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Review of the Sony Clie’ PEGA-UX50 “Personal Entertainment
Organizer” -By Ben Wright
Let me start out by giving you a little bit of my background with PDAs. I had never in a million years imagined that I would personally have a need for such a device. In fact, my perception of these machines was right up there with Mercedes and BMWs; status symbols for people with more money than they knew what to do with. Sure, BMWs are nice, and I can’t imagine anyone not wanting one when given the opportunity, but in the end they are really no more functional than a Ford Focus. Likewise, I couldn’t see any benefit of a PDA over a regular notepad or pocket calendar. I never spent any time following the tech website reviews for PDAs and I didn’t care.
That all changed, however, while I was working for Babbage’s (now known as Gamestop). Towards the end of my career there, we had started to carry a number of PC peripherals, MP3 players, and a PDA, the Sony Clie’ T615c. With a sticker price of $399.99, people weren’t necessarily lined up at the door to purchase one. In light of that, our district manager (at the time) gave us explicit instructions to liquidate all productivity software, PC hardware and peripheral devices in an effort to refocus our retail strategy with a bold emphasis on “just games, nothing else”. Everything had to go no matter what, and with that the Clie’ was given an 80%-off clearance label and I couldn’t let the little end up in the hands of a 9th grader looking to show off in algebra class.
Initially I was a little stumped by the device – inputting information with a stylus turned out to be complex than I thought, but I stuck with it. Once I had mastered the techniques required to input and retrieve information I started to appreciate some of the basic functions of the PDA, including the calendar, notes, and document (Word, Excel, PowerPoint) management software. Over time, I realized that I was starting to sign my checks with Graffiti (hand-writing recognition software that’s pretty much standard). After several months of use, however, my love for the T615c quickly ran out. I had started reading up on other PDAs on the market (comparing operating systems, software availability, newer functions, etc.) and it became apparent that what I was using was only a primer for would-be tech-savvy dorks (like myself, only with lots of money).
Then hope stumbled upon me one day when my wife, Abby, expressed her growing jealousy over my PDA and with her job becoming more and more complicated, how it would be her savior. *DING!* went the light bulb in my head and thus began my evil plans for upgrading my simple, technologically dated Clie’ with a more robust, spiffy and ultimately more functional PDA. Problem was, which one? Having spent a few months (by this time) reading up on various models on the market (and coming down “the channel”) I had put myself in very indecisive position. After creating several mental wish lists, I’d found that I was placing my desired PDA somewhere between the “top-of-the-line” market and the “there-is-no-way-in-hell-I-can-afford-that” uber market.
After much consideration given to HP PDAs with their Windows OS and spiffy user interfaces and the much talked about PalmOne Tungsten T series with it’s gimmicky slide cover, I’d ultimately decided that the Clie’ line of PDAs would fit my needs because of the memory stick feature (HP PDAs use the SD standard). Sony’s memory stick media was already a part of my current PDA… and it was also standard on Abby’s new Sony Viao PC… heck, our camera was even Sony and it, too, worked with the memory stick medium. I’d be stupid to break the mold! That’s when I stumbled on the UX50 (yea! I’m finally getting to it!). It wasn’t out yet but pre-orders were available via Sony’s direct online retailer, SonyStyle.com. I made a split-second decision and placed my order and waited (most eagerly) for my little bundle of techno-joy to arrive. It eventually did, and I couldn’t be happier… well, then again, maybe I could… but only just a little.
UX50 Features
The UX50 is actually marketed as a “personal entertainment organizer” and as the article’s title indicates, it’s really just a PDA that’s equipped with a substantial amount of audio/video related functions that make it even more suitable for both home and office lifestyles. One look at the device and you can immediately tell that this isn’t your everyday digital device – in fact, the UX50 sports all the appearances and form factors of a miniature notebook and/or tablet PC in that it is hinged with a clam-shell design AND the screen can actually be rotated and snapped back down over the keyboard to function as a regular PDA… well, sort of… but more that in a bit. Having a built-in QWERTY keyboard, the UX50 is also quite accessible for anyone who just can’t get a handle on the whole Graffiti-thing. In fact, the UX50 has perhaps the greatest built-in keyboard ever seen on a PDA; the keys are actually large enough to be pressed with the thumbs without pressing, the board itself features contoured ridges so you can “feel” your way easily from one row of keys to the next, and all of the keys are back-lit for easy use in the dark.
In addition to the handy-dandy keyboard, the UX50 uses the updated Graffiti 2 standard for alphanumeric entry. Perhaps the greatest thing about it, though, is the “virtual silk” feature – virtual silk is where the alphabetic and numeric fields of the Graffiti input area are actually a part of the screen itself rather than an off-screen portion of the PDA. Virtual silk has the added benefit of displaying your marks as you make them so you can identify how you make mistakes when writing in Graffiti so you can work to improve your accuracy.
