Sony's CLIE PEG-SJ20 is the one of the lowest cost HighRes devices ever. Unfortunately, Larry Garfield cannot recommend the SJ20's HighRes, low-quality screen.
The handheld market is not just about the high end glamor. The mid- and low-end market is alive and well, and Sony is pushing into that market, too, with such devices as the CLIE PEG-SJ20. If the SJ20 is all Sony has to offer the low end, however, then users should look elsewhere.
 | The SJ20 is much shorter than most Palm OS handhelds
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The SJ20 is shorter than most Palm OS handhelds, measuring 105 x 73 x17 mm and weighs in at 128 grams. Most of that saved length is due to the smaller distance below the screen, where there is only enough room for the CLIE logo and hard buttons between the screen and bottom end. The case is a metallic gray plastic, and the overall appearance of the dark screen (when off) and case is very retro-industrial. The bottom half of the case bulges a bit in back to make room for the battery, but not so much to be uncomfortable. Actually the bulge combined with the attachment for the flip cover allow the device to rest on a table perfectly level. Inside the case is is 33 MHz Dragonball VZ processor, 16 MB of RAM, and 4 MB of ROM.
Sony devices are generally known for their excellent screens, but the SJ20 does not live up to its heritage. The screen itself is a true black-on-white 320x320 grayscale display, rather than the usual grayscale "black on green". Unfortunately, the hardware behind the screen is very poor. The refresh rate is very poor, especially for a grayscale device. Even just scrolling through the launcher screen leaves ghost images behind long enough to be annoying. In fast-moving games, such as our battery test program AtomSmash, the screen makes the game not worth playing. The SJ20 is also the first display we've seen since around 1985 that suffered from screen burn in. Leaving an image on the screen for only a few hours (the length of our battery burndown test) left a residual image in the liquid crystals that lasted for several more hours. The effect is not permanent, but we have never seen that sort of behavior in a handheld before.
We suspect that Sony left out their usual dedicated display chip and left the CPU to handle the screen itself, which would explain the poor refresh rate. The screen also "feels" wrong. The white background is usually only present on a color device, but the SJ20 is a grayscale device. That feels strange until the eye adjusts. The contrast of the black-on-white screen, however, is quite good, and is adjustable via a pop-up slider.
The usual four application buttons grace the front of the handheld, with the usual rocker between them. The buttons themselves are concave in vertically, but not horizontally. Like the T-series, the button pairs are flush next to each other which makes it difficult to realize which one the finger is on while playing a game. The buttons are recessed, making them harder to hit. The concave rocker is also recessed, though it is easier to use than the T-series flip-stick. The power button is on the top face of the device and is also recessed, making it difficult to hit as well. The usual Sony scroll wheel and Back button are in their usual place on the left side of the device, though they too are recessed. (Notice a pattern emerging?)
The SJ20 has a traditional piezeo-electric speaker. The trademark Memory Stick slot is in the usual place on top of the device, as is the Infrared port. The bottom of the device sports the now-standard Sony connector used on the T- and NR-series.
 | Despite the formfactor, the SJ20's screen left us wanting
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The SJ20 has an internal rechargeable Lithium Ion battery that is apparently removeable, though it requires a screwdriver. We ran our standard burn-down test, leaving AtomSmash 2.0 running in demo mode until the device shut itself off. The SJ20 lasted 6 hours, 15 minutes before shutting off. Recharging took two and a half hours. A small LED on the bottom front of the device glows orange while the device is charging and shuts off when it is fully charged.
A thin metal-barrel stylus is included, as is a hard fabric flip cover. The cover is very well designed, and attaches to the top back of the device, flipping over the front. The cover itself has a metal core for better protection, and the top of the cover is designed to arch over the top of the device, leaving just enough room for a memory stick. There is also a small landyard loop set into the top left corner.
The SJ20 does not ship with a cradle, only a cable. There are actually two cables, one that connects to the PC's USB port and one that plugs into a wall outlet via a separated-adapter box, as it should be. Both cables plug into a small adapter that in turn plugs into the handheld. It is actually a good design, as it allows the user to just take the power or data cables while traveling, but unfortunately the cable lacks a HotSync button. HotSyncing therefore requires starting the HotSync applet on the device, hardly the one-touch synchronization that has always been a cornerstone of the Palm OS's simplicity.
The SJ20 runs Palm OS 4.1 with Sony's extensions to support the Sony 320x320 HighRes API. It includes the usual assortment of Palm OS apps, plus Sony standards including CLIE Paint, gMovie, WA Clock, PG Pocket, and PhotoStand in ROM. The SJ20 does not have Sony's advanced audio system or IR port, so the utilities that handle those functions are absent. The included CD offers Palm Desktop and demo versions of SimpliWrite (a handwriting assistant), MobiPocket Reader, Contact Pro, assorted reference titles and a two games. In all, a typical assortment of programs.
The Sony CLIE PEG-SJ20 is available now for $199.99 USD.
Conclusion
Low-end devices usually cut costs by skimping on features while making those features that are included good enough to compensate for the smaller feature set. Unfortunately, the SJ20 misses that second half. While the size of the device is nice, the screen itself is not worth the $199.99 USD pricetag. While the black-on-white provides good contrast, once you get over it feeling like a color screen but not being color, the slow refresh rate is simply depressing to look at. The recessed design of the buttons and the lack of a HotSync button show a lack of polish and finish in the overall design that we would not expect from a consumer electronics giant like Sony. The formfactor may appeal to some, but we can't recommend it as an entry level model.
- What's positive: Size, good flipcover, battery life
- What's negative: Screen, lack of HotSync button, recessed hard buttons
Overall: 
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