They all seem the same now, but it is still hard to choose.
I would like as large a screen as possible.
At least 64mb of ram.
The new x-scale processor.
I will be using this primarily for school, Mp3’s, and looking cyberpunk cool.
I own the Zaurus SL-5500 from Sharp, and it’s very good. It has a Linux OS, but it interfaces with MS-Windows very well, so you can get files to and from a Microsoft PC. It has all of the multimedia tools you want, 64 MB RAM, and a 206 MHz Intel StrongARM CPU. It has a 3.5", bright screen (65536 colors) and can play MPEG-1 and MP3 files, even with headphones (it has a headphone/microphone jack). It has slots for CompactFlash modules and SD/MMC cards.
In terms of interface, you have the choice of a built-in keyboard (which can be hidden when not in use) or a touch-screen with stylus (made of durable metal). The styuls can actuate an onscreen keyboard, a character map, or a handwriting-recognition system. The handwriting-recognition system is a bit fussy about how your letters are formed, but is good overall and allows you to select possible completions based on a built-in dictionary (for example, if you already have ‘se’ written, you can select ‘see’, ‘sea’, etc. from the list).
The user-interface is logical and clean, with a paged desktop (different sections accessable by tabs on the top of the screen) and a start-menu-style program launcher at the bottom. You can select among a few different color schemes, but no radical changes are possible. In my opinion, the GUI looks a bit better than MS-Windows. On the CD-ROM supplied with the unit, there is a terminal emulation program that provides a very minimal UNIX-style command-line environment and access to parts of the system that can’t be reached through the GUI. Also on the CD-ROM is a File Manager, that looks like the Explorer in MS-Windows, which can also access parts of the directory tree the base GUI cannot.
Despite running Linux, the Zaurus can edit Word documents in a Word-like word processor, as well as editing Excel documents. It can synch with MS-Outlook. Another misfeature is that there is currently no way to interface the Zaurus with a computer running Linux: The synch program runs on Win32 (Windows 95 or later) OSes alone.
The Zaurus comes with a lot of applications preloaded: The Opera web browser (more stable and mature than MS Explorer, with more functionality (cookie blocking, popup control, etc.)), an image viewer, the MP3/MPEG-1 player mentioned above, a calendar, an address book, a voice recording application, and the office tools mentioned above.
A side question. Is there a pocket PC w/ the same form factor (size) as the palm V series. I like the versitility of the P pc’s but all I have seen are just too big. I currently have a palm V and have decided that I will not go bigger then that. Any suggestions?
You mean a PDA? I always like the Psion machines.
There’s a combined pocketPC/GSM phone called the XDA now available in the UK (there are a number of other similar devices too, and have been for a while but the XDA looks like the pick of the bunch), I’d get one but I prefer PalmOS now (I have my eye on the new Sony device with built in keyboard and digital camera).