Sony CLIE PEG-TJ27 Handheld

The new Sony models running Palm OS5 have just come out. However, are they worth their salt? Can Sony's new mid-range model compete with the Tungsten E? Like most mid-range PDAs there is a mix of benefits and disadvantages on the PEG-TJ27... although in the end, I think that the Tungsten E is a better value than the TJ27. Actually, I also think that the older PEG-TJ35 (Note that I did not review this model)is a better overall PDA than the TJ27. A few too many compromises were made with the TJ27. Update to epinion on 4/13/04 addresses some of the minor problems and patches that Sony has issued. The update will be at the end of the review

Pricing

The TJ27 was purchased as a Staples with 12% Customer Appreciation coupon and a $15 off $75 coupon. This cut the price down to a more reasonable $162 before taxes. My American Express card returned 2% for my Staples purchase. For reference, the MRSP of the TJ27 at the time I'm writing this review is $199.

You can read my epinions article The Art of Buying... Getting your money's worth! although I have to update a few parts of it rather soon.

Short Take

An update to the lackluster PEG-TJ25, this particular model falls quite a bit short of the reigning Palm PDA at $199 price range... the Tungsten E. That's not to say there isn't any good aspects to the TJ27 but that it doesn't offer enough to rise it above the Tungsten E (TE) especially since they both retail at $199. The TJ27 offers the same about of internal memory as the TE at 32 MB of RAM. The TJ27 also has a high resolution screen at 320x320, retains a compact form factor, utilizes the Memory Stick Pro standard, and has a speedy processor. The TJ27 beats the TE in processor speed with a 200MHz processor (over the TE 123MHz processor) and the additional 640x480 digital camera.

With the TJ27, Sony has also made some questionable design choices. The lack of a monoaural speaker, the lack of a headphone jack (thereby rendering audio and video playback useless), and the strangely redesigned button layout and stylus are all question marks in my mind. If the price were $149 even $169, I might look at this model more favorably... but the addition of a low resolution camera isn't enough to offset the loss of the headphone jack and audio capabilities on the TJ27. Knowing that the Tungsten E costs $199 and the older Sony TJ35 costs $229 really makes the TJ27 look bad.

Pros:

1) 32MB of RAM
2) High resolution screen (320x320)
3) Decent battery life
4) Slot for Memory Stick Pro and Memory Stick
5) IR port
6) Stays with Sony's "universal connector" so many older accessories are compatible with the TJ/TH series
7) Fast processor at 200MHz
8) Reasonable Price at $199
9) Integrated 640x480 digital camera with integrated cover

Cons:

1) TJ27 looks overpriced compared to Tungsten E and TJ35
2) No Headphone Jack or Monoaural speaker.
3) New collapsible stylus is the WORSE STYLUS EVER!
4) Maybe this was just my unit, but the screen colors were duller than on Tungsten E and PEG-TJ37 unit
5) No MP3 or video playback out of the box.
6) Buttons are nearly ususable because of minute size
7) Scroll wheel replacing the scroll rocker is a bad choice in my opinion
8) Lack of software that is packaged with PEG-TJ37 model
9) A 640x480 camera good for wallet sized photos. No flash

Specing Around

The TJ27 keeps a similar form factor to the older TJ25/TJ35 models although there are quite a number of design changes on the unit. The unit is very clean cut with a darker silver/gunmetal polycarbonate plastic casing that has overall dimensions of 4.5x3x0.53 inches (HxWxD) and a weight of 5 oz. The TJ27 is only ever so slightly larger than the Palm Tungsten E. The unit had to slightly redesigned from the TJ25/35 models because of the addition of the VGA digital camera. The unit is easy to hold in the hand and most of the buttons are easy to reach with your thumb... it may be hard to push in those buttons however. Note that the right side of the casing is more rounded than the left side.

On the front of the unit, you have the scroll wheel with two side buttons that mimic a 4 way directional pad. It is easy enough to reach and manipulate these controls. The scroll wheel can be depressed as an accept/OK/select button as well. On each side of this controller is a razor thin horizontal rocker bar that takes the place of the larger application buttons on the TJ25/35 models. Heck, the new application rocker is most reminiscent of the much older T600/615 series Sony CLIEs. These buttons are just too thin! There is a dedicated Graffiti area and your fairly clear 320x320 resolution 16-bit color screen.

The top of the unit has the slot for the Memory Stick/Memory Stick Pro on the left side of the unit (you're looking and the screen). You'll note the InfraRed port, a LED indicator light, and the slot for the stylus.

