Sony Clie PEG-NR70V review

Sony's Clié handhelds always give the Palm formula a distinctive consumer spin, with the emphasis on creativity and entertainment, not executive workloads. With the PEG-NR70, however, Sony has really taken things one step beyond.

Ergonomics 6/6

If you liked Transformers, you'll like this. When closed the Cli?s just one block of magnesium alloy casing. Open it up and one half becomes a 320x480, 16-bit colour screen while the other holds standard Palm hotkeys and a tiny membrane keyboard. Now twist the screen 180 degrees and fold it flat against the keyboard half and you have a regular Palm-style PDA. You can enter text through the keyboard - fairly usable with your thumbs - or the Graffiti pad which occupies the bottom third of the screen. Cunningly, this can be switched off in some applications, and it momentarily traces what you inscribe, which makes learning Graffiti a whole lot easier. However you use it, the Cli?akes life as simple as possible.

The screen itself is simply amazing. Its 320x480 resolution is superior to anything else in this test, with detail, brightness and contrast tuned to perfection. Colours are stunningly vivid, so if you're looking at photos or video, you want to be doing so on the Cli?
Features 5/6

Let's start with the dull stuff. The Cli?omes with all the regular Palm memo, diary and address book applets, so it's perfectly capable of keeping you organised. Meanwhile, Dataviz Documents To Go covers you if you need to work on Word or Excel documents on the train, and there's an e-mail program to keep you in touch with the rest of the world.

But why bother with any of that when you can be listening to ATRAC3 and MP3 music files with the built in Audio Player (remote control headphones supplied) or watching short video clips with gMovie? You can view digital photos, scribble on them with Cli?aint or just use the Cli?s a flashy digital photo-frame while it's sitting in the cradle. It even doubles up as a remote control, as long as your TV, VCR and DVD player are covered by its fairly extensive range.

Speed isn't a problem - with a 66MHz Dragonball VZ processor, the Cli?s the fastest Palm PDA around. As if that wasn't enough, the Cli?ctually includes a built-in digital camera. The resolution is limited to 320x240, but the quality is fine for instant snaps.

The only downside is that to make the most of the Cli? and actually use the MP3 player - you will need to splash out on a Memory Stick. While everyone else is standardising on SD memory cards, Sony's insistence on using their own proprietary format is rather annoying.

Portability 5/6

Despite having all these features, the Cli?emains comfortably pocket-sized, while its magnesium alloy case and retractable screen mean it's also able to take some knocks. Battery life depends on what you're doing. Play MP3s, take pictures and watch videos and you'll only get three or four hours. Keep the use lighter, however, and you can probably double that.

Overall

With its brilliant screen and smart design, the Cli?s a thing to behold, while its multimedia software make it a great entertainer too. The price is a little on the steep side, particularly when you consider the relatively low amount of memory. The lack of SD card support also limits the Cli? expandability, although modem and wireless options are available. However, there's no escaping the fact that sublime ergonomics, portability and software make this the most desirable PDA on test.