Product Reviews

Sony is a past master at carving out PDA-shaped niches just so it can jump straight into them, and the TJ27 continues its fine tradition. In this case, that niche is for a budget device complete with digital camera, albeit one strictly for snapshots: note the 640 x 480-pixels resolution and lack of a flash. Inevitably, the results aren't good enough to print, but they're fine for emailing to friends. Sony makes it blissfully easy to take quick shots, too. Just flick the lens cover switch to open then press the small 'capture' button on the right-hand side of the chassis.

The 320 x 320-pixel screen acts as the camera's viewfinder and deserves praise for its well-balanced colours, if not for its brightness. We must also praise the screen cover, which is far from the afterthought of most of its rivals. Not only does it give the Clie an executive diary look due to its stylish black and silver finish, but when you want to use your PDA it folds snugly

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back and around the chassis, ensuring it never gets in your way.

Its drawback is the extra millimetre or two it adds to the TJ27's girth, and at 13mm deep this isn't the slimmest PDA around anyway. Nor is it the lightest at 143g. But some of that extra mass is due to a sizeable battery, which helped the Clie survive for more than six and a half hours when we let it idle along with the backlight on. Sony estimates 10 days' use at half-an-hour per day, so you shouldn't need to carry the charger with you for a week-long trip.

Unfortunately, the charger is about all you get in the box: there's a USB synchronisation cable, but no docking cradle and no sign of any Mac software. You'll need to download the free Palm software from www.palmone.com to sync with your Mac. We recommend you spend $30 on MissingSync (www.missingsync.com) so you can synchronise photos taken on the Clie with iPhoto. You can forget about iTunes, though - the TJ27 is built for beeps alone, with Sony hoping people will spend an extra £60 on the WiFi-compatible TJ37 if they're looking for music.

At least Sony doesn't compromise on the specs, with a 200MHz processor keeping the Clie quick on its toes, 23MB of RAM available for storage and a Memory Stick slot for expansion. We also appreciate the Jog Dial, which sits in between the hardware shortcut buttons under the screen and makes this Clie easy to control. It's just a shame Sony isn't thoughtful enough to provide all the software we'd expect as standard, with even Palm Desktop being a download away.