Considering a switch from a Clie UX-50 to a Z

[ccrandal]

A couple years ago, I hoped on the Z bandwagon and bought a SL-5000D.  I quickly got rid of it because it seemed like Opera and the media viewer kept running out of memory everytime I tried to do something.

After that experience, I\'ve been using Clies.  Currently, I use a UX-50.  While the hardware is great and exactly what I\'ve been looking for, the web browser isn\'t very good and I have issues with browsing when using my bluetooth phone.  I also really want a handheld that\'ll let me hack up Perl and Python scripts, write, compile and execute J2ME code, etc.

So, I\'m thinking about trying out a Z again.  Ideally, I\'d like something in the SL-C7xx series, even just a C700 as long as there\'s enough memory to run my standard apps w/o running into the problems I had with the SL-5000D.

Before switching, I need to be certain I can do 3 things:

1.) Sync with my Mac
2.) Use my TZones with my Sony Ericsson T610 via bluetooth
3.) Be able to find and run a SMS application

I\'ve read the Mac forum and it sounds like the ability to sync with the Mac is just starting to become ready for primetime.

Is anyone here interested in selling a SL-C7xx for a reasonable price?  I have not seen any C700\'s for sale, and the new C750 and 760 are a little steep in price.

Also, how well is the English port of the OS for those devices?

TIA,
Curt

[PDAgal]

I think T-Zones is just for WAP on your phone in most markets. You might need to get the $19.99 Unlimited Internet plan from T-Mobile that\'s designed for folks who want to use the phone as a wireless modem over BT with PDAs and notebooks. I\'ve used the Nokia 3650 and Sony Ericsson P900 with the C860 + Bluez-- works great.

[ccrandal]

Yep, I have the unlimited.  TZones is what T-Mobile reps refer to their internet service as a whole... or at least the ones I\'ve dealt with.  Regular TZones is just straight WAP, though.

How good was the English port of the OS on the C860?  I\'d love one, but cannot justify spending $850 for a handheld.  I regret spending $740 on a UX-50 when they first came out.

[CoreyC]

ccrandal,

I recommend making a \'wanted\' in the for sale/trade/wanted forum.  I did that when I bought my c760 and got a couple of really good offers.  I ended up paying $600 for it bundled with a wifi card and CF/SD cards.

There are many roms out there that will take care of translating to an english OS for you.  I have not owned mine long enough to strongly recommend anything but you will want to install the old cacko X11 rom for sure, just to be able to see what this zaurus is capable of.

I had the same problem with opera on my Sl-5600 until I created a swapfile, so it just wasn\'t your sl5000.  I think you will like NetFront.

[Anonymous]

Thank you very much.  I did bother to check for a wanted forum... my mistake.

Interesting that you had the same problem on the 5600 since it has 2x the usable RAM (or more?) than my old 5000.  Did you have the same problem playing MPEG movies too?

I\'m using NetFront 3.0 right now on my Clie.  Not the best browser, but hopefully it\'ll be better on the Zaurus platform.

Thanks again
Curt

[Anonymous]

Thank you very much.  I did bother to check for a wanted forum... my mistake.

Interesting that you had the same problem on the 5600 since it has 2x the usable RAM (or more?) than my old 5000.  Did you have the same problem playing MPEG movies too?

I\'m using NetFront 3.0 right now on my Clie.  Not the best browser, but hopefully it\'ll be better on the Zaurus platform.

Thanks again
Curt

Nope, I have no problem playing mpeg movies.  In fact, I am able to watch a 80mb clip streamed through samba that I encoded to 320x240

Most of my problems with memory that I had happened while I was using opera on graphic intense websites.  As I posted above, creating a swapfile fixed it.

[padishah_emperor]

I had a NX-70 Clie, the Sony specific stuff was nice but it felt like an old Palm Pilot that was souped up to the max, the hardware was nice, but the screen was wobbly and the bling silver paint wore off quick, I ditched it and went for a Z 5500 (my new C-860 arrives next week).  For me, in my opinion, there is no comparison, one is a glorified Casio-esque databank, one is a UNIX workstation. mmmmh.. workstation..

I am happily running my 5500 now with the internal RAM kept empty, 32MB MMC for storing apps and fonts, 512 CF for MP3 and OGG music and DivX, MPEG, ASF movies and about 300 books, got the new Battlestar Galactica miniseries on it right now and several albums, its the kind of pocket computer I always dreamed of as a kid (back when I had a Casio PB-100).

