Sony Clie PEG-SJ20 Handheld

I am a graduate student and bought this handheld to replace my Palm Vx. My Vx worked great until it started randomly crashing and causing me to lose data. The Sony SJ20 has been perfect for me. I use nearly all of the features and software that are included and have not needed to buy any additional software. I did buy a 64 Mb memory stick and this has proven to be more than enough for me. Word, and Excel documents synch great with the Documents2Go software (provided). Without the backlight, it is difficult to read the screen (impossible in direct sunlight), but I always leave the backlight on and battery life has still been great. This makes me wonder what the point of the non-backlit screen is, but since the backlight works so well, this hasn't been an issue. Screen resolution is awesome compared to the Vx and thus I am able to carry around digital images of my family, etc to show others. I have had the Sony for around 6 months and I am perfectly happy with it. I would highly recommend it for students, or those not requiring/wanting color, MP3 player, WIFI, and all the other bells and whistles. This handheld is designed for practicality and it definitely delivers for a great price!

I did a ton of research before settling on the Clie SJ20 from Sony. In the end, it just made sense to go with the best. I wanted an inexpensive PDA because I wasn't sure it would "catch on" with me. So that narrowed things down to the Dell Axims (the only Pocket PC worth buying) and low-end Palm OS models. The Axims were out because after all the accessories I'd want, I'd spend closer to 500-600 dollars. I then compared other PDAs from black and white used Handsprings to the flashy new color Tungstens. The built in memory and high-resolution of the SJ20 sold itself with the only detraction being the proprietary Sony memory sticks. Amazon just happened to be provideing big rebates on both Lexar Memory sticks and Clies, so I bought the SJ20, which has the same features as the SJ30, minus the color screen and half the price. I also bought it because it's only a few dollars more (on Amazon.com) than it's competition from Palm, the Zire which is worthless in comparision. Let's compare shall we? SJ20 vs. Zire: 16 MB vs. 2 MB built-in memory, 320x320 vs. 160x160 screen resolution. The Clie has lots of included software for watching movies and pictures as well as editing and viewing Word documents and Excel spreadsheets. It's also fully compatible with all black and white and greyscale third party Palm software. It's been my experience that Sony = quality, from their televisions to their video game consoles. The Clie is no different. For being so small (like a deck of cards, only thinner) it sure is sturdy. So, if you're new to the market of PDAs like I was, you too will see the value inherent in the SJ20. I know if this PDA proves its worth to me, my next one will be another Clie, with built-in keyboard, MP3, camera and full color screen, the NX70V!

Purchased this as a backup to the one I already have. Unfortunately, the battery on the one I just purchased discharges quite a lot faster than my old Clie. Thought this had a newer battery and if so, it does not operate substantially better than the one I have in my original Clie.

As far as I know (this is my first PDA ever) this thing is pretty much perfect! It has no color and no internet, so it doesn't cause me enough of a distraction that my parents or teachers might take it away. The lack of those two capabilities also means that it requires much less storage space for each piece of information I save in it and it runs through its battery slower than it otherwise might. This PDA stores all the information I've always thought and said to myself, "Man, I wish I had a piece of paper with me right now so I could write down this thought I just had! Too bad. Guess I'll just forget it." and then some. The only real issues I have with this are that: 1. The battery, while VERY quick to charge (less than half an hour to reach full-charge), runs through about 44% in the first fifteen seconds after unplugging it. I don't know whether this is an issue of the battery possibly being broken, or the way the PDA displays the battery percent after charging. Either way, however, this part is very annoying. 2. It doesn't take normal SD cards (the kind that I have dozens of, just lying around, with gigabytes of free space) 4. Graffiti writing is very difficult to get used to. I know this isn't specific to this PDA in particular, I'm just warning new users who are used to iPhones and whatever: you can't use your fingers effectively at all. You get a stylus that's too small to be any kind of good with and that's the only way you can do anything more precise than press the icons on the homepage. However, if you have baby-fingers and an iPhone 7 is too big for your little, tiny hands (both of them.), this shouldn't bother you at all. 5. This thing doesn't vibrate and the highest volume is still pretty quiet. Keep this in mind when setting alarms to go off at a time you may be listening to music or babies crying. Other than that, this thing is my new favorite thing ever. (Until of course Amazon.com realizes that making Alexa work offline is actually not a half-bad idea).

My experience is completely different from the other reviewers. My SJ20 worked out at first, long enough to waste all my time inputing data. Then I tried to synchronize with a second computer - I was trying to combine personal and business information from the two computers onto the Clie. The Clie doesn't work on two computers, Barry at Sony support says that it may work on two, but Sony won't help you figure out how to do that. That is three hours later - I purchased this because of the reviews saying Palm support wasn't so good, but Sony's was. Not true - at least not in this case - talked to two different Sony technicians - they were kind of jerks and really didn't care. I don't care about the Clie - if it don't work for my purposes, I will return it - what I care about is the havoc Sony technicians unleashed on my computers in an attempt to get the Clie to work - following their directions, my computer has been trashed. I have spent hours on this ordeal and now have much more work to do to reinstall and reconfigure my computer and uninstall the clie software. On top of it all, I have lost all of my data - well, actually the data does exist on the computer I put it on, but now the Clie doesn't sync with it and Sony won't help. I have had bad experience with Sony products a decade ago, but thought things had changed - guess not. No thanks. Should have listened to my friends, all of whom have older Palms - but are very happy with them. I read these reviews and thought that maybe things had changed and that the Clie is better than the Palm. It is amazing how advanced some of this technology is, but it can't sync with two computers - that doesn't sound like an unreasonable expectation.

I picked this unit up for my son 2 years ago, he enjoyed it a great deal, until the battery would no longer hold a charge. That happened about a year after he got it. I was just looking into getting a new battery for it so he could use it again and went to a battery store. They checked and an aftermarket replacement cost $49+ plus $5 S&H so I'm still in search mode on that.

I made a good choice: "good price + no color display + documents to go + 320x320 display + memory stick port". I miss in this clie: An "easier to press" on/off buton. A better version of Documents to Go, I can not see charts or graphics: but I can edit Word and Excel perfectly. Could be also nice to have a mail software that allow to read attachments. The batteries are good. The quality for images is impresive.. gray scale but I really don't need colors: I have my notebook for this and my friends can receive my pictures by mail or by ofoto. 16Mb is perfect. I also use a 8Mb memorystick (is empty). From my digital camera I can move pictures to the clie. Now I use my clie instead of my notebook for meetings, I can edit Word documents, update my outlook contacts, tasks and send mails.

A great combination of price, size, and functionality. Small enough to slide into a pants pocket, high-resolution monochrome display is crystal-clear, all the functionality you need is included or readily available. (For all you Quicken users, Pocket Quicken is great as an alternative to a wallet full of receipts!) My PocketPC will be consigned to a dresser drawer. Despite the 5-star rating, nothing is perfect. Memory is not a problem yet (fully loaded up I still have 10mb free for data, not counting memory stick expansion room) but the Sony multimedia software is only minimally useful on a PDA with monochrome display; I wish I could remove it (or better yet, I wish I had sprung for the color display!) The buttons a are a tad small for my big clumsy fingers. I could have done with a nicer selection of included software; most of the included software is trial versions only, and I dropped over half the price of the PDA licensing things I decided I could not live without. Still, near perfect and highly recommended!

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