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Sony PEG-S360 Clie Handheld

Sony PEG-S360 Clie Handheld

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Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Low priced = low quality
Review: I bought this from Best Buy on sale, and it died after 1 month of light usage. Recharging the battery does not solve the problem as the unit does not power on. I had Handspring Visor, Palm Professional and they all worked without problems in the past for over one year. I will be looking at the Tungsten T from Palm, no more Sony toys. Sony may make good consumer electronics, but they should stay away from computing products.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: only one bad thing
Review: I bought this PDA new online. I am a medical student and I use it for drug and pateint refrences. It is the coolest thing. It is very small. I mean smaller than all other PDA's which makes it easy for me to carry around the hospital and infront of pateints. I chose this model for the excellent price compared to what you get. The resolution is very good for mono., who needs color anyways. Even if you want to display pictures on the color PDA's the pictures will [be unacceptable]. With the s360 you get a 16MB internal memory which is perfect, most other PDA's come with a 6MB only and if you need to play MP3's then get an MP3 player not a PDA. The only bad thing is the battery keeps being used at a minimal rate when it is off. Which means if you leave it out for more than 7 days on the shelf you will lose all your data and you would have to reinstall everything which takes about 15 min with the hotsync. I called the company about that and they said that all PDA's are like that (There is no backup mechanism). Finally I do recommend it. Ohh and one more thing I love the flap cover it is made of nice material and looks very professional, most other PDA's have a cheesy bulky plastic cover.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Flawed
Review: I've owned one of these for over a year now and while I've been very happy with its performance, the product design is badly flawed. My big gripe is about the four "quick keys" at the bottom of the S360 which power-up the unit when pressed. This means that when you put the S360 in your pocket it has the unfortunate habit of turning on and exhausting the battery. I've spoken to SONY about this and to quote them: "This feature cannot be disabled." Its a shame because otherwise the S360 is a good handheld. Mine is now gathering dust on the shelf...

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Sony Peg-S360
Review: It's fairly fast, the 16 MB (built in) is very nice. I've gone almost two full day's of constant usage before I had to re-charge it, does have excellant battery life. Getting the unit set up for internet usage is confusing, but once your there your fine. The address book is very friendly. Due to this unit being black & white the movie function is not very interesting. Overall I do like it very much especially, the price. The flip top cover is of poor design, (two plastic clips hold it to the main unit) but you can remove it to buy a full cover at a fair price, I would suggest this.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: great value PDA
Review: The S-360 is a low-level PDA and an excellent value. It's not flashy or colorful like some pocket PC (it's processor and monochrome screen are obviously below the task), but it handles very important functions like calendar, to-do, e-mail and phone-book, as well as allowing a big area for memos for whatever comes to mind. It's incredibly thin and light - much more so than the Visor Handspring I bought my wife the year before. It comes with 16MB of RAM, though it includes a slot for memory-sticks (which I haven't tried yet). Though using the same operating system as the Palm Pilot, Clies come with something unique, a jog-wheel - a wheel on the side that allows you to scroll through information while holding the unit with one hand. (I keep reaching for the wheel whenever using my wife's Visor; it's absence is profound.) Like similar PDAs, you can "Hotsync" to your computer - an absolute must (more on that in a sec). Using Hotsync, you can download the contents of your Clie for safekeeping. Hotsync works both ways - and you can download to your Palm information you've updated on your computer (saving you the trouble of having to do the same using the PDA's somewhat annoying interface). Installing the software on my XP computer was effortless, and with a USB cable, a typical Hotsync takes only a few seconds - so fast, you won't even miss that Hotsync cradle. I bought mine for the fun of having a new gadget, and now can't imagine leaving home without it.

This brings me to my one real complaint - frequent death by battery exhaustion. Once the battery dies, all the information is gone (see now why Hotsync is so important?), and your varied use of Clie means that battery life will always be unpredictable. (A helpful battery-bar gives you an idea, but it's only on the main screen). Luckily, I've been able to rely on the information saved on my computer when I hotsync. Once recharged, it functions normally.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Sony Clie PEG S360 - Unstable Product and Poor Support
Review: Our company bought two S360s. The first one died within the first thirty days. While it was in the Sony shop the second one died. I asked support if they were recieving other support requests for this issue and the staff indicated that they had not. The turn around for the repair was timely but now we are sending the first one back in for the second time. So that was two S360 Clies, three repairs (for the same thing) within 6 month. I would not recomend this product. Sony refuses to refund or exchange this product.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Despair if product fails -- Sony warrenty worse than Visor
Review: Sony and Visor have different warrenties. When my Visor broke, they overnighted a replacement. When my Clie broke after I was put on hold for 1/2 hour, they told me that they would not send me a replacement. Instead, they sent me a box which I used to send back the defective product for repair. A week later (all time without the product) the Clie was returned. And shortly thereafter, the product failed again. I recommend taking the warrenty into consideration in choosing between Sony and Visor

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Stopped working in less than a month
Review: I bought the Sony S360 for Christmas thru eBay, new in box, and in less than a month with little use or input, it quit working and would not restart, despite tech support via telephone, which they thought was battery-related. Because it was bought thru eBay, their warranty was not honored, so I am out the money paid for the unit. I doubt I will ever buy Sony product again. I have had Palm pda (x2) in past without any problems.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Organize your life for less!
Review: One of Sony's base line models. With many features at an affordable price. A very competitive model for the market.

