sony clié peg n770c review

Picture courtesy of Daniel.

Average Ratings

Quality	9/10
Value for Money	9.5/10
Overall rating	9/10

100% Recommended2 out of 2 Reviews

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By FireSpinner. on 10th Dec 2001

FireSpinner.'s Ratings

Battery Life	10/10
Quality	9/10
Value for money	9/10
Overall value	9/10
FireSpinner.'s recommendation

Good Points

The Sony Clie has a built in audio player (MP3, atrac3 and others), remote control and headphones, high res colour screen, extremely long battery life, jog wheel, memory stick expansion, Sony software.

Bad Points

Flimsy plastic hinge for shield, no bundled memory stick, no instruction manual (only beginner's guide, rest of instructions are on the CD).

General Comments

Sony's second attempt has certainly sent shockwaves through the PDA community. Not only have they arguably done a better job at it than Palm themselves, but they've also managed to produce the first one ever to include a built in audio player. Yes, Handspring does have an add on MP3 player module but this needs to be bought and connected externally and I have yet to see anybody with it readily in stock.

The package has more or less everything you'll need to get started. Included in the box is the unit itsef, clip on protective cover (nice velvet thing), USB cradle/charger, mains adapter cable, headphones and remote control and the necessary software.

Installing the drivers and such is easy enough. Just slap in the CD and select what you want and don't want and its all done in a matter of minutes. A few restarts later and your machine should recognise the USB cradle. As a note, the Cli will work with Windows 2000 and XP so there shouldn't be any compatibility issues.

The USB cradle incorporates the charger too so just sit the PDA on it and charging should begin. The first charge should take 4 hours and then subsequent charges will take less time because it tops up the battery each time you synch it up. A lithium polymer battery is used so there's no memory effect either.

The actual PDA itself is a work of art. A nice off grey/lilac colour is used for the body with bits of texture chrome for the buttons. All the usual Palm buttons are there including the Sony inspired jog wheel. Hasn't come in use yet but I'm sure it will.

The Cli runs on Palm OS 4.01 which means its the latest version. All the usual Palm bits of software are thrown in such as address book, mail, to-do list and so on. A few pieces of Sony software have also been included such as Photo Stand, Pocket Picture Gear and gMovie. All rather intuitive and it all looks brilliant in full colour.

The star feature of the Sony Clie PDA is the audio player. It sort of resembles Window's Media Player in some aspects. It copes with MP3s really well, they sound warm to the ear with very little or no distortion. Very high volumes can be reached too. There aren't any bass or treble settings so the music can sound a bit flat at times but most people I have spoken to say thats a good thing. Adjusting the bass and treble settings will often increase distortion to unbearable levels. It is also capable of playing the more familiar Sony atrac3 format. This is the format which is utilised by their range of solid state Walkmans. Its supposed to produce much better sonic results in smaller files when compared to MP3. Its encrypted too so its anti piracy. Problem with this format is you have to check songs in and out before they can be used or deleted. Very unecessary and cumbersome. Personally, I haven't tried atrac3 yet but by reading the steps needed to use it, I think I'll stick to MP3 which is just a matter of drag and drop. The bundled headphones are pretty nice, pearly coloured ones. They're the latest offering by Sony and a remote control is thrown in too. No display on the remote control and it does feel awfully plasticy but it does the job. The headphones sounded OK but they weren't brilliant, a bit of a disappointment really because I've always had excellent results from Sony head/earphones. Ah well...

I should mention that there is no Memory Stick in the package. I have read that there are versions of the Sony Clie available which feature a 32/64mb Stick at the price of losing the headphones and remote to keep the price 'modest'. I have also seen versions which bundle an 8mb Memory Stick. Luckily, I have a 64mb one anyway which I swiped from my Sony digital camera. The lilac variety will only allow you to store MP3s, you need to use the white Magic Gate variety to use atrac3 though these cost at least 25% more than the regular ones of the same capacity.

I think I've pretty much covered every aspect of this PDA, I wasn't disappointed by it overall and the advantages outweigh the disadvantages easily.

Total Respect: +6