Taking input methods to a better level, however, Sony has also included a new upcoming standard for handwriting recognition in portable devices – Decuma Latin. When entering data into the PDA, you can opt against using the Graffiti 2 method of writing individual characters by tapping on either the letter “A” or the number “1” displayed in the respective fields of the virtual silk. This launches the Decuma application and allows you to write out your entries in a more personal style while the software converts your words, numbers and punctuation into actual text in, say, the memo pad. Decuma is fully customizable for just about any language using Latin or Arabic characters. One thing to note, however, is that customizing Decuma to recognize your own personal handwriting involves a lot of trial and error and ultimately you’ll learn that your handwriting is horrible in certain situations. After spending some time with the software, though, you’ll be hooked – Decuma somehow makes writing on your PDA fun.
The unit itself is extremely well built with little or no flaws depending on your personal preferences. The UX50 shell is entire is made of magnesium, it’s extremely durable, and very compact. Many online opinions of the UX50 haven’t been too kind towards the overall size of the screen, however. While it is smaller than some other PDAs on the market, it is still quite functional and with 320x480 resolution, it’s extremely clear and readable even at the smallest font. There is a rather awkward looking lanyard loop on the front left of the device that I personally would have like to have seen positioned on the back hinge. The current position is handy, though, for wrapping the lanyard around your wrist while operating the UX50 and preventing any accidental drops. There are some navigation buttons on the front facing of the unit that will allow you instantly access the web browser, email application, and date book – these buttons are also customizable and can be easily programmed to launch any app you want, though the icons printed on the button could make it confusing to customize. Also, Sony’s trademark Jog Dial has taken an unusual form for the first time in Sony’s history – rather than a “dial” it is actually a roller-bar on the front face of the unit. The Jog Dial is a tried-and-true feature of all of Sony’s computers and peripherals and it allows you to easily navigate programs by acting as a scroller or applications selector.
Perhaps the biggest question I have with the UX50 is in regards to the screen rotation feature. Probably the biggest upset in PDA history, Sony failed to include an view-rotation application that would allow you to view the PDA in portrait mode in addition to the landscape mode that is supported by the 320x480 dimensions of the screen. It’s nice to be able to flip the screen down over the keyboard when using the stylus to interface with the PDA, but because of the landscape form of the device, you have to hold the entire unit horizontally in the hand as opposed to the traditional vertical positioning of a standard PDA. But that’s just being picky and rumor has it that Sony is prepping a number of enhancements for the UX50.
Probably the first most noteworthy feature of the UX50 has to be the integrated wireless LAN (802.11b) and Bluetooth connectivity options. With both options available (and a compatible cell-phone), you’re never without the World Wide Web. The unit can communicate with a Bluetooth-enabled cellular phone and access the internet via the GPRS standard – you can even use the UX50 to dial up from your address book and upload your address books back and forth between the phone and PDA so that you are never without important contact information.
The unit itself comes equipped with NetFront 3.0 for the web browser and I admit that this probably isn’t the most user-friendly piece of software ever written – in fact, its slow HTML loading times and inability to display pop-windows will quickly drive you nuts (no pop-ups = inability to log into important services, like Hotmail). NetFront can be replaced rather easily for little or no cost so don’t I won’t hold it against the UX50.
In addition to the wireless connectivity, the unit also comes equipped with Sony’s own Clie’ Mail application that can be used to send and receive email. Connecting Clie’ mail is rather simple assuming you know the appropriate email server information needed to access your account. Unfortunately, though, email functionality is limited with regards attachments (basically just pictures) and HTML “rich text” email messages (which it doesn’t handle at all). Unlike NetFront, I do have to say this was kind of a flaw on Sony’s part – Clie’ Mail has the potential to be a really clean, straight-forward email application, but the lack of these important functions was definitely a mistake. Again, however, the Clie’ Mail app is easily replaceable at a very low cost.
Sony broke some major ground by including both of these wireless standards built into the PDA itself. Though I don’t have a wireless network currently setup at my home, wireless connectivity was perhaps the most important function I needed in a PDA because of our accessibility here in the library. Now I can actually use my PDA to view the online catalog from anywhere within the building and without the bulky burden of a laptop PC. One hassle, though, is that the wireless connectivity with the UX50 on 802.11b is extremely power consuming and will likely cut your battery life between charges in half. To compensate for this, I opted to pick up the optional extended battery for those unexpected times when I’m unable to get to a charger – and I must admit, if you do consider the UX50, the extended battery attachment is essential.
