Sony Announces the Clie TJ35 and TJ25

Posted By: Ryan Wednesday, October 1, 2003 10:34:08 AM

Sony has announced the Clie PEG-TJ25 and TJ35 handhelds, priced at $200 and $250. The new models features a thin design with 320x320 TFT screen, a 200mhz processor and run Palm OS 5.2.

Sony SJ35Both models feature a slim design reminiscent of the former T600 series handhelds. They both have dimensions of 4/38" x 3" x 15/32 inches and weigh in at 4.9 ounces. Both include a new Center Jog Dial navigator, that has 4-way directional movement. They are powered by a internal Lithium-ion poly battery and have Memory Stick pro expansion.

Both run Palm OS 5.2.1 on a 200 MHz i.MXL Motorolla Dragonball processor. The TG35 has 32MB of RAM (23MB user accessible), while the TG25 has 16MB of RAM (11MB available). Both use a 320x320 pixel TFT display capable of over 65,000 colors.

Sony has pre-installed key applications, including CLIÉ Memo and CLIÉ Viewer, directly on to the ROM memory. The CLIÉ TJ35 features a number of extras, including an integrated MP3 player (headphones optional), Decuma Latin natural handwriting recognition software,and Picsel Viewer for viewing native Microsoft Word, Excel and PowerPoint files.

Both are available for pre-order now from SonyStyle, and are expected to be available later this month.

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Clie is no longer cheaper than Palm

dhchung @ 10/1/2003 12:35:04 PM #
Here I mean when the sony model has similar spec to the palm model. Clie is usually cheaper or much better than Palm in terms of specs (N610C compared to m505; NX60 compared to T|T; SL10 compared to Zire)
As Clie is more popular now, sony no longer give good deals to consumer. TJ25 only has 16mb ram and doesn't play MP3, but cost as much as T|E. TJ35's specs is almost the same as T|E, but cost $50 more.
Also, sony no longer targets the very low end market. SL10 is disappeared, the cheapest model sony has is 50% more expensive than the new Zire21.

RE: Clie is no longer cheaper than Palm
statik @ 10/1/2003 12:58:09 PM #
It will be interesting to see how well these compete with the Tungsten T|E.

Personally, with the advancements to the PIM apps and the Documents to Go that the T|E has, I see it as an easy choice.


RE: Clie is no longer cheaper than Palm
handy pda @ 10/1/2003 1:04:13 PM #
Sony is offering a $30 rebate on the TJ35 (a $20 rebate on the TJ25). Brings down the price to $220 vs. the Tunsten|E's 199 price tag.

The aluminum body is smaller than the Tungsten|E
but weight slightly more.
TJ35
4.4 inches tall
3.0 inches wide
.47 inches thick
4.9 ounces

Tungsten|E
4.5 inches tall
3.1 inches wide
.5 inches thick
4.6 ounces

Both have 32mb of memory (28.3 on the |E 23mb on the TJ35)
Both use Palm OS 5.2.1

CPU
TJ35 - 200 MHZ Motorola i.MXL processor
Tungsten|E - 126MHz Texas Instruments OMAP 311
Which is faster?

Any other notable differences?


RE: Clie is no longer cheaper than Palm
ganoe @ 10/1/2003 4:20:06 PM #
> Any other notable differences?

IMHO, Sony has yet to offer a screen as nice as the ones on the current Palms. Plus the one on the UX-50 was a huge step backwards. It'll interesting to see what the screen is like on these new models.

RE: Clie is no longer cheaper than Palm
JonathanChoo @ 10/1/2003 4:29:04 PM #
Well the T/E has DocsToGo 6 as well as the updated PIM applications.

Psion 5 -> Palm Vx -> Palm m505 -> Sony N770C -> Sony T625C -> Sony NR70V -> Toshiba e310 -> Palm Tungsten T -> HP h2210 -> Palm Tungsten T/3
RE: Clie is no longer cheaper than Palm
dhchung @ 10/1/2003 5:19:53 PM #
Well, in terms of software, I think sony actually offers much more than palm although sony doesn't have doc2go
I also won't say $30 rebate is real decrease in MSRP. MSRP is the most expensive price you need to pay. Usually, ppl can buy things lower that that price anyway.

