Customer Reviews

Sony Clie PEG-SJ30 Color Handheld

5 star:		(27)
4 star:		(13)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

I had very clear evaluation criteria when I started my research on my quest to upgrade to color PDA. I wanted (in that order) -

1. Color screen with high resolution so as to allow me to show my huge collection of pictures.
2. Good form factor - so that I felt at ease as I continued to use my new PDA.
3. Expandibility - because the gap between the PDAs and the PCs are closing faster than you think.
4. Battery life - Often times I take notes on my PDA during long meetings and the last thing I wanted was to have the battery drained out in the middle of an important meeting.
5. 802.11b compatibility (if possible, NOT a key decision factor)

I had been using Palm OS based devices for over 5 years but still I was very open to move to Pocket PC because of a huge upper hand of the Pocket PCs over the Palm devices in networking capabilities. And also because in the last couple of years, the Pocket PCs have shed a lot of their bulk have become reasonably small to be carried in a pocket.

I narrowed my search down to 4 PDAs -

1. iPaq 3975 - mainly because of its bluetooth capabilities and highly sharp transflective TFT screen
2. Toshiba e740 - because of built-in WiFi (802.11b), expansion slots for both secure digital as well as compact flash and changeable battery pack
3. Sony Clie T665
4. Sony Clie SJ30

Eliminated iPaq 3975 because even after paying that high a price, the PDA would still not have compact flash and built-in 802.11b. The screen resolution was good but not close to that of the Clie.

Eliminated e740 mainly because of extremely bad form factor. The device just did not feel good in hand. The record and power-on buttons could easily be unintentionally turned on. Its battery consumption was also a little peculiar. All of a sudden, it would drop from 80% to 10%.

The Clies beat every other PDAs in their screen resolution. The iPaq and the Toshiba appeared amateurish as compared to the Clies as far as image sharpness was concerned. On paper, the difference in resolution was only 25% (240 horizontal dots as opposed to 320,) but it looked a lot different.

The Clies were also a winner in the category of third party applications (Palm clearly out numbered Pocket PCs in this category).

The Wireless compatibility of the iPaq and the Toshiba was negated by the terrible battery life especially when the wireless connectivity is ON. If your PDA battery is drained out in minutes, there is no point in having networking advantage.

The SJ30 beat out the T665 because I did not want to pay the extra money for MP3 because I have a good MP3 player and I want to use my PDA as a PDA not as a music system. Secondly, the SJ30 is significantly smaller in length though its depth is a little more. But overall, the device felt good in hand and the difference in processing power (33 MHz as opposed to 66MHz for T665) did not make much difference in the performance of the device.

My conclusion was that the Pocket PC based devices are closing the gap with the Palm based devices but the Palm devices are still ahead in feature over price ratio. Pocket PC have a huge advantage in networking and wireless connectivity but the Windows operating system drains out so much power that the devices start groping for it very very quickly. And when it comes to Palm OS based devices, you just can't beat a Clie.

I have been using my SJ30 for a couple of weeks. All my colleagues and buddies who have seen my new PDA have all been amazed with the sharpness of the screen and the amazing form factor for a price that does not dent holes in your pocket.

My old Palm V, which was purchased in late 1999, never was the same after I dropped it early in 2001. I tried to be patient, but having tasks disappear when a due date is assigned sort of defeats the gadget's raison d'etre, right? To make a long story short, I needed to get a new PDA PDQ!

This Sony Clie is a great little device! I looked at more expensive Sony models like the T665C and the NR70, but didn't feel I needed the 66 mhz processor, MP3 capability, or the ability to use it as a remote control for my home entertainment center. If you use a PDA to keep your contacts organized, remind you to do things, keep track of appointments - in short, the basic things a PDA was created to do when it started to replace those old bulky organizers - avoid over-spending and buy this device.

Naturally, the Palm OS works flawlessly, and it remains as intuitive as it did back in the Version 2.0 days. Sony throws in other programs that enable the device to display and edit Word documents, Excel spreadsheets, and Powerpoint presentations. There are other applications, too, but I haven't had the chance or the need to use them. I will say that spreadsheets look terrific!

The screen's resolution is magnificent, and is superior to the resolution found on the Palm M515. 320 x 320 beats 160 x 160, or whatever poor resolution the M515 has. The plastic case is beautiful and matches the other Sony appliances around the house. It appears to be thicker than the Palm M series, but it is still light enough to put in your pants pocket and not make you feel uncomfortable.

