Sony UX50

Since the introduction of the original Palm Pilot, almost every PDA maker has abandoned the clamshell design that was prevalent with early PDAs like the Zaurus and Casio organizers. Sony changed that trend a year ago with the introduction of the Palm OS based NR and NZ series, units that featured innovative screens that flipped up to reveal a keyboard, and twisted around to close over the keyboard for pen input. Those PDAs were widely lauded for their innovation, but criticized for their monstrously large size, Sony has responded by introducing a pocketable version of these models called the UX50, which has an impressive list of features: hi-res screen, integrated keyboard, WiFi and Bluetooth connectivity and an internal VGA camera…

Encased in a magnesium shell that is slick, fingerprint resistant, and cool to the touch and eye, the UX50 is just 4" x 3.4" x 0.7" when closed, making it much smaller than previous NR style units. The size is a little wider and a little thicker than other PDAs, but is also shorter. The odd dimensions make the UX barely comfortable to hold in one hand, but perfect for holding with two. It weighs about 6 oz., which is comparable to other PDAs. The UX50 is a clamshell device much like old-style PDAs in that the screen lifts up to reveal a tiny keyboard underneath. Just like the NR/NZ/NX models, the UX has a screen that rotates laterally as well, twisting on a second on a hinge, allowing the user to close the device while still having access to the touch-screen.

Unlike previous Sony models, or any previous models of Palm or PPC, the screen of the UX is widescreen format, with a resolution of 320 (h) x 480 (w), which makes for extremely crisp text and graphics. The screen cannot be viewed in any other format than widescreen. And unfortunately, the screen is a touch smaller than most, measuring just 3¼” diagonally. The small size of the screen is exacerbated by the high resolution and small fonts, which makes everything just feel a little more cramped than other Palms and Pocket PCs. A little fiddling with the fonts, especially using Fonts4UX or other third-party font tools, obviates most problems though, and I find the screen size is not a major problem.

The only problem with the screen is that it is not transflective. Many PDAs these days have the transflective screen which reflects light from outside sources, making it easily visible in direct sunlight as well as indoors with the use of an internal front-light. Sony used a standard TFT screen instead, which makes it almost unreadable in bright sunlight, though it is very nice indoors. TFT also uses more power than transflective, since a brighter backlight is required. While the backlight on the UX is comparable to most PDAs, the screen is not quite as bright as the HP 1910, which I consider the benchmark. The TFT screen does provide very crisp moving images though, so perhaps this is the reason Sony decided not to go with a transflective screen.



There are also five other buttons on the body of the unit: three for web, email and calendar functions, plus a "back" button that for the most part operates to bring up the "desktop" of the Clie. A fifth button above the keyboard is dedicated "record" button for snapping pics, movies or voice memos with just one click. Finally, there is a scroll wheel - or "drum"
might be a better description - located at the front edge of the keyboard. This scroll drum is not up to par with the rest of the keyboard though. While it is placed in such a way that it can be used when the screen is open or closed (a nice touch) it is more difficult to use than other jog dials on other Clies, particularly the "select" feature.

The keyboard is the big story in this little unit. Because of the format of the device, the keyboard is nicely spaced for two-thumb typing. Although touch-typing isn’t completely facile, its certainly easier to get the hang of than Graffiti or other pen input methods, and writing speeds are much higher, at least by me. The keyboard’s benefits include a full row of number/function keys at the top, and all the keys are backlit with a sophisticated looking orange LED. There are many keyboard shortcuts too, some of which are programmable, making it easy to launch a variety of apps and functions without removing the hands from the keyboard. The only downside to the keyboard is the minimal tactile response - the buttons depress perhaps 1/32 of an inch.

