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Sony's
latest Clie is more evolution, than
revolution in PDA technology, but
contains enough new features and
design improvements to make it
attractive to committed PDA users.
The
most noticeable improvement comes from
the new screen. The transreflective
320 by 320-pixel TFT is back-lit, but
also reflects ambient light levels to
improve image sharpness, especially in
high light environments.
Colours
are excellent and the drain on its
Li-ion battery doesn't seem too
extreme, with 12 hours life for
standard use.
At 72
by 118 by 99mm, this is also one of
the slimmest PDAs on the market, which
makes the Clie more comfortable to
hold and use. At 138g, it's not too
heavy, although the flappy leather
screen cover is more of a hindrance
than a help.
Internally,
the PDA uses a 33MHz Dragonball VZ
processor and comes with 16Mb of Ram
and 4Mb of Flash memory. There's also
a slot for a Memory Stick, and the
Clie can be synchronised using
infrared or USB connections. Palm OS
4.1 is loaded as standard.
The
Clie's software bundle is excellent,
with Documents To Go 4.0, gMovie and
AvantGo 4.0 included as standard. Sony
is also building world clock and
improved alarm functions into the
operating system, so this is the first
PDA we've seen that includes an
effective alarm clock.
On
the down side, the stylus is tiny and
can be difficult to get out of its
storage socket, while the scrolling
button is fiddly.
Overall,
however, the Clie PEG T625C is an
excellent and intuitive PDA.
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