The PC-Z1 is the latest mobile/handheld device announced from Sharp. The “netbook” type device runs Ubuntu Linux over an Arm based processor. Sharp also announces that the PC-Z1 has a 10 hour battery life. Although Sharp uses Ubuntu for their OS, they choose some fairly lightweight programs for their application suite.

The first being their drawing software. They chose to use the OpenOffice drawing program as their announced “drawing & graphics” software. Hardly compatible to the well known GIMP toolkit just as freely available.

They also list gedit as an accessory. Gedit is hardly an accessory when you have more powerful tools such as VI and other text editors. gedit is just a pre-installed gnome text editor, nothing special there.

Specifications

Model name PC-Z1-W/-B/-R
Installed OS*6 Linux/Ubuntu*7 9.04 (Smartbook Remix for ARM-based systems, Sharp customized version)
LCD 5-inch, widescreen TFT LCD (Wide-SVGA resolution, LED backlit, touch-screen)
CPU i.MX51 multimedia applications processor manufactured by Freescale Semiconductor
Main memory 512 MB (fixed)
Input devices 68-key keyboard (key pitch: approx. 14 mm*8; key stroke: approx. 0.8 mm),
Pointing device Optical pointer (optical pointing device), touch-screen
Storage memory Approx. 4 GB flash memory (user area: approx. 2 GB)
Communications function Wireless LAN (IEEE 802.11 b/g compatible*10)
Card slot microSD Memory Card/microSDHC Memory Card x 1*11 (16 GB max.)
Interfaces Headphone output (3.5 mm-dia. stereo mini-jack) x 1,
USB (USB 2.0 compatible) x 1,
miniUSB (USB 2.0 compatible; miniAB connector) x 1
Battery operating time Approx. 10 hours
Dimensions / Weight Approx. 161.4 (W) x 108.7 (D) x 19.7–24.8 (H) mm (not including protrusions) /
Approx. 409 grams

Main software
Browser: Firefox®
Flash plug-in: Adobe® Flash® LiteTM
Mail: ThunderbirdTM
Integrated software: OpenOffice.org
Schedule management: Sunbird®
Graphics: OpenOffice.org 3.0 Drawing
Audio & video: Totem Video Player
Accessory: gedit Text Editor