Re: [tlug] Sharp NetWalker PC-Z1(J)

[Travis Cardwell <travis.cardwell@example.com>]

On Wed, Feb 17, 2010 at 2:53 PM, Stephen A. Carter <scarter@example.com> wrote:
> Has anyone used one of these?

I was quite excited about these and went to check them out at ヨドバシ as
soon as they were released.  Here is what I found:

* Though it is clearly a personal preference, I was happy with the
size.  I think that, with practice, I would be able to type quite
quickly.  It is small enough that I would be able to keep it in my
bag, and it is durable enough that I would not worry about it breaking
too quickly.

* I read on Mixi that the keyboards are quite bad because they deform
as you type.  Though the keyboard was not perfect, I found it usable
and would not worry about it, personally.

* The "mouse" input is interesting: you rub your finger across a
sensor.  It worked much better than I expected!  When the device was
working, I was more than happy with it.

* The down side is that the device is significantly underpowered.  The
processor is weak, and there is not enough RAM.  A big issue is that
it runs Gnome/MetaCity, which requires a *lot* of resources.  Even
without running any additional applications, the devices I tested
would often be noticeably slow to the point of being unusable.  (The
problem was periodic--fine for 30 seconds then slow for ~3 minutes.
The problem would not happen sometimes, so it is not consistent, even
on a single device.)  Trying to use the pointer device to select an
icon on the desktop, for example, became impossible, because the
system would freeze and the pointer would jump over the icon.  Running
`top` on a terminal indicated that MetaCity was utilizing all of the
resources.  OpenOffice is included, and starting one of those
applications results in a few minutes wait time while it loads.  (This
would be *very* frustrating for practical usage.)  Once loaded, I was
surprised that it actually ran quite well, all things considered, when
the system was not slowed down.  OpenOffice has even smaller icons and
menu items, however, and it was completely unusable when the system
slowed down.

Note that somebody with time could probably hack the system and make
it run better...  The performance improved some after killing some
heavy processes (PulseAudio!)...  Running a better/lightweight window
manager would definitely be worth looking into...

If Sharp were to release a new model with enough hardware to make the
system responsive, I would likely buy one (after testing it for 15
minute intervals at least 4 times)!

I highly recommend using a NetWalker in the store multiple times
before deciding to buy one!

Cheers,

Travis