The Sony Clie Peg-S360 is the succesor to the peg-S320. It contains many of the same feature as the previous one, but has had an upgrade in memory, and also a few other features.
It is very light, 4.3 ounces and is also quite thin. It is comfortable and physically easy to use. It displays a plastic silver casing with the four shortcut buttons; date book, adresses, to do list and memo pad. It also contains an 'up-down' button in the centre at the bottom. At the top-left on the side is the jog-dial. On the top you can see the power on/light button aswell as the infra-red, memory stick slot and the stylus holder. The stylus is made of metal with plastic top and pointer. It fits in nicely with only the part showing so that you can easily remove it. On the bottom is the socket used to charge the pda and also the same socket is used to connect the cable to a pc to hotsync.

Screen

The screen is a little darker than some similar handhelds, but i have not really found this a problem. There is a backlight that can be turned on or off by holding in the power button. There is also a contrast adjuster on the lower screen area. Along with this there is a home button, calculator button, menu button and also a serach button. The screen is not to sensitive nor not sensitive enough, so using the graffiti is quite easy to pick up and just start writing.

Processor

With its 33Mhz Motorola DragonBall processor and 16MB of RAM internal memory it is put in a class with other handhelds, but not in their price range, which is exceptionally good for the first time buyer, because they will not have to start worrying about any upgrades or having to switch to a different pda any time soon.

Jog Dial

The jog dial is a very handy feature that is now being included in many pda's although not always in the base line ones, like the PEG-S360. The jog dial can be very usefull, for reading through documents, notes etc and also just in general use of the pda. Instead of having to pinpoint the stylus on the small scroll bar, and dragging it down which can sometimes be quite arqward. Aswell as scrolling the jogdial can also be used to select things by pushing it in.

Memory

If you wish to transport other documents or add extra space to the pda a memory stick is very usefull and is included in this pda. It can be used to backup files. IF you have to reset the pda, then a memory stick can be used to back files without having access to a pc. Unfortunately there is not one included with the pda, but they should not be to expensive to purchase.

Cable

You may ask yourself why then is this so cheap? One of the features that the clie does not have is a cradle. It does instead have a cable which you can use to hotsync, so nothing is lost , apart from your pda will nto be charged at the same time as hotsync so your pda will not sit nicely in a cradle, you will have to place it on a surface instead. The cable that also slots into the same socket to charge thought portable. It's plug folds down to save space.

O.S

It comes with Palm O.S 4.0. It is not the latest version of the software, but it is very similar. Other later versions fix remote bugs, which i have not come accross whilst using this pda. One of the extras on this is the attention manager, this is usefull as it reminds you of things where you have set an alarm, but have not acknowledged on your palm yet, so it reminds you.

Software

The clie comes with standard palm applications aswell as MS Gate and MS Autorun. MS Gate allows the user to view all the contents that are on the pda's RAM. You can delete and edit things here. MS Autorun allows you to run an application from the memory stick. To multimedia pieces of software included are gMovie and PG Pocket. PG Pocket allows you to view pictures in .bmp and .jpg for example. But because the pda has a monochrome screen this is not brilliant. The Pictures can also be added to the address book to one of your addresses. gMovie allows you to view movies on your pda, again not fantastic. If you are looking for something that can handle this well look into a pda with the 'pocket pc' O.S. Finaly it has Documents To Go. This program allows you to view and edit Microsoft Word and Excel documents.

Cover
Finnally the Clie includes a flip cover. It is attached at the top by 2 clips. It is not joined at the bottom, so it can easily be 'flipped' over. This provides protection for the screen. Ir also acts as protection on the top for the memory stick slot and the infra red and stylus. It looks stylish, sounds arqward, but its very good and easy to get used to.

Pro's
- Price
- Features
- 16MB RAM
- Jog Dial
- Weight
- Good Size

Con's
- No Cradle
- No O.S 5 Support
- Few Additional Accessories.
- Non-Conpatible With Windows 95

In Conclusion
I am a student and this was my first pda buy. I have become very familiar with it and now use it regularly. I am finding it very useful to keep organised and also having a few fun little features aswell. There are many handy applications that you can add for free that you can download from the internet or you can purchase. At this price it is a very good first buy.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Don't Buy A Sony
Review: Crashed withing 3 months. Customer service incompetent, but I suppose I have to deal with them to get this fixed under warranty. They are sloppy and ill-informed. Never had a SONY handheld before, and certainly won't buy one again.


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