OESF Portables Forum
General Forums => General Discussion => Topic started by: usual on December 11, 2003, 01:20:15 am
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I am looking into purchasing a Zaurus and I noticed quite a difference in price. I read that the CPU is doubled and it has secure memory, but that is all I see changed. Is it worth the price hike? I am thinking of getting an SL-5500 off of ebay...Should I wait for the SL-6000?
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The CPU speed isn\'t doubled in reality. There\'s a bug or two in the CPU which ends up making it run about the same speed as the 5500 in real terms. The 5600 does have several other improvements over the 5500 though:
- Has about double the battery life. It\'s so nice being able to use my 5600 all day without worrying about the battery dying
- Internal storage uses flash ROM. So even if the battery does die or you completely lock the 5600 up and have to do a full reset you never lose any saved data. Everything is even kept when you flash the ROM. The only time internal memory is wiped is when you go into a special maintenance mode and format the memory.
- Frontlight is about 25% brighter than the 5500
- Has a speaker and mic. Both excellent quality. Speaker gives similar quality to a small, pocket sized portable radio. Mic has just enough pickup to record lectures etc, especially if a PA system is used
- Internal storage uses JFFS2, which is a compressed filesystem, meaning you can actually get up to around 64MB worth of stuff stored in the 32MB of internal flash ROM. (It all depends on what you store of course)
- Flip-cover is completely transparent, so if you do not need to use the stylus you do not need to lift the cover
- Much more fool-proof and user friendly ROM flash procedure that can even flash the ROM from a SD card
- Speaker is used for the alarm, which can be turned up very loud. The 5500 buzzer volume is fixed
Disadvantages of the 5600 over the 5500 are:
- Only 32MB of RAM in the 5600. Although this is generally enough for most people thanks to the improved memory management in the kernel, this is less flexible than the 5500 and means you can\'t use any ROM with a 64MB of RAM configuration
- Stylus is cheap and all plastic (Replaced mine with a Tungsten T stylus though, which is a perfect fit)
- 5600 has a bulge where the battery fits, due to the larger capacity
- Even though you can play any sound through the speaker, the alarm sound seems to have been compiled into the calendar and cannot be changed
It is hard to justify double the price for the 5600 for the advantages listed above. It certainly would be nice to have a SL-6000 with it\'s VGA screen and builtin Bluetooth or WiFi or both, although no one really knows when it is going to be coming out and at what price. It may also be hard for the public to get hold of since it is entirely aimed at the enterprise.
But like with all technology, if you wait long enough you can always get something better for less money. After the SL-6000, there will probably be something better and cheaper than that. It all comes down to what fits your needs now and what you can afford.
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Darn, the 5600 seems to have some nice touches! I would love a transparent flip cover. Shame about the RAM though.
z.
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I would mostly use it to keep my schedule/contacts, alert me of appointments, remote manage servers and workstations via ssh and vnc, use on wireless networks, listen to mp3\'s, sync with outlook/outlook express, possibly IRC or instant messenger, taking notes, storing misc files... what one is right for me.. I am not the wealthy\'st guy in the world.
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The 5500 and 5600 are both equally capable of those tasks. Of course you\'ll have to buy a WiFi CF card for the wireless networking and a SD (or maybe CF) memory card for the MP3s (Both the 5500 and 5600 have a stereo heaphone socket).
Probably the biggest consideration will be battery life, although you can get cheap battery extenders for either Zaurus like the one I have.
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so about how long can I expect to use a 5500 before it dies? This is a tough choice, price vs a few important options in difference...hmmm
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My 5500 runs for about a week if I do strictly PIM stuff & notes, with the backlight off most of the time. When I listen to MP3s on my way to/from work (about 1 hour per day) plus the PIM stuff & notes it lasts 3 days.
z.
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The CPU speed isn\'t doubled in reality. There\'s a bug or two in the CPU which ends up making it run about the same speed as the 5500 in real terms.
I\'ve even emailed some of the guys selling the SL 5600 on ebay asking about the cpu model. They always report PXA250. I\'ve just about given up finding a 5600 w/ a PXA255 or better. If the SL6000 comes in at a consumer level price ( $500 or so ) then I\'ll look at the new Z.
markpmc
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Good luck as the rumoured price rang is more like $800US (no wireless or bluetooth) to over $1k (both wireless and bluetooth included).
