Author Topic: 5600 really worth the $$$ vs 5500?  (Read 4129 times)

dshumate

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5600 really worth the $$$ vs 5500?
« on: March 14, 2004, 06:57:27 pm »
Gang-

   I\'m ready to buy another Zaurus (after a momentary lapse of trading my old one for a Palm) but was wondering if the faster processor in the 5600 justifies the price difference then just saving 100.00+ dollars and just snagging a 5500.  Would you guys let me know what you think about this?  I\'ve seen the 5500 on eBay as low as 100.00 but the 5600 is still (at it\'s lowest) 200.00-need some feedback, please!

Thanks gang-

dshumate
\"90% of being smart, is knowing what you\'re dumb at.\"

markw

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5600 really worth the $$$ vs 5500?
« Reply #1 on: March 14, 2004, 07:50:37 pm »
i personaly wouldnt get the zaurus sl-5600 as the price difference is not worth it. 200mhz is not all that much faster plus the speed realy depends on the memory more than anything.
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VeeDubb

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5600 really worth the $$$ vs 5500?
« Reply #2 on: March 14, 2004, 08:32:47 pm »
There\'s jsut a couple of reasons to get the 5600.

1.  If you absolutely MUST have a built in speaker
        In my experience, these almost always suck and I do not miss having one on my 5500

2.  You are too ingnorant/incompetant/indifferent/lazy etc. to install a custom ROM, because with the default sharp roms, the 5600 is remarkably superior.
       With any of the 5500 rom NOT made by sharp, you can combine a memory card and a different memroy split to get double the RAM of the 5600 which can never ahve more than 32MB of RAM for programs.

3.  You will be constantly doing highly CPU intensive things like playing divx movies in full qvga resolution.
       If this is the case, you will have to be very carefull as most 5600 come with a pxa250 which has a very slow front side bus and is actualy SLOWER than the sa-111 201mhz cpu in the 5500.  THat\'s right, I said the 400mhz Xscale is SLOWER than a 201mhz strong arm.  CS-101, there\'s more to actual cpu proformance than clock speed.  
       Some smaller number of the 5600 were produced with a pxa255, which actualy IS faster, so if you need massive processing, be sure that you are getting a 255 and NOT a 250.

THat\'s basicaly it.    What IS wortht the extra money, IMNSHO, is an sl-C760 or sl-C860.  Then you can use the beautiful cacko pdaXrom.

Ethereal

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5600 really worth the $$$ vs 5500?
« Reply #3 on: March 14, 2004, 08:44:17 pm »
Actually, the PXA250 appears to run fine with the cache errata (crippling) fix turned off; search around here for info about various \"special\" kernels by ced and tumnus.

Also, the 5600 has a bigger (mAh and physical size) battery, which might be important if you\'re going to use WiFi heavily, but the 5600 also has a big bulge at its base to accomodate the battery...
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cgav8r

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5600 really worth the $$$ vs 5500?
« Reply #4 on: March 14, 2004, 08:52:45 pm »
My 2 cents:

1) Limited ROM support.  I would love to get OZ working on my 5600, but the builds just are not there yet.
2) Sharp\'s DTM format.  This means that a) I can\'t install and sync OPIE PIMs,  OPIE-Today will not work for me; c) most PIM development is done for the xml based format therefore I can\'t take advantage of the improvements.

I can live with it, but the lack of dtm compatible apps and inability to sync really limits my use.
SL-5600 with tkc alpha 2.0v3 and Special Kernel v1.3
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wolfman

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5600 really worth the $$$ vs 5500?
« Reply #5 on: March 14, 2004, 10:05:17 pm »
Well I just bought the 5600 I am expecting it in this week, I did have the 5500 and from what I have been able to tell is that most people have not had this reported problem of the PXA250.  I got mine for $294 including shipping which I think is worth the extra cost over the $199 that you can find the 5500 for.

Anonymous

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5600 really worth the $$$ vs 5500?
« Reply #6 on: March 14, 2004, 10:50:35 pm »
Gang-

   Thanks for the feedback! I really appreciate it!

dshumate

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5600 really worth the $$$ vs 5500?
« Reply #7 on: March 15, 2004, 11:25:18 am »
Gang-

   You guys are great! (I posted as a guest last night by accident!)  Thanks again for the 5500 vs 5600 feedback! My 5500 should be here in a few days!!!

Thanks!

Dennis
\"90% of being smart, is knowing what you\'re dumb at.\"

wolfman

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5600 really worth the $$$ vs 5500?
« Reply #8 on: March 17, 2004, 07:21:40 am »
Glad to see you made a choice that you can be happy with I know you will really enjoy it