advertisement

Ask CNET Asia

Find Products

  • Brand
  • Price
  • Operating system
  • Phone type
  • Connectivity options
  • Touchscreen
  • Built-in digital camera?
  • Filter »

Buying Advice

Editors' Top 5s

CNET Features

 

Sony CLIE PEG-T665C/G

 Print    Email     Bookmark     Share

By Colin Duwe
Jul 18, 2002

With the CLIE PEG-T665C/G, Sony took everything good about the PEG-T615C/G--including its terrific color screen and solid design--and added a faster processor and MP3 support to make quite an attractive Palm OS PDA. But with Pocket PCs now selling for less than this CLIE and a whole new Palm OS on the horizon, it may not be the right time to invest in the T665C/G.

Same Great Looks
Only the headphone jack and the hold button on the left side of the T665C/G distinguish it from the previous model, the PEG-T615C/G. The brushed-metal case has a solid, durable feel, and at a 12.7mm thick, this model is quite slim for a color handheld and slips easily into a shirt pocket. Sony's designers also did a great job sculpting the edges, so this CLIE feels just right in your hand. However, the minuscule scroll button below the screen is so small that it's nearly useless. Fortunately, there's a jog dial on the left that can perform most of the same functions

The T665C/G's high-resolution (320x320-pixel) transflective LCD is one of the best we've seen on any PDA. A transflective screen uses a traditional backlight for dim situations and also reflects ambient light from the front, making it easy to read in very bright sunlight. Most other color PDAs use a reflective LCD with small sidelights squeezed in between the screen and the digitizer--the part that you actually tap with your stylus. We appreciated that it's easier to tap precisely on this screen because the gap between the digitizer and the LCD is smaller.

A note about the screen protector: It's a removable, black-leather flip cover, but since it lacks the magnetic clasp found on other CLIEs, it tends to flop around.

Faster Processor
The real improvements of this model are found on the inside. First, there's a 66MHz processor, which keeps the bundled audio and video apps moving. You also get 16MB of RAM. (Older Palm OS PDAs tend to have 8MB.) That's likely to be more than you need for storing calendar, contact, and to-do-list info, but if you plan to load up lots of third-party applications, you'll appreciate the extra capacity. There's also a Memory Stick slot on the top of the unit to add even more memory for storing MP3s, video clips, and other data.

The other significant internal improvement is the addition of an audio player. It can play both MP3 and ATRAC3 files, although you'll quickly discover that the bundled SonicStage software isn't worth your time. The software works with only the Open MG Memory Sticks, but ironically, there's nothing open about Sony's draconian copy-protection scheme. However, by using the bundled Microsoft Import, you can easily drag and drop MP3s from your PC to a Memory Stick. The sound quality is quite good, and the player even has a bass-boost function. The Hold switch turns off the screen, extending playback time from 1.5 hours to more than 4 hours.

Loads Of Software
Aside from SonicStage, there's lots more software to be found on the included CD, although many titles are trial or demo versions. In addition to the usual Palm OS apps, you get Documents To Go Standard Edition for working with Word and Excel files and Margi's Presenter-to-Go, which plays PowerPoint slide shows. If you're looking for something a little more fun, there's also Sony's signature gMovie and PictureGear Pocket software to show off the high-resolution screen. With CLIE Paint, you can draw freehand or on top of photos that are stored on the device. Sony also includes remote-control software so that you can use your PDA to command your home-theater gear, but we didn't like using the stylus to navigate the menus on our TV. There are also plenty of third-party apps included on the CD-ROM. Our only serious gripe with the CLIE software is the absence of Mac support, although you can buy Mac software at an extra cost.

When Sony released the previous model, the T615C/G, for a list price of S$699, it was easy to recommend. However, since then the competition has heated up. Today, the T665C/G--also priced at S$699/US$400 (list)--is going up against Toshiba's comparably priced Pocket PC e310, which offers similar, if not superior, multimedia functionality. And it's also worth noting that new Palm OS 5 devices with faster processors are expected before Christmas. In other words, there's a lot to like here, but some extraneous factors make it harder for us to wholeheartedly endorse this CLIE.