The left side of the unit (you're looking at the screen) has slots for the leatherette coverthat now attaches to the side of the unit. It opens like a book cover now.

The right side of the unit is the shutter button for the camera (at the lower right side) with the slider for the power/hold just above it.

The back of the unit has the digital camera lens on the lower left corner (you're looking at the back of the unit). The cover for the battery is at the right upper corner held in place by a screw. I am unsure if the battery is user replacable at this time. The holes for the "speaker" in about the camera. You'll also note the reset unit to the right of the battery cover.

The bottom of the unit holds the Sony universal connector and switch for the camera lens cover.

Sony has done an admirable job stuffing all these features into a small package.

The Guts of the TJ27

The TJ27 has a very speedy Motorola i.MXL application processor running at 200MHz. The unit is quite speedy... beating out the Tungsten E and even the TH55 (yes it really is faster than Sony's newly released TH55!). Note that I make this statement from running video and MP3 files at the same time on a TJ37 unit... not a TJ27 unit! The TJ27 is unable to run MP3 files and videos appropriately due to hardware limitations! The Tungsten C and Tungsten T3 are much faster than the TJ27/37 units most likely due to the speedy 400MHz Intel XScale processor.

The TJ27 also have 16MB of ROM and 32MB of RAM. Only 23MB of RAM is available for your use due to preinstalled programs (undeletable) and heap memory requirements.

Screen and Colours

Details on the Tj27 screen were overall excellent... however, the screen was dimmer than that on my Tungsten E and the TJ37. I am not sure if this is a defect in the unit I have or throughout this model... I think it is throughout the TJ27 model line since other display units had similar problems. The screen is 320x320 with 16-bit color (65,000 color display). Despite being dimmer than a Tungsten E and TJ37, the screen is still fairly easy to read and you won't notice any problems unless you're directly comparing the screen to another Palm PDA model. The screens are transreflective so they are readable in direct sunlight although moderately washed out. Some odd angles will cause a complete washout of the screen.

Overall color reproduction is good but color display is not as vibrant as I have seen in some PDAs. Again this is part of that dimness problem I was having in this unit. Darker colors reproduced more accurately than brighter colors.

The digitizer worked well as long as you don't turn on the feature of using the whole screen as a Graffiti2 writing area. Doing that slows down all input on the digitizer as the PDA has to figure out if you were writng a letter/number/symbol or trying to tap the OK button or highlight a particular area of your Palm.

I couldn't find a way to turn off the backlight... did I miss something? I did find the brightness control... that was easy enough.

Graffiti 2

I'll just say the same thing I've always said about Graffiti2...

Personally, I like it and got adjusted to it fairly quickly. The major difference in Graffiti2 from Graffiti 1 is the use of two stylus strokes to write certain letters. An "i" was written as a straight line down in Graffiti 1, but it is now a straight line down then you dot it (remember to dot your i's) in Graffiti2. A straight line down in Graffiti2 is an l but if you dot it, it becomes an i and if you cross it, it becomes a t. However, I know many long time Graffiti users will have more difficulty switching to it since they are so used to the original Graffiti. Unfortunately, you cannot switch back to the original Graffiti system. I am unsure if this was due to the lawsuits with Xerox in the past or if this was part of some settlement... even an effort by Palm to avoid future legal problems. By the way, the Graffiti2 system is based on Jot.

I will say that regardless of which Graffiti system you prefer, the dedicated Graffiti area is nice to have and that I wished it existed on the Tungsten C these days.

Note that the TJ27 does not come with Decuma Latin like the TJ37 and TH55 does. This is a major loss for the TJ27 as the Decume Latin system is an excellent addition that lets you write text as you would normally print it.

On Memory Sticks and the Pro varient

The Memory Stick and Memory Stick Pro formats are Sony proprietary formats that work mostly in Sony products although a few other manufacturers have started to support it. The Memory Stick format maxes out at 128MB... the largest card is a 128MBx2 for a total of 256MB on the card (This card was known as the Memory Stick Select). The Memory Stick format is extremely slow to read and write to but prices were reasonable.

