Sony CLIE PEG-SJ20 Handheld

I'm no stranger to the Palm world. To some point, I enjoy it. Palms are usually pretty sleek and easy to carry. They make powerful tools when keeping track of appointments or phone numbers. When I received a Sony Clie PEG-SJ20 from a friend, I was pretty hyped.

The Sony Clie marks my second Palm device. My previous ran on Palm OS 3, while the Clie runs on Palm OS 4.1. To be honest, I have absolutely no idea what that even means. If there were any differences between OS 3 and OS 4.1, it's not apparent to the user. Initially, I was pleased to see that the Clie was about the same size as my old Palm m130. At roughly the size of a deck of cards, the Clie fits nicely into your hand. On the side is a wheel for scrolling and selecting. Next to the wheel is a cancel/back button. These work nicely for navigation without tapping. The face sports the typical 4 buttons with an up and a down arrow. You have quick access to your calendar, phone book, tasks, and notes. On the tap screen is the calculator, home, properties, and find functions. It's fairly simple to navigate.

The interface is the same as any other Palm. You have your standard set of categories that will or won't make immediate sense to Palm new comers. After playing with the menus for about 10 minutes, you should be able to figure out the basics. And if all else fails, just hit ALL, and you'll have access to all the options/applications. Because it's a Palm, the entire viewable area is also a touch screen. This means that you have quick access using the stylus (a pen-sized pointer). With this particular model, I've also noticed that it's accurate enough where I could tap with the side of my finger nail and still access the application or data I was seeking without having to pull the stylus out. This works rather well, when you want to use the Clie with only one hand.

If you've been a Palm user for a while, then you already know how to write in Palm. If you're a first time user, then to speed up the input of information, you'll have to learn the Palm styling. Writing on the Clie uses the same stylus strokes as all other Palm devices. For instance, a line down then right will equate to an L. Or, if you do this in the number box, it equates to the number 4. There are 36 different strokes to learn for basic writing. It's fairly intuitive with a few exceptions like F and T. The main problem with Palm strokes is the special characters. To use an ampersand (&) or other characters, the built-in tutorial isn't enough. In fact, you'll have to look these up on the web before you can learn how to speed up your writing.

Compared to my m130, the Clie seemed to be a much more efficient device. With a 33Mhz processor, it was able to speed through menus at a manageable rate. Applications (such as book readers) would take a few seconds to search. The longest I had to wait was 2 minutes while looking for a key passage. Also, when it comes to gaming, the AI could calculate the next move, usually within 30 seconds or so. As such, the Clie has enough power to perform some of the basic tasks.

When it came to gaming, the 320x320 resolution worked. Whether playing Chess or Go, the Clie's screen was clear and easy to read. I can't sight many issues there. I am, however, disappointed because the m130 used a color screen while the Clie is only monochrome. The games I enjoyed in 16 colors were now reduced to black and white.

Sony includes the average sync package with the Clie. Because of this, you can synchronize your contacts, calendar, tasks, and notes with your PC. Although Palm included a very basic application for doing so, the sync also allowed you to use Microsoft Outlook when pulling this information. The customization allowed user to choose what they wanted to synchronize which aspects of their Palm with. As such, you could sync just your contacts and calendar with Outlook, while having your Notes and Tasks in the Palm Desktop application. This level of customization was fairly useful, since I wasn't keen on how Outlook handled some of the tasks and notes. Especially in the area of prioritization, some information was lost in translation between the two.

It's through the Palm Desktop application that you can install new applications. Just drag and drop the file onto the Install Window, and when you sync your Palm, the application will be automatically installed. This makes life much easier because you can just add applications to the window, then the software does the rest.

A bonus to owning a Palm is the multitude of Freeware available for it. If you love Chess, you'll find thousands of sites offering their own versions. Personally, I love Go (Weiqi) and managed to find several sites with this slightly more obscure title. The downside of owning a Palm is the necessity to find applications that will run on your version. With Palm OS 4.1, you can generally run applications for previous versions of the Palm OS. Despite this, since the Clie has only a monochrome display, you must pay mind to the game's resolution. If it requires a color display, you will not be able to play. To my disappointment, I found many titles that were not compatible because of the lack of color in the display.

The Clie was a quick charging device. As such, I could be at full charge within a matter of an hour. This was nice because I wasn't always able to stay in one location while using this. The downside is that the Clie will delete all of your information if the battery goes dead at any point. To conserve battery life, you can turn off the back light by holding the power button for a few seconds. Doing this means that the display will be more difficult to see in certain lighting, but it also triples the battery life.

Overall, I was pretty happy with my Sony Clie PEG-SJ20. I found it to be a nice device for my second round of Palm. I was disappointed by the lack of a color display, but found the 320x320 display worth while. With the Documents2Go software, I was able to edit and create documents compatible with Microsoft Office. I can't say I'd recommend this model to others since there are much better out there, but I can say that it's a faithful little device.