Sharp's Zaurus SL-6000 handheld is now available with English language support online. Three devices in the SL-6000 series are already available in Japan.

Unlike other recent Zaurus models in Japan and like other Sharp devices available the United States, the Zaurus SL-6000 series comes in a traditional tablet style rather than clamshell. Like the clamshell models, the SL-6000 series has a QWERTY keyboard, except with this series the keyboard appears when the bottom of the device is pulled down. The new Zaurus runs the Trolltech's Qtopia platform interface on top of Linux and includes personal information management software.


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All the models in the series run on a 400MHz Intel XScale processor, 1500 mAh Lithium polymer battery, 64 MB of RAM and 64MB of Flash memory. The series also features a large 4-inch CG Silicon display that has a VGA resolution of 480 x 640 pixels. The only other handheld with a VGA display currently available is Toshiba’s excellent e800 Pocket PC. Though ASUS has another one coming in the next couple of months. The new Zaurus models also have Secure Digital and CompactFlash slots for memory expansion with an optional sleeve available to add an additional CompactFlash slot and battery.

According to the company, the embedded Linux devices have been designed for and will be targeted to corporate users, and can run Java as well as Linux applications. The model now available in English, the SL-6000, includes Wi-Fi. Of the other models available in Japan, the SL-6000W features Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, while the Sl-6000N has neither Bluetooth or Wi-Fi. These devices don't apply to the U.S. market.

Sharp said it is working with IBM to develop mobile field force solutions for the new Zaurus. For example, the Wi-Fi enabled SL-6000 series running WebSphere Everyplace Connection Manager software allows mobile employees to securely roam with high speed access to information across multiple networks without interrupting Web connections or losing an existing session. So remote workers will be able to access Web applications like PIM and e-mail and also be able to retrieve information from IBM's DB2 database software. The Sharp Zaurus also supports IBM's WebSphere Everyplace Multimodal Environment for Embedix, which allows end users to run multimodal applications.

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The Zaurus SL-6000L is selling for $700 at Amazon.com and other online retailers. This price is in line with high-end Pocket PC and Palm OS handhelds. Of course, there are far more third party applications available with these established mobile platforms. There is enough software available, however, for the Zaurus to make it attractive to business users looking for a handheld that is an alternative to those with these other operating systems.

In addition, the device is mainly focused on business applications, such as corporations who want to connect their mobile workforce remotely to key database applications and servers.