Sony CLI PEG-UX50

Sony is like one of those dastardly villains in thrillers. Every time we think we know what it's thinking, that we can predict its next move, it surprises us by doing something entirely new. Not content with adding more and more features to its PDAs, it has thrown away the CLI design bible and created a clamshell device with a keyboard. It isn't fair to draw comparisons with the Psion either, as the UX50 is about half the width and half the height of the old Series 5. This beast sits alone in a category of one.

The most obvious benefit of the clamshell design is the keyboard. Rather than having tiny buttons squeezed into the minuscule width of a typical PDA, the UX50's keys are big enough for quick thumb-typing. This makes it ideal for bashing out an email or SMS message, although there are some quirks - for instance, the apostrophe is hidden away as a secondary function of the '2' button. Also, don't forget you can now buy a wide range of full-size keyboards for PDAs if you need to do some serious typing.

Another clever part of the UX50's design is the screen. This is of the high quality we've come to expect from Sony and, although beaten for sheer brightness by the latest Palms, its 480 x 320 resolution is great for general use and viewing photos. But the clever aspect is that it can swivel round so you're able to use the UX50 in tablet form. The only surprise is that you don't have any choice over screen orientation, so it's stuck in landscape mode. Although this is fine most of the time, it's a missed opportunity - we can't be alone in wanting to use the UX50 in portrait mode as a 'standard' Palm OS device.

It also means that the Graffiti writing area sits at the right of the screen by default, although you can switch it to the left if you prefer. You use the top half of the area for writing numbers and the bottom half for letters - we found this a little awkward at first, but soon got used to it. The same will be true of Graffiti 2 for many long-time Palm users, although it's also worth trying out the excellent Decuma handwriting software that Sony bundles.

Then again, there are clear benefits of having a landscape rather than portrait screen. Two examples are word processing and spreadsheet work, but you'll need to buy DataViz Documents To Go to take advantage. Surprisingly, Sony doesn't bundle this, or anything similar, as part of the package. This is in contrast to Palm with its Tungsten T3 (see issue 110, p140), which can also be used in landscape mode.

The supplied web browser, NetFront 3, does take full advantage of the screen. It's quite an advanced browser too, with support for HTML 4, Cascading Style Sheets, frames, JavaScript and cookies. You have a choice of how to get online as well, with integrated 802.11b WLAN and Bluetooth, which in many ways is the highlight of this PDA and partially explains its high price. Setting up both wireless technologies proved to be a relatively painless experience, although having 802.11b switched on did have a notable effect on battery life. The UX50 lasted for 11 hours with the backlight off under light use, and this reduced to six hours with an active WLAN connection.

However, in terms of battery life, where this machine excels is music playback. It kept going for a jaw-dropping 14 hours before declaring itself exhausted, and thanks to the Hold button you don't need to worry about accidentally knocking a button and disturbing playback. Sound quality is impressive through the 3.5mm jack and it's loud too, but note that Sony doesn't include headphones as part of the package.