Larry Garfield looks at Sony's latest low-end model, the SJ22. The feature set is minimal, but the screen and price make it a force to be reckoned with.
Low-end devices are not about huge feature sets. They are about respectable feature sets at as low a price as possible. While Sony may be known for its high-end devices, the CLIE PEG-SJ22 is a low-end model with a feature set and price that screams, "Respect me!"
 | The SJ22 has almost the same design as the SJ20
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Design
The SJ22 is a very basic device, with only one high-end feature: Its screen. The device itself is a basic gray plastic casing, measuring 10.4 x 7.3 x 1.7 cm and weighing 139 grams. In fact it is virtually identical to the case design of the PEG-SJ20.
The screen, however, is anything but identical to the SJ20. The SJ20's HighRes grayscale screen made us run in terror. The SJ22's screen, however, is the usual HighRes color for which Sony is better known, with all the clarity and crispness we've come to expect. The refresh rate is good, with no ghosting. The brightness of the backlight is also fully adjustable.
The buttons on the SJ22 are the same as on the SJ20. They're not stellar, but are decent and nicely concave. There isn't quite enough tactile difference between adjacent buttons, however. The rocker is a genuine rocker, and feels like one, unlike the literal rough-edge of the PEG-TG50. We had no trouble using it.
As per standard, the left side of the device includes the usual Sony scroll wheel and Back button. Both are indented just a bit too much for our taste, making them harder to use. The power button is on the top of the device and significantly indented, making it even harder to use. The stylus silo is in the usual spot on the top right, while a lanyard loop for the included hand strap is on the top left.
The SJ22 ships with a wrap-around hard fabric flip cover that attaches in back. It comes off easily when needed, but will not come off accidentally. It does not provide the best protection, however.
Connectivity
The SJ22 includes the standard Sony serial/USB port on the bottom for HotSync and accessories. Instead of a cradle the SJ22 ships with the usual Sony HotSync cable, which provides both a USB plug for HotSync and a power cable for recharging the battery. The cable is also the standard Sony; no wall-brick which is very welcome, and no HotSync button which is very unwelcome. HotSyncing requires manually launching the HotSync application and tapping on the icon.
As always, the top of the device includes a Memory Stick slot and Infrared port. The IR port is the standard strength, not the high-powered universal remote version found on many CLIEs.
 | The SJ22 brings the crisp Sony screen to a new low price
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Specifications
The SJ22 is powered by a Motorola Dragonball VZ processor running at 33 MHz. It offers 16 MB of RAM, not uncommon for a Palm OS device but unusual at this price level. The built-in speaker is the traditional tweeter, capable only of quiet beeps. Although there is clearly a separate chip to control the screen, we noticed the SJ22 acting a bit sluggish in some CPU-intensive games where we have not noticed problems before. In our battery test program AtomSmash, the game speed varied continually by a small but noticeable amount. In all programs other than action-games, the speed was fine.
The SJ22has an internal rechargeable Lithium Ion battery that is apparently removeable, though it requires a screwdriver. We ran our standard burn-down test, leaving Red Mercury's AtomSmash running in demo mode until the device shut itself off. The SJ22 lasted 3 hours, 24 minutes before giving a low battery warning, and then shut off at 3 hours, 30 minutes without any further warnings. Recharging took two hours, forty minutes. 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.
Software
The SJ22 runs Palm OS 4.1 with few trimmings. The usual Palm OS suite of PIM apps is here, as are the traditional set of Sony card handling utilities. Unfortunately, Sony's CLIE Files file manager, present on its newest ARM-based devices, is missing. We're not sure why, as it's just as useful on a low-end device with a flash card as it is on a high-end device with a flash card. Sony also ships the SJ22 with the Kinoma video player in ROM, as well as the usual World Clock.
The included CD-ROM offers the usual demo software, as well as, surprisingly, Web clipping. Web clipping is a system developed by Palm for the Palm VII that works by placing small handheld-targeted web sites on the device as stand-alone applications. While Handspring's wireless devices seem to be skipping over it, we're surprised to see it here on a low-end, non-wireless CLIE.
On the desktop, the CD offers PictureGear 4.6 Lite and a plug-in for PictureGear 5.0, for image manipulation fun. It also includes a trial copy of Kinoma Producer, a desktop application that converts video files into Kinoma format for Palm OS handhelds. The demo period is extremely short, however.
Notably absent is DataViz Documents To Go, which until recently Sony was bundling with many of its handhelds. Lately, however, Sony has stopped including an office suite with its devices.
Availability
The CLIE PEG-SJ22 is available now for $199.99 USD.
Conclusion
Like most low-end devices, the SJ22 doesn't break any new technological grounds. There is not one piece of technology in the SJ22 that we have not seen before on at least two other CLIEs before. However, the ability to recycle components from the case to the processor and RAM has made it possible to ship a device with a crisp, high-resolution color screen at a lower price than we have ever seen. The device is not perfect. Many of Sony's usual oversights such as a lack of a HotSync button on the cable are still here. As an entry level device the SJ22 doesn't have much in the way of features, but it does have the best screen of any device in this price range bar-none. It is also, therefore, one more nail in the coffin of grayscale devices, which will now have to retreat to the under-$100 range where so far only the Palm Zire plays.
- What's positive: Price, screen
- What's negative: No HotSync button, a little sluggish on some games
| Design: | 6/10 |
| Connectivity: | 4/10 |
| Specifications: | 5/10 |
| Software: | 6/10 |
| Value: | 7/10 |
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iSW Score:
5.6/10
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