CELL PHONES
» Coming soon
» Top 15
» Best-rated
LAPTOPS
» Coming soon
» Top 15
» Best-rated
CAMERAS
» Coming soon
» Top 15
» Best-rated
» infoSync TV » Review Center
» Tech Gifts » Expert guides
» RSS & Alerts » Ask The Editors
Home / Review Center / /
Review: Sharp Zaurus SL-5600By Larry Garfield, Monday 30 June 2003
GALLERY
Enlarge
 
 
Sharp's new Zaurus improves on its predecessor in several areas; but leaves some others that could have used some improvement as well.

Review summary of the :
Gallery »
Pros:
Cons:
%
POOR
Mediocre
Good
Very good
Excellent
Full review of the :
The darling of GNU/Linux and other Free Software users everywhere, the Sharp Zaurus SL line is so far the most widely used Linux-based handheld line. Its latest installment, the SL-5600, is an evolutionary change from the company's debut Linux-based handhelds, the SL-5000d and SL-5500. It addresses several of the issues we (and many other users) had with those models, but at the same time leaves several of the old limitations.

The Zaurus SL-5600 looks like the 5500, but has a beefed up spec sheet
Design

The basic design of the 5600 is the same as the 5500. It still sports the same portrait display, four application buttons, Home button, OK and Cancel, and well-designed D-Pad as its predecessor, and behind the sliding front panel is still one of the nicest thumbboards on the market. The layout is the same as on the 5500, but there is now a slightly larger gap at the top and bottom of the keyboard area to allow for larger fingers. The device itself is almost exactly the same size, save for a hump in the lower back to support the new, larger battery, making it one of but not the larger handhelds on the market.

The screen is the same 240x320 16-bit color display as on its predecessor. While not as eye-popping as the new screens from Palm, it's still a very nice display. The audio system, however, has been heavily revamped. In place of the paltry piezo-electric buzzer of the 5500, the 5600 sports a very nice polyphonic speaker in back, with system sounds designed to take advantage of the better powered speaker. There is also a built-in microphone on the left side, near the still short-range Infrared port. The stereo audio jack on the top of the device is still present.

The frosted flip cover of the 5500 has also been replaced with a completely clear plastic flip cover that makes it very easy to use the device with the cover closed. With most applications usable almost completely from the D-Pad, that is a very nice design. Unfortunately, the plastic itself is a bit scratch prone. The only two LEDs on the device are the Mail and AC/charging LEDs, just as on the 5500. The stylus silo on top of the device still holds the same short plastic jobby of its predecessor. That a handheld in this price bracket still has a plastic stylus boggles the mind.

Connectivity

The nice dual-card Compact Flash / Secure Digital support is still present, with the CF slot on top and SD slot on the left side. The SD slot is still not SDIO-capable, however, due to issues with the closed-source SDIO drivers. Unfortunately, the CF slot still has no cover save for an easy-to-lose plastic slug. The serial port and AC port are still present, although the serial port has been redesigned, and no longer has the flip-over protective cover.

As mentioned, the 5600 keeps its predecessor's bi-directional audio jack and short range IR port. Sadly, there is no built-in wireless support, although many different models of 802.11b CF card work out-of-the-box.

Specifications

While on the outside the 5600 seems like a near clone of the 5500, it's what's inside that counts. The internal architecture of the Zaurus has been completely revamped. To start off, the Zaurus now uses a 400 Mhz Intel XScale processor.

More importantly, the RAM system is completely new. The SL-5600 carries 32 MB of RAM, but rather than use the RAM for storage like most handhelds all of the RAM is used as "active memory", just as on a desktop. It then packs 64 MB of rewritable Flash ROM, about half of which is taken by the OS. The rest, about 36 MB, is available to the user to install applications and data files. Because ROM is non-volatile, user data is now impervious to battery loss, although there is a slight lag time to loading programs to RAM. Commonly used programs can be pre-cached in RAM for instant-run access.

