Customer Reviews

Sony PEG-S360 Clie Handheld

5 star:		(25)
4 star:		(19)
3 star:		(8)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(9)

 

 

I normally dont give entry level units 5 stars but this unit really has managed to separate itself as the KING of entry level units.

The 360 has replaced the 320 as Sony's entry level PDA. As i've said with my review of the m100 and m105 this would be a great gift to newbie's and students. Although it's a monochrome screen its still one of the more defined ones around. Its the only Clie thats 160X160 but its no big deal.

In terms of size its amazingly slim and light. Almost too light. Unlike the other clie's where the back is plastic and the front is a brushed aluminum finish the 360 is all plastic. None the less it still looks and feels good.

Other then the all plastic case, Sony has managed to keep costs low by not including a cradle and a memory stick.

I highly recommend this unit. To techie's and more experienced Palm users i would suggest going with other units but to newbies and students this is the unit to have.

This is one is a doozy. Love the design, love the screen, the backlight mode is the clearest of all the mono PDAs out there, TONS of memory, a great weighted stylus . . . and so on. The reason I give this 3 stars is that this model, like all PDAs that use Lithium Ion batteries, has a serious problem of built in obsolescence. After one year, the battery will start to die, requiring longer and longer periods of charging until it is worn out. Unless you feel like doing without a tool that will no doubt have found its way into your day to day life by spending [alot of money] to send it to Sony to have the battery replaced, you will need to buy a new PDA. This is a SERIOUS flaw with all PDAs that use this battery. I, for one, don't have the income or the interest to buy a new PDA each year. There are service plans (through Best Buy, for example) that take care of this problem for a limited period of time, but overall, this is a large problem. The only way to avoid it is to go with a model that uses AAA batteries. It's inconvenient, but at least you know that you can have the same PDA for years.

I researched PDAs for several months, wishing to upgraded from my beloved Palm IIIxe. I wanted a Reading Machine that would do PIM things well and play occasional games.

Folks, internal memory is really important these days as PalmOS programs get bigger and you want instant access to more things (like big dictionaries, maps and the like). The 360 gives you 16mb, and with Jack Flash/Jack Sprat...you can reclaim almost 2mb of the Flash memory. If you want to keep a lot of non PIM (Personal Information Management) things on your PDA, lots of internal memory beats lots of external memory (CF/Memory Stick, etc.) where "instant access" is concerned.

The memory stick is really nice. I have a 64mb stick and I've already filled it with 2 entire encyclopedias, a 120,000+ word ditionary (dictionary--not just spell-checker), and entire Linux documentation suite, several Christian Classics, 2 versions of the Bible, maps of my state down to the unnamed street level (with driving directions). And -- well, next payday, I'm getting a 128mb stick!

The unit is solid; it sits well in my hand. The flip cover, is better than I expected, but I'm getting an E&B case...any moment now.

The jogdial is wonderful for single-handed use, and the JogBack hack...turns the power-button into the back-button that Sony forgot.

The display is a bit dark, yet it displays pictures much nicer then my "lighter screened" Palm ever did (strange...). The icons are done is grayscale which is a an attractive touch. I've not used a screen protector for almost a month, and there are no scratches that I can see (and I write quite alot on it).

The speed of this display is very quick with no ghosting that I can notice, even running the included car-racing game demo. (This is in stark contrast with the T415 which has a very sluggish display, and it's much darker.)

A "soft" contrast adjustment was another thing I wanted when I moved from my IIIxe. The 360's got one, but I've not yet felt the need to change the contrast -- the default setting works fine for everything. On the IIIxe, I was often adjusting the contrast to get the best view of images, games or just for reading.

The display backlight is WONDERFUL. This display is easily visible in any lighting situation from full daylight, to office, to twilight to darkness. It has an "Indiglo" light backlight that beats anything Palm has done hands-down.

I've found the buttons to be pretty decent. They are indented (even the up/down scroll button) so you can push them with the stylus. The stylus is metalic with plastic ends (one end unscrews to expose a "reset-pin"). The stylus is also bigger than the one used in the T-series.

USB hotsyncing takes a fraction of the time that it did with the serial interface on my IIIxe. However, I really miss the cradle (I didn't think I would, but it's something extra I'm going to buy).

Battery life is wonderful (the main reason I stayed away from the the T615 unit.)

The speaker is still the typical Palm squeeky-beeps, but it is noticably louder than my IIIxe.

I looked hard, and I can't recommend a better PDA for the money!

