Sony Clie PEG-UX50 Handheld Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)I have had an older Sony Clie for a few years. I was thoroughly impressed with that one. It served me well. I then had to replace it, and was solidly leaning toward another Sony product. The features of the UX50 series impressed me very much. But it does have some shortcommings.
Pros:
* Small size. Without a doubt, this is a great unit that fits nicely in my shirt pocket.
* Beautiful screen. It is clear and bright. It is a bit smaller than the older unit, but it is perfectly legible.
* Lots of internal memory. This means I can record a bunch of voice memo's or quick low-res pics from the built in camera w/o using a memory stick.
* Toolbar. There is a little toolbar along the side next to the silk to pull up commonly used features quickly. (like clock, speaker and memory stick media info)
* Built in Keyboard. I love it. It even has a backlight. Not too difficult to use, unlike smaller kbds on other units. The keys are slightly raised.
* Landscape working environment. The "silk" is along the side, and when not being used, the silk can be hidden giving an expanded screen to show text or other items in the silk area. This widescreen mode is a much more efficient use of screen real-estate.
* New handwriting recognition. Decuma is very natural, and has a very good recognition rate. But... see below...
* Rotate/Swivel screen.Use the unit as a micro-laptop, or as a micro-tablet.
* Bluetooth and WiFi. Very easy to setup and use.
Cons:
* This unit only works in landscape mode. I prefer holding the unit in my hand in portrait mode. There doesn't appear to be any setting in software to change this.
* The design favors wireless hotsync, since USB cable is very awkward to plug into side of unit.The cradle should provide the USB connection, and when inserted in the cradle, the USB connection is passed through the cradle (one less wire to insert)
* The battery life is terrible on the UX50 (even compared to the three year old unit I replaced). Perhaps the keyboard light uses up much more energy.
* The memory stick and stylus can come out too easily. I have nearly lost my stylus twice. The end of the memory stick protrudes just a bit too far, and can be easily unlocked.
* New Graffiti is difficult to get used to after a few years of proficiency with the old Graffiti.Some of the strokes are not as easy to use. Perhaps I'll get used to it, but my entry rate is significantly slower.
* Decuma takes up a large amount of screen space when used. There doesn't appear to be any way to shrink it. Also when in wide screen mode, decuma still only uses 2/3 of the screen (the rest of the screen is unusable)
* Decuma should be used in Portrait mode (replacing the Silk). This would free up more screen space, and would still be natural.
* The speaker mute feature should have a timeout, so I can mute for only 1/2 hour or so while in a meeting, but then get my audible alarms afterward.
* Cannot "type" special symbols from the keyboard. I use the bullet symbols all the time, but must enter them using graffiti.
I like the unit. Everybody I show it to is very impressed. The hardware is well designed. If they come out with software that fixes some of my above issues, then I would wholeheartedly recommend this above any thing else presently available.

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Product Description:
The PEG-UX50, a new Clie handheld from Sony, is a personal entertainment communicator. It is extremely portable, at 6 oz. (including stylus), and features integrated wireless LAN (802.11b) and Bluetooth interface. The high-resolution TFT Color Display (480 x 320 dots, 65,536 colors) has swivel screen design. The automatic data back-up feature backs up data to non-volatile memory (16MB). There is a dedicated internal media memory (29MB) for storing multimedia content. Other features include a built-in 310K pixels CMOS rotating camera with 3x digital Zoom (JPEG, 640 x 480 resolution), built-in QWERTY-layout with a wide-pitch keyboard with backlight, video recording (MPEG-4 compatible, 30 fps, 160 x 112), and playback. Other features include:*Dedicated Application Buttons for Launching Web Browser, Mail and Date Book Applications.*Integrated Memory Stick Slot. (Compatible with Memory Stick Pro Media)*Center Jog Dial Navigator with Back Button*Built-in Voice Recorder with Adjustable Recording Sensitivity (Built-in Monaural*Built-in Audio Player (Compatible with MP3 and ATRAC3 audio formats) *Polyphonic Audio Alert Feature*Key Applications (CLIE Mail, World Alarm Clock, etc.) Pre-installed in the ROM*Bundled with Decuma Input Handwriting Recognition Software (Decuma AB).*Bundled with Picsel Viewer Software (Picsel Technologies, Ltd.) for Viewing Native*PowerPoint, PDF and HTML Files*Rechargeable Lithium-ion Polymer Battery (Internal)Box Contents: Clie Handheld, Charger Cradle, USB Hot Sync Cable, AC Power Adapter, Hand strap, Retractable Stylus, Installation CD-ROM, Instructional Manual, Graffiti2 Card, End User License Agreement

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