I went over to the Sony Building in Ginza after our iChat about the new Sony Clie PEG-UX50. They had two units of the CLIE PEG-UX50 on display and there were people waiting in line to try them out as it was lunch time.
The units went on sale here last Saturday, August 9th for ¥69,800 (roughly US$580). The UX50 was very light and this is due to the abundance of magnesium and plastic used in these units. Gone is the cool metallic “weight” of the NR/NX series. Even with the power cradle (PEGA-JC40K) attached to the bottom it felt quite light. Read More…
I went over to the Sony Building in Ginza after our iChat about the new Sony Clie PEG-UX50. They had two units of the CLIE PEG-UX50 on display and there were people waiting in line to try them out as it was lunch time.
The units went on sale here last Saturday, August 9th for ¥69,800 (roughly US$580). The UX50 was very light and this is due to the abundance of magnesium and plastic used in these units. Gone is the cool metallic “weight” of the NR/NX series. Even with the power cradle (PEGA-JC40K) attached to the bottom it felt quite light.
You can also purchase an extra battery that fits on the bottom which extends the life of your CLIE battery threefold (PEGA-EB40). The screen was bright and at 480 x 320 viewing Web pages wasn’t too bad. The two status LEDs on the side of the screen for Bluetooth and LAN access is a nice touch. The keyboard keys have a good feel to them but I find the keys still too small to be practical. Most of the users were using their two thumbs to type.
Several buttons on the bottom of the keyboard let you access your applications easily. Many of the apps seemed to run pretty fast on Palm OS 5.2 although I don’t know if this is due to the new Sony CPU Handheld Engine processor, the CXD2230GA. The rotating camera is a 310,000 pixel CMOS unit with a 3x digital zoom.
They’ve even included a keychain/lanyard loop on one corner so you can attach wrist and neck straps to the unit. The built in Bluetooth and wireless LAN are nice features but I was hoping for a better keyboard. And at US$580 here and US$699 in the US, it’s a steep upgrade for those already using a CLIE. Maybe I’ll have to stick to my PB 12″ for a little while.
