Sony CLI? PEG-SJ33

CNET editors' rating: 3.0 stars Good
Detailed editors' rating
Design: 7.0
Features: 7.0
Performance: 6.0
Overall score: 6.8 (3.0 stars)
• Average user rating: 3.5 stars out of 43 reviews
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Product summary

CNET editors' review

• Reviewed by: Roger Hibbert
• Reviewed on: 02/13/2003
• Updated on:02/18/2003
• Released on: 02/17/2003

Hot on the heels of the PEG-SJ30 comes Sony's newest CLIE, the SJ33. It seems that the company has taken some of our criticisms of the SJ30 to heart, for the new model is different and better designed than its elder sibling, boasting a slick clamshell configuration and integrated MP3 playback. While the SJ33 is not without flaws, its improvements far outweigh its imperfections, making it a good handheld for the money. We like the SJ33'soverall design, which hearkens back to the days of the Walkman. Our review unit was sheathed in charcoal-gray plastic, rounded corners, and a flip-top, protective cover. Unlike the SJ30's detachable cover, the SJ33's faceplate is semitransparent and nonremovable; with the power on, you can see the screen glowing behind tinted plastic. Though it's slightly larger and heavier than the SJ30 at 2.8 by 4.25 by 0.8 inches and 6.1 ounces, this CLIE's design makes it better-looking and much more pocketable than its predecessor.

Compared to the gigantic CLIE NZ90, the SJ33 is a waif.	A slim profile helps the SJ33 slip comfortably into most pockets.

Flip open the lid, and you'll see the same generous, high-resolution screen that's found on the SJ30, with a shortened Graffiti area. The SJ33 has recessed buttons at its bottom that are hard to accidentally push. Unfortunately, the scroll buttons in the PDA's center have atrophied a bit more, making them suitable for scrolling only--not games. Also, the scroll buttons' functions are largely duplicated by the jog dial on the unit's left side. We liked the Back button and the sliding power/hold switch, which is another safeguard against this CLIE powering up without your knowledge. Sony put the Memory Stick slot on top of the unit, next to the infrared port and a new companion: a headphone jack for the unit's built-in MP3 player.

Making progress: Recessed controls are a plus, but the scroll buttons still need work.	Dingle dongle: Sync your CLIE sans cradle at home or away.

No cradle comes in the box; you get just an AC charger, a power/syncing dongle, a USB cable, and a set of headphones. While the headphones lack the in-line remote control that comes with the CLIE PEG-NZ90's phones, they do have a neat, superminiature volume knob. Like the SJ30, the SJ33's rechargeable battery is also removable--once a screw and a panel are removed. The SJ33's cell isn't quite as easy to replace as the fully enclosed batteries found on Pocket PCs such as HP's iPaq H1910.

	"Push back and hold power"; what is Sony trying to say here?

The SJ33 packs a punch with a 66MHz DragonBall Super VZ processor, though it has only 16MB of RAM and 4MB of ROM. Of course, the Memory Stick slot allows you to add as much storage as you can afford. Though both Palm and Sony offer handhelds running Palm OS 5.0, the SJ33 uses OS 4.1.

Despite this CLIE's OS deficiency, users will be happy about its integrated MP3 player and stereo headphones. Sony's audio player supports MP3 and ATRAC3 files, though tunes will play only from a Memory Stick, not the internal memory. Nevertheless, the audio player works well and even has a bass-boost function and a primitive visualization feature.

Holy headphone jack! The integrated MP3 player is a welcome addition.	Rocking to the oldies: The primitive visualization feature reminds us of '70s music TV.

This CLIE comes with as number of programs preinstalled to start entertaining you right off the bat. Among these are Astraware's Bejeweled and Kinoma Player, the latter of which plays converted MPEG files on your handheld. A short video of dolphins is included to demonstrate Kinoma's capabilities.

Sony's standard software bundle--grouped into categories such as Desktop, Image, Utilities, and Third-Party--comes on the installation CD. The Desktop selection includes a CLIE version of Palm Desktop, plus IntelliSync Lite 4.0 to sync contacts and calendar info between your PC and your PDA. The Image category includes PictureGear, which lets you convert images so that they're viewable on the CLIE. However, as we've said before, we'd prefer it if the SJ33 could view image files directly. One letdown is the Kinoma Producer. Though this app makes MPEG files compatible with the SJ33, the bundled version is a demo, good for only one day and able to convert just 15 seconds of video.

The Utilities package offers a few useful titles. Documents To Go and Presenter-To-Go respectively let you view and edit Microsoft Word, Excel, and PowerPoint files. Memory Stick Export lets you drag and drop files to and from the removable media when Memory Stick Import is running on your desktop.

	Seen screen: There's nothing new here, but we always like Sony's hi-res screens.

Within the CLIE, a swift 66MHz DragonBall Super VZ processor provides plenty of number-crunching ability for most tasks. We found the SJ33 to be responsive and more than powerful enough to handle the graphics and the sound of the bundled games such as Race Fever and Zap 2016. Some blips occurred when we played MP3s in the background and switched between applications (to Sony's credit, this issue is mentioned in the manual). MP3 playback--in the absence of any other activity--is good; the speakers play loud enough so that you can still hear the music when you're on a moving train.

The SJ30's same great display is back for an encore performance; with a high, 320x320-pixel resolution and a 65,000-color palette, there's little not to like. The screen is very readable with the backlight on and looks good even in bright light, with the backlight on or off.

Sony rates the CLIE SJ33's battery life at about 4 hours of continuous MP3 playback with the backlight on and up to 10 hours with it off. We didn't test this CLIE with the backlight off, but with it on, the SJ33 squeezed out 3 hours, 50 minutes of music before the unit clammed up due to low battery power.

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User reviews

• Average user rating: 3.5 stars out of 43 reviews
• My rating: 0 stars Write review

• Showing 5 of 43 user reviewsSee all 43 user reviews

• 4.5 stars

  "Great Amount of Features!"

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• 4.0 stars

  "Great PDA if you're looking for an upgrade"

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• 4.0 stars

  "Great machine and software package!"

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• 4.0 stars

  "easily copy MP3's to memory stick"

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• 3.5 stars

  "Lots of features"

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