By Ben Combee
Guest Reviewer
I saw my first SL10 yesterday at a local CompUSA, and I spent a few minutes playing with the device.
It was surprising how short the device was. While the screen is slightly smaller than the Clié T615C, all of the remaining vertical space from the T series has been removed, making at about an inch shorter. The thickness of the device was slightly more than the T series, mostly due to the two AAA batteries that power it. The width was the same as a T series, but the shell was plastic, not metal.
The stylus is similar to the thin stick used in the T series, and had a metal shaft and black plastic pieces. The metal was similar to the shiny steel used in the Visor styli, rather than the duller metal in the T series styli.
The face buttons were all easy to press, with the up/down much better than the version from the T series. The jog wheel and back button worked just like other Sony devices. The power button at the top is very small, placed right next to the Memory Stick slot.
Finally, there's the screen. It is hi-res, and when powered off, it stays black, rather than the usual grey. Text was clear and well defined, and I could see several shades of grey.
However, the screen has a major problem, in my opinion, and that's switching speed. It seemed to take half a second for a black pixel to turn white again, leading to lots of ghosting for any application that changed its display a lot. I beamed over Montana Solitaire from my Kyocera QCP-6035, and the effect of cards fading off the screen when picked was pretty distracting. I can imagine trying to use this with an autoscrolling ebook reader would be frustrating.
I wasn't able to test the backlight on the unit, as the store was too bright to see how it worked. The 320 by 320 screen may help some, but with the fading, I found it harder to read Sony's thin fonts than to read a similar 160 by 160 device.
With Palm and Handspring's recent price reductions, there's a lot of choice in the low-end monochrome market. The m105 at $100 beats this device on price and screen quality, while the m500 at $200 wins on styling, and screen quality as well. A Visor Edge, selling for $130, also competes very well.
Ben Combee is the Technical Lead for Metrowerks, the maker of CodeWarrior.
Article Comments
(70 comments)
The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. PalmInfocenter is not responsible for them in any way.
Please Login or register here to add your comments.
Comments Closed
This article is no longer accepting new comments.
Screen
But the ghosting is an issue.
Was the background dark gray like the old 415 model was? Or something closer to the dull white of the old m505's?
RE: it wont sell
RE: Screen
Please name any other new device cheaper than this
Better to have 320x320 HiRes.
RE: it wont sell
RE: it wont sell
sorry, but this thing isnt worth the money, and it wont sell.
ghosting
If this were a model being targeted at older adults, a higher contrast display would be a winning move. But this seems to be a low end model; and the kids would much prefer a handheld suitable for gaming.
RE: it wont sell
RE: it wont sell
>out in a few months, so ALL current PDAs will be old. >whats the point of having a hi res mono screen that
>is unusable because of this ghosting effect. i would
>rather invest 150 bucks on a s360 which has 16 mb of
>internal ram, an internal rechargable battery, better
>buttons, and an awsome screen that doesnt 'ghost'.
>sorry, but this thing isnt worth the money, and it
>wont sell.
Base on your statement, apparently you never seen HiRes. Otherwise you will not say you prefer to get S360.
Size of RAM does not make that much sense now with Palm OS 4, you can put programs into the card.
However HiRes really matters.
RE: it wont sell
RE: it wont sell
And PalmSource is currently working on OS 6 which will be coming out next year with native ARM application support, so all all os 5 devices are already obsolete. Anyway, Sony usually has no trouble selling models that are only slightly cosmetically different than the previous ones.
RE: it wont sell
RE: it wont sell
RE: it wont sell
Buing Palm m105 in Febuary 2001 and still buying Palm m105 in August 2002.
EIGHTEEN MONTHS for the same model ??????
Get some innovation please, poor Palm.
RE: it wont sell
The T-415 screen was almost 'paper white' if you had strong flourescent lighting from above (like on CompUSA's show room), but indirect lighting simply made the screen a murky mess. Sony should have figured out how to mimic the Edge's screen (really nice).
RE: it wont sell
RE: it wont sell
Did you not see where the author said that ghosting is ONLY NECESSARY IF YOU'VE USED A FASTER PDA? Then he went on to say that HE NOTICED GHOSTING ON HIS Vx? Do any of you plan on going from your NR70 to this model? No!
All you guys do is jump to conclusions based on what you skimmed, not what you read.
RE: it wont sell
RE: it wont sell
RE: it wont sell
RE: it wont sell
I loved it
Go Sony
Scooby
RE: You work for Sony
You people at Sony have better things to do with your time than anonymously plug the SL10.
You can start by fixing those swinging effects in your Spiderman movie.
RE: I loved it
RE: So is it the same screen as the T415?
RE: So is it the same screen as the T415?
It's too bad, I had really high hopes for this model...oh well.
RE: So is it the same screen as the T415?
RE: So is it the same screen as the T415?
RE: So is it the same screen as the T415?
So are those pictures with or without the backlight?
RE: So is it the same screen as the T415?
its like enough to kill a deer! WHY DONT YOU STOP COMPAINING ABOUT YOUR PDA< TAKE IT BACK AND GET ONE THATS COLOR FOR 100 DOLLARS MORE?????????
M105 beats this on screen quality?
RE: M105 beats this on screen quality?
I just want a Palm with:
1. m5xx Form Factor
2. OS5/ARM
3. Hi-Res COLOR
4. 32MB+ RAM
Why is this so G.D. difficult???? Can't one of Palm's 18+ Chiefs/Vice Presidents figure this out???????????
RE: M105 beats this on screen quality?
>1. m5xx Form Factor
>2. OS5/ARM
>3. Hi-Res COLOR
>4. 32MB+ RAM
Wait for 2 more months, and OSLO will give you 2,3 and 4. It's a matter of time to get you 1.
Since both Sony & Palm sell memory expansion (SD/Memoty Stick), they have lots of incentives to limit the amount of RAM, so that they can sell more memory expansion cards... so I think 16/32MB RAM will stay for a while before we see an official 64MB RAM Palm OS PDA.
RE: M105 beats this on screen quality?
2. Selling Memory Expansion is all fine and good but without a seamless VFS it's like kissing your sister!
RE: M105 beats this on screen quality?
They need to make a device that they can sell for a decent price, and make a profit on. They could develop 'your' palm, but how many people in the mass market would buy it?
Click here for the full story discussion page...
Latest Comments
- I got one -Tuckermaclain
- RE: Don't we have this already? -Tuckermaclain
- RE: Palm brand will return in 2018, with devices built by TCL -richf
- RE: Palm brand will return in 2018, with devices built by TCL -dmitrygr
- Palm phone on HDblog -palmato
- Palm PVG100 -hgoldner
- RE: Like Deja Vu -PacManFoo
- Like Deja Vu -T_W
it wont sell