I owned a Palm M105 for 20 days, and it broke; replaced it with a Palm M100, and it broke in 27 days. Having decided I was done with Palm I scouted the Web and decided the Clie 360 would work for me. The 360 has 16 MB of RAM. I don't know any other PDA which offers that much RAM... The 360 is rechargeable. Again, who else is offering that. The 360 also has a nice, leatherette cover, excellent styling, and a substantial feeling metal stylus. The best thing about the 360 has to be the screen. It is MUCH sharper than the screen on my Palms. There are no streaks or dark spots, and the backlighting is much better. Most other PDAs reverse the screen colors which makes the wording green. This is fine in total darkness, but in a low-light situation, it just washes out. The 360 keeps the wording in black, and uses an indiglo blue behind it. It is highly readable in all lighting situations, and in fact, unless in bright sunlight I always turn the light on. Yes, this eats battery, but since the 360 is rechargeable, that is no problem. The battery in the 360 is Lithion Ion Polymer, which my friend in the cell phone industry tells me is cutting edge. Like most other Sony products, they may not invent the product, but Sony always manages to make the product better, more useful than do the other guys.

I bought the Sony Clie S360 after many hours of research - both online and at BestBuy (actually trying out various features) and this is by far the best sub-$[money]PDA around. In comparing all the features that I was looking for, the Clie S360 either matches or beats the pants off similarly priced Palm and Handspring offerings. Here's my comparison:
Screen size: Clie & Visor are bigger than the new Palms (I don't like the shape or screen size of the new Palms - make sure you see one in your hand before buying a Palm - the display is no good)
Display (readability/clarity): Clie is by far the easiest to read in the dark (by operating the backlit display) and in bright light; crisp display
Memory: Clie is 16 MB, Palm and Handspring under $[money]are 8MB (more RAM = more applications/programs you can store!)
Price: no higher than the other two (I bought mine new for $1[money])
Performance: Same processor or better than the other two
Applications/Compatibility: Same Palm OS hence same as the other two
Hotsync, IR beaming, Memory stick upgrades etc: Can do all these and everything the other two can
Battery: BIG difference here: both handspring and Palm run on AAA batteries - major headaches + expensive. The Clie has a RECHARGEABLE Lithium-ion battery. Battery life is pretty good, by the way - I use it for a 2-3 hours total each week and it only drops to 60-70% - once a week I just plug it in and in less than half an hour it's done!
"But wait there's more": The Clie has everything the other two have PLUS it has a new jog dial wheel on the side, which is GREAT for scrolling (page up - page down) and toggling sideways. If you are like me and can't surf the web without the 'scroll' wheel on your mouse, you will love the jog dial. Once you use it, you'll wonder why the others haven't thought of this before!

In summary, I can't think of why anyone would prefer the Handspring Neo or Visor or the Palm m100-125 to the Clie S360. The more I use it, the more uses I find for it in day to day life (apart from just appointments, reminders, address book etc.) This is the best entry-level PDA money can buy!

What other handheld offers such a strong combination of style and power? None, that's what.

For my first handheld as I'm about to graduate from college, I was undecided, between the Visor Neo, Palm m125 and the Clie-s360. I know I made the right choice with the Clie-s360.

The m125, at a similar price point, offers less ram, a smaller screen size, and an uglier (in my opinion) design that makes it look like a toy. The Clie-s360 has a great silverish two-tone glossy/matte look, and even though it's still a plastic case it feels solid in either hand. The Visor Neo is bulkier, less RAM, and looks and feels like a grocery store check-out line toy.

Once you've tried it, you'll find that the left thumb operated jog-dial becomes as indispensible as your mouse wheel (if you have one, that is. If not, get one!) I'm a lefty, but I still have no problem using the jog-dial to scroll through web pages on AvantGo (bundled). Only time jog-dial and lefthandedness is bad is when using the stylus, but I'm not usually scrolling when writing, so it doesn't really come up.

Tech specs are comparable with other new models, except for the fact that it's a affordable model with internal 16 MB!!! Very nice bonus for now, since few in its class can compare.

You won't be disappointed with this as you first PDA, and as an upgrade from an older PDA you'll be pleased with its design and features!

I recently sold my Palm VIIx (8 MB RAM), which served me well. I'm an undergraduate, and 16 MB is a must for new PDA photo albums, applications, and (of course) games.

I have owned the S360 for a few weeks now, and its slim design and protective cover make it very fashionable and sturdy. The only drawback with the S360 is Sony's inablity to include a CRADLE. The S360 comes with separate USB cradle and recharge adapter cables. I cannot simultaneously recharge and sync the S360.

