The handheld meets the notebook in Sony's fully loaded, clamshell-style CLIE UX50.

As handhelds continue to add features -- and wireless capabilities, in particular -- manufacturers are trying to design fairly compact products that allow its customers to make better use of all that functionality. Sony's answer to the features/design dilemma is its next-generation CLIE, the PEG-UX50. With its horizontal rather than vertical orientation, this Palm OS-based ‘personal entertainment communicator´ looks more like a mini-notebook than a handheld. Say what you will about the AU$1299 list price, but the UX50 manages to be a slick yet highly functional gadget. If Sony could figure out how to graft a phone onto this unit, we'd be even more impressed.

Like its not-so-distant cousins, the NX73V and NZ90, the UX50 features a built-in digital camera for shooting pictures and low-resolution video clips; you'll also find a sharp, high-resolution ‘flip and rotate´ screen. But as noted, the UX50's 480-by-320-pixel display has a landscape (horizontal) rather than a portrait (vertical) orientation, which makes it more suitable for viewing Web content, pictures and video.

Measuring 10.3cm wide by 8.65cm deep by 1.79cm high and weighing 175g, this model is more compact than its cousins, but the backlit keyboard is more tactile. The keys are generously sized, easier to depress and better spaced, thanks to the landscape orientation. Instead of the side scroll wheel found on most CLIEs, the UX50 has a well-placed ‘barrel scroller´ at the bottom of the keyboard next to the ever-important Back button and three customisable quick-launch buttons. A small stylus is stealthily sheathed in the front-right corner.

In the hinge, you'll find the VGA camera's barrel lens, a quick-launch camera button and a stereo headphone jack. Conveniently, that quick-launch button doubles as a shutter-release button and a start/end record button when the UX50 is in camera and voice-recording modes, respectively. There's no opening for CompactFlash or Secure Digital media, but considering the unit's on-board Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and camera, the Memory Stick Pro slot -- located on the right side -- is more than sufficient. The power/hold button, the IR port and the mini-USB jack are all found on the unit's left side.

The UX50 comes with a lightweight charger cradle that clips onto the bottom of the unit. Because data can be synced via a wireless Bluetooth connection or the USB jack, the cradle and AC adapter need to be lugged around strictly for recharging; an extended battery is available as an accessory, however.

Given the UX50's somewhat cluttered interface, even experienced Palm users will need a few days before they feel comfortable navigating through the myriad features and settings. And we were disappointed that this expensive handheld came with only a wrist strap, not a full carrying case. Those quibbles aside, the UX50's design is a substantial improvement over that of Sony's earlier swivel-screen models.

The UX50 doesn't have every feature, but it isn't missing much. It runs on Palm OS 5.2 and comes with an impressive 104MB of total memory, 29MB of which are available for media storage. Another 16MB are reserved for system backup.

But the big news here is the built-in Wi-Fi and Bluetooth. Unlike Sony's wireless LAN add-on for earlier CLIEs, this unit's built-in sniffer application detects all available wireless networks, secure and open, making it a lot easier to find Wi-Fi hot spots.

As noted, Bluetooth connectivity is available, and it will be most useful to those who have a data-ready, Bluetooth-equipped mobile phone. If you're signed up for data services with your carrier, you'll be able to wirelessly retrieve and send email while in the coverage area. Needless to say, a broadband Wi-Fi connection is significantly faster and better for most of your Web-surfing needs. If you happen to have a Bluetooth-equipped camera, you can take pictures remotely from up to 10 metres away.

Like most CLIE handhelds, this model comes with an impressive software bundle. Sony's tricked-out version of the Palm OS 5.2 has all the usual handheld features, including the venerable Date Book and Address Book, rather than the updated Contact and Schedule software found in Palm's new Tungstens. You can also synchronise with Microsoft Outlook -- but Mac users will have to purchase an extra software package to sync with their machines. An email client (CLIE Mail), a Web browser (NetFront), an image viewer/editor, a Microsoft Office document viewer and a movie recorder are preinstalled. Other bundled applications run the gamut from useful programs -- such as a world clock and an image album -- to various utilities and demos.

In addition to taking instant voice memos, the handheld plays MP3 or ATRAC3 sound files, as well as MPEG-4 movies. Unlike the NX73V and the NZ90, the UX50 doesn't come with a wired remote or earbud headphones. Using our test headphones, we found that the audio was rich and vibrant, although we wanted to push the volume beyond its top level in noisy environments.

The PEG-UX50 runs Sony's new Handheld Engine processor. The proprietary Dynamic Voltage and Frequency Management (DVFM) technology is supposed to throttle the chip's operating frequency from as low as 8MHz to as high as 123MHz, thus saving precious clock cycles and battery power, depending on the demands of individual applications. Intel's XScale processors operate on a similar system but have a top speed of 400MHz. Then again, speed ratings usually don't tell the full story, and practically speaking, we had no complaints about performance. Our test movie clips and games -- trial versions of GTS (a car-racing game) and Zap2016 -- not only looked good but played smoothly on the sharp, bright, 65,536-colour, 480-by-320-pixel display.

Battery life was respectable but not great. With Bluetooth active and screen brightness set at the halfway point, the UX50 was able to run a looping video clip for 2 hours and 50 minutes. With Bluetooth turned off, the loop ran for 3 hours. Although Bluetooth activation didn't seem to adversely affect those tests, when we accidentally left it active for a full 24 hours, we came back to find the battery almost completely drained. In other words, activate Bluetooth only when you need it.

A short note about the 300,000-pixel camera: It's the same imaging system that's in the NX73V -- that is, a VGA camera that takes passable 640-by-480-pixel images suitable for emailing and viewing on the device. It's a small step up from a camera phone. As you might expect, since the UX50 doesn't have a flash, it does best in well-lit environments. The video is decent -- but again, we're talking Webcam rather than camcorder quality.

Sony CLIE PEG-UX50
Company: Sony
Price: AU$1299
Distributor: Selected resellers
Phone: 1300 137 669

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