Brighthand Reviews the Sony Clie TH55

Ed Hardy · 02-10-2004, 09:01 AM

The Clie TH55 is Sony's first model that offers a HVGA screen in a handheld with the traditional tablet design. It also includes a camera and Wi-Fi, though not Bluetooth. Brighthand's Ed Hardy brings us this review.

Read more at www.brighthand.com/article/Sony_Clie_TH55_Review

LanMan · 02-10-2004, 10:16 AM

Ed, I thought that your review of the TH55 was great! Very thorough. However, I don't believe that I saw any comment about whether it can record video as the NX series can do. There are rumors that it cannot. Can you clarify that point?

Ed Hardy · 02-10-2004, 10:24 AM

Sorry, I should have made that clearer. The TH55's camera can not record video, just stil images.

Mike Cane · 02-10-2004, 10:57 AM

For a long time, Sony handhelds did not handle audio the same way other Palm OS 5 devices did. Thankfully, it gave this up recently and the TH55 includes the Palm OS Sound API, so third-party audio applications work, giving TH55 access to Ogg files and variable bit rate MP3s.

Hey, Ed, did you run both Aeroplayer and Pocket Tunes on it?

I want to play low-bit-rate (LBR) Old Time Radio (OTR) MP3s on this and was unsure if it could use anything other than the bundled Sony player. Aeroplayer is supposed to handle LBR OTR MP3s just fine (PTunes has some problems in that area still).

Can do?

You damned lucky dog, having that unit to play with all this time...

exiii · 02-10-2004, 04:05 PM

Any chance it'll sit comfortably on a T665 cradle?

Ed Hardy · 02-10-2004, 08:54 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Mike Cane
Hey, Ed, did you run both Aeroplayer and Pocket Tunes on it?

I tested Aeroplayer and it worked fine.

Ed Hardy · 02-10-2004, 08:57 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by exiii
Any chance it'll sit comfortably on a T665 cradle?

I can't say for sure but it definitely would not work with my TG50 cradle. The HotSync port was at enough of a different angle that it couldn't make a connection unless I held the TH55 upright.

Mostly I just charged it with the cable and HotSynced via Wi-Fi.

bcringo · 02-11-2004, 12:29 AM

Great job on the review.

Is there a replacement app for Netfront? Maybe one that allows for switching to landscape mode?

crass · 02-11-2004, 08:58 AM

Really nice review. If I could just recommend the usage of more device pics in the reviews. You see we rarely have the chance in my country to see the actual devices. The PDA market is not developed here and any model arriving here costs double than in the US.

pigpogm · 02-11-2004, 09:08 AM

If I could just recommend the usage of more device pics in the reviews. You see we rarely have the chance in my country to see the actual devices.

I had a thought about this today, actually - what would be really nice, would be a set of standard pics of each device, from each side, preferably next to a ruler, then an interface available to show the set of pics for device X in a table alongside the set for device Y, so you could pick out your own PDA (or at least one you know the size of reasonably well), and see it alongside the review model.

I didn't really get a good idea of just how small the Clie UX50 is, for example, until i saw pics of it next to a Tungsten T.