I REALLY recommend tkcVideo and tkcPlayer, they are superior to the Sony offerings IMHO.  I don\'t miss the Clie at all, it was a nice looking paperweight that turned heads, the Z is a workstation and that is how I look at it and use it, much to the envy of my salivating friends who are desperately waiting for theirs.

I do not use Bluetooth or such stuff, so I can\'t help there.

[ccrandal]

I had a NX-60 and thought it was very well constructed.  The only problem I had was the lack of memory... only 11MB available for putting software on (I had 15MB with my T615C) and NetFront kept running out of memory whenever I\'d browse a site like weather.com.  I also thought the CF slot was useless and the WiFi adapter that Sony sold kept crashing my WiFi router for some reason.

If I could get my bluetooth phone connection to allow me to use telnet and go to sites like Yahoo! Mail, I\'d probably be satisfied with my UX-50.  I think hardware-wise it\'s the best PDA currently.  But, Palm OS5 is very limiting... having a full OS with a terminal is more attractive.

So, if I could find a reasonably priced clamshell Zaurus, I\'d switch in a heartbeat.  I just can\'t justify spending $849 on dynamism for a C860 that\'s only 97% converted to English.

Thanks

[ScottYelich]

It\'s like someone saying that they\'re happy with the 6F0KB RAM *limit*  because that\'s all they\'ll ever need... why ever would they want more?

Scott

[torpor]

i had a nx70v and i swapped it for an sl5500.  best swap ever!

[grey_moon]

Gotta say for a PIM device the UX-50 is drooly.  But flexibilty wise, my baby z amazes me time and time again... (Mostly thanks to the community out there

[padishah_emperor]

] It\'s like someone saying that they\'re happy with the 6F0KB RAM *limit* because that\'s all they\'ll ever need... why ever would they want more?

My HP200LX had a 640KB limit, don\'t knock it, it served me for 7 years (still got it in a box, can\'t bring myself to sell it), I wonder if my 860 (coming this week!!!) will last that long, it better, I buy as an investment.

Back to my original point, the NX-70V lasted a few months, if a PDA can only last you a few months, there is either something crap about it or it was a poor choice.

I was tempted by the Sony name and the \'bling bling\' associated with it, but it lacked substance.

Ditching it in favor for a 5500 (and a separate camera) was the best choice for me and still leaves me with a sense of awe.

[ccrandal]

I just received my C750 in the mail yesterday and I have to say my impressions are a bit mixed.

I really like the screen size a lot... much better than the UX-50.  I was really disappointed with the UX-50 after having a NX-60 whose screen was relatively large.  I also like the brightness of the screen a lot.

Outside of that, I\'ve been kinda disappointed.  First, I thought Sharp would\'ve wised up and put a mic in these units.  I had the SL-5000D and was not happy that a Voice Recorder app was supplied, but no built-in mic.
Second, the construction of the Z is nowhere near as nice as the Clie... although the Z isn\'t too bad, just the Clie is a very slick piece of hardware.
Third, my ROM is only partially ported to English.  However, instead of it being a 97% port, it\'s more like 80% with key settings interfaces consisting largely of block characters.
Fourth, I really miss having the integrated WiFi and Bluetooth.

I knew about most of these deficiencies going into the purchase, so it\'s only my fault if it turns out the C750 doesn\'t meet my needs.

I\'ll be a lot happier once I get a decent ROM loaded, but I guess I was a little surprised to find that I\'ll probably need a 256MB CF or SD card to do the ROM backup and then to transfer a new ROM on.  By the time I\'m done, I\'ll have sunk almost $900 into this thing.  Hopefully, it\'ll be worth it.

On the positive side, it is nice to have the terminal back and with the large screen size, it\'s a lot more usable than I found it to be on the SL-5000D.

Curt

[anonuk]

you should be ok with a much smaller memory card 64Mb or smaller even, flash the cacko qtopia 1.20 rom for the 7x0 (see the sharp rom forum) and you might be much happier with it.

 ive never needed to use a nand backup on the 860, ill go buy the 256Mb CF card if i have a problem, but ive been fine flashing with my 64Mb and 96Mb cards

[offroadgeek]

Second, the construction of the Z is nowhere near as nice as the Clie... although the Z isn\'t too bad, just the Clie is a very slick piece of hardware.

Could you elaborate a bit as to how you feel the Clie hardware compares to the 750, and what specifically you like/dislike about each model?

I ask because I\'ve seen so many people state that the Zaurus hardware is the best out there... so it would be nice to hear about this from a different perspective.