Set up was really easy. I have a Windows XP computer at home, and I can't for the life of me understand how anyone could mess it up! I was up and running in no time at all, with my first Hot Sync completed, and all my data sitting on MS Outlook in my Sony Clie. Follow instructions, and you should have no problems.

The one thing that is missing is a cradle. The USB cable and power connector provided is nice, but I miss seeing the device standing tall in a cradle. Sony offers cradles, but I'll let you decide if the price tag is worth it.

If you are looking for fancy bells and whistles, and are able to afford the inflated price tags, this is not the PDA for you. But if you are looking for a high-res color screen, expandability (via Memory Sticks), Palm OS simplicity, basic functionality, lithium-ion battery, an attractive package, and a fair price, this PDA deserves lots of consideration.

I have no problems recommending this device wholeheartedly.

The Clie PEG-SJ30 may not have all the bells and whistles of the more expensive PDA's like an MP3 player and digital camera, or built in keyboard. But what it can do, it excels at. I held onto my Palm IIIxe until I could find a reasonably priced color unit with some real improvements in features and performance, and this fit the bill. Sony has combined the most important high-end features, i.e. color, HiRes display and memory expansion, in a stylish, compact unit.

The Clie has several nice features. The screen takes maximum advantage of the form factor of the unit with just a small border around the sides and top. At 320x320 and 65,000 colors, the beautifully bright and clear screen beats any other PDA I've seen at this price point. Photographs can be imported using the included Sony PG Pocket software, and are crisp and clear. The extra memory comes in handy. With 16MB of RAM and a Memory Stick socket, I've been able to load all my favorite apps, games, and e-books, and still have 8 MB free. Sony struck a nice balance between size and feel with this unit. It's small enough to fit in a large pocket, but big enough to hold comfortably in the hand. The application buttons have been enlarged so that they are much easier to use than the T series which looked slick but felt awkward. The Jog Dial and Back buttons on the side are helpful for scrolling through documents or moving between apps. A lithium-ion rechargeable battery provides reasonable life - I get 6-7 hours of use from a full charge. The stylus has a removable top which can be used to push the recessed reset button on the back of the unit.

There are a few limitations of the SJ30 versus more expensive models. Instead of a cradle, the unit comes with a rather flimsy cable which provides a USB connection and a connection to the AC adapter/charger. It lacks an MP3 player or video camera, but it's fine as an organizer, photo viewer, and mini game console. The screen is not as large as the Clie NX70, but it's quite easy to view text and graphics with its HiRes color display. The flip cover has somewhat limited usefulness -- you wouldn't want to throw it in a bag without putting it in a case, but it's fine for protecting the screen while it is carried around or put in an empty pocket. The case is plastic rather than metal, but seems to be pretty sturdy, and doesn't seem to scratch easily.

There is plenty of great software (and a lot of freeware) for the Palm OS, and this is a big advantage for the Clie. I had several applications that I had purchased for the Palm and so I was reluctant to switch to a Pocket PC. The Clie comes packaged with several applications, including Documents to Go which synchronizes Excel and Word documents with the PC and supports the HiRes display. I had this app on the IIIxe but it was hard to get more than a few cells on the screen at once. With color and the HiRes display it's easy to use and view several lines of text at once. There are quite a few games and applications that now support the HiRes 320x320 screen of the Clie and they look great. I recommend a third party launcher such as Launcher X (my favorite) or Silver Screen. These smooth access to data and applications on the handheld, make it easier to manage them on the memory stick and look very nice in HiRes. Several applications support accessing files on the Memory Stick including Documents to Go. Memory Sticks are available in sizes up to 128 MB so there's plenty of room for applications and data. In addition, a backup program is included that copies the entire system to the Memory Stick.

Software Tip: If you're having trouble writing fast with Graffiti (like me) check out FitalyStamp. The application works by providing a stick-on overlay that has a stylus-travel optimized keyboard layout and the overlays can be cut to fit over the graffiti area. It's easy to get 30-40 words per minute with practice.

