Motorola i.MXL 200MHz - 32MB RAM/ - 16MB ROM - 3" Active Matrix TFT Color LCD - 65536 Colors 16-bit - MPN: PEGTJ27
Strengths: Built-in Camera, Strap, Memory Stick expansion slot.Crisp screen resolution.
Weakness: Battery lasts less than advertised. Awkward to carry in some cases because the camera lens is on the back Hardware items are not backward compatible. No flash on the camera.
I have a legacy Clie N760C with a bunch of extra hardware (extra Cradle/Chargers, Battery/car charger, Modem etc), which served me well for 2 years, but it got wet and it never worked the same. It also started to look a bit ratty and worn. Since I never used the MP3 player feature on my old Clie 760 (I already own an iPod...), I figured why pay extra for something I don't need. So I bought me this new Clie TJ27, with the camera feature, which, to me, has more practical value.
So far I like it. I have had no problems with the PDA itself. It works as advertised. The online price was right ($175 in April 2004)) and it does what you pay for. It is not a high end PDA by any means, but then, it was never intended to be.
I am not a power PDA user (I can't see paying upwards of $500+ for a delicate electronic gadget, which will be obsolete or worn out in a year or two, that you can so easily drop and oops! there goes your money...), so all I need it is for a personal super-organizer basically, everything else is a " nice-to-have" feature to me.
LIKES: I like the extra internal memory. The Memory Stick backup/restore feature. The crisp clear display screen. The built-in digital camera, which saves the shots to your memory stick. I like it's basic simplicity. It doesn't try to do too much. I believe that most high-end PDA users do not use more than 50% of their expensive PDA's capability and all its bells-and-whistles, so they are throwing their money away. I learned this myself the hard way. It does what I need it to do.
I use the little camera quite a bit. I fully realize that it is a low-resolution camera, but that's OK. It does the job. I have used the camera to take a close-up picture of a person or location (building, house, or storefront, etc) and insert it into the image feature of the address book, so I know what they look like in the future, or to show it to someone else so they will know who/what to look for. Also, when I am reading something important and I am not in a position to photocopy it or it is just too long to hand-copy it, I will take a picture of the page or paragraph (a la spy) and use the zoom-in feature to read or transcribe the text later at a more convenient time. Also, in case of a traffic accident or incident, it is just better to take pictures of everything,license plates, to include the documents. The camera makes no transcribing errors. The nice thing about this is that the camera is always with you and it is always available (as long as there is enough light to take the picture. I travel a lot, so I will take a picture of my passport and all other important documents, tickets, credit cards, etc, so if I lose them I have a copy to show to an official. (Of course I have all that encrypted and protected.)
DISLIKES: The fact that Sony (as well as all the oher consumer electronics manufacturers) design with planned obsolescence in mind. After spending all that extra money on the peripheral add-ons to my old Clie N760C, none of that is compatible with this new TJ27, and cannot be reused. I can understand with different brands, but within the same brand? It's just money wasted. Most of that stuff would work if the connections were compatible. But they are purposely designed so they aren't. Pure marketing BS. In the desktop PC's you can move your expensive peripherals (modems, printers, and disk-drives) over to a new PC, you should be able to do the same with the PDA. I guess we are not there yet. I guess I am lucky the Memory Sticks are still the same and can be reused.
I gave my old Clie N760C to my wife. Which brings me to another grief. I just found out that the two Palm OS Clie desktops cannot coexist on the same computer. (contrary to what the "knowleadgeable salesman" told me). You see, the old Clie N760C uses the Palm OS ver 4.1, while the new Clie TJ27 uses Palm OS ver 5.2. Their desktops are not compatible. After trying all the different iterations and jumping through hoops, using different user names, uninstalling and reinstalling etc. I could not make it work so both me and my wife could synch our Clie's separately, and coexist happily on the same computer (Win2000Pro). I came down to the realization that I could only synch with the old Clie (Palm OS 4.1) using the old desktop and the new Clie (Palm OS 5.2) using the new desktop. But I had to uninstall the other one first!
OK, so I uninstalled the old desktop, and installed the new one. Ater installing the new desktop and the synchronization program on my PC, I migrated my databases from my old Clie N760C to my new Clie TJ27. I followed all the instructions to the letter. When it came time to synchronize the data, so it can be dumped into my PDA, the synch program wouldn't terminate. Even after a few hours of running. It hung up so bad that I had to terminate it through the Task Manager. However, all the databases were transferred and all the add-on utility programs that I added were also trasferred.
