C3000/1000 Physical Quality

[Deviant25]

Hey i was looking at the C1000 and C3000 and they look really nice. I read that the C3000 has a glossy white case to it. Is it a very scratch prone plastic (ie: u whipe it with a paper towel and there are scratches?) or is it hard to scratch / scratch resistant? Also is the silver part metal or painted plastic? and is it scratch prone?

Is the C1000 glossy black like the C3000 or is it just painted black?

[kahm]

Hey i was looking at the C1000 and C3000 and they look really nice. I read that the C3000 has a glossy white case to it. Is it a very scratch prone plastic (ie: u whipe it with a paper towel and there are scratches?) or is it hard to scratch / scratch resistant? Also is the silver part metal or painted plastic? and is it scratch prone?

Is the C1000 glossy black like the C3000 or is it just painted black?
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The 3000 seems pretty scratch resistant. The white plastic on mine hasn't got a mark on it, but there are a couple of scuffs on the chrome bit. The silver part is plastic, probably "painted". I put that in quotes because whatever finish they end up using seems somewhat more durable than paint.

The 1000 is a textured, matt black. I get the impression that it's the actual plastic color, rather than painted. It looks *very* nice.

I haven't yet taken either apart though.

[Deviant25]

Thanks for your quick reply

Do you remember how he silver part got scuffed up on yours? Or is it one of those mysterious one that somehow appear when u look it again :-P

Man its a tough decision to make.. 4gb integrated microdrive but white.. or 128mb but nice black  

[KwaiFeh]

Build quality wise, they're both good.  I have the C3k, but to be honest, i liked the black C1k.  If i had the money i would have bought both, swaped the innards and sold the C1k with the white exterior.  

I chose the C3K for the 4 GB.  Those $200 will only get you 2 GB and a bit more in Flash cards.  I was a sony Clié fanatic so i didn´t have and SD or CF, that´s why I took the 4 GB. and now that i have it, i don´t regret it one bit.  

I went on a trip with a friend, his camera´s CF got full before the end of the trip, so we copied everything into my Zaurus and freed the CF card for more pictures.

It also gives you lots of space for mp3s.  no need to keep changing cards for different music.  Theoretically it would be the same if you wanted to watch videos, but i haven´t had the time to install the video player codecs.

[wiredog]

Hey i was looking at the C1000 and C3000 and they look really nice. I read that the C3000 has a glossy white case to it. Is it a very scratch prone plastic (ie: u whipe it with a paper towel and there are scratches?) or is it hard to scratch / scratch resistant? Also is the silver part metal or painted plastic? and is it scratch prone?

Is the C1000 glossy black like the C3000 or is it just painted black?
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One thing to watch out for:  The On/Off button on the front can sometimes stick in the On position, from where it has to be pried out with a pushpin or similar item.  

The internals seem fairly robust, however.  I've had a C3000 bouncing around in my briefcase for a couple of months now, and the C1000 survived the car wreck just fine.

[iamasmith]

....
One thing to watch out for:  The On/Off button on the front can sometimes stick in the On position, from where it has to be pried out with a pushpin or similar item. 
...

Never had this myself.

I think the build quality is superb - much better than the SL-C860 and I must be one of the lucky people (from a philosophical standpoint) because I have an SL-C3000 and I like the white case!

- Andy

[kahm]

....
One thing to watch out for:  The On/Off button on the front can sometimes stick in the On position, from where it has to be pried out with a pushpin or similar item. 
...

Never had this myself.

I think the build quality is superb - much better than the SL-C860 and I must be one of the lucky people (from a philosophical standpoint) because I have an SL-C3000 and I like the white case!

- Andy
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I find the white case less obnoxious than I expected - I've come to be rather fond of it. But since I like the black case *more*, and I have both anyway, I'm still going to swap them

I find the general build quality more or less equal, it's the design decisions that are better on the Cxk's than on the xx0's. (Chicklet keys instead of membrane, integrated case instead of modular large battery cover)

[wiredog]

Never had this myself.