Sony put out a nice unit just forgot to include a cradle and gave us a cheap hotsync cord instead. The power switch is not the best but if that's all that I can find wrong with this unit then it must be worth the money... Even running e-book applications and vindigo, the battery life indicator just has not moved in 3 days. Awesome. This may be a great choice but if you want a bright screen consider the compaq's or the new units from Audiovox. Otherwise this is a winner.

I bought the Clie last september and have been very happy with its performance thus far. The available memory and battery life are more than sufficient for the new PDA user and the design is very sharp in my opinion. The memory stick technology is an ingenious way to expand/transfer memory between the clie, pc and other digital toys. However, Sony has done a poor job of matching the peripherals/accessories that are offered by Palm. You get no where near the variety with Sony that you do with a Palm or Visor product. I actually had to buy a case that was designed for the Palm VII b/c I could not find one made specifically for the Clie that encased the whole unit. An all-around excellent product that has been undermined by poor marketing.

I'm a big fan of Palm PDA's and even Pocket PCs and have had a Palm Vx, IIIc, and Compaq iPAQ, all of which I've been extremely satisfied with. I was recently checking out the new entries into the field, and this one caught my eye as the best of the current crop of monochrome units, unless you want to spend almost twice the price for the HandEra offering, which, although a great device, is noticeably bigger and heavier, although it offers that great feature of the two expansion slots for both SD and CF cards.

The main attraction for me is the extra 8 megs of RAM for a total of 16 megs. That's plenty of space for lots of programs, data and utilities. I've had to get Data Becker's Compress-It! program to make more room on my 8-meg Palm IIIc. This program allows you to compress even executables by an average of 37% in my experience, but with this PDA I wouldn't need it.

One other feature the Sonys have is the little jog-wheel, which I find a nice touch and very convenient. If I have one gripe about the unit it's that this wheel seems to protrude a little less than on the earlier Sony models, and one other thing is that they're replaced the up-and-down scroll buttons with a toggle switch that is also so low-relief that it's a little difficult to operate. But except for that I really don't have any complaints about it.

While I was at it, I also compared the IIIc to the Sony T615CS color model. I compared it side by side with my Palm IIIc, and at high brightness there's still no comparison to my Palm. The screen seems almost identical to the one on my Compaq iPAQ; it's bright but appears a little milky, but it's okay. The Compaq's appears this way because of the partially back-reflective screen which allows it to be seen out of doors in direct sunlight. Although not as bright as the IIIc, the IIIc's washes out in direct sunlight, so overall this screen is an improvement over the IIIc's in terms of features, but I still like the brightness on my Palm. If I had to use it outdoors much I'd probably prefer the Sony's. Last but not least, the Sony's greater 240 x 320 level resolution screen and 64k colors is just drop-dead gorgeous.

Since I started writing this review, I discovered Sony is coming out with two more units which should start hitting the stores soon, which have screens with 320x480 resolution--the Peg NR70 and NR70V models. Sony does this by removing the physical Graffiti area and providing a virtual one, as on the Pocket PCs.

With these two models, the Palm platform now has a PDA with a screen that is truly the equal of any of the Pocket PCs, something which I will probably appreciate since I really like the greater resolution and colors of my Compaq iPAQ. And my iPAQ 3630 only has 16k colors. I think the current iPAQs now have 64k, as does the Sony Peg615CS and above. The Casio Casiopeias have always had 64k colors, but the first HP Jornada also had 16k (not 64k as had been thought). I also noted that the HP's screen wasn't quite as bright as the Casiopeia's and the iPAQ, but it was okay. The HP also has a newer model since then but I don't know if the color range has been upped to 64k yet, but this gives you some idea of the differences in the screens between the major offerings in this area. All the Pocket PC's are 240x320 resolution. One other difference to be aware of is that the original HP Jornada only had 16 megs of RAM, whereas the Cassiopeia and iPAQ had 32 megs. I suspect the new release of the Jornada now has 32 megs also, but I haven't checked it out personally myself yet so I can't say for sure.

But getting back to the Sony PEG360 monochrome model, it's very lightweight and the screen, although the only Sony with 160 x 160 resolution, is, from what I can tell, the sharpest of the monochrome units out there. The backlight is also pretty bright. I note the built-in apps have been modified and have had some improvements made in the 2 years since I bought my IIIc, which is all to the good, and also there has been at least one major revision to the Palm OS in the almost 2 years since I purchased my IIIc.

All in all, this looks to be a great new PDA at an attractive price for all the features you're getting, and I would actually give it four and a half stars if I could.