Sony Clie PEG-TJ25 Handheld

I upgraded from an 8mb Visor Deluxe and this is AWESOME! The hi-res color screen is very sharp. My wife has a Zire 71 and we both agree mine is sharper. Palm OS5 is pretty cool too, though you wind up only getting 11 mb useable out of the 16. I fairly quickly bought a memory stick.

This thing is FAST! It's noticeably faster than my wife's Palm and faster than any other PDA I've seen (then again, I don't look if it's over 250). The lack of multimedia capabilities was a bit of a bummer, but I didn't think paying 70-100 was worth it when I have computers just about everywhere I go.

I've read the complaints about the lack of a cradle, but I personally like the little sync adapter. It only needs one of the USB cables with a "digital camera jack" to work. Since I have 5 of them, I took one to work. Now, I just grab my Clie and the 1-inch square adapter and I can sync at work and home. I actually even put the charging cord in the bedroom, so I can keep it on the nightstand charging for those late-night "honey do's" :D

Overall, I'm VERY pleased. Battery life is a bit of an issue, but the LiIon battery has no "memory effect" so I just charge it each night. I can get a solid 5 hours at a lower screen brightness (still easy to see) even using the memoery stick and running CPU-intensive apps.

I'd definitely recommend this if you can find it for less than $170. Totally worth it in my opinion. The cover is a weak spot and the stylus takes some getting used to, but these are the only drawbacks (IMHO) and are quickly eclipsed by speed, "look" (The Clie Launcher is awfully cool) and overall value. Put some pix of your kids, family, vacation, etc on it and show your friends and you'll be hooked! Buy with confidence.

PS Sony extends the warranty to one year for free when you register.

A few follow-ups:

1. Apparently Sony is closing this out to make room for the TJ-27. The Tj-25 can now be found as low as 120 (if you time it right).
2. The cover issue was easily fixed with a dab of superglue on each "hook". Quite solid now (fold cover back to get it out of the way (it's made to do this)).
3. Battery life has been measured more accurately at 4:30 on "medium-low" backlight setting.
4. The sync adapter is still quite handy. A tad bit larger than a postage stamp and quite portable if you already have the aforementioned cable where you're going.
5. I've had it for 30 days now, and aside from wishing I'd caught it at 120, I'm still quite happy.
6. To clarify "lack of multimedia" I mean "even your old Nokia phone had more tones". On the other hand, I always have the sound off anyway (as does my wife who has a multimedia-capable Zire 71) so I didn't need one in the first place.


Wonderful addition to my life   April 12, 2004
Rachel J. Fessler (San Antonio, TX United States)
16 out of 16 found this review helpful

I had to retire a palm zire 21 after 2 months because it would reset itself almost every other day. I sent it to the palm guys and it came back in worse condition that before. After reading the reviews on Amazon...I decided to call it quits while I was ahead and search for another PDA. (I had a palm Vx prior to that for 2 years).

WOW! What a jewel the Sony Clie is! It has much more memory than my other two models and for a work at home mom that's using her PDA to keep track of life, recipes, and wants all names and addresses at her fingertips, IN COLOR, this was a WONDERFUL purchase!

For the price (mine was $139), I cannot complain. It is much faster than my other palm pilots, the battery life is great, I don't really care that much about included applications, although the outlook "handler" does a great job (or seems to), and I think Sony really thought out the organization of the main screen on this PDA. A+


Very Solid PDA   February 27, 2004
Mike Oswald (Cleveland, OH United States)
7 out of 7 found this review helpful

I picked up my TJ25 a few weeks ago, and I was immediately impressed with the clarity of the screen, the snappiness of the interface, and the connectiblity with Outlook 2k3.

After using it for these few weeks, I have had no problems yet. The battery life is excellent, although i never let it get below half-drained, and it is nice and small, so it can fit in my coat pocket easily.

Very good product from Sony, and, as always, great service from Amazon.


Great item does everything perfect   February 26, 2004
Mark Bryant (Richmond, VA)
3 out of 3 found this review helpful

I have had this Clie for 3 months and love it! I wish it would do email but that is the only thing bad about it. Great product!


Nasriah   May 29, 2004
4 out of 20 found this review helpful

It is one of the best out of sony products that you can get.