Sony Clie PEG-S500 CNET Review:
By Colin Williamson
(11/17/00)
URL: computers.cnet.com
Rating: 8 out of 10
The good: Decent color screen; works with a cell phone for wireless access.
The bad: Software can't be run from a Memory Stick; jog dial doesn't work with all programs; weak backlight; no Mac support.
The bottom line: It's everything we love about the American version--with an extra splash of color.
Thanks to LCD shortages and an unexpected consumer demand, the CLIE PEG-S500 has become one of the most lusted-after pieces of Japanese Sony hardware since the PlayStation 2. While the monochrome version of the CLIE hit Western shores earlier this year, American Palm fans continue to lament the fact that the color version is available only in Japan. We got our hands on an import model to see what the fuss is all about.
Sexy Sony Style
Aesthetically speaking, this is a sweet little package: the PEG-S500 boasts blue and silver trim (similar to Sony's VAIO computers), a 160-by-160-pixel screen, and a feathery weight of just 4.3 ounces. The color screen is a reflective LCD, similar to the one used in Nintendo's Game Boy Color, and is capable of simultaneously displaying 256 colors. The screen's contrast is good but not great; when it comes to reading copious amounts of text, we'd rather use a monochrome CLIE.
Inside the machine, there is a 20-MHz Dragonball processor, 8MB of RAM, and, obviously, the Japanese version of Palm OS 3.5S (3.5.2 is available for download at Sony's site). The Graffiti area is slightly different from that of the American version, with hot spots for switching between the Western alphabet and Japanese kanji characters. In the upper left corner of the unit lies the jog dial, which allows for one-handed usage. Not every program supports this hardware addition, although there are a few third-party programs that let you map the jog dial to standard key inputs.
Stick It to Me!
Aside from the color display, the most attractive feature of the PEG-S500 is the Memory Stick slot, which allows you to boost the storage capacity to 72MB. The CLIE comes with an 8MB Stick preloaded with sample programs. To run them, though, you must first copy an application from the Stick to the system's RAM; it can't be run directly from the Memory Stick.
Mobile Madness
The Japanese package ships with a mobile-phone adapter, which snaps onto the bottom of the unit. Using one of three cables included in the box, the CLIE can be attached to essentially any Japanese cell phone, which then serves as its modem for wireless communications. We were able to fire off emails and browse Web sites without a hitch simply by jacking the CLIE into a 1999-model J-Phone and entering our ISP information.
Is the color CLIE the perfect travel companion? Not quite. Its backlight is unacceptably faint, making it difficult to see the screen in dimly lit rooms. Also, the mobile-phone adapter blocks the docking port on the bottom of the unit, which could make things tricky for manufacturers of folding keyboards. You may be out of luck if you want to type while online.
On a side note, eager English-speaking importers beware: If you want to install Sony's Palm Desktop software, you'll need a Japanese version of Windows 98 or Windows Me; otherwise, the installer will crash. And Apple users are, once again, left out in the cold; there's still no Macintosh support.
If you can ignore its shortcomings (and you happen to be fluent in nihongo), the CLIE PEG-S500 may be worth picking up on your next business trip to Asia. Be advised, though, that the price is a little steep (about $517), and if you're willing to put up with a monochrome display, you can already get your hands on the English equivalent.
Quick Facts
Form factor: pad
Installed operating system: Palm OS 3.5
Built-in OS compatibility: Windows 98/2000
Amt. of RAM: 8MB
Input method: pen
Software included: Sony PictureGear Pocket Software, PictureGear 4.2 Lite, AvantGo Browser, gMedia Software, TrueSync |
