Comments on: Review: Sony PEG-SJ30, Part II

Excellent as any review from you Ed. I guess you rush this out while cleanning the to do list before moving to brighthand!!!

C_Blue

I know this model is the last one, but I can't help comparing it to the T615.

The fact is, I'm returning my wife's m130, so I'll get 300 euros back... and for 280 I can get a T615, for 320 an SJ30. What would YOU get? I mean, the T615 has the anhanced speaker and IR ports, is smaller, ... is there any drawback I do not know of?

Btw, I HATE doing this to palm by returning the m130. but I can't help it. I'm a geek. I NEED to buy new things regularly, and this is a golden oportunity!

-------------- huggy ---------------

http://makeashorterlink.com/?J1E7240C1

All you have to do, is use Palm Desktop 4. The real problem is Sony's negligence of providing this on the CD. Enjoy the Clié.

>Conclusion
>I like the SJ30. It is a good combination of features
>for a good price. It compares well with other mid-range
>models, like the Treo 90 and SJ30.

SJ30 compared to SJ30? Are you mean SJ20?

BTW, I have preordered SJ20 but want to upgrade to SJ30. Alas, the distributor in Singapore don't allow me to change my pre-order to SJ30. Well, I guess I can live with SJ20.

My question is SJ20 suffered the same weak sound too?
And since SJ30 can change backlight power, can SJ20 do it too?

Thanks.

16Mb Internal RAM the limit of OS4? That seems to be what Ed implied in the article. Is it?

I really liked the hard cover on my Palm IIIxe. I think small models like the SJ30 would gain a lot more "on-the-go pocketability" if they were given a scratch-resistant pebbled plastic casing (like the Palm III series...the pebbled surface hides scratches well) and a hard cover.

I love my N610 and its EB leather case but I find myself leaving it home a lot when I'm not taking a bag or pack with me. It's simply to heavy and bulky for my pants pockets.

Ed what Os are you using?

I use XP and have problems hotsyncing from day 1. Hotsync proceeds properly an d the windows conduit ends gracefully but the SJ30 would freeze right after and I have to soft reset every time... It's not a major problem but is certainly a nuisance.

Anyway around this? Noe that sony's xp patch do not apply to sj30

Thanks

Excellent review Ed

I bought a SJ30 a few days ago but took it back when I noticed that the screen appeared "rotated" a few degrees to the left, as if it hadn't been seated properly in the housing. Anyone else had this problem? Was this likly just a defect due to this being the first run of these machines?

Will Sony's MP3 accessory headphone playback sound from Kinoma Player?

This phraseology in the review seems to lend some confusion. What historically has served as a "standard speaker" on PalmOS PDA's is no speaker at all. It's piezoelectric element, which in general without contortions (sort of an audio version of dithering) it can only produce one tone at one time. It's a small point but it's probably more instructional to refer to it that way. It's more of a 'buzzer' than a speaker. "speaker" in this case gives shades of definition that just aren't there. And if one is to qualify to word "speaker" to reduce it's inferred definition then I'm not sure "standard" is the qualifier to use here. What first arrived on the PalmOS scene on the TrgPro, and then the HandEra 330, Sony T and NR series were real speakers. Though of the miniature size you might see in small headphones. These give the benefit of producing a wider audio range and wider volume range (notice the increased decibel level on two of the models mentioned above - http://www.deeptec.com/info/misc/alarm.html ). Further, as in any speaker, the ability of reproducing multiple simultaneous frequencies. This is what gives them the ability to playback (albeit monaural on our devices without use of headphones) of .wav's on the TrgPro and HE330, and mp3's on T and NR series, or even polyphonic midi. It notably also allows DTMF tones for dialing from the phone book as several apps such as fonehome allow on speaker equipped PalmOS devices.

Apologies in advance for necessary pedanticism.

-Craig Bowers

Ed, maybe it would have been better if you inserted a taken screenshot simulation, so the picture of the handheld doesnt appear as blueish as most models do via the camera.

Heard that it is not Flash ROM. True?

I tried an SJ30 at Circuit City. It had trouble recognizing my taps. . . Often, it wasn’t responding to them at all! The tap would have to be exactly centered and I'd have to tap harder than usual! This was true was for the application and menu buttons, selecting cancel in the find dialog, etc.

Also. I had trouble selecting “all” for categories—the top choice, I had to tap below where expected.

Also, I had problems with getting brightness to work--the little sun icon wouldn’t take the tap!

I am a veteran Palm user--IIIxe, IIIc, 615--so this took me aback. Has anyone else noticed this problem?

