Rating: 
Summary: Quality at a reasonable price
Review: I've been a Palm (and Palm-platform) user since the old Palm Pilot. About 6 years now. I use it constantly at work, synchronizing with Outlook, using databases, word processing, encryption for my secret data, project management and expenses and more. My biggest problem now with these platforms is the quality of the display. There is not much screen room to work with in the first place and the more meaningful information one can get there the better. The gray-scale units are now mostly worthless for heavy use. Difficult to see except under bright light and then the refelction takes its toll on your eyesight. I've had a Palm IIIc (literally began to fall apart within 6 months), then a Handspring Visor, which had dynamite color, but was bulky, depended on an awkward memory module - not easy to use - and down-level OS tweaked for the Handspring. Fortunately for me (and possibly you) Sony is producing the SJ30 with a high resolution, beautiful color display, scaled down form factor and a feature I'm rapidly coming to depend on - the Jog dial. After too many Palm platform units, I have quickly settled in to the Sony and don't plan to change until a couple of more OS and hardware revisions have come and gone. Maybe OS5 when it is stable and when Sony produces a high resolution model for it. The only thing I would have liked in the SJ30 that it does not have is a quality sound capability. But, I can certainly live without that. This is a solid, useable handheld with a fabulous color high-resolution display and the price is definitely right. Thank you Sony.
Rating:
Summary: Best value among color Palms...
Review: With the new, lower price on the Sony SJ30, there is now no reason to buy Palm-branded color models unless you prefer their form factor or want wireless capability.The CLIE SJ30 provides everything you want in a Palm --
1) High resolution, brilliant color screen has 4 times the pixels of similarly-priced Palm models.
2) Long-lasting lithium battery.
3) A robust 16MB of memory, plenty to run all the Palm programs you could care for including the three I consider essential: Mapopolis (a mapping program from Mapopopolis.com with keyword-searchable street maps), Avantgo (an online news service that downloads articles to your palm) and Vindigo (a restaurant, movie and city guide). The CLIE models, which start at just over a hundred clams, have a nice form factor, though not quite as elegant as the Palms, and upper-level models feature the best high-res color screens for less than what you'd pay for a similar PALM-branded model. But I've heard Sony's customer service is weak compared to Palm's easy-as-pie returns. These things do break from time to time, so keep that in mind. Here's a basic PALM product guide: Zire/Palm m100: Bottom of the line. Designed to suck you in but leave you wanting more. Think of this as the Chevy Chevette of Palms. Plagued by small screens.
Palm m105: The 8MB version of the m100. Fine, except needs batteries and plagued by small screen.
Palm 125: Ooh, expansion slot that you will probably never use. Still plagued by small screen. Palm 130: Adds color, lithium battery to m125. Not bad, but screen still small, low res.
Palm m500: Still the standard for monochrome Palms. Lightweight, with a clear, large screen and a classic form-factor that gave the company its name. 8MB, expandable, lithium-polymer battery. Triple-Aces.
Palm m505: Discontinued color model features horrible washed out color screen. AVOID.
Palm m515: Soon to be discontinued Color PALM. Very good, but no Palm TUNGSTEN T. Expensive.
Palm TUNGSTEN T: The top of the line. Finally, Palm builds a PALM that can compete with a Pocket PC. Too bad they priced it like one too. Triple Aces design, with fabulous ergonomics, fantastic high-res active screen, battery, bluetooth, and drop-down graffiti pad. BUT, model due out next year will have phone function too. Also check out the new Handspring Treo models, which feature thumbpads and a small form factor (some with phones).
Rating: 
Summary: faulty cord?
Review: I love my Clie, but I had exactly the same problems with the power hovering around 50% to 60% after leaving it to charge overnight. Turns out it's not the battery (at least, not for my machine), it's the Sony cable. I got a new USB cable from someone on eBay, and it fixed all of my battery woes. The new cable fits tightly into the connector, and now the Clie takes a full charge again.
