Thorn between 860 and 6000!

[Don.Key]

Hi Folks,

I own a 5500 Zauri since about 6 month and pretty happy with it. I mainly use it as PDA with some additional tools and as game console (Exult and some other commercial games). I rarely use for anything more serious like \"SSHing\" and so on.

One major problem I have with 5500 is rather poor display quality when compared with newest generation of pdas. So I decided to take a look at 860 or 6000.

Now I am kind of thorn between the two, price is almost the same, features seem to be quite different. Some important questions I have are:

1) When i see my 5500 under direct strong light I can actually read the screen when background lightning is off, somehow the screen is visible, like inprinted. Is that the same on 860 and 6000?

2) How much troubles should I expect with commercial apps such as tck tools and games when moving to new zaurus? and which one of both will give me less headache 860 or 6000?

3) 5500 is very picky about SSD cards are 860 / 6000 better in that sence?

4) Anyone knows the good source of 6000 which also ships to Europe?

Best Regards

Don.Key

[DrWowe]

1) When i see my 5500 under direct strong light I can actually read the screen when background lightning is off, somehow the screen is visible, like inprinted. Is that the same on 860 and 6000?

6000 looks great in direct sunlight.  C860 is unreadable.  The 6000 uses Sharp\'s latest and greatest transflective LCD technology.

2) How much troubles should I expect with commercial apps such as tck tools and games when moving to new zaurus? and which one of both will give me less headache 860 or 6000?

I think they are both pretty compatible in this respect.  There are occasional apps that have trouble, but both models can switch to 240x320 mode when an application requires it.

3) 5500 is very picky about SSD cards are 860 / 6000 better in that sence?  

Don\'t know, but I haven\'t had any SD trouble in my 6000.

4) Anyone knows the good source of 6000 which also ships to Europe?

pcconnection.com is one USA source that will ship to Europe.  You could also get a Japanese 6000 but they seem to be more expensive, for some reason.

If your comfortable with the upright form factor of your 5500, then by all means go for the 6000!  You won\'t be disappointed.  The built-in WiFi and USB host features are nice, too...

[time]

Having the C860, I can concur that the display is not great in bright sunlight. How often is this an issue for you? It is not for me.

Otherwise, I cannot imagine why anyone would purchase the 6000. The clamshell form factor is infinitely superior in my opinion.

The keyboard is another major consideration. There is no comparison. The C860 is superior.

The 6000 has builtin wireless, and this was a mjor issue for me. It took me a long time to decide that the form factor was much more important to me than the wireless being built in. Your priority may differ.

Finally, as of today, the pdaXrom only runs on the SL-Cxxx series. And in my humble opinion, X11 is the one thing that makes the Zaurus trump every other PDA/MobileTool on the market today. When you see Firefox render a webpage perfectly, when you compile GNUChess and it just runs, when you use a REAL mail client, when you change your window manager each week, then you will realize that this is what the Zaurus was meant for. IMO of course.

Difficult decision.

For what it is worth, I paid $200 more for my C860 than a 6000 would have cost, and I would make the same decision again in a heartbeat.

[padishah_emperor]

Hi Folks,

I own a 5500 Zauri since about 6 month and pretty happy with it. I mainly use it as PDA with some additional tools and as game console (Exult and some other commercial games). I rarely use for anything more serious like \"SSHing\" and so on.

One major problem I have with 5500 is rather poor display quality when compared with newest generation of pdas. So I decided to take a look at 860 or 6000.

Now I am kind of thorn between the two, price is almost the same, features seem to be quite different. Some important questions I have are:

1) When i see my 5500 under direct strong light I can actually read the screen when background lightning is off, somehow the screen is visible, like inprinted. Is that the same on 860 and 6000?

2) How much troubles should I expect with commercial apps such as tck tools and games when moving to new zaurus? and which one of both will give me less headache 860 or 6000?

3) 5500 is very picky about SSD cards are 860 / 6000 better in that sence?  

4) Anyone knows the good source of 6000 which also ships to Europe?

Best Regards

Don.Key

Bearing in mind your requirements, perhaps a 6000. There is one major factor which seems to be omitted when discussing the pros and cons of a clamshell too, namely that a 860 can be used as a tablet like the 6000. Also having games run the \'right way round\' on my 860 is great, I got irritated having to use my 5500 sideways, I\'ve seen no evidence that this would be any different on a 6000. Also the C series have the Cacko QT ROM available (I wouldn\'t bother with pdaXrom unless you want your entire internal flash memory being used read-write mode - which *may* (I must emphasise that) shorten flash life).

The 6000 uses Sharp\'s latest and greatest transflective LCD technology.

I\'d like to see the data for that, CG Silicon to the best of my knowledge is a screen technology used from the C700 up using the same VGA transflective component. But in direct sunlight it\'s not too grand, nor was it on my former Sony Clie.

Bear in mind too the 5500 is smaller than a 6000, the 860 is a fraction of the size (in tablet form) than a 6000.

Also for what you say you use it for, a \"newer\" machine may be like using a sledgehammer to crack a nut.

[vishnja]

It IS a difficult decision! And your using it mostly as an PDA doesn\'t make it much easier...
In my experience, the SL5500 is still the best game console of the Zauri: it\'s difficult to navigate most action games on a clamshell and whatever other\'s may say: I still don\'t like the option to play games designed for the QVGA on a VGA display.
So it seems to come down to the formfactor and the price, if builtin wlan isn\'t a major selling point to you.

- The SL6000 is bigger, has a screen, that should be better in direct sunlight than the screen of the clamshells, but worse (only in the sun) than the SL5X00s. It also has a cursor pad, which is usefull for several games. A plus is the usb-port.
- The clamshells are smaller and lighter, which is nice for a PDA. Until now there are the best ROMs (for PDA functionality) available for them. A plus is the \"best keyboard\" on the market.

So you\'ll have to deside: does the size of the SL6000 bother you more than the lack of the inbuilt functions (wlan, usb-host)? Would you still carry it around enough?
And you should also consider, that with a new device there usually also follow new application demands: looking at the nice keyboard of a clamshell every day could make you write far more emails on the Z than you do now. And with the great resolution you could rediscover the Internet and miss the builtin wlan of the SL6000.

So as I said: it\'s a difficult decision, but I\'m sure, you\'ll enjoy the new Z! Both, the clamshells and the SL6000 are a great improvement :-)