RE: Clie is no longer cheaper than Palm
hotpaw4 @ 10/1/2003 11:57:24 PM #
> Any other notable differences?

The SJ35 seems to include the standard T-connector for keyboards and cradles. The T|E does not. How valuable is a standard connector and a 50% faster CPU, versus 6 MB more storage memory and Documents-to-Go Pro, to a power user?

There's also the difference of Memory Stick slot vs. SD card slot.

RE: Clie is no longer cheaper than Palm
LiveFaith @ 10/2/2003 12:00:06 AM #
Sony looks attractive and clean in design unlike the gadgety UX. I am struck at how the T\E & 35 are almost spec for spec and even look "somewhat" similiar.

"Size" is deceptive in one area ... the T|E has that Vx hourglass figure which means better handling and actually a little thinner in real size. T|E will work with Mac outta the box. Sony "d-pad" value reamins to be seen, although the T\E is getting cheezy reviews on their d-pad. Most importantly, the TJ does not yet "exist" and the T\E is on the shelf at Best Buy.



Pat Horne; www.churchoflivingfaith.com

Sony's public beta hardware tests are now over
The Ugly Truth @ 10/2/2003 4:10:53 AM #
These two models should be considered the last of the beta hardware that Sony has been selling to consumers over the past three years. Those of you who participated by buying these models should be thanked for your participation. You were all brave pioneers that paved the way for the real PDAs that are to follow. Well done.


Sometimes the truth just isn't pretty™

RE: Clie is no longer cheaper than Palm
dhchung @ 10/2/2003 11:57:31 AM #
beta?.... just courious... any reason to support your point?

RE: beta hardware
hotpaw4 @ 10/2/2003 3:39:11 PM #
someone wrote:
> You were all brave pioneers that paved the way for the real PDAs that are to follow.

Actually, this is true for the purchaser of any consumer digital technology or software product for the last half-century or so. If you buy a copy of Windows, a Pentium laptop, digital camera, video game, music player, cell phone, etc., you are just beta testing for what comes next.

If you are in college, your new Sony PDA can be, by some measures, faster than a few of the multi-million dollar machines that would have made the top-500 supercomputers list when you were an infant. And before your kids are in college, your hottest new PC may be in a museum somewhere.

RE: Clie is no longer cheaper than Palm
Foo Fighter @ 10/2/2003 4:11:17 PM #
I believe Sony is leaving the PDA business next year to make way for its PSP portable gaming system.

-------------------------------
My blog: www.pocketfactory.com
RE: Clie is no longer cheaper than Palm
Cheap Guy @ 10/3/2003 8:41:12 PM #
Actually, I kind of hope Ugly is right and Sony comes out with a “standard” Clie in the near future. It seems that after the T-Series, Sony has been wandering around, trying to innovate, experiment and distinguishing themselves from other PDA makers. While this is normally a good thing, it seems like they've been tossing out too much good, e.g., metal cases, hi-po IR, and now the side-mount jog dial, replacing them with features that are somewhat questionable, e.g., flip screens, keyboards, etc., just for the sake of being different. Plus they've ventured into laptop land as far as prices are concerned. For the life of me, I can't understand why Sony doesn't come out with a TG50 model without the keyboard. Keeping the high-priced flip models and the new low priced TJ's would be fine, but at least give mid-range buyers a "normal" alternative to the Tungsten series.
RE: Clie is no longer cheaper than Palm
The Ugly Truth @ 10/5/2003 3:43:59 PM #
For the life of me, I can't understand why Sony doesn't come out with a TG50 model without the keyboard.

Sony has basically been marketing design experiments to see what works/sells. The basic configuration people have begged for for so long will be out soon. But stand alone PDAs are a dead end market. Sony needs to get Palm OS onto their Sony-Ericcson cell phones now. They will continue to cover other niches with products like the CLIE PalmTops (UX-50) and other stand alone PDAs, but that market will shrink within a year as more PDA-phones are rolled out. Geeks here tend to not understand that most "normal" people will want to carry a single small device rather than toting multiple items on a utility belt. If you look at how 95+% of PDA users actually use their devices, you'll understand why a PDA-phone like the Treo 600 will make stand alone PDAs obsolete. For the less than 5% of users that really need the bigger screens offered on stand alones, there will still be those niche devices.

