Syncronization Software

The Zaurus comes with a CD containing lots of goodies including 2 sync software:

1. Qtopia Desktop

2. Intellisync (sync with MS Outlook or Palm Desktop)

I used Qtopia desktop for days and found it to be solid but lacking in areas such as searching and presenting my Contact numbers and appointments in user-friendly formats. I then uninstalled and switched to Intellisync to sync with Outlook. No problem at all - the syncronization is smooth, fast and error free. The field mappings are very tight and you don't have to worry about orphaned fields, etc. So I recommend Intellisync over Qtopia (for now). Plus Qtopia lacks e-mail unlike Outlook.

Third-party apps

I have found that the PIM apps lack creativity and could learn alot from the PalmOS and PocketPC. I am not saying that it fails in managing your personal information but I am coming from the Palm III environment that had a neat app named "Today" that would give me a bird's eye view of my to-do's and daily appointments. The good side is that many companies/individuals are working on it. Many persons are however satisfied.

The games are fast, attractive, mature and well supported. The Z comes with a scrabble-like word game, Patience, asteroids, Mindbreaker, Snake and Go. I downloaded Chess, Pacman and Tetris although I am not really a gamester.

There are lots of utility, system and programming tools for techies. I was surprised that I could actually fdisk my memory card to Win16, FAT32, Linux, etc.

Pros

+ Integrated keyboard;

+ Unit is sturdy and tough - mine fell out of my pocket and is still kicking;

+ Sharp TFT screen;

+ Great sound quality (I only tested mp3's);

+ Can sync with Outlook;

+ Can use MS Word, Excel and Powerpoint files;

+ Has 2 expansion slots: CF and SD (you get the best of both worlds);

+ Truly programmable (techie's dream)

Cons

- No external speaker;

- No built in mic (have to purchase external mic)

My regrets in purchasing the Zaurus: none (and to think that I almost purchased the latest iPAQ).

Review Update (Sep 29, 2002)

Here's an update on CF/SD card compatibility:

The new Sandisk 128 MB card that I bought is in fact compatible with the Zaurus SL-5500. I got it working after upgrading my BIOS from 2.37 to 2.38. All this time I thought that I had the latest BIOS but after going to http://zaurus.knightfire.com I realized that I didn't and also found out that people with the latest BIOS were using the new Sandisk SD cards. I got the latest BIOS upgrade from www.myzaurus.com.