Sony Clie PEG-SJ30 review

We don't normally review Sony's Clie handhelds in MacUser, for the simple reason that they're not officially Mac-compatible.

But Sony has recently started making noises about the fact that, when used with third-party software, such as The Missing Sync from Mark/Space, most of the Clie's features are available to Mac users. And we should pay attention, because the Clie range contains some of the most desirable PDAs around. Palm should take note.

As well as challenging the high end of the market with such products as the PEG-NR70V and PEG-T675C (named with Sony's typical aplomb), the company is targeting consumers with less expensive models, including the monochrome PEG-SL10 (at £139 inc VAT) and its colour equivalent, the PEG-SJ30. The latter stands out as one of the best PDAs we've seen, and deserves the attention of Mac users.

The trio of Treo and Clie

The best way to assess the SJ30 is to compare it with its handheld competition. There are three main manufacturers: Palm, Sony and Handspring. The latter has all but abandoned its standalone PDAs to focus on its Treo PDA phones, meaning Sony's only real rival is Palm, which has two colour devices with - the m130 and the m515.

At less than £200 (inc VAT), the m130 is cheaper than the SJ30, and the two devices are similar in many ways - they both run Palm OS 4.1 and they both boast 33MHz Dragonball processors and rechargeable Lithium-ion batteries. However, Sony's product, while smaller and lighter than the Palm, has a larger display, capable of double the resolution - 320 x 320 pixels. It also comes with 16Mb of built-in memory, compared with the m130's 8Mb. And let's not overlook its stylish good looks.

Many of the SJ30's advantages set it ahead of Palm's m515, which, at £269 (inc VAT), is more expensive too. The m515 may equal the SJ30's 16Mb RAM and 33MHz processor, but it labours with Palm's 160 x 160-pixel screen, while its design has remained almost unchanged since the Palm V was launched in 1999.

The screen is really what sets the SJ30 apart. Its high resolution, combined with stunning brightness and clarity, mean that photographic images look excellent, while working on more mundane tasks, such as calendars and office documents is easy on the eye, with much clearer and smoother text. Not all Palm OS applications are compatible with the high-resolution screen, but you can set the screen to revert to standard resolution for specified applications.

Soft to the touch

The Clie has all the standard software you'd expect from a Palm-based handheld, including an address book, a calendar, to-do lists and notes, all accessed by the customary four buttons. It also comes bundled with a copy of DataViz's Documents To Go, for sychronising and working on Word and Excel documents.

Additional proprietary Sony software is included, including a world alarm clock and photo viewing and image editing software - ideal for showing off the screen. Many of the extra applications involve the expansion slot, which uses Sony's proprietary Memory Stick technology. This is great for users of other Sony products, such as digital cameras, which also use Memory Stick, but is a bit of a drawback for users of other storage devices, for example the industry standard MultiMediaCard/Secure Digital as used by Palm.

The Memory Stick software allows you to manipulate files on an expansion card, copy them to the internal memory, back up your data to a card and, crucially, copy files between a card and the desktop. This is where The Missing Sync comes in.