Quite some time ago, I had one of these machines to learn Japanese. Then I realised that nothing beats textbooks, pen and paper. It then got relegated to a PDA. It's based on linux but the processor is too slow to run anything properly. As a Japanese reference / learning tool, nothing beats it. As a PDA, it has some novelty features but I've had better.
Top features include 5 hours continuous use when it was new. I have always been impressed with this. However, charging the PDA also took this long, but it does have a removable battery.
Resume was almost instantaneous and you can twist the screen to portrait or landscape mode. The former is useful when using the stylus as the Japanese Character hand recognition is superb. Talking about superb, the touch screen is absolutely gorgeous, even at half brightness. The high resolution possibly helps somewhat.
For those people who are savvy enough, you can install a linux distro. However, the processor is too slow and even if you managed to install the relevant linux apps, they will be slow and drain the battery life. If you have a mac, don't bother syncing with it. Yes, it's possible but it isn't seamless, and can get complicated with configurations and network setup required.
SD card and CF Card Slot is included which goes without saying, is great for storage. However, the latter seems to crash the Zaurus if you remove it while it's switched on. The reboot takes a very long time, from start to finish. Very painful experience.
It's thick. I don't mind so much when it is in landscape mode and resting on a table or holding it with two hands. It's when it's in portrait mode and I start to use the stylus or my fingers, it just feels too thick. Another thing that doesn't help it or rather, it aggravates it, is the fact that it's rather heavy for a PDA.
Applications once loaded are fast, but when you first load them, it can take a good few seconds, and for a PDA that's painful.
It's not helped by the fact that they also look outdated and seriously ugly. Think windows 3.11. There are also some bugs, such as the built in spreadsheet which forgets to save the formulates when saving in excel format. That is just diabolical and I hope there is an update to fix that.
As you can see it has great novelty features that will cater for the gadget lovers and foreign language students, but it's not the PDA for me.
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