Performance vs. the Palm IIIxe is significantly better. Even large apps (1 MB) launch quickly and scrolling and switching between screens is very rapid. Reading files or launching apps from the Memory Stick is significantly slower, however. For example it takes about 15 seconds to load Zap!2016 (approx 337 KB) from the Memory Stick, but it's a small price to pay for nearly unlimited expansion.

I only ran into a couple of minor difficulties when using the Clie SJ30. After I took the unit out of the box (and charged it) I tried to beam apps from my old Palm into the device, but the IR port wasn't working. Finally, I hit the reset button on the back and then it worked fine, and hasn't had a problem since. Also, using the Memory Stick to store data and applications isn't explained very well in the documentation. After poking around a lot, I finally figured out how to transfer apps to the Memory Stick using Launcher X. I'm not sure if there are other ways to load apps on the Memory Stick, but with Launcher X, you can drag and drop the icon and then later launch it directly from the memory stick via its icon. I'm not sure how this compares with using SD cards on the Palm since the IIIxe didn't have that capability.

Overall, I'm very pleased with the device. It lets me use my existing Palm software, looks good, feels comfortable, has the color screen that I've been waiting for and does it all at a great price.

I had used my Handspring Visor Deluxe for nearly a year before I purchased this little machine. I wanted a well-built machine with memory expansion, a color screen, and a smaller form factor. And it had to be [inexpensive]. I didn't plan to spend any more than ...which meant that I was looking at the Palm m130, Handspring Treo 90, and the Sony CLIE PEG-SJ30. Due to the features and then a nice price drop on the SJ30 I ended up getting it.

The first thing that literally caught my eye was the screen. It is a spectacular 320x320 pixel 16-bit color screen that is brightly-backlit and also transflective. And the infamous grid-lines that plague 160x160 pixel color handhelds were almost invisible. It has 16MB of RAM, quite a nice amount for storing lots of programs. The Memory Stick slot is nice for adding expansion to hold lots of ebooks and pictures. The jog wheel is incredibly useful once you get used to it. It is also quite small and the thickness of the unit makes it comfortable to hold. It even comes with a well-designed removable flip cover.

I was a bit hesitant to get the SJ30 at first because I haven't had the best of experiences with Sony electronics as far as build quality goes. But the SJ30 is built very well. It feels solid, and even looks like the casing is metal (it's plastic).

My only complaints are the lack of a cradle and the slow speed of the Memory Stick slot. The supplied cable just isn't nearly as convenient as a cradle. I didn't expect the Memory Stick slot to be blindingly fast, but as reported by many reviewers the slot is a bit on the slow side. But these are minor gripes and I wouldn't even consider giving up this machine just for those reasons.

Overall I am extremely pleased with my SJ30. For the money, and a little bit above it, you can't get any better than this.

Why I bought this PDA?
1.This is smaal and attractive. looks better than any other PDA. made with unbrackable plastic.
2.Screen is superb. in my opinion best..just best.
3.Best battery life(this is my third PDA. I have used T615c, and T665c. But I can say that the battery life in SJ30 is superb. I was really upset with my T665c.
4.My friends told me that I should have waited till last of October, becoz now OS 5 is ready to be launch. But in my opinion this OS is enough for my use. processor is 33mhz....good enough. sony drops their model easily...and I found that this was the model, I was looking for. I like clean shapes, that's why I bought GRX series sony laptop. and that is why i bought SJ30 too.
Now read my viwe in detai and i'm sure after reading this you will love SJ30.
MY DETAIL OPINION-
This is a real winner from Sony; it's color screen is clearly the best in the industry. Why? Sony supplies the LCD screen to palm, handspring, HP, Compaq (now HP), Toshiba, etc and of course has reserve the best screens to use in its own organizers. This is easily verified by comparing units in Best Buy, CompUSA, etc. Make no mistake, if you want a pure productivity tool; this is one of the best Palms (in this case I am using Palm to decsribe all PDAs including units that use PalmOS, Pocket PC, Psion, etc) you can get. It is very fast in all day to day usage (please ignore the 33MHz to 206MHz comparison of some Pocket PC troll; the Audiovox Maestro he mentioned may have a faster chip but when it comes to real program switching for example, it is painfully slow. Don't take my word for it either, try it out in a store for yourself. I must admit though that the 206MHz chip processes audio and video files properly and that's why listening to music or watching video is possible on a Audiovox Maestro. However, battery life is then naturally shortened and who wants to watch a 2 hour movie on a 3.5" screen?) Backl to the review; it's true that Sony has cut some corners in making this unit; the body is made of plastic but I find it of high quality and will stand up to good use. The short lenght of the unit makes using the scroll wheel a little difficult for me and I also find the scroll wheel slightly difficult stiff. However, I expect this stiffness to go away with time. The datebook, todo list, address book are simple to use for most computer illiterate; for the advanced users there exist Datebk5, Supernames shareware programs that you can install that will let you customize to your heart's content. All in all this is a great organizer. I suggest that is you want to buy it to test drive it in your local store and at leat compare it with a few other models. As of now (Sep 26,2002) the Sony T615 and T665 are still available for comparable prices so you may want to check those out too..but remember battery life in both the models are really bad.

