Sony Clie PEG-UX50 Handheld
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List Price: Our Price: $499.99 You Save: $150.00 (23%) Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours Buy Used: from $115.00 (click here) Category: CE See more product details |
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Having used it for about a week I am convinced that I prefer my UX50 over my P800. The main reasons:
- User interface for Palm is more intuitive than Symbian
- Synchronisation (With Outlook 2000) is better: Symbian sync was very bugy, lost middlenames during conversion, conflicted with Yahoo Intellisync and someimes just did not work for unclear reason
- MP3 is of good quality, with in-ear headphones the sound is good and (in contrast with the P800) the MP3 player works with the lid closed. Also, the MP3 player seems not suffer when you use other applications.
- The UX50 is very well equipped for video playback. The conversion softare allows you to convert AVI and MPEG files to a playable file. The quality and above all the landscape orientation of the screen make this the first PDA to really watch a video on. It is also very convenient that you can watch the screen without holding it in you hand!
- Integration with SMS (mostly for Europeans) is excellent. The keyboard allows you to send SMS as if they are emails.
My biggest complaint is that the Bluetooth-GPRS connection seems to destabilise the system sometimes requiring you to *hard* reset the UX50 (losing all you data untill you synch again). And the battery life is not good: about a day of intesive usage.
Overall I believe that the UX50 is rather expesive for the functionality it provides. The form factor is undeniably very attractive and should be one of your main arguments for buying it.
The Sony attracted me by its original design and multimedia features. It certainly is a revelation in terms of connectivity and web browsing. I also like the keyboard. However, let me tell you why I am returning it (despite the 15% open-box return charge) and going for a more traditionally designed HP. It is not a bad unit, I just feel that the high price suggests it is more special than it actually is:
The swivel screen concept should allow for a larger screen but this one is disappointingly about standard size for a PDA. The unit is slightly smaller but somewhat thicker than a standard PDA. Battery life is poor. My main issue, however, is the included software which does not contain the basics I would expect. No word processor, no spreadsheet and no outlook equivalent email program other than something which pops email. All these are available but, at this price, I would expect these included. I liked the sketchpad but, for some reason, it only operates on a reduced screen size. The camera is nice and I liked the zoom feature but it would be better with a higher resolution.
Looking at the prices of comparable units I feel that the $650 tag consumes about $350 for the vogue value of the undeniably neat mini-tablet design. It depends how much this means to you.
Anyway other than that the WiFi rocks.