Stylish Gizmo

In 1999, Palm introduced the first ultra-slim PDA - Palm V, quickly became one of the most popular handheld computers. Two years later, Handspring in an attempt to achieve the same success, released Visor Edge, which, however, not gained much popularity. Now this road was, and Sony with its new Clie PEG-T415. The reason why, according to which the repeated failures Clie Visor Edge - its monochrome screen. But more about that shortly.

Stylish and brilliant

Stylish Gizmo
From an aesthetic point of view of the handheld Sony's incredibly attractive. Matte silver aluminum housing makes this model extremely elegant and even elegant. Author of the article made the news weighed and compared it with the above mentioned Palm m 500 and Visor Edge. Sales Leader - Palm m500 pulled at 120 grams. Sony restrained in a weight category up to 125 grams, but the Visor Edge has weighed about 135 grams. In this case, Clie, keeping the thickness of the m500, was narrower than the models of both competitors.
Stylish Gizmo
In this case, Clie enough performance. Collected on the basis of 33MHz CPU Motorola DragonBall, 8Mb RAM and 4Mb Flash ROM, the model shows very good results. But look: some only the size and productivity is not enough to become the best. Clie has a pretty good performance in these areas, but it seems that other indices of Sony brought practicality to sacrifice style. Let's look inside the packaging of a new PDA and try to learn the strengths and weaknesses of the handheld from Sony.

Filling

Stylish Gizmo
    Sufficiently attractive box-green lemon and turquoise contains the following items:
  • Sony Clie PEG T-415 Personal Entertainment Organizer
  • Sync cable for USB-port
  • Power unit
  • Clip-soft vinyl cover
  • CD-ROM to install software on your PC
  • User Manual

Software

The set comes with the Clie PEG T-415 software is impressive.
    Software for Clie:
  • Clie Paint
  • PictureGear Pocket
  • PhotoStand
  • gMovie
  • World Alarm Clock
  • Clie Remote Commander
  • Sound Utility
  • Acid Solitaire
  • Pocket Gourmet
  • Pocket Vineyard
  • AvantGo
  • Documents To Go, Standart Edition powerOne Personal
  • StreetFinder Express
  • Windigo
  • WorldMate
  • Zap! 2000
    Software for the desktop:
  • Intellisync Lite 4.0
  • Palm Desktop for Clie 4.0.1
  • PictureGear 4.4 Lite
  • QuickTime 5
  • DirectX 6
  • Memory Stick Export
  • Sound Converter
  • Adobe Acrobat Reader 5.0

Inside-Out ...

There is something uncanny in how Sony has managed to provide an elegant device slot for memory expansion cards Memory Stick. The included software, there are four utilities that help you to squeeze everything possible from this advantage: MS Gate, MS Autorun, MS Import and MS Backup. The very same card, unfortunately, is not included.
Stylish Gizmo
As can be seen in the photograph, at the upper end of this PDA has an infrared port, which is quite natural, since Sony has included a set of software - Remote Commander, allows you to use Clie, as a remote control for TV, videomagnitafona or DVD-Player.Author of the article tested the handheld as a remote control on your TV Toshiba. It turned out that it works just perfectly. And besides, it is convenient to be adjusted. For example, the Jog Dial wheel has been programmed to change channels, and clicking on it you can turn on / off the TV. However, the tester was unable to pass on the Clie via IR any information to other handhelds. This model simply does not recognize any of the tasted PDA. Another item, which is located on the upper side of the device - thin, lightweight pen. You could even say too thin and too easy.
Stylish Gizmo
The left side is located at the legendary Sony Jog Dial Wheel with reset button (Back button). This is very convenient, especially in cases when the PDA is used as a remote control. Scroll buttons (Scroll button) and application buttons (Application buttons) call can not be comfortable. The impression is that Sony has developed them for the sake of style at the expense of usability. Placed horizontally a small button to call applications requires great caution and care when working with it. True, this is minor compared with the scroll button. She is so small that it is practically impossible to use. Oh, and the need for it disappears, because Sony still has a Jog Dial.
Stylish Gizmo
The handheld is perfectly fit in with the supplied non-cradle, which, incidentally, differs from previous models of line Cradle Clie. One of the drawbacks of a new cradle that designed it so that the PDA can be charged only through him - will have to buy a separate charger for use on the road. Second - to change the structure of connector, which now does not fit into existing accessories for the Clie. On the back of the PDA is a reset button (Reset button) and the lid, under which the removable 800 mAh lithium-ion polymer battery.
Stylish Gizmo
To its credit, Sony, model T415 has a good speaker, that even something not quite typical for handhelds. Supplied in a set of application software Sound Utility allows you to play converted from MIDI and WAV-files, and I must say that they sound much better than expected beforehand. It is clear that the speaker can also be used for various kinds of alerts. Clie to have the opportunity to make their voice. Agree, it is pleasant to the usual pischaniya. And if you prefer a vibrating alert, the new model and there will not disappoint you.

Screen

On the T415 set monochrome screen with several unusual characteristics. High resolution (320x320 pixels) that is used, though not all applications and green fluorescent lights together to create a good impression. But here's the palette screen, contrary to conventional grayscale, should be called bluescale, since all that is not totally black, is displayed in bluish tones.
Stylish Gizmo
Now for the weaknesses of the screen. Firstly, he is very highly reflective.And in the daylight to work with him is not very convenient. Secondly, if thin fonts used in the Clie looked quite nice on the color screen (mainly due to their white backgrounds), then the T415, they begin to irritate. Too dark screen does not have sufficient contrast for easy reading such fonts.

Conclusions

Sony Clie PEG T-415 - Stylish in every unit, which has a characteristic set of functional buttons, perfectly executed in terms of design. But it does have one drawback - the screen. However, recently Sony has announced a color version of this lovely devaysa, but this seems to be exactly what you need. Sources, Materials:

Brighthand

The authors, translation:

Pavel Motorin