My first PDA was a Palm m500, which I still have, but I wanted color and I settled on a Sony SJ30 for my color PDA.
Compared to similarly priced Palm models, the Sony devices offer better displays and more memory for the same money. But those differences may not be all that they appear to be on the spec sheet. With the backlight on, the Sony SJ30 screen is definitely the best color screen available, but with the backlight off, it is the worst. The consequence is that you will always use your Clie with the backlight on, which greatly diminishes battery life. The marketing literature promises that the battery life of the SJ30 is 15 days, but that figure is based upon 30 minutes of daily use with the backlight off (which you won't do). In the real world, battery life is about two hours.
Secondly, although the Sony devices appear to give you twice the memory for the same money, the truth is that the Sony system (i.e. support for the memory stick) requires more memory for system software and includes some very fancy applications (i.e. World Alarm Clock) that you will not be able to delete from the device. Memory stick just does not integrate into the Palm OS as well as Flash Card, and therefore imposes costs in additional software needed to support the memory stick and is also significantly slower than the flash card. Moving programs and data to and from expansion media is much easier with Flash Card than Memory Stick. The only attraction of the memory stick is compatibility with Sony digital cameras and a lower price per megabyte of memory.
The higher resolution of the screen is likewise of limited value, since the tiny size of the screen is the real limitation to presenting information, and not the pixel size.
My conclusion is that the SJ30 is great for use around the house or anywhere that a charger is available, but if you need a PDA that can be away from the charger for more than two hours at a time, with effortless memory expansion, maybe you should also consider a Palm m130, m515 or Tungsten.

With the new, lower price on the Sony SJ30, there is now no reason to buy Palm-branded color models unless you prefer their form factor or want wireless capability.

The CLIE SJ30 provides everything you want in a Palm --
1) High resolution, brilliant color screen has 4 times the pixels of similarly-priced Palm models.
2) Long-lasting lithium battery.
3) A robust 16MB of memory, plenty to run all the Palm programs you could care for including the three I consider essential: Mapopolis (a mapping program from Mapopopolis.com with keyword-searchable street maps), Avantgo (an online news service that downloads articles to your palm) and Vindigo (a restaurant, movie and city guide).

The CLIE models, which start at just over a hundred clams, have a nice form factor, though not quite as elegant as the Palms, and upper-level models feature the best high-res color screens for less than what you'd pay for a similar PALM-branded model. But I've heard Sony's customer service is weak compared to Palm's easy-as-pie returns. These things do break from time to time, so keep that in mind.

Here's a basic PALM product guide:

Zire/Palm m100: Bottom of the line. Designed to suck you in but leave you wanting more. Think of this as the Chevy Chevette of Palms. Plagued by small screens.
Palm m105: The 8MB version of the m100. Fine, except needs batteries and plagued by small screen.
Palm 125: Ooh, expansion slot that you will probably never use. Still plagued by small screen.

Palm 130: Adds color, lithium battery to m125. Not bad, but screen still small, low res.
Palm m500: Still the standard for monochrome Palms. Lightweight, with a clear, large screen and a classic form-factor that gave the company its name. 8MB, expandable, lithium-polymer battery. Triple-Aces.
Palm m505: Discontinued color model features horrible washed out color screen. AVOID.
Palm m515: Soon to be discontinued Color PALM. Very good, but no Palm TUNGSTEN T. Expensive.
Palm TUNGSTEN T: The top of the line. Finally, Palm builds a PALM that can compete with a Pocket PC. Too bad they priced it like one too. Triple Aces design, with fabulous ergonomics, fantastic high-res active screen, battery, bluetooth, and drop-down graffiti pad. BUT, model due out next year will have phone function too.