I think the build quality is superb - much better than the SL-C860 and I must be one of the lucky people (from a philosophical standpoint) because I have an SL-C3000 and I like the white case!

- Andy
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It's well built, except for that one part.  You just have to be gentle with it.  Dynamism support duplicated the problem while I was on the phone with them.  

"So you say that if you push the button too hard it sticks and. Oh damn. Well, I duplicated the problem." Followed by a few minutes of us figuring out how to pry the button back out.

[markpmc]

FWIW

My Z fell from the top of my fridge to the tile floor (about 6 feet). No scratches and it still works!

markpmc

[KwaiFeh]

My SL-C3k has taken 1 major fall already and it still works.  The story goes like this...

I asked my friend to bring my PDA from my room (since she was on the 2nd floor of my house) and I was on the phone on the 1st floor.  At the top of the stairs, and as she's fumbling to find the switch in the dark (because she knows how much i love my pda, and doesn´t want to stumble and have it fall), my Zaurus, my beloved Zaurus falls a complete set of concrete stairs (maybe 17-22 steps).

Fortunately it still works, and it didn´t get scratched because of the leather case.

-Alberto

[Ragnorok]

- The Z survived the wreck.  What about the car?  (grin)

[bluedevils]

The main thing is wiredog is still around.  

Hopefully nobody else was involved.  If the 3000's white is anything like my 760, then it feels like a pretty hard enamel paint.  I haven't scratched it at all after owning for over a couple of years.

[Ragnorok]

- True.

- Just got my C1000 yesterday, and it seems to be pretty well built.  I really like the keyboard on this guy ... I went from a Psion 5mx to the 5500, and I've always missed the keyboard on the Psion.  This one's not as good as that, but it's very sweet next to the thumb board on the 5500.  The keys are nice to use, with a good feel, as others have mentioned, not much travel, but enough to let you know they've been pressed, with a very faint click.  Nothing on the unit has that "wobbly" feel that the 5500 keyboard has when it's slid open.
- The unit has a nice feel in my hand, though it's a touch unstable for touch-screening when it's opened in clamshell.  Never falls back, but it wobbles a bit.  Dispite the fact that it swivels and such, the display seems pretty solid, and it opens and closes with some resistance (so it'll stay where you put it) but smoothly and easily.  It doesn't *latch*, as least mine doesn't, but it does close with a nice thunk and stay there.
- The case feels sturdy, no give anywhere during casual use, even on the large flat area where the display is.  Connectors are placed well enough, and easy to plug things into/remove, with no feeling that the sockets aren't solidly in place, like some of those old pre-PS2 keyboard connectors use to feel.  Insert, snug, done.
- My SD card slot tends to "feel" like it's stuck when I pop a card.  It's not really, it just takes more force to remove it than I've ever experienced with any other device.  The SD goes in with the slightest hitch as well, but that's almost unnoticable.  Now that I know about it's little peculiarities, it doesn't bother me, but it sure did the first time it happened.  Once popped it can't be re-inserted, and had a moment of panic thinking I'd *have* to dismantle my Z less than an hour after charging it!
- Some of the keys are in just plain wierdo locations, but I'm getting used to that.  There are two keys that don't appear to do anything ... they're between Ctrl and - (dash), with Japanese all over them.  A key remapping routine to let me do something with these would be a bonus, as well as to remove some duplicates, such as the pipe character being Shift-Space *and* Fn-L, and some Fn- keys mapping to little boxes (japanese chars)?
- I have about five apps that aren't converted from Japanese.  Most don't give me the impression they are particularly useful.  One, called "database", has me intrigued.  Also, not a single character of help was translated, so I copied all the files off my 5500 and stuck them in the directories.  (grin)
- Overall the first 24 hrs with my new Z has been very, very nice.  I'm likin' it!!  Very obvious improvement over the 5500, even with a big SD card and generous swap.  Much better display, better keyboard, an actual speaker, USB Host, nearly three times the storage and twice the execution memory.  What's not to like??
- Now I just have wait 'til some ROMs come out and things will be perfect (snicker)...