Pathfinder
05-08-2003, 11:13 PM
I currently own a PEG-S320 and find I like it quite a bit, but am growing tired of the monochrome screen, which is hard to read in some lighting situations.
After playing with a TG50 at my local Future Shop store, I've got an itch to buy one. The built-in keyboard and hard flip cover are compelling features in and of themselves, but what really grabs me about the TG50 is its bright, crisp screen. The included Picsel Viewer is sweet, too. I've seen e-books on various iterations of colour Pocket PC devices and found myself rather underwhelmed, but Picsel's software looks like it will make the e-book experience what I've always hoped for.
I have some reservations about buying a TG50, though. In Canadian dollars, taxes in, it's seven and a half bills!! (You Americans are so lucky - your dollar fetches products that are
reasonably priced). I could do without Bluetooth, and the included MP3 player is nice, but not essential. I could see the voice recorder being useful from time to time, though.
Part of my reservations stem from the way Sony markets its products. The TG50 has just 11MB of RAM, and many reports I've come across suggest that this on-board memory can't be used for storage of music files. In other words, to properly leverage the TG50's multimedia capabilities, you have to ... (wait for it!) buy a Memory Stick! Talk about tied selling!
Interestingly, Sony isn't offering a MS camera which is compatible with the TG50. No, Sony would rather see you buy a NX70V instead! By comparison, Palm sells the Veo Photo Traveler, which will interface with its Tungsten series of handhelds. But save for the Tungsten 'C' and 'W' series, Palm's new handhelds don't offer a built-in keyboard.
I had considered buying a Treo 90 as a cheaper alternative, but it has no MP3 capability, no voice recorder feature, and only 160 X 160 resolution. On top of that, it can't run Palm OS5, and Handspring are about to discontinue it. Support is therefore likely to be an issue with the '90 in years to come.
The TG50 isn't such a bad deal when you look at it this way. A portable MP3 player will run $250CAD (give or take a bit), Sony's stand-alone voice recorder (which uses Memory Sticks as storage media) is $599CAD (yikes!) and Bluetooth capability has got to be worth around $150 if purchased as an outboard peripheral. So subtract the $250 and the $150 from the $649 retail price, and the net cost of the TG50 (as PDA alone) is about $150.00CAD.
By comparison, the Tungsten C and W models are grossly overpriced at $825CAD each. You can buy them for $599 with rebates, but there's a catch. You have to sign up for a minimum
two-year phone or data term with a cell phone service provider.
I'd rather get the TG50 and wait until Hagiwara.sys releases its MS WiFi cards later this year. Then I can go surf from a WiFi hotspot and pay for access as I need it.
The TG50 is one of the few PDA's I've seen yet that appears to be a credible alternative to a laptop.
After playing with a TG50 at my local Future Shop store, I've got an itch to buy one. The built-in keyboard and hard flip cover are compelling features in and of themselves, but what really grabs me about the TG50 is its bright, crisp screen. The included Picsel Viewer is sweet, too. I've seen e-books on various iterations of colour Pocket PC devices and found myself rather underwhelmed, but Picsel's software looks like it will make the e-book experience what I've always hoped for.
I have some reservations about buying a TG50, though. In Canadian dollars, taxes in, it's seven and a half bills!! (You Americans are so lucky - your dollar fetches products that are
reasonably priced). I could do without Bluetooth, and the included MP3 player is nice, but not essential. I could see the voice recorder being useful from time to time, though.
Part of my reservations stem from the way Sony markets its products. The TG50 has just 11MB of RAM, and many reports I've come across suggest that this on-board memory can't be used for storage of music files. In other words, to properly leverage the TG50's multimedia capabilities, you have to ... (wait for it!) buy a Memory Stick! Talk about tied selling!
Interestingly, Sony isn't offering a MS camera which is compatible with the TG50. No, Sony would rather see you buy a NX70V instead! By comparison, Palm sells the Veo Photo Traveler, which will interface with its Tungsten series of handhelds. But save for the Tungsten 'C' and 'W' series, Palm's new handhelds don't offer a built-in keyboard.
I had considered buying a Treo 90 as a cheaper alternative, but it has no MP3 capability, no voice recorder feature, and only 160 X 160 resolution. On top of that, it can't run Palm OS5, and Handspring are about to discontinue it. Support is therefore likely to be an issue with the '90 in years to come.
The TG50 isn't such a bad deal when you look at it this way. A portable MP3 player will run $250CAD (give or take a bit), Sony's stand-alone voice recorder (which uses Memory Sticks as storage media) is $599CAD (yikes!) and Bluetooth capability has got to be worth around $150 if purchased as an outboard peripheral. So subtract the $250 and the $150 from the $649 retail price, and the net cost of the TG50 (as PDA alone) is about $150.00CAD.
By comparison, the Tungsten C and W models are grossly overpriced at $825CAD each. You can buy them for $599 with rebates, but there's a catch. You have to sign up for a minimum
two-year phone or data term with a cell phone service provider.
I'd rather get the TG50 and wait until Hagiwara.sys releases its MS WiFi cards later this year. Then I can go surf from a WiFi hotspot and pay for access as I need it.
The TG50 is one of the few PDA's I've seen yet that appears to be a credible alternative to a laptop.