Good deal but not perfect
Written: Mar 27 '04
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Good value for the money
Cons: Wouldn't sync, display hard to read when backlight off
The Bottom Line: If you want a low cost Palm device, this has a lot of features for the money compared to the basic Palm Zire.
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| sashazur2's Full Review: Sony CLIE® PEG-SJ20 Handheld |
I actually purchased this intending it to be a gift for a friend but decided instead to replace my Palm M100 which was beginning to show its age...
The Clie SJ20 is a very good value... I paid $130 and you get much much more than the Palm Zire for $100. The SJ20 is expandable, has much more memory, a higher res screen, faster processor, etc.
The unit's size and shape is clean and small and attractive looking (about the same size as the Zire, but less cheap looking), and it has a nice leather (or leather-looking) flip lid that protects the screen (you can remove it if you like).
The jog dial on the side of the unit is a handy way to get to stuff (you roll it up and down with your thumb and click it in) without needing to use the stylus and it worked well.
Not all is perfect, but for $130 most of these issues can be overlooked:
The display, although very sharp and clear when the backlight was on, is almost impossible to read when the backlight is off. In this sense, even though it's B&W, the SJ20's screen is more like a color screen (e.g. in that you NEED a backlight to read it).
The surface of the display is noticeably flexible compared to my older Palm... when you tap the screen you can see the top surface flex downwards. I got used to this right away but I wonder how it will hold up over long term use.
The power/USB connection is sort of unwieldy... it's basically one big connector that you plug into the bottom of the unit, and then you plug the power and USB cables into that connector. They provide a plastic clip that you can use to lock the power cable into the big connector, but the clip doesn't lock the USB cable too.
Because there is no cradle, there is no physical button to start a sync operation; the manual says you just plug the USB cable in and then open the HotSync app on the device.
Unfortunately, I could never get the unit to sync with my Windows XP computer. I tried all the troubleshooting steps in the Sony website to no avail. When I tried to sync I never saw a connection or even an attempt to establish one; it was as if the USB cable wasn't even connected.
Since I sort of ended up with the SJ20 by accident, I am just going to return it rather than try to fix the sync.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 130
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Epinions.com ID:
sashazur2
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Reviews written: 12
Trusted by: 0 members
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