The UX also includes a camera in its myriad list of features. Integrated into the hinge area of the unit, the camera rotates around 180 degrees of viewing area, plus a little extra so that the lens can be completely hidden and protected in the unit body. The camera is only 640 x 480 resolution, which means it is really too poor a resolution for anything but basic pics for the web. But the image quality, even in low light (and despite the lack of flash) is really very good. The software to control the camera is well designed and includes subtle refinements like auto-timer, white-balance adjustment, image resolution choices (low, lower and postage-stamp) and even a few effects like b/w images and sepia tones. Images can be taken without opening the unit, allowing for surreptitious photos for submission to…um…some interesting blog sites

The picture button can also be remapped to activate the video feature, taking movies of the abysmally small size of 116 x 96, which is about the size of a postage stamp. That makes the video almost not worth having at all, but some may find that capturing life's precious moments at low-res is better than not capturing them at all. And I must say there were several opportunities to catch unawares both friends and strangers making fools of themselves. Now that does make it worth it. Captured video can be played back on the UX50 in almost full-screen, and it looks pretty good, and it can be played back on the PC using Quicktime.

Even though the video capture mode is low quality, the video playback of other MPEGs on the UX is remarkable. With aid of a dedicated video chip, the UX plays video at 30 fps and full screen with ease. While it only plays MPEG out of the box, DivX player is available for the UX. This feature can be used to playback movies or TV shows ripped from disc or broadcast. You'll need a big memory stick though, since it takes at least 80 megs to record 1/2 hour of TV in low quality, or up to 700 megs to get a high quality DivX ripped movie.

The processor of the UX series is Sony's brand-new "handheld engine" which claims to scale itself to the needs of the user, up to 123MHz, or slower if the user needs less processing power. In most applications the processor seems to do just fine, though processor-intensive tasks the UX does seem to slow to a crawl. This does not affect video playback or music playback though, since Sony has included seperate DSPs for these tasks. This reviewer found that processor "slog" (the new buzzword) only happened when opening large PDFs or similar files.

Memory allocation is a bit of a quirck in the UX series. Sony has decided to ship the UX with a slender 16 megs of RAM for applications, but that figure doesn't include another 29 megs of usable RAM for media and program storage. Effectively the UX has 44 megs of RAM, since programs can be launched via shortcut from the media RAM (called "internal memory stick"). There's yet another block of 16 megs of "heap" memory, 16 megs exclusively for backup, and for and another 8 in the processor for handling the actual computing. Internal preinstalled applications take another 19, so that makes for a whopping total of 104 megs of RAM in the UX. Unfortunately this confusing memory allocation system makes it difficult for the user to easily manage their memory needs, since it takes an extra effort to run applications from the internal media. Memory overall in the UX is impressive and should, with a little fiddling, meet the needs of most users without need for an extra memory stick -- unless of course you want to start loading it with MP3s or vid clips.

Connectivity of the UX is clearly one of the other major advantages. Only a few PDAs have both WiFi and Bluetooth included, and Sony's UX is the only one with an integrated keyboard. This makes the UX an ideal device for go-anywhere email, SMS and web-browsing. Sony has done an excellent job of integrating this connectivity into the software included with the UX, making it a simple process, for instance, to take a snapshot and send it via email over WLAN or via Bluetooth to a PC. Though the SMS software is simple and works well, perhaps the only thing noticably missing from the software is support of multi-media messaging (MMS) Accessories.

Setting up a WiFi connection couldn’t be easier. The UX has integrated WiFi scanning software that finds any wireless network in range, and can be programmed to auto-connect or to prefer certain networks. The only flaw is that the range of the WiFi does not seem to be all that good - even right outside a Starbucks I had trouble finding a hotspot. One fun thing to do with the UX though is to go war-chalking, since the scanner displays the strength of the signal, you can lock into a network and hunt down its source.

Setting up Bluetooth connections on the UX did not prove quite as easy. Perhaps because of my PCs configuration and my cellular provider, it took me hours of toiling over a hot CPU to get everything working properly, even with the aid of Sony's connection "wizard" software that claimed to make setup a 1-step process. This may not be Sony or Palms fault, because of the wide variety of providers and phones, but if you plan on setting up your UX to check email over GPRS or even just hotsync over Bluetooth, expect it to take a few hours to figure out.

