14. Sony - Lifestyle With Limitations

Sony Clié PEG-N770C (not available in North America).

Sony's Clié PEG-N770C opens up a world of multimedia applications that had previously been closed to Palm users. A particular novelty on this Palm handheld is its MP3 player functionality. To make up for the fact that the integrated Motorola DragonBar processor isn't powerful enough to decode MP3 files, Sony has integrated the necessary electronics in a small add-on module that also serves as a remote control for the MP3 player. Sony also includes stereo headphones and a software audio player. The storage medium that Sony relies on is one of its own products - the Memory Stick, which offers up to 128 MB memory to supplement the 8 MB RAM on the handheld.

The MP3 player for the Sony Clié has been combined with the remote control in an external module.

This is sufficient for at least two hours of music in either the MP3 or the Atrac-3 format at a standard sampling rate of 44100 Hz. But that's not the only unique thing about the Clié. Sony has broken new ground with its display. The reflective screen displays 65,536 colors and has a maximum resolution of 320 x 320 pixels. Until the Sony model came out, the standard for Palm devices was 160 x 160 pixels. With such a high resolution, images are very crisp - even pictures can be displayed in good quality on this PDA. However, expansions such as wireless LAN or Bluetooth are not available in the Memory Stick format - Clié users are going to have to live without such interesting features for the time being.

As is the case with most of Sony's devices, the Clié is fitted with an expansion slot at the top of the case for Memory Sticks.