Other than that--and that screen still isn't as bright at the IIIc, though noticeably better than the 615--it's a sweet device. Could be the USB based replacement for the IIIc.

I have bought a SJ30 & a SJ20 yersterday in Circuit City everything is fine, for 299 and 199 respectively with $25 rebate each but I got seriously problem when I try to beam files to my old TRGpro, can somebody got the same problem with the IR port?

I am very impressed with the SJ-30. Great screen! Nice size! Decent buttons! The only thing that keeps me from upgrading from my Palm IIIc to the SJ30 is the lack of a modem.

I think its a really good idea to have two reviews so there's a chance to check on the battery life. My only reservation is that you only quote hours active (under a range of conditions). Its extremely important to me to be able to go on trips (holiday or businesss) without worrying about loosing data as the batteries are flat, and for this the stand-by time is cruical.

Pocket PC machines such as Toshiba 710 quote very good battery life, but the reality is even if you don't do anything with it, the battery will be dead within 3 days (I've tried and had to send it back). After looking around I bought a Palm M500 on grounds that it has best all round battery life.

Please could you give information about stand-by battery life as well as active time. What would it be for the Sony SJ30?

Thanks!

OK, for the reasons I cited previously (last review in PEG-SJ30, Part I), I opted to go for the SJ30 over the T665C. Had it for two weeks now, and I'm very happy.

Essentially, it boiled down to the T665C having attractive superior features (MP3, enhanced IR, S/W, a speaker), but inferior attributes that I just could not tolerate (battery life, unusable buttons). Hard choice to give up the MP3 especially, but I ultimately decided that Sony overreached on the T665C - without a "battery capability", it's just not viable as a portable. That's how I feel anyway.

I didn't mention this, but I'm upgrading from a Palm Professional - purchased in late 97!! So bear in mind that maybe everything looks good to me.

So after two weeks, I have a few comments:

- The screen is beautiful, just fantastic, as I expected. The "small icon" and "small list" displays are amazing. Now I need to wear my reading glasses in bed to play games, increasing the chances that my wife will catch me. I found the shadows at the bottom as mentioned in the review - I would never have noticed them without looking, and now that I've found them, I surely won't notice them again.

- Despite being plastic, it feels solid, the jog wheel feels good, etc. The unit feels no cheaper than other devices I've held. Feels great in my hand.

- The up/down button is much better than the 615/665, but is only adequate when you look at the whole Palm world. The stylus is fine for me, and I'm 6 foot 220; it's not like I've got teeny skinny fingers.

- After I charged it up fully (100% bright level), I spent like 5 hours downloading/syncing/playing, hard resetting, etc, etc - and another 1.5 hrs tonight playing before I got the warning. Not bad at all.

- Filled up 16 meg pretty damn quick, so I gotta score a memory stick soon. Trying to run lots of old, old programs with like 150k available was causing the need to hard-reset. Do yourself a favor and don't do that. One time even repeated resets couldn't shake that baby out of the bright-light hang mode - I thought I was going to need to wait all night.

- The little plastic connector thing is kind of lame. Both the AC cord and the hotsync cord have different entry ports to the plastic thingie, there's nothing in the instructions that say you can use both simultaneously. I was afraid to try, but finally I did. You can sync and recharge at the same time. In any case, too many little snap on parts involved here.

- As a data point, my personal preference is probably going to be 75% bright. 100% is nice, 50% is too dark for me. Recharging now, but yesterday/today I used 100% brightness.

- I feel that the screen is reasonably responsive to my taps, but not super-responsive - the 615 definitely has an edge. Like others, I feel grafitti recognition seems to be a bit more challenging than with other Palm devices. I need to remind myself to "write large."

Basically, everything is as I hoped it would be, and I'd have to say I'm a happy camper. I did my analysis, made my tradeoffs and picked. I definitely would have loved MP3; it's too bad Sony didn't choose to offer this year - in a portable.

Can you play a video on there with sound?

Asides from the higher resolution, is the physical screen the same on the SJ30 as the Palm Vx? Or is it smaller?

I purchased the SJ30 November 2002 & I'm very happy with it. I needed to solve a specific life function; to collaborate my 3 different Calendars into one system. The SJ30 was sold to me as a solution. I have Windows XP on my Laptop at home, I have Windows NT 4.0 at work, then I use it in the field on appointments. My XP works great & I've never had a problem yet with it, however, I recently found out from Sony that the Clie' SJ30 is not NT compatible. I need a serial cable for my SJ30 too. Any answers or solutions of how I can accomplish this task or was I oversold. Please help! Thanks.

LUCK-- Labor Under Controlled Knowledge