The camera feature on the UX50 is something that I was looking forward to the least, yet I use it the most. When considering the unit for purchase, I was more than a little disappointed by the camera’s 310k pixel resolution (basically 1/3 mega-pixel, for those familiar with digital cameras) and lack of automatic flash. Given today’s market for low-end digi-cams, I don’t think that anything less than a 1.2 mega-pixel camera should have even been considered let alone included in such a flagship-style PDA like the UX50. Fortunately for me, I just bought a 3.2 mega-pixel camera a few months ago, so I knew I wouldn’t necessarily have to become dependent on the UX50 for all my magical moments – yet despite the UX50’s poor photo specs, I still find myself using it an awful lot mainly because I keep my UX50 on me everywhere I go whereas my CyberShot travels only when I anticipate the need for it. At any rate, the UX50 photos aren’t that bad at 640x480 resolutions and it does have some low-light amplification built in for those moments when you really should have had a flash, but didn’t.
But that’s just the still-photo ability of the camera… the UX50 camera also manages to take amazingly fluid video recordings that run at a gorgeous 30 frames-per-second rate in 320x320 resolution – sure, it’s small for a video, but very functional and ultimately convenient. Not only do the video recordings look amazing, but anything you throw at this PDA (AVIs, MPEG4s, Quicktime, anything!) will run at an incredibly smooth frame rate with absolutely no hitches in the video or audio – in that respect, it’s kind of like my own personal TV for when I’m on the go and need some entertainment. The only drawback to playing videos is the storage – if you don’t have a 512MB memory stick, you won’t be able to squeeze a whole lot of movies on here. Personally, I opted for the 256MB Memory Stick Pro that has an incredible read/write speed and hold just enough episodes of Aqua Teen Hunger Force to keep me smiling.
In addition to the somewhat impressive video functions, the UX50 also supports voice recording with programmable voice commands. Recordings are done in .wav format and can be quite large, or you can compensate lower quality audio for longer track length. There’s also very basic MP3/ATRAC playback feature so you can jam to your tunes whenever you want. Audio playback is run through either a small mono speaker in back or the stereo headphone jack on the back hinge and both options are quite convenient. Again, though, MP3 playback is limited a great deal by you memory stick capacity and anything less than 128MB doesn’t justify the UX50 as a full replacement for a standard MP3 player.
The Clie’ UX50 does operate on the Palm OS 5.2.1 handheld standard and includes the usual suite of features like the date book, address book, To-Do List, and so on. Really, everything you need in a PDA is built right into the OS, but as a bonus, there are a hojillion other applications written for Palm on the Internet – and a lot of them are free! In all honesty, even if you own a PDA and have done so for years, you’ll be constantly amazed by what programs you can get for your PDA and open up entirely new worlds of functionality and use. Sony equips its line of Clie’ PDAs with a number of first-party apps, perhaps the most famous of those apps being the Sony Remote Commander which will identify infrared signals between a PDA and any IR-equipped device like TVs, DVD players, home theater systems, etc. (I can’t tell you how badly I almost got beat up at a bar in Broadripple when I decided to be “cute” and start changing all the TVs in the place from college football on ESPN to the Golden Girls on Lifetime). Sadly, Sony has opted to downgrade the IR bandwidth on the UX50 and it no longer supports the extended IR functions needed to use the Remote Commander effectively. No more magical universal remote… and a major bummer for an otherwise “do it all, do it now” PDA.
Another big “what were they thinking” issue that I have with the UX50 is regarding the charger. Unlike 99.9% of all the other PDAs out there, the UX50 cannot HotSync (exchange data from PDA to desktop PC) via the charging cradle – instead you actually have to remove a small, flimsy plastic cover from a USB port on the left side and actually wire the device to your PC. Why they chose to separate the concept of battery charging and HotSync is beyond my comprehension, though some have suspected that Sony’s intentions were for users to actually conduct the HotSync procedure via wireless LAN – a good theory, but still no excuse for making the cradle just a charger when it could have been twice as useful.
I’ve had the UX50 now since about the middle of September and I can’t honestly say that I’ve regretted it since. I admit that while this is currently the super uber PDA to beat on the market, there’s still a number of refinements Sony could have added to the package to make it just that much more incredible. With a price tag of about $650 to $700, though, it’s definitely in the “there-is-no-way-in-hell-I-can-afford-that” category of PDAs… now my problem is trying to figure out how I can afford it… probably the one thing the UX50 can’t help me with.
If you’re curious about the UX50 and would like to take a test drive, please come on by for a full demonstration (if you haven’t already). Final Score: 4 out of 5
-Ben Wright For more information, go to www.sony.com/clie or visit www.sonystyle.com For Clie’ enthusiasts out there, I encourage to you hit www.cliesource.com and join the discussion! |
