TG50 hardkey buttons are CHEAP!

[yOyOYoo]

omg, I hate to be a downer on you guys, but this was quite a downer for me. I just noticed how cheaply constructed the hardkey buttons on my TG50 are. If you hold the clie up and you look at the keys, you will notice that they do not fit flush into the unit itself, there is a bit of give both on top and below the buttons. You can see the two taps on each end of the button that fit in, and if you use your fingernail, you can actually shift the keys up or down and they will stay in place.

The construction is quite cheap. Don't get me wrong, i really love my TG50 (a hecka lot better than my old NR70v) but I feel like sony really needs some quality control. Various problems with build quality i've had include: the grey outer lining of the unit was loose, I had to super glue it down, the white plastic part on top of the hinge and towards the back is loose and wobbly, im gonna glue it down soon, and also on top where the white plastic meets the other side, it looks like a crease is opening where the plastic pieces are coming undone from the right side.

Then again, most of you guys won't notice this stuff. I'm just a perfectionist. Every single sony unit i've ever gotten has been full of build quality problems... :(

[MikeRiegel]

Heck, I noticed, but there is little that I can do until someone comes out with a T3 Aluminum replacement button set w/fuctional (i.e. usable) up/down button...

I'm holding my breath...sure...

[Sneezy]

Perfectionistic or obsessive-compulsive? ;)

I'd be interested to know of how many PDA's you have returned...

I have a friend who returned four or five iPaqs before he finally gave in!

[yOyOYoo]

actually I never returned any of my sony pdas... I just sorta sucked it up and tried to forget the problem... that's how much I love/hate their products.

N710 - back got sooo scratched up cuz it was made of cheapo plastic material, also the entire inside of the screen was full of lint and small hair and dust particles

N760 - same lint and dust problem as N710.

T615c - the screen was crooked! It actually was slanted and leaning to the side (I hear this of other t series users)

NR70v - don't even get me started with the NR70v: memory stick problems, keyboard problems, loose hinge, wobbly hinge...

[Sneezy]

Sounds like you had more troublesome problems with your prior PDA's. I have the same problems with my TG50 that you are experiencing, but to be honest, I probably would never have noticed them.

My NR70V had a bad pixel; fortunately I escaped the memory stick issue.

I just hope our TG50s stand up over time. I think mine will get more use than any PDA I've ever owned. Good luck!

[ngwailung]

It seems that Sony does not intend to build handhelds that last long. You see, Sony had 10 new models last year, you guess who will buy a handheld if they are durable for years?

Well, there's something I missed in Palm...