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CNET editors' rating:
3.5 stars
Very good
Detailed editors' rating - Average user rating: 3.0 stars out of 19 reviews
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Product summary
The good: Decent software bundle; MP3 playback; standard-size headphone jack; rechargeable and replaceable battery.
The bad: Inferior to the competition in responsiveness and screen brightness; no voice recorder.
The bottom line: The latest midlevel CLIE is a capable handheld, but it fails to measure up to Palm's lower-priced Tungsten E on almost every count.
Specifications: OS provided: Palm OS 5.2.1; Installed RAM: 32 MB; Processor: Motorola 200 MHz; See full specs
CNET editors' review
- Reviewed on: 11/04/2003
- Released on: 10/01/2003
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| A central barrel roller has replaced the side-mounted jog dial of previous CLIEs. | Unlike the step-down model, the TJ35 has a standard headphone jack. |
Flanking the navigation controls are the standard Palm shortcut keys for the calendar, contacts, the task list, and notes. The top of the unit is home to an infrared port, a stylus receptacle, a Memory Stick Pro slot, and a standard 1/8-inch headphone jack. The Power/Hold button sits alone on the right side, a docking connector and an indicator light share the bottom, and a small speaker lives on the back with the Reset switch. The left side is empty so that it can accommodate the included snap-on screen cover.
Unless you buy the $30 docking cradle, the only way to recharge and sync is with the included dongle, which has ports for interfacing with the provided AC adapter and USB cable. The small, squarish dongle snaps into the docking connector.
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| The TJ35 ships with a protective screen flap but not a docking cradle. | For charging and USB syncing, you need the small adapter. If you lose it, you're out of luck. |
The 320x320-pixel, 65,536-color backlit screen is adequate, but it's grayer and slightly washed out compared with the Tungsten E's ultrabright display. That's true even when the Sony is at full brightness and the Palm is at 50 percent. But unlike with the Tungsten, which has a sealed case, you can replace the TJ35's rechargeable lithium-ion battery. A robust 200MHz i.MXL processor powers the TJ35. Sony was somewhat stingy with the internal memory, limiting it to 32MB of RAM (23MB of which are available) and 8MB of ROM. But the expansion slot supports media of capacities up to a whopping 1GB. The storage space and the included backup software will protect your data from power losses and reboots. If you get the TJ35, you should definitely invest in a Memory Stick or two.
This CLIE runs the latest Palm OS (5.2.1) and includes all the standard Palm applications, such as Calculator, Memo Pad, and To Do List. Notably, Sony stuck with the older Address Book and Date Book programs, so you don't get the enhanced functionality of the Tungsten E's new Contacts and Calendar apps. In addition to the aforementioned backup utility, you'll find a music player, a photo viewer, text and "freestyle" memo pads, a world clock, and a file manager. Rounding out the bundle are Picsel Viewer for reading Microsoft Office documents; Decuma Latin for handwriting recognition (useful if your Graffiti talents aren't up to snuff); and lots of other utilities, games, and trial software.
If you supply your own headphones and a Memory Stick, the TJ35 makes a decent MP3 player. Those uninterested in such multimedia niceties should consider saving $50 with the PEG-TJ25. It's the TJ35 with half the RAM (16MB) and no headphone jack. Compared with the Tungsten E, the TJ35 has a faster processor and the same amount of memory, but the Sony still performed a bit more sluggishly. Whenever we toggled between applications, the Tungsten E switched effortlessly, but the CLIE displayed its Please Wait screen for a brief but noticeable delay. Similarly, when we listened to MP3 music while using other applications, the TJ35's audio stuttered, whereas the Tungsten E's was smooth.
As we discussed in the Design section, the TJ35's screen is significantly duller than the displays on competitive handhelds. But our MP3 files played back fine, though excessive street noise will overcome the volume unless you wear noise-isolation headphones.
The Tungsten E ships with the cool Kinoma software, but the TJ35's bundle includes no programs for converting or viewing video files. We installed our own and ran a video loop with the screen brightness at 50 percent. The unit expired after 3 hours, 40 minutes. That result is about average, but if you use the backlight judiciously and limit multimedia operation, you can go several days without having to recharge.
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User reviews
- Average user rating: 3.0 stars out of 19 reviews
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