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TopStrengths: Memory stick capability, bundled software, additonal upgrades that can be purchased, price
Weakness: Need to purchase WiFi adapter, Grafiti 2 is hard to get use to (but fun once you do)
If you don't feel like buying a $500 pda that is exactly like your home computer and aren't looking for a pda that will blow your socks off with its camera, then this pda is for you. Being a proud owner of a Fuji FinePix S7000 (12.1 megapixel) I was not at all interested in the built in camera. I use it solely to take a picture of something that I will come back later to take with my better camera. The Clie Memo program which allows you to draw, rather than type a memo is fun and useful. The screen looks bright and colorful and the battery outlast my expecations. For $200 tell me how you could go wrong?
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TopStrengths: Built-in camera, Sony memory stick expansion slot, handy strap
Weakness: 32 MB of RAM, fuzzy borders on pictures from the built-in camera
First, getting it to sync with my Macintosh running Mac OS X Panther. There's are three pieces of software needed to get the TJ27 to sync with iCal and Address Book. The first is the shareware app called Missing Sync for Clie. The second was the iSync conduit free from Apple's website. And finally, the most important, the Palm Desktop software from Palm's website. After everything was installed, the Clie worked perfectly with my Mac.
Getting used to Graffiti 2 took a while to get used to, but now it feels pretty good to write with. Navigation is a bit awkward because it's based on Clie version of Palm OS 5. This can be remedied by switching to the standard view found on Palm PDAs.
Paper documentation that was included with the Clie was good to get started. The instruction manual on how to use the software included with the Clie is html based, located on the installation CD. For the most part, the documentation was very helpful, but there were some areas where the instructions were a bit ambiguous.
The battery life is a little bit on the short side if you're planning on using it all the time, but it's good if you're only using it as a planner. You can try to save on battery life by turning the backlighting off, but it makes it difficult to see the images on the screen.
The maximum picture resolution that the built-in camera could take is 640x480. How the image looks on the computer is far different from on the Clie. On the computer, the center of the picture is sharp, but the edge becomes out of focus and fuzzy. On the Clie, the image looks pretty good. There are different options to choose from when you want to take a picture. Color, B&W, and sepia. Four different white balance settings, one of them being auto, which lets the Clie decide on either the setting of Indoor A, Indoor B, or Outside.
The only problem I have with my Clie is once in a while, the camera program will launch out of the blue. The lens cover would be closed and I would be in a completely different application. This could be a bug that wasn't resolved when the product was launched.
Overall, the Clie TJ27 is a very solid Palm based PDA. I highly recommend it for anyone who needs a good PDA but not willing to shell out the dough for a higher end model.
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TopStrengths: None to be identified.
Weakness: 1. Power/Hold button does not correctly, therefore the screen backlight is always off. 2. The 'capture' button for the camera is inoperable. 3. Silk screen area is unresponsive 4. Sony support sucks.
DON'T BUY THE SONY CLIE TJ27!!! It has been a severe disappointment. I wish I had stuck w/Palm. Not only do very essential features not work, but Sony product support is worthless and time consuming. I attempted to return the clie to the place of purchase, but they would not take it because I bought it 38 days ago & their return policy is 30 days. I have spent over 1.75 hours on the phone w/Sony support and have yet to receive any support. NEVER AGAIN WILL I BUY A SONY PRODUCT OF ANY KIND!!! SAVE YOUR MONEY!!! GET A PALM OR HANDSPRING!!!
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TopStrengths: Digital Camera, Nice Look and brand Name
Weakness: Price
I love to buy only sony products. As always i liked this item so much. Nice colors. and very good features and resolution. Very good for basic use. Planning to buy one for my son too.
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Interface is Average according to 5 PDA experts. -- "The new PEG-TJ27 CLIÉ Handheld features a built-in 310K pixel (effective) camera, high resolution TFT color display, and 32MB of internal memory (23MB available), providing everything you need to stay Organized and Entertained."-reviews.digitaltrends.com -- "The high-resolution color screen (320 x 320 pixels) shows all of your documents and...
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About two years ago, Sony introduced the first PDA with an integrated digital camera, the NR70V. Now with the TJ27 and TJ37 models, even entry-level Cliés come with an integrated digicam!
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Sony TJ27 CLIE PDA
Strengths: clear crisp screen, bright backlight.
Weakness: Screen is easly scratched, camera is not a very high qualty, memory, battery life.
the clie TJ27 is a nice handy handheld, i used the clie every day, i even got a little key board that i could use to type on the documents to go. but one day i dropped the clie on my carpet and all i got was a little crack in the bottom right hand cornor and from then on it was unusable, i called into sony and they wanted about 150 dollors to replace the glass top. it is a very good pda, for the price, but i would definattly advise you to GET A METAL CASE for it.
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