The CPU speed isn\'t doubled in reality. There\'s a bug or two in the CPU which ends up making it run about the same speed as the 5500 in real terms.
I\'ve even emailed some of the guys selling the SL 5600 on ebay asking about the cpu model. They always report PXA250. I\'ve just about given up finding a 5600 w/ a PXA255 or better. If the SL6000 comes in at a consumer level price ( $500 or so ) then I\'ll look at the new Z.
markpmc
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My 5500 runs for about a week if I do strictly PIM stuff & notes, with the backlight off most of the time. When I listen to MP3s on my way to/from work (about 1 hour per day) plus the PIM stuff & notes it lasts 3 days.
That\'s very light usage. The big battery drainers are the frontlight and WiFi. So if you heavily use it with either of these you\'ll be lucky to get 2 hours out of the 5500 battery in total. Of course that 2 hours can be spread out across a day.
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The CPU speed isn\'t doubled in reality. There\'s a bug or two in the CPU which ends up making it run about the same speed as the 5500 in real terms.
I\'ve even emailed some of the guys selling the SL 5600 on ebay asking about the cpu model. They always report PXA250. I\'ve just about given up finding a 5600 w/ a PXA255 or better. If the SL6000 comes in at a consumer level price ( $500 or so ) then I\'ll look at the new Z.
markpmc
All of the the 5660s are PXA250s
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All of the the 5660s are PXA250s
I know :cry:
But I can still dream.
markpmc
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I love my 5600. It synched with Outlook right out of the box and has been very stable. It seemed like it was fairly ready for a \"production\" environment.
I don\'t know what ROM comes with the 5500 but you could be faced with an immediate decision on whether to flash to a more recent release as soon as you get it.
Having more RAM would be nice but the only time that I have a problem is when I fire up MySQL & Apache and then try to do phpMyAdmin stuff with Opera.
I agree about the default calendar alarm. It\'s very annoying and from what I\'ve gotten from Sharp cannot be changed. I have yet to read anything on the other ROMS that allows you to change it.
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My 5500 runs for about a week if I do strictly PIM stuff & notes, with the backlight off most of the time. When I listen to MP3s on my way to/from work (about 1 hour per day) plus the PIM stuff & notes it lasts 3 days.
That\'s very light usage. The big battery drainers are the frontlight and WiFi. So if you heavily use it with either of these you\'ll be lucky to get 2 hours out of the 5500 battery in total. Of course that 2 hours can be spread out across a day.
Your info says you have a Bluetooth card rather than WiFi (802.11). Can you please clarify?
z.
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Your info says you have a Bluetooth card rather than WiFi (802.11). Can you please clarify?
Yes, I have a Bluetooth card and not a WiFi card. Bluetooth is nowhere near as power hungry as WiFi.
Someone did some power drain tests and posted the results:
http://www.zauruszone.farplanet.net/wiki/i....php?PowerDrain (http://www.zauruszone.farplanet.net/wiki/index.php?PowerDrain)
According to Socket, my Bluetooth card normally only draws around 40mA.
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Havent tried on the 5600 but there is a app to change the alarm sound on the 5500
http://www.handango.com/sharp/PlatformProd...1&productType=2 (http://www.handango.com/sharp/PlatformProductDetail.jsp?siteId=423&jid=13614731D46C1519CXA91FD99B8CX95D&productId=48680&platformId=1&productType=2)
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The CPU speed isn\'t doubled in reality. There\'s a bug or two in the CPU which ends up making it run about the same speed as the 5500 in real terms.
I\'ve even emailed some of the guys selling the SL 5600 on ebay asking about the cpu model. They always report PXA250. I\'ve just about given up finding a 5600 w/ a PXA255 or better. If the SL6000 comes in at a consumer level price ( $500 or so ) then I\'ll look at the new Z.
markpmc
All of the the 5660s are PXA250s
No they\'re not. Some more recent ones have shipped with the PXA255.
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My 5600 has the 255 processor in it. bought it from Amazon.com last month for $299
bryan