Finally, Got The Sl-c3000! Options

[informer]

They are selling for 79000++ yen at all stores, but I got it for...



66,000 yen

Charging it right now and listening to music on it, have a lot to comment on it but first a few questions for those readily available :

- how long will it charge before I can take it out of the power socket?

- I can't quite figure out the dictionaries, I know where they are but don't know how to input an English word to get Japanese.

- Can anyone recommend a case? Can I use the 860 leather cases?

I'll try and post a review of it tonight and tomorrow (I've tried music/movies/viewing pictures etc etc with mixed results).

[Bombur]

Informer,

where did you buy your 3k?

J.

[informer]

How do I post pictures? The forum keeps telling me that the document I'm trying to attach contains no data.

Ah ok, got it!

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[devster]

Got mine today. Im quite impressed.

Only issue is this rom... need an X rom!

Only wierd thing - I tried a "shutdown now" from the terminal, and it hung! Couldnt power down.

[informer]

SONY NR-70V vs SHARP SL-C3000
----------------------------------------

Sony feels more solid and compact (magnesium body),

lighter too. Sharp feels a little plasticky.


Sharp is heavy, not really like a PDA, more like a mini

computer. I had a leather case for my Sony but still

managed to drop the thing. Now the screen won't show

and I have not used it for over a year. Lets hope

nothing happens to my Sharp because its much bulkier and

somewhat fragile. I feel like laminating the whole

thing because it doesn't quite feel as "protected" as

the Sony when both are without protected cases.



Access to the Sony screen is better, though more

difficult when using the keyboard because the screen is

heavier than the keyboard/mainboard. The Sharp feels

wholesome in the palm of your hands, the right way to

hold a PDA with a keyboard. Sony is better when using

the screen alone, Sharp is better when using the

keyboard.



The Sharp has a chrome hinge that is based between the

screen and the keyboard/mainboard. Looks good and may

actually be better because you won't see so many

scratches on them like you do on the older Zaurus models

when you open the screen all the time.

Sony only uses a Memory stick (mine only supported the

older memory stick, not the pro version) which helps

maintain its compactness, the later models support CF

and are a lot more bulky. They weigh around 8oz, don't

know how much is that in grams. Sharp weighs about 298

grams.



Sony battery is non-removable, well at least without

unscrewing something. The Sharp's battery can be taken

out but be careful here! I had no idea how to get the

darn thing out and almost broke it had I not played with

this small switch next to it. The cover will only come

off once you flick the switch (just like what you do on

a notebook). It is a good idea, but I didn't know that

and nearly broke the cover.



Sony screen is longer than the Sharp, you see more on

the Sony than the Sharp when you playback movies or view

images. Sharp could easily have given their latest PDA a

larger screen because the battery is very impressive (

lasted over 6 hours with music playing and later, a

video repeating itself for about an hour).



The Sharp's resolution is better, running Palm on the

Sony uses up a lot of screen estate. The fact that I

can customise my desktop settings is a bonus as I would

prefer to have things that I would use everyday on my

desktop (just like a computer really). The screen is a

little reflective (was difficult taking pictures of it

without seeing myself), might be a problem outdoors.

From memory, the Sony speakers were hopeless I couldn't

use it as an alarm let alone an alarm clock. The Sharp

on the other hand was pretty loud. With headphones,

both were great though the Sharp was louder still (on

the Sony I had to download some program to make it

louder and it still wasn't as loud).


Sony pen is superior, Sharp is ok if you have never used

a good one before, but its better to get a heavier one

because its too light and plasticky. Maybe Sharp went

with a light pen because the PDA was already quite

heavy.


Sharp connects to the computer via a USB cable, but only

at 1.1! Slow when copying videos though not too bad

when copying mp3s. Can't remember whether the Sony

connects at 1.1 or 2.0, Sony comes with a useful cradle

though.


Sony has a low resolution camera, Sharp doesn't. It may

be nice to have a 4 or 5 megapixel camera on a PDA but

you can't have everything. For taking pictures, I use

my mobile phone or a proper digital camera.

Movie playback, no question, Sharp is better and I

didn't have to convert any of my videos (though I did

have a problem trying to play AVI and RM). Take a look

at the screenshots I posted. The Sharp does take some

time to start up when playing a video, but once its

going then its basically the same as playing on a

computer. Forget playing videos on the Sony unless you

enjoy converting every video to a totally uncompatible

format. It was not fun at all and I really tried to

convert it into some kind of multimedia device (about 2

years ago when I first got it).


I downloaded Kino2 to play AVI and RM files, but it

wouldn't work. I heard that I need to download some

library files but I'm not sure where to go about finding

these, would appreciate if someone could help me here.


Music playback, Sharp is better, plays all my mp3s

without fail whereas my Sony would complain about

incomplete id tags or differently encoded songs. The

Sharp will not play my WAV files out of the box, though

I think a little tweaking is all I need to get it going.

I prefer WAV over MP3s so the added storage will help

immensely.


