Have seen second hand 5600 to buy in UK . Need some quick advice.

I know that 5600 will not be available in UK, will having a US only
supported model be problematical for me; e.g. trying to connect to the
Internet to a UK ISP ?

What is the 5600 like?
I have a Psion 5MX and want a colour PDA with Keyboard. Is the
Keyboard on the 5600 good to type on?

I have seen somewhere that drivers for the 5600 (? infra red) haven't
been released - is this correct?

What is software support like?

I know nothing about Linux - will this be a problem ?

but I would like to learn about it though !!!!

Any thoughts would be welcomed.

My email address doesn't work . PLease post replies here!!

thanks

Nigel Bamber

nigelb@highfell.demon.co.uk (Nigel Bamber) writes:
Shouldn't be a serious problem although you will need a UK modem.

Same as the 5500 but improved. I mean, look at some web pages, man.

No. It's a tiny little two-finger keyboard, ok for entering the
occasional phone number but forget about touch typing. Not anywhere
near the same league as your Psion. Maybe you want the C760 which is
a little closer to the Psion.

Nigel Bamber wrote:
I have a 5500 in the Netherlands, dialing up to my ISP is giving me no
problems. I use the infrared on my mobile phone, which includes the
modem. The only problem I have found upto now is warrenty. Sharp will
only provide warrenty locally if the device is bought in the country
itself, in your case the uk, since Sharp uk does not have the 5600 in
their portfolio, they won't give any service.

I had a Psion 5 before my 5500. The keyboard is not in the same league,
but is works very well for a tiny keyboard.

Not really. The 5x00 models use a GUI which works very well. If you ant
linux shells and so on you even have to install separate programms. In
normal day to day usage you won't even notice that it is running linux.

I'd suggest trying it on an old PC first. The upside of the Zaurus
running linux is that it is very flexible, but if you don't know linux I
suppose that this hardly could be an advantage. The downside of running
linux on the Zaurus is that I have not been able to locate a good
route-planner for the Netherlands.

Well synchronzing to windows (outlook, word, excel) is working fine. So
no worries there. In general my 5500 is working well, it has a high
gadget factor since you don't run into them everyday, battery life
supposidly has improved on the 5600.

--
Arnold

http://www.ligtvoet.org
Ask smart questions : http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html

On 5 Dec 2003 16:57:40 -0800, nigelb@highfell.demon.co.uk (Nigel
Bamber) wrote:

It's got a faster processor, but is actually about the same speed as
the 5500 because of an Intel-side bug. So if I were you, I'd either
go with a 5500 + updated software or wait for the 6000, which will be
out early next year.

I love it. It's so much better than the alternatives
(tap-on-screen-keyboard or handwriting).

The Zaurus is less a PDA as it is a tiny computer. If you need it for
strict PDA functions, you might do better. If you want a little tiny
powerful computer, wireless-capable, Linux-powered, and generally able
to do things computers do, it's perfect.