What Laptop Magazine Slate Zaurus C750 !

[Zuber]

We loaned a Zaurus SL-C750 for review to What Laptop & Handheld Magazine (in the UK).

Good publicity and all that or so we thought...

Anyway, they have done a review in the January Issue. Not exactly flattering. Head to head with the Sony UX50.

Just shows you can\'t please all of the people all of the time.

To quote a few points :

\"The overall quality of the keyboard isn\'t as sturdy or well designed as the Sony Clie and will not stand up to the same wear and tear\"

\"...we found it easy to strike the wrong keys accidentally\"

\"...we had our reservations about the device. It lacks a camera and built in wireless capabilities of the Sony, and while the screen is bigger, it\'s not as bright. Add to this the poor build quality and the Sharp Zaurus is the less versatile and desirable PDA\"

So there you have it folks, the Zaurus is less desirable and more importantly less versatile so you should all go and buy a Clie UX50  

Can\'t believe this guy was not impressed with the screen. Seen the tiny UX50 and this screen just leaves it dead. Talked to UX50 owners and even they agree.

Did not use the UX50 screen for long, so not a fair judgement, but I honestly found the Zaurus better (bigger unit...).

As for quality, not willing to admit how many time the test unit they were using had been dropped and survived. Perhaps that did not help.

Anyway, all publicity is good publicy right ?

Would love to hear your opinions.

[Anonymous]

Wow!  What was he a Sony employee?  S/w I would agree, Palm\'s better, H/w sharp\'s is one of the best!  The keyboard is the best part!

Clie simply sucked.  Try it out, you\'ll understand what I mean.

[offroadgeek]

I\'ve played with the ux50 for a few minutes in a sony store... have you seen the keyboard?  It has ridges?  Who in their right mind would rather type on a keyboard with ridges?  I mean... it\'s ok for Ruffles to have ridges... but not a PDA...

And the ux50 screen is definitely not brighter than the 760.  I don\'t think something like screen brightness is a matter of opinion... it just is, right?

And who wants a built in camera that takes crappy pics?  Now if it did streaming video, so that you can broadcast it via wifi... then that would be cool...  does anyone keep the pictures they take from their palms/phones anyway (is the quality really that good?).

Obviously I\'m a bit biased towards Sharp.  The only thing I could imagine the ux50 would fare better is with the pims/apps.

Oh well... I don\'t have to like everything I read...

[zbones]

I wonder if he found the brightness control  

Do you think a linux magazine would reach the same conclusion?

actually, that would be an excellent idea, have you contacted any of the linux mags yet?

all the unix people I know just love them, and if they were a little cheaper would probably buy one. A review/advert in a linux mag would almost certainly be favourable and generate sales.

Peter.

[Zuber]

I was thinking the same thing.

We have been talking to someone at Linux Format about reviewing the unit.
They wanted a unit a week or so back. But we figured it would just sit in an office somewhere over xmass. Will give them a buzz on Monday and sort something out. Only problem I had, was they said \"normally, items sent in are just left with us\" and so was not sure when I would get the unit back.

[Anonymous]

Yep!  You don\'t wanna lose your C7xx!  This is not a clie!!!

[Anonymous]

Are you nuts?  I would buy a Clie, if there was some way to reflash the rom with Linux.  

Can\'t comment on the hardware differences, I haven\'t seen the clamshell Zaurii.

Wow!  What was he a Sony employee?  S/w I would agree, Palm\'s better...

[Anonymous]

Just goes to show some mags (and reviewers) are plain biased towards the prevalent market forces and dont like or are bling to new changes happening. Be they will follow the tune if Sharp had been more of a entranched player instead of Sony with the same C7xx hardware and software.

Most of the reviews on the publishing sector are just plain same old hackneyed views of the same old systems that everyone knows about. Its hardly a review rather more of a parroting of prevalant common knowlegde. The new entrants always get a raw deal in such places.

In fact this whole mindset of the reviewing classes of the media and so called pundits in the USA are what scares the Japanase companies from introducing new technologies which are all the rave in Japan and the rest of Asia. These pundits write off anything without so much of a knowledge about it and that could make or break a company here in the US, since most people follow the \'pundits\' like a mantra instead of trying things for themselves.

[Anonymous]

if you take the 760 outside, you won\'t be able to see the screen very well. Maybe he tried it outside, and thus came up with the dimmness of it.

[Zuber]

It\'s fairly cold outside in the UK this time of year. If they reviewed it outside, it must have quite a quick review.

Actually, now that you mention it, just wondered outside to look at the screen and double check.

IMHO perfectly usable with the brightness up. The problem with readablility is when you have a clear/sunny day. Not many of those this time of the year. Though we did have an excellent summer.

Am I wearing tinted specs on this one, or is it just sunny conditions that make readability bad ?

[offroadgeek]

I\'ve found that direct sunlight will easily cancel out the screen brightness.... when taking the bus home, I\'ve had to stop reading (a plucked doc on my 760) until the sun was off of my screen.

but that has to do with the transreflective display (or lack there of), and that\'s a known downside of the Cxx0 series.  I\'m not sure if the ux50 is transreflective.