A pocketful of PDAs - evaluations of Apple's Newton MessagePad 130, HP's OmniGo 120, Motorola's Envoy 150, Psion's Series 3a, Sharp Electronic's Zaurus 5800FX and U.S. Robotics' Pilot 5000 personal digital assistants - includes related product summary box - Hardware Review - Evaluation

Home Office Computing, Dec, 1996 by Rick Broida

Sharp Zaurus 5800FX

Rating: ***

Sharp's Zaurus 5800FX tries to be all PDAs to all people--and comes close to succeeding. The flagship of the Zaurus line combines the comfort of a keyboard with the advantages of pen-based input. It ships with a clip-on fax/modem and software for accessing CompuServe. It's loaded with applications, including an Excel-compatible spreadsheet. And it has a roomy, backlit screen--a feature matched only by the Newton.

Right out of the box, the Zaurus is a great communicator. In addition to the fax/modem, the unit has a built-in infrared dataport. Other PDAs have that too, but only Sharp offers an optional IR receiver for your desktop PC. Thus, sharing data with your computer can be a wireless affair. On the downside, the modem pokes along at 2.4Kbps for data connections, and can only send--not receive--faxes. If you need faster communications, the Zaurus is compatible with a variety of PC Card modems. It has one Type II PC Card slot, which can alternately accommodate a memory-expansion card. (With most of the unit's 2MB free for data, you shouldn't need to add memory anytime soon.)

The Zaurus employs a pen-based interface but relies on the keyboard for data input. The pen is used to launch applications, select menus, place the cursor, and draw notes and graphics. The Zaurus eschews handwriting recognition, but many of the applications let you save pen-drawn text as a graphic. It takes some time to get comfortable with the keyboard, which is marred by tiny number-keys and a minuscule backspace key. The unit's LCD screen is large and easy on the eyes. Its backlighting isn't as bright as the Newton's, but you'll welcome it when the sun goes down.

In addition to regular PIM applications, the Zaurus comes loaded with an outline editor, inventory database, expense manager, and spreadsheet. The contact manager boasts customizable views, user-definable fields, and the ability to create links to other contacts and data files (including graphics). The daily planner is the only one we've seen that squeezes a monthly calendar, to-do list, and appointment schedule onto the same screen. You can also choose weekly, monthly, and annual views and create indexes for birthdays, anniversaries, and holidays.

The trade-off to having such a feature-rich set of applications is a steeper learning curve. The Zaurus is perhaps the toughest PDA to master; fortunately, it includes extensive online help. There's a handful of commercial and shareware software available for the Zaurus, but all you really need is the battery gauge utility (obtainable from CompuServe).

Sharp's optional Zaurus Application Partner package ($139) includes the desktop IR receiver and software for copying data to and from the Windows clipboard. You can't directly synchronize PIM data, but the Application Partner does offer a field-mapping feature that lets you exchange databases.

Although pricey at $599, the Zaurus offers almost unbeatable bang for the buck.

U.S. Robotics Pilot 5000

Rating: *** 1/2