The 5600 also carries a massive 1700 mAh Lithium Ion battery, the largest of any handheld we've seen. To test it, we left several mp3 files playing off the CF card until the battery ran down, after 8 hours, 23 minutes. That's a very good time, although we should note that the mp3 player on the 5600 shuts the screen off when not in use to conserve power. Still, that's almost a 100% increase from its predecessor, while powering a faster CPU. Recharge time was impossible to calculate, since our test unit seemed to not want to keep a connection in the cradle and we had to jiggle it periodically.
Best Phones
Name Score Price Carrier
C
Nokia N95 8GB NAM 85% $650Unlocked
Apple iPhone 3G 82% $200AT&T
Nokia N95 80% $530Unlocked
AT&T Tilt 77% $400AT&T
Nokia N78 76% $500Unlocked
RIM BlackBerry Curve 8330 (Sprint) 74% $280Sprint
HTC Mogul 73% $400Sprint
RIM BlackBerry Pearl 8130 (Verizon Wireless) 73% $170Verizon Wireless
Nokia E71 73% $500Unlocked
Helio Ocean 72% $200Helio
Click here to see full and advanced chart »
 
 
 
RECOMMENDED
Bold vs. E71 vs. Epix vs. Treo 800w
 
Storm vs. iPhone 3G vs. Omnia vs. Touch Diamond
 
T-Mobile G1 vs. Xperia X1 vs. Touch Pro vs. AT&T Fuze
 
TOP STORIES
Top 15 smartphones
 
New smartphones and cell phones this week
 
Top 15 cell phones
BlackBerry Storm review (Verizon Wireless)
 
Best Windows Mobile smartphones
 
Best slider QWERTY smartphones
CELL PHONE RESOURCE CENTER
Best phones
 
Expert guides
 
Ask the Editors
» Top 15
QWERTY phones
 
All-touch phones
 
Touchscreen phones
Business phones
 
Multimedia phones
 
Concept phones
3+ inch screen phones
 
Wi-Fi phones
 
More...
» Search (New!)
Search by cell phone features
» Manual comparison (New!)
Select up to 4 cell phones side-by-side
» By release
October 2008, November 2008, December 2008
» Top 15 by carrier
Unlocked, AT&T, Sprint, Verizon Wireless, T-Mobile, Helio, Alltel
» Top 15 by user type
Average Joe, Business users, Calling addicts, Fashion conscious users, Globetrotters, High-res addicts, Internet addicts, Multimedia enthusiasts, Music aficionados, Outdoor enthusiasts, TV addicts, Video lovers, More...
» Top 15 by brand
Apple, HTC, LG, Motorola, Nokia, BlackBerry, Samsung, Sony Ericsson Other
» Top 15 by platform
Palm OS, Symbian S60, Symbian UIQ, Windows Mobile
» Top 15 by cell phone type
Business smartphones, Multimedia smartphones
Consumer QWERTY phones, Multimedia phones
Concept phones
NOW IN PHONES
Top 15 smartphones
 
New smartphones and cell phones this week
 
iPhone AppStore encourages independent developers to improve
 
LG Incite review (AT&T)
 
Samsung Saga review (Verizon Wireless)
BlackBerry Storm gets serious bashing
Microsoft Zune / Danger smartphone or platform could be on its way
Why do Windows Mobile overlays fail to impress?
Next 25 stories
MUST READ
CELL PHONES
» Coming soon
» Top 15
» Best-rated
LAPTOPS
» Coming soon
» Top 15
» Best-rated
CAMERAS
» Coming soon
» Top 15
» Best-rated
MP3 players
» Coming soon
» Top 15
» Best-rated
INTERNET TABLETS
» Coming soon
» Top 15
» Best-rated
GPS NAVIGATORS
HDTVs
CAMCORDERS
About us | Site map | How to advertise | Feedback | RSS Feeds | | Archive
Copyright 1999-2008 © infoSync World