As an organiser, the Sony was great for reviewing daily

stuff, maintain and edit key notes, it was terrible for

typing on. The Sharp so far is much better than the

Sony though I don't know how people can type 40 words a

minute on it. I'm a pretty fast typist (60wpm) but I'm

probably going 15-30wpm on the Sharp. Maybe some

practice is all I need.


Application wise, they are good. Haven't tried out

everything but I am a little disappointed with the

dictionaries as they weren't really that crash hot to me

(for multimedia dictionaries that is). They are mostly

catered for Japanese who wants to lookup the Japanese

meaning of an English word. Some or most English words

may have audio attached to them so you can click to hear

what the words sound like. Useless to me. Maybe if I

play around with it a bit more I might be able to find

some usefulness in them.


My Sony had 3 of the best applications I've ever had on

a PDA :

- Bejeweled, sorry but Mighty Charms doesn't quite come close

- Japan train route helper, bloody useful application which could tell me which line to take to go somewhere, the time to get there and will list all the stations along the way

- Eng-Jap-Eng dictionary, this one had romaji as well, really really helpful


Will have to find similar applications on the Sharp, but

maybe if I get the CF wifi card I can just simply hook

up on the net to run these applications online. Better

still, I wonder if I can run them offline?


The Sony as a PDA/organiser is better, its more compact

physically and operationally, everything works like a

clock and nothing really crashes (actually it has

crashed on me once but the Palm OS is usually pretty

solid). It doesn't multitask like the Sharp so I guess

that's probably the reason why it accesses functions a

little faster and more reliably. The Sharp

unfortunately has crashed on me already when I tried to

play both music and movie at the same time.

Battery life, the Sharp is miles ahead of the Sony. I

would have the Sony in its cradle every night and if I

forget to charge it, I'm left with a very dead PDA. The

screen really uses up a lot of power. Sharp, being

newer has a much better battery life and I don't even

have to turn down the brightness to preserve power. I

think I was really battery conscious when I was using

the Sony. Now, I don't even have to worry about it and

I can do a heck of a lot more with the Sharp.


The Sharp feels like a portable media player with a

keyboard than a PDA. Haven't quite played with the

linux stuff yet but so far I'm impressed with the SL-C

3000.


The 640x480 screen is very nice to look at, browsing the

internet is going to be a unique experience (it sucked

on the Sony), music playback is everything that I could

ever want without buying an overpriced iPod, video

playback is very handy I don't even have to think about

getting a portable media player.


To put things into financial perspective, here's how the

Sharp compares with devices that does the same thing :

As a music player -
iPod mini M9160J/A (25,000 yen with 4gb)

As a movie player -
iRiver PMP-120 (41,000 yen, but with 20gb HD)

As a PDA -
Clie PEG-UX50 (38,000 yen, clamshell type PDA)

As a notebook -
Sony VAIO VGN-U50 (155,000 yen, smallest notebook)

I got my Sharp for way less than that. All in all, I'm

happy with my purchase.


PS. You know what's the funny thing? The SL-C750 is

about 62,000 yen! That's more expensive than the 860

and only 5000 yen cheaper than my 3000! Why's that?????


LATEST NEWS : My Sharp has crashed a few times already,

I don't know what the problem is, the first time it

crashed it was because I tried to play mp3s and movies

at the same time. Recently, it would crash when I

resume the device from sleep. Not sure what is

happening but I will continue to monitor the device to

find out why this is happening. The hard disk light

seems to stay on and the device will crash. Maybe the

OS I'm using is not quite stable.

[informer]

1. Side by side with my 15.4" notebook.

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[informer]

2. Top view of my Sharp and Epson spread out like a baby.

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[informer]

3. Sony NR-70V and Sharp SL-C3000.

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[informer]

4. Both with their screens opened.

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[informer]

5. In portrait mode.

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[Teletubbie]

Hi Informer,
Comparing with the sony, you could try kdepimpi for your PIM stuff. It is very nice and you will get maybe better results as with the sony. Just try that stuff.
For your train route thing:
http://www.ubahnstation.net/projects/ubahnnav/
This was created for german metro. But you can create your own maps. The power of Zaurus relies on opensource. In this case maybe you could take the ubahnnav source and modify it for your purpose.
Hope this helps.
Cheers,
Sam

[informer]

Hi thanks for the link TT! I found this link for Tokyo so might get my info from there -

http://de.geocities.com/tok_subway/tokyo.htm

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Some updates on my Zaurus :

- It seems to be crashing after trying to resume. I have to do a hard reset sometimes. Is this because of the OS or the hardware?

- It syncs with my PC no problem. I love the fact that I can sync with Outlook, thus making data entry far quicker and easier.

- I've tried to view a couple of mangas and comics on it with no success. Images were too big for the default viewer to switch to portrait style and view in full screen.

- The music player is awesome, I don't have a remote so I have to open the device to change the volume or something. I could use the forward/back switch under the OK/CANCEL switch to control the volume but I'll have nothing to change tracks. Sony was better.

- Bought a screen protector, now I'm playing mighty charms. Does anyone have a registration code they could give me so that I can bypass the nag screen?