Accept it: PDA-phones are the future, whether you like it or not, kiddies.


Sometimes the truth just isn't pretty™

Where's the colors?

Gar @ 10/1/2003 1:11:00 PM #
Aren't these the units Sony was showing last week in Japan in all kinds of case colors? Will we get those here? No, I wont be buying one just for the color of the unit but that might put a few students over the fence to a TJ instead of a Zire. Why else did Palm make the 71 blue?!
Speaking of the 71, it would have been a good idea to put a camera on one of the TJ units. They do use a 'jog' scrolling wheel instead of just a thumb pad. To those daily users, it does make getting around one handed much easier... was size an issue for moving the jog from the side and onto the front?

-----------------
My wife has to sell a lot of candles (www.ccandles.com) to buy her new Palm.
RE: Where's the colors?
Gar @ 10/2/2003 6:59:25 PM #
Never mind... found the colors. Japan only:
http://www.jp.sonystyle.com/peg/Store/Clie/Tj25/index.html

-----------------
My wife has to sell a lot of candles (www.ccandles.com) to buy her new Palm.

Metal or Plastic?

Foo Fighter @ 10/1/2003 4:34:09 PM #
Anyone happen to know whether the case is metal or plastic? Hard to say from these photos, but I'm thinking it's plastic.

-------------------------------
My blog: www.pocketfactory.com
RE: Metal or Plastic?
mikecane @ 10/1/2003 7:36:40 PM #
Tch, Foo! Caught you not reading!

The product tour at SonyStyle clearly states: "Super slim aluminum body."

RE: Metal or Plastic?
killah fury @ 10/6/2003 12:41:14 AM #
I'm in Japan at the moment on holiday and checked out these new devices at the Sony Tower, Osaka. It's a nuce little machine for sure and yes, it's metal.

So many people were after an OS5.0 Clie in a slim form factor without keyboard/camera that I reckon these are gonna sell pretty well...

New CLIE keyboard?!!?

mikecane @ 10/1/2003 7:38:35 PM #
"CLIÉ™ Compact Keyboard
PEGA-KB100
The new Compact Keyboard, PEGA-KB100 is available in a sleek silver metal finish. It offers the touch and feel of a full-size keyboard, yet light enough to carry anywhere."

http://tinyurl.com/pdva

RE: New CLIE keyboard?!!?
cypher76 @ 10/1/2003 11:29:37 PM #
The KB100 has been out since around the release of the NX78/80...
RE: New CLIE keyboard?!!?
diment0 @ 10/8/2003 4:20:25 AM #
100 bucks for a keyboard! Ouch! Wonder what the margins are those?

Other than that, it looks nice. Is anyone here using one? Is it possible to touch-type?

Damn damn Sony!

mikecane @ 10/1/2003 7:41:01 PM #
So of course they tout the one thing that keeps the TT3 from being just about the perfect PDA: DECUMA LATIN!!

I want my Decuma Latin!!

And NOT on a CLIE!

RE: Damn damn Sony!
abosco @ 10/1/2003 8:00:54 PM #
RUMOR has it that it may be available as a downloadable software and available for 320x320 devices as well. Note: RUMOR.

-Bosco
RE: Damn damn Sony!
mikecane @ 10/2/2003 6:56:53 PM #
Well According To Foo, Sony will drop PDAs next year (snicker!) for its PSP (snicker!snicker!). So no doubt Microsoft will go and buy Decuma lock stock and HWR engine... and we'll all be stuck with fekkin Graf2.

Careless uploaded PDF

tiger_bb @ 10/1/2003 8:37:51 PM #
Just download the PDF in the Hardware Specification Page (http://tinyurl.com/pi1e) (pdf), and found that, it should be a pre-release draft, lots of notes was included, and asking for change. The MP3 player is an Aeroplayer(?), the ROM is 8MB (but should be 32MB), and lots of error...