Rating:
Summary: awesome color handheld, i love it and you will too
Review: this is my first color PDA. first of all, Palm OS is the way to go, its so simple, and versatile, tons of software available..ok thats that. anyway the SJ-30 is the best color PDA overall. it doesnt cost that much but it can definately compete with the upper tier color pocket PCs and even the color palms. best attribute: the color display is awesome, vibrant, clear, pictures and games look great on it. excellent resolution, smooth text. the ONLY drawback i have found in this PDA is that the backlight really has to be on all the time to view it well(the backlight is the white background of the display shown in all the photos)if the backlight is off, u can hardly see the screen at all because the screen itself is so dark it drowns out the text and color. u might be able to see it in bright light like outdoors, but with or without the backlight on, its hard to read outdoors, if its sunny. BUT dont let this discourage u, this is the price u pay with all color handhelds. besides, in my opinion, the screen looks so good with the backlight on i would've kept it on all the time anyway, it only drains your batteries a little faster. also, u should expect to charge your batts once a day, i do it when i go to bed. i only have to do it once a day cuz i play games for hours, but if u just use it for boring stuff like calendar and phone book u should get more life out of it. as a frame of reference, i upgraded from a handspring visor deluxe, but after a year and a half of use, i got bored with its monochrome screen and crack-prone plastic casing. it served me well, but boy is the sony clie 100x better. not only is it more compact, better looking, color, 2x resolution, 2x memory, 2x processor speed...its just sooo great. i have tons of stuff on mine and still have about 5.5mb left. i have tons of color games, pictures, AvantGo, maps, dictionary...one more thing, the flip screen cover is nice looking and convenient, and removable, i dunno wut some people were talking about. trust me, this is the color PDA to get if your not rich but dont wanna settle for [poor stuff].
Rating:
Summary: A stylish balance of form and function
Review: The Clie PEG-SJ30 may not have all the bells and whistles of the more expensive PDA's like an MP3 player and digital camera, or built in keyboard. But what it can do, it excels at. I held onto my Palm IIIxe until I could find a reasonably priced color unit with some real improvements in features and performance, and this fit the bill. Sony has combined the most important high-end features, i.e. color, HiRes display and memory expansion, in a stylish, compact unit. The Clie has several nice features. The screen takes maximum advantage of the form factor of the unit with just a small border around the sides and top. At 320x320 and 65,000 colors, the beautifully bright and clear screen beats any other PDA I've seen at this price point. Photographs can be imported using the included Sony PG Pocket software, and are crisp and clear. The extra memory comes in handy. With 16MB of RAM and a Memory Stick socket, I've been able to load all my favorite apps, games, and e-books, and still have 8 MB free. Sony struck a nice balance between size and feel with this unit. It's small enough to fit in a large pocket, but big enough to hold comfortably in the hand. The application buttons have been enlarged so that they are much easier to use than the T series which looked slick but felt awkward. The Jog Dial and Back buttons on the side are helpful for scrolling through documents or moving between apps. A lithium-ion rechargeable battery provides reasonable life - I get 6-7 hours of use from a full charge. The stylus has a removable top which can be used to push the recessed reset button on the back of the unit. There are a few limitations of the SJ30 versus more expensive models. Instead of a cradle, the unit comes with a rather flimsy cable which provides a USB connection and a connection to the AC adapter/charger. It lacks an MP3 player or video camera, but it's fine as an organizer, photo viewer, and mini game console. The screen is not as large as the Clie NX70, but it's quite easy to view text and graphics with its HiRes color display. The flip cover has somewhat limited usefulness -- you wouldn't want to throw it in a bag without putting it in a case, but it's fine for protecting the screen while it is carried around or put in an empty pocket. The case is plastic rather than metal, but seems to be pretty sturdy, and doesn't seem to scratch easily. There is plenty of great software (and a lot of freeware) for the Palm OS, and this is a big advantage for the Clie. I had several applications that I had purchased for the Palm and so I was reluctant to switch to a Pocket PC. The Clie comes packaged with several applications, including Documents to Go which synchronizes Excel and Word documents with the PC and supports the HiRes display. I had this app on the IIIxe but it was hard to get more than a few cells on the screen at once. With color and the HiRes display it's easy to use and view several lines of text at once. There are quite a few games and applications that now support the HiRes 320x320 screen of the Clie and they look great. I recommend a third party launcher such as Launcher X (my favorite) or Silver Screen. These smooth access to data and applications on the handheld, make it easier to manage them on the memory stick and look very nice in HiRes. Several applications support accessing files on the Memory Stick including Documents to Go. Memory Sticks are available in sizes up to 128 MB so there's plenty of room for applications and data. In addition, a backup program is included that copies the entire system to the Memory Stick. Software Tip: If you're having trouble writing fast with Graffiti (like me) check out FitalyStamp. The application works by providing a stick-on overlay that has a stylus-travel optimized keyboard layout and the overlays can be cut to fit over the graffiti area. It's easy to get 30-40 words per minute with practice. Performance vs. the Palm IIIxe is significantly better. Even large apps (1 MB) launch quickly and scrolling and switching between screens is very rapid. Reading files or launching apps from the Memory Stick is significantly slower, however. For example it takes about 15 seconds to load Zap!2016 (approx 337 KB) from the Memory Stick, but it's a small price to pay for nearly unlimited expansion. I only ran into a couple of minor difficulties when using the Clie SJ30. After I took the unit out of the box (and charged it) I tried to beam apps from my old Palm into the device, but the IR port wasn't working. Finally, I hit the reset button on the back and then it worked fine, and hasn't had a problem since. Also, using the Memory Stick to store data and applications isn't explained very well in the documentation. After poking around a lot, I finally figured out how to transfer apps to the Memory Stick using Launcher X. I'm not sure if there are other ways to load apps on the Memory Stick, but with Launcher X, you can drag and drop the icon and then later launch it directly from the memory stick via its icon. I'm not sure how this compares with using SD cards on the Palm since the IIIxe didn't have that capability. Overall, I'm very pleased with the device. It lets me use my existing Palm software, looks good, feels comfortable, has the color screen that I've been waiting for and does it all at a great price.