Battery life on any PDA is always a big question, and the UX is no exception. The battery performs well on the UX though, eeking out about 4 hours of continuous use, or up to 10 hours of MP3 playback with the screen turned off using the “hold” switch. The only drag on battery life is the WiFi. With WiFi going it’s easy to run out of battery in just an hour and a half or so. That’s not great, but not worse than other WiFi-enabled PDAs. The biggest problem I have with the battery life is the lack of an accurate battery meter – using the UX regularly the battery meter remains at 100% for a long time, then drops before bottoming out at 20-30% where it levels off for a while before dipping to the 10% level at which all wireless communication is shut off. If the battery drops significantly during wireless usage though, it will “bounce back” and I’ve surfed the web on WiFi for an hour or more, shut off the unit and when turning it back on found that I had 50% or so remaining. Luckily Sony predicted that some might want more WiFi battery time, and has designed the UX to work with an external battery pack ($120) that gives three times the battery life.

With both Bluetooth and WiFi included, and with a keyboard and camera, the UX is a dream machine for mobile bloggers, and this is perhaps the best use of the UX. It only takes a few minutes to type a mobile blog entry and upload it, including a picture or even a movie. Of course, it takes a little extra software to make this a simple process, and the best tool I’ve found for doing this is called Vagablog. Vagablog doesn’t handle pictures yet, but it does allow easy blogging from any place where you can get a connection, and it works with several different services. And at $7 it’s a great addition to the UX – in fact, I think Sony ought to license this software and start promoting the blogging features of the UX as the primary use.

The software that comes with the UX is on the one hand quite extensive, and on the other hand quite disappointing. For playing with the multimedia, Sony included a number of applications including a picture viewer, picture editor, movie player, Flash player, voice recorder, MP3 player, and even a “remote cam” program that allows you to control other Bluetooth enabled cameras. With the concentration on multimedia, Sony seems to have completely ignored the productivity-side of the software needs. There is no included word processor or spreadsheet program, and the email program ClieMail is anemic, allowing only basic email functions and sending of pictures (but not any other kinds of files). Those who would want to use the UX for business purposes would be wise to invest in Documents to Go or a similar office suite, and replace the email program with SnapperMail or something else that can handle more complex email tasks.

Other software included with the UX does improve the functionality beyond what one normally gets with a Palm device: there is an included browser called NetFront that is quite good, though it did freeze up my UX several times for no apparent reason. There is an SMS program for sending and receiving SMS messages from a Bluetooth cell phone, though messages must be checked manually. Finally, Sony included Picsel Viewer, which is a robust application that allows viewing of a number of different file types on the UX, such as Word, Excel, PDF and others. This program does not allow editing of documents though, so it’s of very limited utility and no replacement for a good office suite.

Overall the software that is included with the UX, especially the desktop software that allows transferring files from the PC to the UX, is cumbersome and disappointing. The software overall is too complex for novices to get the hang of, raising the entry bar pretty high. Only those with a lot of PDA experience are likely to get the whole process quickly, and others will feel that the whole business is just more complex than any PDA should be.

Perhaps the only other flaw of note in the UX is that some models apparently suffer from a "buzzing" noise from the screen that iritates users to the point of insanity (this reviewer included). This seems to be a production error that affects up to 25% of the units within a few weeks of purchase. Sony seems to be dealing with this problem as best they can, offering to replace or repair those units without question. Hopefully this is only a temporary problem that will work itself out after the first production run.

That said, once all the little quirks are figured out and a few third-party apps are added, the UX50 is a dream machine. It almost replaces my laptop on short business trips, and comes as close to fulfilling my mobile communication and computing needs as any PDA I’ve ever owned. And with the look and functionality of one of the original Sony PictureBooks, the UX is definitely a revolution in mobile computing deserving of an Object Value award.

Price: $650 list, $550 street

Note: After some serious thought, I've decided to revise the rating of the UX down by 1/2 a batt because of the lack of included word processing software or email package capable of sending anything except picture attachments. The more I thought about it, the more it bothered me that for the $650 list price (among the highest of any PDA) Sony didn't bother to include this basic feature in a PDA clearly designed for email and word processing. All packages that will allow the UX to do word processing and spreadsheets plus send email with attachments cost upwards of $100, so factor that price in if you are considering a UX.

nate -[Thursday, November 06, 2003]
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Related Link:  SonyStyle