Sharp faith: Belief in resurrection is not restricted to religion. Sharp has a real faith in the power of bringing gadget ideas back from the dead. Its new PC-Z1 looks like a reborn version of Sharp's Zaurus brand of PDAs. The PC-Z1, marketed under the NetWalker brand, is a clamshell device with a 5-inch widescreen 1024 × 600 resolution LCD, shrunken QWERTY keyboard and optical mouse. Apart from the physical likeness to Zaurus, the PC-Z1 also emulates its predecessors by running on an ARM-based processor and Linux operating system.
The OS is Ubuntu, a Linux version fit for a desktop that can be found in other much larger netbooks. Sharp claims Ubuntu allows the PC-Z1 to power up in three seconds. This speed advantage gives it a usability advantage over other netbooks. The edge is sharpened by the unit's ultra-portability, weighing just 410 grams and measuring 161 × 109 × 20 mm. Sharp also claims it has a 10-hour battery life, up to three times that of many netbooks. The NetWalker also comes with Wi-Fi, a 800 MHz Freescale processor and 512 megabytes of memory, and boasts 4 gigabytes of SSD storage, which can be supplemented via microSDHC cards.
Some might view the NetWalker as a new direction for netbooks. However, it is not so much a redefinition as a reinstatement of the PDA in a more modern guise. In reality, it is in competition with mobile phones as a take-everywhere means of Internet access. Also, at ¥44,800 it is only marginally cheaper than bigger netbooks.