Reviews
Sony
TJ37
WiFi, camera, hi-res screen, this little Sony has it all
Sony re-invents
the handheld every few months. Last year the trend was toward
high-dollar handhelds with many moving parts: screens that flip
open and over, keyboards, cameras mounted on swivels, and WiFi
ports coming out of top and bottom. They also made some slick
PDAs with a more traditional form factor, but they were missing
two key elements that some customers were getting from cell phones,
and from Sony's largest competitor, palmOne. I'm speaking of course
about cameras and wireless capability.
It used to be that to get both of these items on the same Sony
device you needed to shell out US$500 for an NX73V and an additional
US$150 for a Sony WiFi card; a powerful combination, yes, but
it was also a little on the huge side as PDAs go. Now less than
half that amount of money gets you a smaller handheld with both
a 640 x 480 camera and WiFi in a much smaller and lighter one-piece
package.
Design
While it won't win any fashion design awards, the TJ37 scores
high on my practicality index. Simplicity is beautiful, and the
unit's slab shape, flip cover, and button arrangement are pure
PDA: no flash but functionless finery. I'm a big fan of flip covers,
though I usually prefer ones that flip up or up and over to ones
that wrap around the back. But there's something I like about
this book-style cover. It mates perfectly with the shape of the
TJ37 from the front, with square edges on the left and rounded
on the right, and there are two creases running longitudinally
down the left side that allow the cover to wrap around to lay
flat across the back. It's out of the way, not flopping around,
yet it covers the screen adequately and neatly when I'm done.
It also leaves the camera's lens uncovered on the other side for
easy stealth capture, but we'll get to the camera in a minute.
The front bezel is simple, with a signature Sony look of quality.
The button/jog dial cluster is rather attractive, with the traditional
four main application buttons: Date Book, Address Book, To Do,
and Memo Pad. Traditionally, the jog dial has appeared on the
left side of most Sony handhelds, but this one is smartly integrated
into the front controls, eliminating accidental activation and
emulating the recent trend toward front navigation controls like
palmOne's 5-way nav cluster. Left and right of the jog dial are
two buttons that work as back and forward buttons in the TJ37's
built-in NetFront browser, making the combo ideal for Web browsing.
The jog dial can also be pressed in to activate onscreen functions.
The top of the unit has a Memory Stick slot and a headphone jack,
as well as a status light that shows when the unit is charging.
These two work in conjunction to turn the TJ37 into an MP3 and
Kinoma video player.
The
right side has the power slider. You pull down to turn the power
on or off, and push the switch up to put the TJ37 into Hold mode.
This deactivates all the buttons whether the unit is on or off,
useful both when you don't want the unit to turn on accidentally,
and when you're listening to MP3 music and want to save power
by turning off the screen. Next to the power switch is the shutter
release. Sony clearly rethought the PDA camera design, and put
the lens in a great location, better than the Zire 71, because
it forces the user to hold the camera with both hands.
To take pictures you have to turn the camera to the left. The
built in capture software is rotated to accommodate this change
of aspect. You can use either the onscreen capture button or the
build in button. I think holding the device sideways makes for
better, more stable shots with this camera, so I like the hardware
button.
The back of the unit has the lens, mounted in a silver piece that
sets it apart from the rest of the back, while remaining flush
with it. Sony calls it a 310,000 pixel camera, but that means
it captures 640 x 480 images. That's not as good as most digital
cameras, but better than most cell phones. Just right of the camera
is the speaker. There is no mic on the TJ37, so there will be
no voice memo recording, but mono playback of music is decent
with this little speaker. It's no better or worse than we saw
on the NX80V.
Technology
Unlike the NX80V, the TJ37 has a 320 x 320 screen, not the landscape
screen that also appears on the higher-end TJ55 CLIE introduced
at the same time. For most users, I don't think this is a great
sacrifice. The 320 x 320 screen is beautiful and bright, great
for photos, and fine enough to display small fonts onscreen. As
it is, the TJ55 gives you a long view on web pages, but it doesn't
rotate, to the real advantage to a longer screen is lost.
TJ37 users can opt to use Graffiti 2 for input on the silkscreened
Graffiti area, or use the included Decuma software. Though it
takes up half the screen, Decuma does allow for whole-word entry.
You'll think you've gone back to grade school, because Decuma
reads letters just like you wrote them back then. It works well
enough that even high tech reviewers I know have adopted it for
many tasks.
32MB RAM resides on the device, though only 23MB is available.
The TJ37 is powered by a Motorola iMXL processor running at 200Mhz.
It's pretty quick, and its clock speed is actually faster than
both of Sony's higher end handhelds, the TJ55 and UX50, both of
which use the Sony-designed and manufactured Handheld Engine.
From what I've seen this little $300 unit is faster than the higher
end models.
Those
wanting more space for programs and pictures-which will be everyone
who uses their handheld for pictures and music-can buy Memory
Sticks to radically increase the value of their device. Prices
continue to drop on these handy peripherals, making it cheap to
more than triple your storage space for around US$60.
Included in the software bundle is the CLIE Viewer, AeroPlayer
for playing MP3 and Ogg music files, and the Picsel viewer, which
allows non-editable viewing of native Word, Excel, PowerPoint
and HTML files. If you think you'll also want to edit files, you
can download a complete install of DataViz's excellent Documents
to Go Professional Edition for free after your register the product.
Anyone buying a TJ37 should take Sony up on this offer.
Up to now, the handheld I've described is pretty well equal to
palmOne's Zire 71. But here's where we begin to see the value
of the TJ37. I'm a big proponent of wireless access on handheld
computers. With access to the Internet, not only is your tiny
computer's memory expanded to encompass the knowledge of most
of the World Wide Web, it also becomes an important communication
device. Everyone knows that an email can save time in your day
by avoiding all the niceties and potential entanglements of the
phone call. That sounds antisocial, but you know it's true. Now
you can keep track of the greatest timesaver in business history
wherever there's a WiFi access point. Wireless internet access
is constantly growing. There are as many access points (AP's)
in your area as there are Starbucks coffee shops. In my area,
that's just about every freeway exit. McDonalds is getting in
on the act as are bookstores and of course airports and train
stations. Installing a WiFi AP for your TJ37 in your home is a
US$50 proposition, since all you need is a basic 802.11b router
and a broadband connection (it's possible to have a WiFi connection
with dialup, but the few routers that do this are prohibitively
expensive).
Soon, just as you do now with your desktop or notebook, you won't
remember what you did without your wireless handheld. Though I
think email is the killer application, it's nice not to have to
boot the PC just to look up a quick factoid. Google runs great
in the NetFront browser, and will connect you quickly to the largest
body of information in the world: the World itself.
The TJ37 doesn't come with a cradle, only two cables for HotSync
and charging. If you set your unit up for WiFi HotSync, you'll
only need the charging cable, a solution I recommend heartily.
Battery life for the TJ37 is about three to four hours of solid
on-time while using WiFi. Not bad at all, certainly better than
past Sony offerings. If you're just checking your email while
on a trip or browsing occasionally at the airport, this is more
than enough if you charge every other day. Just be sure to bring
that charger.
Of the three new handhelds introduced this year by Sony, I think
the TJ37 is the sweet spot. It's not as pretty as the TJ55, but
for the money it offers the most capability in a package that
is simple to use. Anyone asking for my opinion on a handheld computer
this season will get a strong buy recommendation on the TJ37.
-Shawn Barnett
Home