Rating:
Summary: An Absolute Bargain
Review: I had used my Handspring Visor Deluxe for nearly a year before I purchased this little machine. I wanted a well-built machine with memory expansion, a color screen, and a smaller form factor. And it had to be [inexpensive]. I didn't plan to spend any more than ...which meant that I was looking at the Palm m130, Handspring Treo 90, and the Sony CLIE PEG-SJ30. Due to the features and then a nice price drop on the SJ30 I ended up getting it. The first thing that literally caught my eye was the screen. It is a spectacular 320x320 pixel 16-bit color screen that is brightly-backlit and also transflective. And the infamous grid-lines that plague 160x160 pixel color handhelds were almost invisible. It has 16MB of RAM, quite a nice amount for storing lots of programs. The Memory Stick slot is nice for adding expansion to hold lots of ebooks and pictures. The jog wheel is incredibly useful once you get used to it. It is also quite small and the thickness of the unit makes it comfortable to hold. It even comes with a well-designed removable flip cover. I was a bit hesitant to get the SJ30 at first because I haven't had the best of experiences with Sony electronics as far as build quality goes. But the SJ30 is built very well. It feels solid, and even looks like the casing is metal (it's plastic). My only complaints are the lack of a cradle and the slow speed of the Memory Stick slot. The supplied cable just isn't nearly as convenient as a cradle. I didn't expect the Memory Stick slot to be blindingly fast, but as reported by many reviewers the slot is a bit on the slow side. But these are minor gripes and I wouldn't even consider giving up this machine just for those reasons. Overall I am extremely pleased with my SJ30. For the money, and a little bit above it, you can't get any better than this.
Rating:
Summary: Great PDA
Review: The Sony is a great value for those who don't need all the fancy bells and whistles. Think about what you really need in a PDA. Do you really want [an expensive] address book? Pro's: Clear, crisp color screen, small size, stylish, Palm OS, rechargeable batteries, durable feel Con's: Slightly thicker than other PDA's, significantly shorter battery life than advertised (need to charge about every other day, depending on use), cradle sold separately Recommendations: get a PDA case - the protective cover doesn't stay put, remember to register with Sony to get the 1 year warranty Overall: great mid-priced model, best display out there
Rating: 
Summary: Great product, but the battery may do it in...
Review: I really enjoy my clie. I use it everyday, all of the time. I have had it for a little over a year now. The great display is what really got me at first, the visibility is great even in daylight. I have used this product for everything and have stored about 15 third party software programs on it already. Although, it is a very slow to open the ones saved on the memory stick. Also, my battery quit working on me about a month ago. It would say it had 50% memory and go to 100% and back down to 20%, and was jumping around everywhere before it wouldn't turn on again. I was unable to use it and was trying to get some customer support (which was impossible) they wanted me to send it in for a diagnostic test; which would be $25 whether or not they could fix it, $75 for labor for anything, and they wouldn't even tell me what the possible price was for a new battery. No one knew anything (I talked to 5 different people), so I just figured it would be the same price or cheaper to get a new one. I had begun looking for a new PDA after my clie wouldn't power on for the past two weeks (even when plugged into the charger), and just when I was about to purchase another one I tried it and all of the sudden it started working again. So weird. I back it up all of the time now, expecting for the battery to fail. Other than the issue with the battery and slow processor this would be a five star.
Rating:
Summary: good looking ... but bad quality
Review: You should assume the battery is the last to give up on a PDA, right? NO! My SJ30 works in just over 1 year, and the battery has some problem. Initially, it seems it can never charged up, always stuck with 70%, then 50%. Well, one day it gives 100% again. So I keep on using it until suddenly it collapse without any warning. Strange thing is, even with power plug in, the Clie can't be turned on! Either the cable connection is not right or the battery has charging problem. However, the light is on showing power IS pluged in! I heard about same bad story about the touch screen on another one year old clie. What the heck is happening to Sony?!
Rating:
Summary: Easy to Use
Review: I had purchased the HP Ipaq and returned it as it was difficult to read. The Sony is much easier to see and very easy to use. Also, I prefer the Palm Operating System.
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