Brighthand Reviews the Sony Clie TJ37

Ed Hardy · 02-22-2004, 11:47 AM

Sony's latest mid-range model is the first handheld with built-in Wi-Fi to debut at just $300. It also has a camera and a faster processor than many other Clies.

Read more at www.brighthand.com/article/Sony_Clie_TJ37_Review

imported_orol · 02-22-2004, 02:40 PM

for that price it's a bargain. not to mention it has 25% more pixels then both PPC counterparts :-)

but netfront 3.1 looks great

imho this will be selling like hot dogs in the US (camera & wifi for such a reasonable price, great for students)

neuron · 02-22-2004, 04:33 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by orol
for that price it's a bargain. not to mention it has 25% more pixels then both PPC counterparts :-)

but netfront 3.1 looks great

imho this will be selling like hot dogs in the US (camera & wifi for such a reasonable price, great for students)

I hope so.

Clie TJ serials looks much more boring than PPC.

imported_Der_Kommissar · 02-22-2004, 05:52 PM

I bought a TJ-37 this weekend after going to the store to get a TH-55. Plain and simple- this is a perfect compromise PDA with a killer feature- WiFi. The camera, while not as good as my 2.1 MP cybershot, is a far cry better than the one in my cell phone, as well as my first digital camera. When you move to the TH55 you gain a bigger screen and more available memory, but you loose speed and size. This may also be the first PDA that I won't have to buy a case for. I'll miss the bigger screen of the TH55 a bit, but I won't miss the TT this clie replaces.

pixelator · 02-22-2004, 11:02 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by orol
for that price it's a bargain. not to mention it has 25% more pixels then both PPC counterparts :-)

Wow, PPC-envy is apparently still alive and kicking after all this time! Yeesh. But hey - Be glad for the 25% more pixels - because you're looking at them on a more-than-25%-smaller viewable area thanks to the clunky old non-virtual graffiti.

And BTW - can Sony simply not release a device with a d-pad? It's literally maddening. Palm finally figured it out - why can't they? They know how to make the things, the Playstations prove that much at least. The front scroll-dial is really not appealing.

Mike Cane · 02-23-2004, 07:50 AM

Ed: How does its speed compare to the TH55? I wish you had done some head-to-head comparisons in that area.

Camera is not that bad.

Nice kitties!

Mike Cane · 02-23-2004, 08:03 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by pixelator
And BTW - can Sony simply not release a device with a d-pad? It's literally maddening. Palm finally figured it out - why can't they?

So, Pix, it should have looked like the below photo? (New Loox PPC, taken from PDA France. Looks a lot like a Sony design...)

Ed Hardy · 02-23-2004, 08:13 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by Mike Cane
Ed: How does its speed compare to the TH55? I wish you had done some head-to-head comparisons in that area.

The processor speeds pretty much tell the whole story but I did benchmark them. The TH55 got a score of 750% on Speedy 3.3, while the TJ37's score was 1376%. Therefore, according to this benchmarking application, the TJ37 is close to twice as fast as the TH55. No surprise, given that the TJ37 has a 200 MHz procesor, while the TH55's is 123 MHz.

imported_Der_Kommissar · 02-23-2004, 10:27 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by pixelator
Wow, PPC-envy is apparently still alive and kicking after all this time! Yeesh. But hey - Be glad for the 25% more pixels - because you're looking at them on a more-than-25%-smaller viewable area thanks to the clunky old non-virtual graffiti.

And BTW - can Sony simply not release a device with a d-pad? It's literally maddening. Palm finally figured it out - why can't they? They know how to make the things, the Playstations prove that much at least. The front scroll-dial is really not appealing.

I should know better, but here goes...

There are still some advantages to the static writing area. For example, when you need to use a virtual writing area on a Pocket PC, you loose another chunk of pixels on an already lower resolution screen. As for the size of the screen, that seems like more of a personal choice. Compared to the pocket PC, I would rather see more on a smaller screen than see less on a bigger screen that also can make the unit buliker. The virtual writing area really shines on a higher resolution screen, like the 320 x 480 screens some palms (and no pocket pc) have.

Also, rotating into landscape on a pocket pc simply gets you the same screen width as a palm, so that is of little benifit too. And the jog dial arrangement on the tj37 is good for web surfing, though I think it would suck for game playing. This unit makes tradeoffs, just like any unit, therefore what some people see as strength, others will see as weakness.

Twin_Pixel · 02-23-2004, 10:35 AM

Quote:

The TJ37 runs Palm OS 5.2 on a 200 MHz Motorola i.MXL processor. This puts Sony in the odd situation of having a mid-range model that actually has a faster processor than its high-end ones. Both the Clie TH55 and UX50 have a chip that maxes out at 123 MHz.

Is this a fact? How many instructions do the Handheld Engine perform on one cycle for example? I believe MIPS is a more accurate way of measuring processor speed.