Sony CLIÉ PEG-UX50
CNET Editors' Review
CNET Editors' Rating
- Reviewed by: David Carnoy
- Released on:
- Reviewed on:
The good: Clamshell design; tactile minikeyboard; built-in Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and digital camera; MP3 support; generous software package; 104MB of total memory.
The bad: As expensive as an entry-level laptop; no included Mac support; so-so battery life.
The bottom line: The handheld meets the laptop in Sony's fully loaded, clamshell-style CLIE UX-50 PDA.
Like its not-so-distant cousins, the NX73V and the NX80V, the UX50 features a built-in digital camera for shooting pictures and low-resolution video clips; you'll also find a sharp, high-resolution "flip and rotate" screen. But as noted, the UX50's 480x320-pixel display has a landscape (horizontal) rather than a portrait (vertical) orientation, which makes it more suitable for viewing Web content, pictures, and video.
Measuring 4.1 by 3.4 by 0.75 inches and weighing 6.2 ounces, this model is more compact than its cousins, but the backlit keyboard is more tactile. The keys are generously sized, easier to depress, and better spaced, thanks to the landscape orientation. Instead of the side scrollwheel found on most CLIEs, the UX50 has a well-placed "barrel scroller" at the bottom of the keyboard next to the ever important Back button and three customizable quick-launch buttons. A small stylus is stealthily sheathed in the front-right corner.
As noted, Bluetooth connectivity is available, and it will be most useful to those who have a data-ready, Bluetooth-equipped cell phone. If you're signed up for data services with your carrier, you'll be able to wirelessly retrieve and send e-mail while in the coverage area. Needless to say, a broadband Wi-Fi connection is significantly faster and better for most of your Web-surfing needs. If you happen to have a Bluetooth-equipped camera, you can take pictures remotely from up to 30 feet away. Like most CLIE handhelds, this model comes with an impressive software bundle. Sony's tricked-out version of the Palm OS 5.2 has all the usual PDA features, including the venerable Date Book and Address Book, rather than the updated Contact and Schedule software found in Palm's new Tungstens. You can also sync with Microsoft Outlook--but Mac users will have to purchase an extra software package to sync with their machines. An e-mail client (CLIE Mail), a Web browser (NetFront), an image viewer/editor, a Microsoft Office document viewer, and a movie recorder are preinstalled. Other bundled apps run the gamut from useful programs--such as a world clock, an image album, and Presenter-to-Go--to various utilities and demos. In addition to taking instant voice memos, the handheld plays MP3 or ATRAC3 sound files, as well as MPEG-4 movies. Unlike the NX73V and the NX80V, the UX50 doesn't come with a wired remote or earbud headphones. Using our test headphones, we found that the audio was rich and vibrant, though we wanted to push the volume beyond its top level in noisy environments such as the subway. The PEG-UX50 runs Sony's new Handheld Engine processor. The proprietary Dynamic Voltage and Frequency Management (DVFM) technology is supposed to throttle the chip's operating frequency from as low as 8MHz to as high as 123MHz, thus saving precious clock cycles and battery power, depending on the demands of individual applications. Intel's XScale processors operate on a similar system but have a top speed of 400MHz. Then again, speed ratings usually don't tell the full story, and practically speaking, we had no complaints about performance. Our test movie clips and games--trial versions of GTS (a car-racing game) and Zap2016--not only looked good but played smoothly on the sharp, bright, 65,536-color, 480x320-pixel display. Battery life was respectable but not stellar. With Bluetooth active and screen brightness set at the halfway point, the UX50 was able to run a looping video clip for 2 hours, 50 minutes. With Bluetooth turned off, the loop ran 3 hours even. While Bluetooth activation didn't seem to adversely affect those tests, when we accidentally left it active for a full 24 hours, we came back to find the battery almost completely drained. In other words, activate it only when you need it. A short note about the 300,000-pixel camera: It's the same imaging system that's in the NX73V--that is, a VGA camera that takes passable 640x480 images suitable for e-mailing and viewing on the device. It's a small step up from a camera phone. As one might expect, since the UX50 doesn't have a flash, it does best in well-lit environments. The video is decent, but again, we're talking Webcam--not camcorder--quality. Hide Review David Carnoy Hunkered down in New York City, Executive Editor David Carnoy covers the gamut of gadgets and writes his Fully Equipped column, which carries the tag line "The electronics you lust for." He's also the author of "Knife Music," a novel that's available at Amazon, bn.com, and as a Kindle, iBooks, or Nook e-book. User ReviewsSee all user reviewsRating BreakdownMost recent user reviewsShowing 3 of 126 reviews stars "Cliè... eh" By nuz13Pros: Great Video Cons: Sucky Internet Summary: this thing is a neat little device but it has some kinks: stars "Best Current Design" ByPros: The design is the part of the UX50. The mini laptop look makes it very easy to use. The keyboard works very nice and the landscape lcd screen is much better than portrait screen pdas. Battery life isn't bad, the recorder and camera eat it up quick of cour Cons: The only thing that ticked me off is I had to upgrade the version of intellisync to transfer my outlook files to the pda. Other than that the only other thing bad is I spent $500 for it plus my 512 memory card and within a year or two a better product wil SpecificationsSee full specsQuick Specs
|