The newer Memory Stick Pro format is much quicker than the original Memory Stick format... some professional reviewers have stated that it may be the fastest memory format around (I can neither agree nor disagree with such statements as I haven't studied the specs on these cards). More importantly, card come in 128MB, 256MB, 512MB, and 1GB flavors currently. The downsides are that the card is still used only in Sony products and the price per MB is more expensive than the more popular Compact Flash and Secure Digital formats. $80-$100 gets you a 256MB card... that's a bit steep! $150 minimum for a 512MB Mem Stick Pro card versus $120 for a 512MB SD card (I got my 512MB SD cards for $100!). Consier that 1 GB of Compact Flash memory can run $165 or so!

Note that the Memory Stick Duo and Memory Stick Pro Duo cards are usable with a Memory Stick adapter. An option if you have Sony products like the DSC-T1 5MP digital camera. The Duo and Pro Duo cards are smaller than the original Memory Stick and Memory Stick Pro cards. The Duo and Pro Duo cards are also more expensive than the regular Memory Stick and Memory Stick Pro cards!

Multimedia?

Multimedia, Multimedia, Where forth art thou?

No headphone jack and a lack of a monoaural speaker killed most of the multimedia capabilities of this unit... I didn't bother trying to install a program like RealOne player to test out the limited speaker.

And no... there is no voice recorder especially since there is no microphone on the unit.

However, this leads us to the only other multimedia aspect on the TJ27...

VGA camera

A decent camera considering it is limited to maximum quality of VGA resolution (640x480). Your screen is your viewfinder and you have no flash to work with so the camera is pretty basic and rather limited. It does take better photos than my LG VX6000 and Motorola V400 cellular phones if that is any consolation for you. It's a decent camera for quick non-serious shots but not useful for important or detailed photos. Get a real digital camera for quality photography.

It was a nice touch for Sony to include an integrated lens cover... the switch on the bottom of the unit. Opening the lens cover automatically launches the photo capture application.

Stylus

Take the older toothpick thin Sony PDA stylus and make it 3/5 of the original length. Now add a part that extends to make the stylus close to it's original length... don't care that the extension part is ridiculously thin... This is Sony's new extendable stylus. Do yourself a favor and get a better stylus... any other stylus!

Battery Life?

Overall, about 4 3/4 hours of straight Monopoly (all computer opponents no message pauses) give or take 15 minutes. This is pretty much on par with other Palm PDAs with color screens.

Built-in Applications

Unfortunately, the same applications are on the TJ27 that have existed on the Sony's other Palm OS 4 and 5 based PDAs. I wish Sony would spruce them up a bit... like the way Palm did with the Tungsten E!

Included software

Palm HotSync software, CLIE Camera, CLIE FAQ, CLIE Files, CLIE Launcher, CLIE Mail, CLIE Memo, CLIE Viewer, Data Import, Memory Stick Backup, AcidSolitaire trial, Agendus trial, BalanceLog trial, Bejeweled trial, ContactsPro trial, Crosswords trial, Insaniquarium trial, Kickoo's Breakout (not a trial version!), MobiPocket e-book reader, powerOne Finance calculator trial version, powerOne Personal full version, Presenter-to-Go trial, Vindigo trial, Warefare Inc. trial, and WorldMate trial.

You can download Documents-to-Go 6.0 Professional for free with the TJ27 purchase.

Other items in the box?

The box includes the protective side opening cover, USB hotsync cable, AC power cable, adapter to attach the power and USB cables to the TJ27, hand strap, retractable stylus, CD-ROM with software, manuals, Graffiti2 card, and warranty papers.

Any Other Accessories to Buy?

Just a 128MB or greater Memory Stick Pro card and perhaps a protective case that is specific for the TJ27/37 model.

You might opt for a keyboard if you use your TJ27 for word processing.

Minor Issues? Patching the Sony Modified OS and Apps?

All of Sony's recently released models also had a few glitches... on the TJ27, there is an occassional problem with running some standard applications as well as a battery drain issue when the Memory Stick is removed if the handheld is "off". Although Sony issued software patches for these problems, the patches eat away on your available RAM (remember that you originally have only 23MB of the 32MB available for your use). Thankfully, the patch is small... 52k to install, under 20k of memory taken up. Although I would have preferred to see the update go directly to the CLIE's ROM. If the patch is RAM based, you have to reinstall it if the CLIE's batteries were ever completely drained... which is a big pain in the butt for anyone who forgets to charge their PDA consistently.

Comparing other Palm OS models

The Palm I currently use? Well, that's the Palm Tungsten C with 64MB or RAM and integrated Wi-Fi support

The direct competitor is the Palm Tungsten E with 32MB of RAM and Multimedia support. This the model I most recommend right now!

You can check my profile for other PDAs that I've reviewed.