Sony Clie NX80V/G CNET Asia Review

[askjay]

Here's the link of the review of the NX80 in Singapore:
http://asia.cnet.com/reviews/handhelds/0,39001703,39014820p,00.htm

"The key feature of the NX80 has to be its camera, which is built into its hinge and swivels 270 degrees. The 1-megapixel CCD sensor allows images of up to 1,280 x 960-pixel resolution, making for passable 4R prints. Images look pretty good, with reasonable sharpness, although there¡¦s a bit of ¡§noise¡¨ with indoor shots" :D

"The NX80 also lacks wireless connectivity in the form of Bluetooth or Wi-Fi. More memory would have been welcomed, for the CLIE comes with 32MB but only 16MB of that is usable" :confused:

"With screen brightness and speaker volume set at 50 percent, we managed 2 hours 20 minutes of continuous MP3 playback before the music stopped" :(

http://asia.cnet.com/i/r/2003/handhelds/39014820/nx80_b.gif

[kp*]

This is the most extensive review of the NX80 I've seen so far (in English at least), good find!

Doesn't say anything really shocking, but sometimes no news is good news!

[Unregistered]

Well, that was either poorly translated or the original reviewer worked for the Times. Either way, I think I will wait for a real review.

[tonyreynolds]

I think it was a good, concise review that didn't pull any punches. They listed both the good AND the bad points of the device.

I do wonder though, if the battery would have performed better given a few charge/discharge cycles. Lithium batteries seem to do better that way.

The keyboard criticism also bothers me, because that's one of teh main reasons I'm looking at the Clie clam-shells. The NX70 keyboard is 'okay'. I was hoping for something better with the NX73/80. Perhaps it was tjust the reviewer.

As for 'unregistered's' comment: take the time to register, your comments and input will carry a lot more weight...

Tony

[Bionic Antboy]

Seemed like a good review to me, as well. And hey, aren't these NY Times jokes wearing thin? :)

Anyways, isn't 2 hr 20 min pretty decent for MP3 playback with a screen at 50%? It would have been nice if they did a test of MP3s with the Hold button on, since I think there are quite a few benchmarks for that out there, and a much more realistic test. It's actually my biggest problem with the review.

I would have liked to have seen some pics taken with the camera as well. :)

[tonyreynolds]

Originally posted by Bionic Antboy
...isn't 2 hr 20 min pretty decent for MP3 playback with a screen at 50%?

That kind of playback time is abysmal... I hope that there was something wrong with the unit, becasue from what I've read, it should get much more time on a charge than that, ESPECIALLY with the screen off.

I get about 6-7 hours of MP3 playback time on my Jornada 548 with the screen turned off and the volume set to medium.

Tony

[Bionic Antboy]

Tony, I think you may have mis-read the article... :)

For the review, the screen was ON, with the backlight ON at 50%, not off. The performance should be MUCH higher than that with the screen off, by probably a factor of 2.5 or so (maybe more because of the additional power required of a HiRes+ screen).

That's the kind of difference I've seen with my T665, and my buddy gets with his NX70 (he actually said he gets about 3 times the playback with the hold button on). For example, the last time I ran such a test on my T665 (about 4 months ago), I got just around 1hr 30min with the screen on at about 25%-30% and I get about 4 hrs with the hold button on. That's roughly 2.66 times.

If the same numbers are translatable, then the new NX, with the screen off should give about 6hr 30min of music playback with the screen off, at the very least.

I don't know why anyone is surprised about 2hr 20min with the screen lit at 50%. That sounds like a pretty good number to me. I'm sure more detailed reviews are just around the corner.

[tonyreynolds]

I thought about that after I'd already pressed the 'submit' button...

I can get 3.5-4.5 hours on the Jornada with the backlight on dim while listening to music AND doing other things. Most PPC's these days are getting 8-10 hours of use with the backlight off.

That said, I'm STILL looking at coming back to the Palm OS for four reasons, and they have nothing to do with Palm, Inc.:

1. Easier to use PIM functions
2. The Sony clam-shell design
3. The built-in keyboard
4. Hires+ with virtual Grafitti

Tony

[Dougf]

I don't know.....doesn't sound astonishing to me, I just did a final upgrade that should last me for a long time to the NX70 (I wanted that camera) and it sounds like there is nothing to yearn me to upgrade to that NX73 nor the 80.

[tonyreynolds]

Originally posted by Dougf
I don't know.....doesn't sound astonishing to me, I just did a final upgrade that should last me for a long time to the NX70 (I wanted that camera) and it sounds like there is nothing to yearn me to upgrade to that NX73 nor the 80.

There IS no compelling reason for someone who owns and NX70V to upgrade...

But, for the person who doesn't have either an NR or an NX, it would be worth the look.

For me, I'd almost rather have the NX70V than the NX73V because of the way they cludged the CF slot so that it can't be closed when in use.

I have about US$500-600 to spend. I'd like the 'new' OS 5.2 Clie, whenever that comes out, but may run out of patience first and settle for a super deal on an NX70V or NZ90 if I can find it. Even $225 or so for an NX60 form ubid.com wouldn't be that bad. At least it'd get me into one of the clam-shell Clie's, without too much of an outlay...

If I had an NX right now, I wouldn't be looking.

Drooling yes, looking no.

Tony

[epsolon]

i gonna get my nx80v soon; however it sucks that the nx73v has built in bluetooth and the nx80v does not. should it be better?

[tonyreynolds]

It doesn't matter for people anywhere except Europe. Sony made a marketing decision, no doubt based on A LOT of research, to release the NX73 with BlueTooth ONLY in Europe.

You're right: logic would seem to dictate that the more expensive model would have all the bells and whistles...

Get over it. Large corporations do weird things sometimes.

Tony

[msnbctd]

Tony,

Come back to Palm...You won't regret it. ;)

[jaydoc05]

The review is a little different than the US specs. Yes, the NX80V does have WIFI capability.

The reason why I am upgrading from a NX70v, is because after putting all of the programs that I want on there (Netfront, cliemail, and other stuff) I now only have 2 mb of space left. The new NX80v comes with 32 meg of space with all of that stuff preloaded. After all said and done, we have 16 mb of space for us. If I was to load all of those preloaded NX80 programs on my NX70, I would not still have 16 mb of space, I would have less than 1mb.

Talk later,
J

[helmutk]

Are Netfront and Clie Mail actually pre-installed in the 16M of RAM memory that is not re-writable in the NX80? What about the CLIE Launcher app?
If these apps are now actually installed in the 16M - 32M RAM then there would definitely be more usable memory available in the lower 16M RAM portion and may make upgrading from a NX70 more enticing.

[EPSOLON]

ok

[jaydoc05]

I really do believe that they are preloaded.