Sharp ZR-5800 review

The ZR-5800 is Sharp's answer to the Psion 3a, and, like its rival, it includes a long list of features. However, don't be fooled by Sharp's promises of full GUI access to CompuServe; you'll need to pay extra for a PCMCIA card as well as a signing-up fee.

Like the Psion, the ZR-5800 is easy to use. It combines a Qwerty keyboard with a graphical user interface, as well as a stylus for assisting data input. This, in conjunction with its on-screen icons, makes it easy to navigate.

One-touch access to applications is available simply by touching the icons at the side of the screen with the stylus or your finger. You can use the keyboard to scroll round the menu system or opt to use a keyboard/stylus combination. There's no handwriting recognition as such, although the Notes application does allows you to write on screen. This makes it a better note-taker than the Newton as you don't have to wait for it to translate your writing into text.

The Sharp's vital statistics shape up well, too. Weighing in at 389g and measuring 170 « 100 « 20mm, the ZR-5800 is a lightweight organiser which compares favourably with the Psion. With a resolution of 320 « 240, the backlit LCD screen is easy to read in most conditions and is a step up from its sister product the ZR-5700.

The ZR-5800 has an impressive array of functions including seven main applications: contacts, data files, activities, documents, spreadsheets, filer and scrapbook. Other tools include a search option, notepad and outlines.

The word processor offers three different font sizes and a spelling checker. In spite of its small fonts option, text is too wide to fit within the display, which can prove tedious and time-consuming when checking or scrolling text. However, the built-in template which converts documents into letter format helps alleviate this.

The contacts folder is flexible, with three separate categories - one set to 'business' by default. All contacts files can be linked to each other, which is useful for merging business and personal contacts, and you can also file contacts in the filer system.

The filer system itself sports a user-friendly interface which mirrors a paper-based index file and works in much the same way. The drawer screen shows a row of cards, and touching each of the tabs with the stylus will display what's inside. The spreadsheet, too, is extremely versatile including 13 preset templates and the ability to create and insert graphs. On-screen drawing in the scrapbook is precise and straightforward. For those of us who aren't artistically inclined, the application includes a number of preset icons such as a golf course, car park, hospital and a number of roads to help build accurate maps.

The ZR-5800 turned in an average performance in our tests too; inputting PC Pro's test data took nine minutes and 30 seconds, placing it towards the end of the league table. In our database-searching test the Sharp performed below average too, taking eight seconds to find entries at the beginning and the end of the list and only seven seconds to register that an entry was not included in the list. The ZR-5800's combination of a lengthy spec sheet and a user-friendly interface make it a fair buy. But with a price tag of £530, there's little to recommend it over the Psion.

Author: labs