based on the information on the server, allowing for almost Debian like centralized management, music to the ears of corporate IT managers. If the program you want to install isn't packaged properly, however, you'll have to install it the same way you would on any other Linux-based distribution; using an included install script or manually placing files.
Synchronization
The Zaurus includes Qtopia Desktop for desktop synchronization. The sync process is very similar to a Palm HotSync, and in fact, Qtopia Desktop is eerily similar to Palm Desktop. If you prefer, the Zaurus also includes a copy of IntelliSync Lite, which allows you to synchronize Qtopia Desktop with either Palm Desktop or Microsoft Outlook.
 | Retracted, the SL-5000D holds the dubious record of being the longest palm-sized PDA currently on the market
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If you use a GNU/Linux desktop instead of a Windows system, a version of Qtopia Desktop for GNU/Linux is also available, provided you have a USB-capable distribution. Sharp intends to have Mac OS X synchronization working soon, but it is not yet available.
Conclusion
The SL-5000D still has UI problems that need to be addressed. The OS is still in development, however, and the final shipping version of the Sharp Zaurus SL-5500 is expected to address many of the issues raised here. Nonetheless, the Zaurus looks to be a strong entrant into the PDA arena. Its Pocket PC-like architecture and UI should make it much more a competitor for Microsoft than for Palm. It may still pull users from Palm, however, on the "It's Not Microsoft" factor, and of course the "It's Linux So It Must Be Cool" factor.
The use of Linux and Qt/Embedded will not make it easier to port most user-oriented applications, due to the different form factor. However, the ready availability of Qt-knowledgeable programmers should dramatically reduce the "chicken and egg" problem of finding developers. As with any PDA, The hard part will be making sure programs have a handheld form factor-friendly interface, which has been one of the strongest advantages of the Palm OS over Pocket PC systems to date.- What's positive: Feature-rich, thumbboard, multiple expansion slots
- What's negative: UI not as clean as it should be, battery life needs improvement, no scroll wheel
Overall: 
We're eager to see the consumer edition ship, and the applications that become available for it. One thing is clear: The PDA space is no longer a Palm-Microsoft duel, it's a trio.
Price and availability
The will start selling for TBA () in November 1999.
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