RE: Careless uploaded PDF
shurcooL @ 10/1/2003 9:03:53 PM #
yeah, i know... what's up with that? doesn't look professional to me.

also, ganoe, could you *please* tell me what's wrong with Clie's screens? i would really like to know. are they too small? or what? and what's so horribly wrong with UX-50's screen? thanks in advance.

thanks,
shurcooL

RE: Careless uploaded PDF
hotpaw4 @ 10/1/2003 9:09:17 PM #
AFAIK, and according to the sonystyle web site, the RAM is 32 MB (23 MB storage), not the ROM; and the bundled mp3 player is a version of AeroPlayer, not Real. Do you have some differing information regarding the TJ35?
RE: Careless uploaded PDF
kidA @ 10/1/2003 9:18:43 PM #
probably wasn't supposed to be uploaded yet. it's obviously a draft. probably made by the marketing folks then sent to the clie management people for editing and confirmation that it's all right. then the management people made their notes as to what needed to be fixed, and sent it back to get updated and somewhere along the way it accidentally got uploaded. i wouldn't knock anyone for this. and it's very professional looking document. it's just not done yet.
RE: Careless uploaded PDF
ganoe @ 10/2/2003 6:35:33 AM #
> could you *please* tell me what's wrong with Clie's screens?
> i would really like to know. are they too small? or what?

Size-wise most of the current Clie models are fine to great, its something in the design and technology. All of the recent Palm's (since the Zire 71 and Tungsten C) which if your goal is to have it similar to writing on paper, they IMHO come the closest yet. They're also rather usable in the lowest backlight settings, which is nice if you want to conserve power. In comparison, the Sony screens are ... well just screens. That's not to say that some of them aren't pretty nice.

> and what's so horribly wrong with UX-50's screen?

Small and dim. See comments from various people in the UX-50 review on this site, but small and dim about covers it. It's disappointing, because otherwise it's a really cool device. Given the rather large borders around the screen, I'm at a loss as to why they didn't make it bigger. Since the UX-50 was their latest, I'd be hesitant to jump on these new models till I physically saw how they compare.

The differences between color screens on all the different PDA models really deserve to be seen in person before you buy.

RE: Careless uploaded PDF
shurcooL @ 10/2/2003 8:43:14 AM #
thanks for the explanation ganoe. :)

thanks,
shurcooL
RE: Careless uploaded PDF
shurcooL @ 10/2/2003 8:43:14 AM #
thanks for the explanation ganoe. :)

thanks,
shurcooL
RE: Careless uploaded PDF
shurcooL @ 10/2/2003 8:44:11 AM #
whoa, sorry about the double post... it's really cold here i accidently clicked it twice. :( how come there's no edit or anything like that features here?

thanks,
shurcooL
RE: Careless uploaded PDF
ganoe @ 10/2/2003 12:02:57 PM #
> it's really cold here i accidently clicked it twice. :(
> how come there's no edit or anything like that features here?

You're preaching to the choir. I keep trying to edit the temperature higher, and it's still cold.

A bit late in the game

M3wThr33 @ 10/2/2003 2:47:33 PM #
Okay, so last time when I made the point about them trying to mimic the Zire71, they TRIED and missed by 9 yards. NOW they successfully made a device that appeals to mid-range users, although the Zire71 will keep it's edge for two reasons:
1) The Zire71 has a camera. While not the BEST camera, it's still mighty good, can save straight to the SD card and is just overall cool looking when you use it.
2) The Sony engineers are still learnings. The new devices now look like industrial blocks. If you want the core people to accept them, you have to make them look inviting, rather than cold. What happened to the gunmetal-finish on the NZ90?

While a finish may sound superficial, it often is the first thing that draws a person to a display.

Oh, and they have yet to make a non-flip virtual-graffiti pda yet. Too bad no one is listening, how are those iQues, anyway?

I don't think you understand the gravity of the situation. We're in space.

hrmm...

helf @ 10/2/2003 3:11:52 PM #
Rather ugly.. And whats up with that 'dpad'? That is horrid! And why don't they EVER give their clies a nice hourglass shape like the m5xx/vx/te? H8n quare, block palms.

The Memory Stick Scheme bothers me the most

vesther @ 11/5/2003 9:09:59 PM #
They seem to be impressive handhelds for the Business-Savvy Guru, but the fact that you need to use the Memory Stick as the sole expansion means for this handheld tends to be a real turn-off for a lot of people. IMO Sony is more of a high-end Palm OS Licensee than a multi-segment handheld creator.

In a Desolate Forest, an enchanted Palm-Powered Handheld is waiting to possess a helpless soul in the wake--The Palm-Powered Handheld's name is EURENZANNIG.
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