Also check out the new Handspring Treo models, which feature thumbpads and a small form factor (some with phones).

I went through a progression. As a first time PDA buyer, I bought the SL10 at Target.com, liked it so much I returned it and bought the SJ20. The backlighting on the SJ20 was incredible and I like it so much I returned it and bought the SJ30. Go with the SJ30 this PDA has more bang for it's buck than any other on the market right now (12/02). Battery life is short, but buy a cradle and keep it charged. It's a little chunky for a PDA, but I'm telling you the LCD, Memory 16MB internal and 128M expanded and software that Sony throws in is untouchable by the competition. All this nonsense about Sony's not syncing with Macs is hot air. I sync at work on a Mac and at home on a PC, and it's flawless - without additional extensions for the Mac.

Sony continues to rock the entire PDA industy with its Clie line. Within weeks Sony introduced a low-end, mid-range and high-end unit in the SJ series. Other then price these units clearly target a particular consumer group. Its just a matter of weighing the features with the cost to determine which unit is best for you.

With virtually the same number of models ever released as palm there is really no question about quality and reliability.As a matter of fact some may argue that despite the much larger share of Palm over Sony in terms of units sold, with the past year it has been Sony who has picked up the slack as the Industy leader in innovation. In an industry which is highly dependent on innovation, Sony has done more for PALM in the past year and a half then PALM has done for PALM in the 5 years that they have been around.

Since all three units have identical exteriors I will review three at the same time. The buttons are a vast improvement from the T-series but may still pose as a problem with them being to close to each other. Otherwise the screen is terrific on all three and visual output is crisp whether monochrome or color. Hi-Res or 320x320 pixels is a huge improvement on palms 160x160 pixels. I may be exaggerating going back to 160x160 resolution is like going back to playing PONG on the Atari after playing Mario Brothers on the Nintendo.

In terms of battery life the SJ-10 and SJ-20 will give you a week's worth of battery life while the SJ-30 will give you 3-4 solid days of typical use before requiring a recharge. Although clie's are known to have slightly less battery life as its Palm counterparts, it certainly makes up for it with its screen.

Preference is really what will dictate which unit is best for you. If color is not important and all you need to do is input dates, contacts and notes then the SJ-10 will fit the bill. But if you need to do all those things plus games, documents and to view web clippings then the SJ-20 might be better suited for your needs.

This series is a great addition to the clie line with a unit for virtually everyone. You can't go wrong with any of them.

Given its name, the SJ(Society of Jesus?)30, this should be a hot seller into the Vatican-dominated part of the market.

On a more serious note, I've owned several different Palm Platform and Pocket PC PDAs, use them intensively in my work and daily life, and I'm a big believer in them. But despite the big improvements in speed, memory capacity, applications, wireless connectivity, color-screen technology, and so on, until now there really wasn't anything that would fit comfortably in your front shirt pocket, where I like to carry my Palm.

That's going to be the big appeal of this PDA. The difference between a 33 MHz and 66 MHz processor, such as with the PEG T615C and the PEG T655C, respectively, is really, from what I can see, hardly noticeable. Also, unless you're a real memory hog, 8 vs. 16 megs of RAM isn't that big a deal either, unless you like to carry lots of ebooks around (like I do), photos, or something equally memory hungry.

So for most people, I think the small footprint of this PDA is going to be its most attractive feature. It's even smaller than the original T615C, mainly in length, where it's about 3/4 inch shorter. And the T615C itself was which even smaller and lighter than the Palm Vx, being the thinnest in profile and lightest PDA ever offerred up to that point.

The SJ30's only competition is the new Palm Tungsten, which is certainly another great little unit. I compared both of them side by side, and the Palm looks to be a tiny bit wider and about the same height, but they're both very close. The Palm is $200 more because of the built-in Bluetooth technology. But the Sony has the 320 x 320 drop-dead gorgeous screen and the jog-wheel feature, which the Palms don't have.

Whichever one you decide to buy, having a Palm is one of the greatest productivity tools for today's busy, on-the-go lifestyle. It's also one of the most fun things you can carry around with you, and I'm always figuring out new and interesting things to do with mine, and I can't say enough good about them.