If you were to buy a Zaurus right now, which would you buy?

[n8a]

Man, posting this was a good idea - it sounds like there are quite a few takes on the usability and viability of the 5X00s, and there are a lot of people who think the cXXX series is as good as it gets for now.  Then again, many are happy with the 5X00 series and are eagerly awaiting the 6000.  All in all, great purchasing advice for those currently in the market.

For me, the built-in bluetooth and wifi aren\'t such a big deal since I have cards for both that would then go to waste (and I would therefore hate to pay a huge premium).  I like the additional internal space, and I think that the format of the cXXX series has won me over.  One concern that I have is that the WiFi/other CF card sticks out the side, and may interfere with being able to two-thumb type.  Other than that, I think that the unit seems perfect for my taste.

[hkphooey]

OK, going to wade in here with my take on owning a sl5600 (which I bought about a month before Amazon dropped the price from USD 500 to USD 300). Bah.

Physical attributes aside, my main hassle has been software based. On the Sharp ROM, the calendar, to-do list, and Notes all sync with my PC after a fashion. Its not as good as my old Palm, but its bearable.  This was one of my requirements.

The other thing I wanted to do with it was to use it as a network troubleshooting device. To that end I\'ve been able to get Kismet and nmap to run on it. However I haven\'t been able to get Wellenreiter, a decent notes application, the screen rotation applet, ethereal, or airsnort to run on it. Probably some others as well. These have all been adapted to run on the 5500, and will run on the 5600 if I change to OpenZaurus ROM. However if I change to the OZ rom, it is currently too unstable to use (took me 6 hours of conf file hacking to get my wireless card to half work for eg.) and I have to forgo the PC synchronization.

In short, the software just isn\'t there for the 5600 at the moment, I\'m sad to say.

[DaWorm]

Same here, the 5500 still beats the crap out of PocketPC devices when doing administrative work remotely. Although I also use an Ipaq 1945, I just use it for games and BioBody. Serious work still requires my 5500, although an upgrade to the newer models would be nice (built-in wifi and bluetooth).

[padishah_emperor]

I have absolutely no interest in bluetooth or wiffy wifi, so the choice was easy for me, I got my C860 last friday and it is as good as my old 5500 and much much MUCH more. The 6000 didn\'t persuade me to wait, I prefer the usefulness, flexibility and usability of the Cxxx series, I can use it flat or like a laptop or palmtop or even like a traditional PDA/mini-tablet PC depending on mood and situation.

But a Z is a Z, any of them from the 5500 up, is an excellent choice.